Videogames as a Storyteller

I'm not going to go in the depth about videogames as an artform, I bet that's done thoroughly from time to time. I just want to point out a simple thing.

All games want to be concidered art. It's a great compliment. But most games don't really try that hard. That's because there are other very important goal to concider when you're making a serious videogame. Artistic value isn't really what the typical gamer wants, either.

Casual gamers want fun and entertainment. Hardcore gamers want challenges and technical elegance. It is commonly thought that the wrong way to make games for either, is to make popularity the goal of the game. The way producers do this, is by using popular characters, impressive effects, and spend less money on programming.

The opposition, with right, denies this goal. Instead, they think the goal is all about how you play the game. Disappointed by the unpunished mistakes of popular producers, many gamers and producers alike try to deify gameplay to supreme ruler of videogame heaven.

But I think both goals are ignorant, so I want to point out the third goal, the one that's lost in all of this: and that's to tell a story and relate a unique world, in a way no other artform can do. Neither the mainstream nor the opposition have this as more than a secondary goal. Now, let me try to work out how such a game would have to be...

Imagine you get a fascinating fantasy book from the future. It seems to be made of paper, but every time you try to turn the page, little goblins pop up and jab at you with a lance. You got to hit them all away, but they keep dodging you. You get frustrated, and end up slamming the book shut, screaming in anger and punching a hole in the wall. The book made you react emotionally, that's for sure. But this demand of skill and technique has nothing to do with the story!

It can go wrong in many other ways, too. The pages could be marked with a button that turned the pages for you, only it did it in a repetitive and unnecessary way. There's no point in that. Or they might have to be turned in a very cryptic way in order to work at all. That's massively annoying and distracting.

I think some of the problem is that the videogame format was born of technique. Still today, with all the advancements the industry has done, it's still pretty much a hands-only business. And even when it's not, it's still all about skill. But skill is what you need when you make art, it's not something we demand of those who appreciate it. Sure, letting the player take part in the creation is a neat new way of doing it, but more often than not, the story then gains the mediocre quality of reality tv. So, how do you use videogames for the specific purpose of telling of a story?

...

I dunno! That's the very question.