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Last time I talked about video games as another media with storytelling. Today, I’m bringing it up again.(I do play a lot of games and have my whole life.) This time I’ll focus on aspects of the fantasy genre. The games I’m going to bring up are more modern than the fantasy games of the early days.
First, let’s take a look at a series that wouldn’t have been possible 15 years ago: the Dragon Age series. In this series, you are introduced to a world that is as detailed as any in a book. You also have a slew of characters that are well thought out and thoroughly developed. In fact, you are able to engage in casual conversations with the characters, learning about them, their lives, and getting a feel for their personalities. They are well crafted and realized throughout the game.
The world they live in is no different. You have the opportunity to learn all about main events in its history and the civilizations that have been building up for years. A bonus that a game has over a book is they don’t have to describe the places that inhabit the world—you see them first hand.
What Dragon Age does that most books don’t, is give the player control. You create your own character, but it’s so much more than that. You choose what they say when engaging in conversations with other characters and make decisions that affect the world around you. From a writing standpoint, several threads are needed to represent these choices. It’s an engaging experience(one I enjoy very much).
Another example is the Elder Scroll series, which, in my opinion, is a more atmospheric adventure. As far as storytelling, I want to bring up a specific point from this series. Throughout the exploration of old ruins and forgotten caves, you find books(literal books written for the game). It’s often surprising how long some of these fake books are. These books describe events, the world’s histories, and(if I remember correctly) some of them are even fiction based. Think about that, you can read an entire work of fiction in a fantasy video game.(Crazy, right?)
I’m often surprised by the level of detail that goes into these modern fantasy video games. The sheer scope is impressive. I once told a friend of mine who never plays video games about the Dragon Age series. She had no idea some of these video games went into such detail. I guess that’s why I wrote this article. I would like to hear opinions from anyone who doesn’t play videogames. Did you know games like this existed?