The Wonders of video game Storytelling
By Isabella Zhu Sep 25 2024
Video games are uniquely active and participatory experiences, presenting immersive and visually appealing stories that engage players like no other. Story characters provoke the player’s empathy while they travel through expansive plots, and their worlds can be developed in ways movies and books simply cannot go into enough depth about.
An exemplar of this is the video game “What Remains of Edith Finch,” a slow-paced “walking simulator” that plays out an intimate first-person mystery. The player is free to discover the story, often told through the game’ environment, at their own pace, while an archetypal movie must relentlessly push its plot forward to cover the full story in the about two hours of screen time allotted. Both tell a story through film and dialogue, but the expository nature of movies does not allow for the level of environmental storytelling found in games, giving consumers a different level of immersion in the two mediums.
As for the player aspect of games, one can oftentimes shape their own story. For example, the game “Hogwarts Legacy,” a video game adaptation of the “Harry Potter” media franchise, enables players to explore a world filled with lore and small details through the eyes of their own character. The scope of the game gives players an enormous amount of things—1428 individual collectibles—to discover with no time limitations and allows players to role-play and create their own story through skill trees, dialogue options and a branching storyline that can result in different endings.
“Video games require more individual investment, allowing them to hold a more intimate connection with its viewer, unlike other forms of media which are more suited towards the general public rather than a single individual. The different endings available in a video game give a sort of undeniable satisfaction that one may not be able to get from certain movies with strictly sad endings,” Jenny Park, English Department said.
Indeed, the freedom to choose ones’ ending has become a cornerstone of modern video game storytelling. Even with wildly different core gameplay, from the action-packed and boss battle filled “Elden Ring” to the calm and therapeutic story-driven world of “Journey,” unique endings are an essential part of their stories. Ultimately, based on character decisions, gameplay modes, and luck, each individual player has a different level of achievement, a different amount of storyline access and a different experience overall. Every unique setback that hinders the progress of the player is a stepping stone to something greater, and motivates the player to keep on moving forward. In the end, the addictive glory of finishing a long quest-line is a rejuvenating experience unique to the media form.
Players can also become emotionally attached to characters through personalized experiences, helping bring the story together and granting the player a deeper understanding and appreciation for the game itself. Characters in movies, on the other hand, are often only developed as much as they need to serve the plot.
“I prefer storytelling in games over movies overall because storytelling in games is much more immersive than in movies. When players engage in a story, they understand the full extent to which their actions and choices impact both the characters and the direction in which the story unfolds. When players fail or get bad endings in games, they feel the frustration of not being able to satisfy the requests they were asked to fulfill, while moviegoers are often more detached from the characters,” Freshman Fangyi Niu said.
As technology continues to improve, video games have become less and less accessible. New hardware necessary to run many games can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. Games can also be difficult, and skill-based sections may block off storyline progression for many. These constraints bar the way for people to appreciate storytelling in video games, oftentimes deterring them from the game completely. Still, the ways video games can approach storytelling are very unique, and they must be played to be believed.
About the Contributors
Isabella is a Staff Writer/Artist, and this is her first year in Journalism. Isabella is deathly scared of running, but does cross country anyways. Her favorite things to do outside of journalism are eating, walking, and sleeping.
Catherine Nguyen is a staff writer and artist for the Charger account. This is her second year in journalism. She loves drawing and listening to music.
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