Video Games Tell Stories

I truly believe that video games can tell a story just as good, if not better than oral stories, literature, and films.  Although I am not as big a gamer as I used to be, but there are still a few video game series that have enthralled my imagination. Many video games have very detailed and imaginative story lines, and although I have never played any of the games listed by Brandon Boyer or Roger Ebert, there was one game series that kept coming to my mind as I read these articles: Assassins Creed.

The Assassins Creed series follows a very intricate story line that parallels historical events. The story line for Assassins Creed is incredibly detailed and hard to follow and is entirely too much writing for the premise of this paper but you can find the link to the in-depth story line here if you feel so inclined: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassin's_Creed.

To me it is obvious that just by the shear magnitude of the story line that video games are able to tell stories just as well as oral stories and literature, but what about films? Films have the extra dimensions of audio and video.  With films we get to not only experience a dialogue, but also the sights and sounds that go along with it. That is what makes films so great, because there is no need to focus on boring words, rather you can just immerse yourself in the experience through many of your senses, and not just in your ability to read. Video games can capture this aspect as well. Many modern video games have full scripts, dialogue, cinematic scenes, and soundtracks. Video games give you much the same experience as you would get with a movie, but the beauty of video games is the pace in which you experience the game. As far as Assassin’s Creed is concerned, there are many different ways to complete the game, and although there is the main story line, there are also numerous side quests that can keep the game interesting. You don’t have to follow the story line exactly as it was meant to be played. The beauty of telling a story through video games is that there are so many ways in which the story can unfold, and it is all up to the player.  With video games, the player is the director and the author. You can complete the game however you wish and at your own pace within the confines of the game.

I think it is truly evident that video games can be a brilliant way to tell a story.  They create a way for the audience to actively get involved in the story and it gives them the opportunity to play the lead role.  When it comes to video games, you are not only watching or following along with the characters, but you actually are the characters.  You determine the outcome of the game and you determine how the story unfolds. To me, that makes video games a great medium on which to write stories.