On Sandcastles

Topics: Video Games, Storytelling

Sandcastle: noun a model of a castle built out of sand, typically by children.

Today, let's talk about one of my favourite topics ever; storytelling and video games (which, if you've been paying attention, are also the two topics for today). With all those talks about video games (y'know what? I'll just call them games) being a new art form, I feel it important to address the question of how games can be used to convey a story, or an idea.

Now, I wouldn't be surprising anyone by saying that there are many, many video games out there with amazing stories to tell avid players; Bioshock Infinite, Grand Theft Auto V, and Pokémon are just three examples that popped into my mind when I thought of extensive and immersive stories. Originally, games did not have too much story put into them; Doom (1993) had an extremely simple plot of "demons here shoot them ok thanks", while Pac-Man (1980) had an even simpler plot of a dot-gobbling (what a beautiful word) yellow circle being chased by ghosts (reminds me of high school).

It wasn't long however before developers realized the storytelling potential in video games. Many people remember playing Super Mario Bros. (1985, NES) with its simple "kill the turtle-dragon, rescue the princess, save the kingdom" story, but when talking about stories in games I personally like to mention Final Fantasy (1987, NES). Now, THAT was a game ahead of its time. With a complex plot (well, not that complex), sprawling world and fleshed-out characters (mostly villains, and again not that fleshed-out), Final Fantasy started out with a bang and would grow to become one of the most well-known RPG series in the world.

Nowadays, you would be hard-pressed to find a game without even the simplest of plots.

But what happens when the plots aren't complete? What happens when the game leaves too much holes for the player to fill in? What goes through the minds of players as they conquer a city whilst playing Civilization V? Do they simply consider this a colourless victory, or do they imagine themselves as a conqueror gaining territory? Or a liberator of the oppressed, for that matter?

In my experience (read: no sources for what I'm about to say), I find that nowadays players tend to "fill the blanks", so to speak, in a game's plot as they play. Most Let's Play series focus on stories and plots, and even those without tend to make do with what they can. For example, many Minecraft Let's Players find a simple goal to accomplish and build a plot around it. They personify some of the personality-handicapped enemies or creatures and interact with them in humorous ways to entertain their audience.

Here's another example with the game Animal Crossing: Wild World. Now, I've always been a fan of the Animal Crossing series, and of life simulation games in general. Animal Crossing features a simple plot of a young boy or girl moving in to a town populated mostly by animal-people hybrids. There isn't much to do other than fish, relax, get money, expand your house, get more money, etc. It's quite hard to explain, but I hope those comics will have given you an idea of what the game can be like.

Now, let me present you with The Terrible Secret of Animal Crossing, most likely the most popular Animal Crossing Let's Play out there. Go ahead, read a chapter, I'll wait...

...ok, that's enough. As you can see, players tend to fill in blanks in a story however which way they can, sometimes in a, um, disturbing manner.

I think video games, both as an art form and as a way to convey stories, are here to stay whether we like it or not. The fact that players create their own stories, in a way, while playing is reminiscent of another popular form of consumer-driven media; fan-fictions. In fact, video game fan-fictions also exist and are quite popular. It seems as though video games in general seem to involve their audiences in a much more active role than, say, television or movies. What does that mean about games' long-term viability as an entertainment media? Are video games, in fact, a "better" art form than non-active media, such as television? and what about books? Where do they fit on the active/inactive scale of media?

Those, my friends, are questions for next another time.

Stay frosty,

Snowman


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