In this episode Sam Armstrong looks at how games are used to tell stories by taking a dive into the various ways that games have been used to tell stories such as in Uncharted, Undertale, and the Persona series which are well beloved for their stories. Sam also be looking at games that tell stories in less traditional ways such as Journey, Fire Watch, and Braid. Sam interviews two avid gamers, one who plays a lot of story driven games and one who does not: hear two diverse perspectives on why they like these kinds of games and why they do not like these kinds of games.
● Stories have been told since the beginning of time in oral narratives
● Modern technological developments led to new narrative vehicles, such as the print medium, for example, and gave us only broader and richer ways to tell our stories to one another. Visual mediums, such as film and television, allowed stories to become highly accessible, filling a void that theater and performance arts once occupied alone.
● The video game is a new medium compared to the thousands of years oral narratives have been around and it is unique in is interactivity between the audience and the narrative. As a player, you participate in the narrative, relying on your own skills and intuition to move forward, unlocking further story points or creating your own.
● However, some of the earliest games had no story at all. Take Pong for example, which is a rudimentary simulation of tennis. As the capabilities of computers improved over time, video games became more complex in the gameplay and in their stories. Many games we play today have long and engaging narratives that require hours and hours of gameplay to complete them.
● The interactivity of games through the story itself allows the player to experience the plot rather than have it be something they consume.
● Traditional storytelling in games is obvious. A lot of single player games have extensive cutscenes which are essentially just scenes from a movie. The gameplay allows you to move from cut scene to cut scene as you unearth more of the narrative and more and more games are using the gameplay as its own form of storytelling.
● When you watch a movie or read a book, you are sitting passively by while the characters are interacting with their world. However, in games, you are that character, in that world, performing those actions. Some games are predetermined, so the story will always follow the same path and have the same outcome. Others are more fluid and will change depending upon the choices you make as a player. Movies cannot do this, but games can and it makes them a special kind of narrative vehicle.
● There are many ways in which games tell stories, whether it be through cutscenes, lore, gameplay, you name it. The game Fortnite, for example, tells a story through subtle changes to its game map. Locations appear and disappear in concordance with the story that is happening, letting players interested in the narrative to dive deeper and find these Easter eggs in the game, while letting other players who just enjoy the gameplay, to continue with their quest to become the last player standing.
● Other games are much more traditional and focus on the character arc of the characters you are playing as. Many games will tie character progression to player progression such as in RPG’s like the persona series. In this series, you start off as a shy and unsure high school student and as you progress through the story you not only become stronger, but more confident in your abilities. You can see exactly how much you have grown as a character by visiting previous areas and seeing how much stronger you are against enemies you initially struggled with.
● This is called player empowerment, and while many find this quite effective, player disempowerment can also be quite a powerful story telling mechanic in games. In the game, The Last of Us, you play as Joel who is a strong character who becomes a father figure to this girl Ellie. As Joel, you are fairly easily able to fight and fend off enemies as you acquire new tools and weapons. However, later in the game, Joel becomes hurt and you switch from playing as him to playing as Ellie. Ellie is much weaker and is much more limited in what she can do to fend off enemies. This switch can be heavily felt by players and adds to the story in showing how scary life in the Last of Us’s world can be when you are essentially defenseless.
● I wanted to hear more about how other gamers felt about games as story telling devices, so i had a conversation with Geronimo and John to learn a little bit more about their perspectives on the topic.
● I appreciate hearing both Geronimo’s and John’s input on this podcast as i believe it showcases just how different gamers can be and how varied their interests are. I think that video games are one of the most exciting and fluid narrative mediums that have come about in the last century. They can be graphic, textural, aural, two dimensional or three dimensional, and even more now with VR. They can bring together many ways of telling stories, and the continued emergence of this new form is a thrilling prospect that I plan to keep a close eye on and I hope you will too. I’ve been Samantha, thank you so much for listening.