You are the story

Videogames grow up by drawing players into compelling narratives

April 16, 2009

For most of the past 100 years, movies have been the most popular form of visual storytelling. With convincing actors and a compelling plot, a movie can contain a beautifully woven story that envelops the viewer.

But in the last two decades, another art form has risen to the level of cinema as a medium for storytelling: the video game.

In the earliest videogames, storytelling took a back seat to playability and entertainment. Then games were created with interesting characters and convincing worlds.

Ever since, the art form has grown and evolved until its ability to deliver a strong plotline easily equaled the ability of the moving picture, and it continues to advance. Although the storytelling methods of these two mediums are similar in some ways, they are very different in others.

One of the integral ways to compare the two is to look at how they use immersion to draw in the viewer, or player. Both games and movies work hard to create believable environments in which their stories can take place.

In order for a viewer or player to be captured by a creative universe, he or she must be led to believe that there is more going on than what is being shown.

Movies achieve such effects often with narration and backstory. An excellent example of this is The Matrix. The film tells a story of humanity’s rebellion against fearsome rulers that is expanded beyond the main characters and settings, creating a believable backdrop for an epic tale.

But while movies give information to us which does not come from the views of their protagonists, videogames must often rely on the player to take their information solely from a single perspective. The series Half-Life, which is the epitome of this style, contains no cut-scenes or out-of-character paradigms whatsoever.

Throughout all of the games, the player wears the mantle of the scientist Gordon Freeman, viewing events from a first-person perspective throughout the narrative. The story of Half-Life also entails a struggle by humanity against oppressors, but it tells it in a way that makes it completely different from The Matrix.

Gordon Freeman is intended to be a ghost, a mute character who is designed only to be a receptacle for information from the world around him. As if to balance the lack of protagonist depth, all of the other characters and events around him are incredibly detailed and lifelike. The realism of the world seen through Gordon’s eyes makes the player not only believe that there is so much more to the presented world than given, but also that he or she is actually there, filling the blank role of the main character.

The key difference between games and movies is that movies tell the story of characters from an outside view, whereas in most videogames you are the main character.

Movies are freer than videogames when it comes to how they link the viewer to the individual. For example, the movie Casablanca often uses flashbacks to show the tragic events of Rick’s past, to reveal his nature, and demonstrate how other characters view him.

Videogames, on the other hand, tend to focus solely on the viewpoint of the “avatar” – the player’s online alter ego. But a good game story will elaborate on the personality and the motives of the main character in subtle ways.

In Shadow of the Colossus, you are introduced to a protagonist named Wander and given a very simple story to follow. He runs away to a forbidden land and brings with him a dead girl. Dormin, a bodiless spirit whose intentions are unclear, offers to revive the girl if Wander destroys 16 colossi.

However, Dormin not only says that it may not be possible to bring the young woman back to life, but that Wander will pay a high price for his actions.

Then you are sent on your way, in control of a character who may not be rewarded and will somehow suffer for what he is about to do.

These realistic uncertainties help the player empathize with Wander, because they show his determination to save the girl despite circumstances that would make most people hesitate.

This element of uncertainty is perhaps the most distinctive difference between film and videogames. The endings of films are scripted, while the videogame’s outcome depends on the choices, skills, and luck of the player.

Fallout 3 takes the idea of open-ended entertainment and makes it its central idea. The game, which is a post-nuclear war satire, allows you to create your own character and then gives you total freedom within the wastelands that can be explored.

You are able to mold your avatar into a hero who protects the weak, or take the low road and shape him or her into a pillaging, murderous bandit.

Complex moral choices pervade the game, and each one has an effect on the path you take. Quite powerful effects indeed: There are over 200 possible endings to Fallout 3. What happens is up to you.

Videogames and movies have very different methods to immerse the viewer or player in the story. Even though the two mediums are in stark contrast, they have equal storytelling potency and potential. It will be interesting to see how they continue to develop.

Lee Rosenthal, 15, attends Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union.