Video Games: The Most Powerful Form Of Interactive Storytelling
Why Do We Socialize?
I have yet to meet someone who doesn’t like a good story. We naturally crave them. Whether it’s through books, film, music, theatre, art, or even a simple conversation, we all love absorbing and experiencing stories. It's the primary way we connect with ourselves and others.
Right now we are living our own story, and in our one-story, we want to experience as much life as possible, which is why we look for other stories (people) to experience in our lives. It’s the natural way we socialize to make our story more fulfilling through connections.
What is Interactive Storytelling?
If you research Interactive Storytelling, you'll find that most people associate it with digital entertainment. The most common definition is that it's a digital form of entertainment where the storyline is not predetermined because the participants in a storyline decide how it ends. An author creates the setting, characters, and conflict (or situation) the narrative addresses, and the user or player experiences a unique story, based upon their interactions with the world the author creates.
Scholars debate the true nature of Interactive Storytelling. Chris Crawford in his book on Interactive Storytelling, argues that young generations have filled Interactive Storytelling with diverse ideas and a "cacophony of discussions" because it's so new and poorly understood. He believes that everyone perceives it from their own point of view: Filmmakers see it in cinema, gamers see it in video games, computer scientists see it in A.I. and actors see it as an extension of their skillset, especially when participating in improv. However, he does make the point that Interactive Storytelling goes beyond all of these fields and that it can't necessarily be taught or expertly navigated like math and science. To understand interactivity in storytelling, you have to jump in blind and experience it for yourself. This is why I believe that Interactive Storytelling is most prevalent and powerful in video games.
Interactivity in Video Games
In computer science, the definition of interactivity is an adjective relating to a two-way flow of information between the user and the computer. Video games, by design, are interactive storytelling experiences because of the multiple flows of information communicated between the user and the game. The player controls the protagonist through the story and decides how each conflict is resolved. The relationship between the player and the game is what makes the story they experience, interactive.
If you research any review of Sony's 2018 Spider-Man game, you'll almost always find the phrase, "the game makes you feel like Spider-Man," because it seems to be a universal feeling everyone experienced when playing the game. The same is true with the Batman Arkham games. Everyone says, "they make you feel like Batman." The essence of video games is making you feel like the character you're playing. For many gamers, the Call of Duty franchise makes you feel like a soldier in combat, which is a big part of its success formula. The Dark Souls games make you feel like a knight, fighting monsters. Doom makes you feel like an angry soldier killing literal demons from hell.
Every successful gaming franchise can make the player feel like they are the character they're playing. In contrast, film and literature are passive forms of art and entertainment, where the audience and readers experience a story the writers and directors create, without participation from the consumer. As a reader or a moviegoer, you have no control over an outcome of a story or how its conflict is resolved. This doesn't make the story any more or less enjoyable to experience. Video games are the most powerful and captivating because as a player, you don't just control the character's movements, you also control their decision-making and sometimes even how they communicate.
Overwatch: Great Marketing Equals Success
Blizzard's Overwatch, a multiplayer game so successful that there's an entire Esports championship centered around it; makes you feel like 32 different and diverse characters, all with their own backstories and unique personalities! What I find interesting is that since it's a multiplayer game, there is actually little story to experience in the actual game. Most of the game consists of the player picking a character with 5 teammates, and facing off against another team to complete an objective. There are no cutscenes or revelations, and we don't really learn anything new about the characters. So where is the story? The answer: in the advertisements.
What Blizzard Entertainment did when it came to marketing Overwatch was nothing short of genius. Instead of the typical action-packed and vague advertisements used to market video games, Blizzard created 12 animated shorts telling the stories of some of the characters. The best part, they are all free to watch on YouTube. Establishing their backstories, their goals, their rivals, and their purpose. These animated shorts weren't just expensive advertisements for their game, they told the story within the game, which is what drew people in. Even though there's no story when playing Overwatch, the animated shorts caused people to care about the characters they were playing. It's why hundreds of fans cosplay as these characters every year at Blizzcon. When the player cares about the character they control, it makes the experience all the more captivating. Fans of the game have fallen in love with these characters so much, many are demanding an animated series or film adaptation to be made.
Some are creating fan-made trailers to see how it would look. Follow the link below to view.
Overwatch fan-made Netflix trailer
Interactive Storytelling is powerful if you know how to utilize it, and Blizzard utilized it to its full potential.
It's worth pointing out that other games, such as League of Legends and World of Warcraft, have used similar tactics. They have fans just as dedicated to their franchises as Overwatch. Their games are designed with only multiplayer elements and not much story to experience. All their stories are told through books, animated shorts, and online articles, which add to the gaming experience.
"Don't You Tell Me that It's Just a Show" Netflix Trip by AJR
Experiencing these immersive stories can bring out strong emotions in people. These emotions are no more or less real than the emotions experienced after having a heartfelt conversation or watching a movie. This is why I disapprove of statements such as "it's just a show" or "it's just a game, none of that is real." If the emotions brought out from the experience are real, then the game or TV show is as real as you want it to be. It's why people are willing to spend $500+ on a new console. It's why more and more people of my generation and younger are considering gaming to be a full-time career path. Those who do, work with a team to create powerful storytelling for people. Someday, I hope to join them.