Excellent prose draws us in, but a question I’ve wondered since being a game-addicted kid is whether any of it can compare to an interactive story. To spoil the fun a bit, I’ll say yes right away, but I do think that the way a video game or tabletop game tells a story is fundamentally different than both what the written word is, and what it’s able to effectively accomplish.
A book is static. Unless you want to George Lucas it up, as I’ve considered many a time with some of my work, the thing is done when it’s published. Video games, especially in recent years, have embraced a more dynamic existence (some in positive ways such as the ever-updated and community-beloved Path of Exile, and some in repugnant ways such as the too common business model of the “live service,” a mythical ouroboros of gunk which eats its own tail along with its potential as a product). It’s this difference between a statically told story and a dynamic one which interests me.
All but the most rigidly told video game stories will be accompanied by the playstyle of the person behind the controls. This is a sort of flexibility in potential experience that’s lacking within the covers of a book. How do we describe the difference, for example, in finding the barronite mine within Old School Runescape and spending days upon days fulfilling every requirement therein in whatsoever order you personally prioritize, with the feeling found in The Lord of the Rings of reading about Moria and the fellowship’s adventures through the lost and battered ruins of a once-great dwarven civilization? Both include fallen dwarven peoples, and history, and interesting lore… but I experienced and participated in one, while I was merely a spectator to the other.
It’s a bit scary to describe a medium seeming to outperform my own. There are likely benefits I’m not articulate enough to describe that books can claim over video game storytelling, such as depth of detail and closeness to the characters. That said, I think there’s something incredibly exciting about such a relatively new artform providing me an experience that feels truly immersive and engrossing in such a way that only the absolute best novels can, for me, emulate. There are boundaries to be pushed in art and storytelling which weren’t even within sight just a few decades ago.
To throw my own artform a bone in closing, it’s seemed to me that characters which demand my sympathy and engagement are most often found in prose. Video game storytelling, in my view and with a few exceptions, falls very flat in regards to compelling and interesting character arcs and characterization. The exceptions which come to mind, however, are some of the most downright engaging and compelling characters I’ve ever found, even in my favorite novels. Arthur Morgan from Red Dead Redemption 2, an outlaw and “bad man,” is beautifully-written, believable, and so downright human that he rips empathy from you despite not believing he deserves it himself. I don’t believe I would’ve cared half as much about Arthur, I’m sorry to say, if I’d read a novel about him. But having experienced his story through video games, he’s one of my favorite protagonists in any artform, period.
I look forward to seeing what else the future brings in storytelling, both digital and in the literary world.
Author C. F. Bellairs 