Video Games and Storytelling
Thoughts about how the narrative changed the gaming world with examples from “Life is Strange”.
Recently I was trying to find a video game to play. It had to be a game with an interesting story, beautiful graphics and one with a potential to make me play for several hours nonstop, without noticing time (which I believe should be the purpose of every great game). So I decided to play the game Life is Strange.
Life is Strange is a video game with 5 episodes, each episode gets different release date, So you have to wait for the next one to be out, just like a tv show (before binge watching anyway). The game follows a teenage girl named Max. One day During school, she witnesses one of her classmates accidentally shoot Chloe, her best friend, in the school’s restrooms. She suddenly develops the ability to rewind time and rescues her . From now on, Max and Chloe use Max’s ability to rewind time, and every change they make, has a significant impact on the future. The unique thing about this game is that you get to decide the course of action — it’s an interactive game. The player has multiple choices when interacting with other characters in the game, he can rewind to change his decision, and ultimately change the narrative of the game (kind of like the butterfly effect — every decision you make has a huge impact on the story).
The thing that really surprised me about Life is Strange is how emotionally invested I got. This game puts a lot of thought into the storytelling so they could make sure each and every player is 100% invested in the story and characters. That’s when I realized video games are no longer just a fun activity to pass time ,video games became an art form, just like cinema. The big difference is how involved the gamer can get compared to the movie viewer. When I watch a movie, I get lost in the story in my imagination, but personally, I never feel like I AM the character. As a video game user who plays the game — you become the character. you control every move, you make decisions for her, and as a result you’re very invested in the game.
So how did video games become such an art form?
First and foremost — the narrative. Life is strange is an example to a game with such a complex narrative, with so many different possible outcomes. The story deals with many issues of which a lot of teenagers deal with and can relate to, and it does it within the two main characters friendship — Max and Chloe. The responsibility to choose the morally right decision, lays on your shoulder, when every interaction needed to be thought through and every clue has to be taken into consideration. Through the entire game, I felt like Chloe is MY best friend and I have to save her no matter what. I believe this is the big different between games and cinema. As a movie goer, I’ll be sad for Max, as an outsider, but as a gamer — I am Max. That’s why games can’t be all about simple missions and tasks, running, jumping and shooting anymore. The most important thing is the story. If you want to make a good video game — you need writers who can tell a story. Everything else comes second.
The combination of narrative and an interactive platform is what gives “Life is Strange” the impact it has on it’s users. For example, (spoilers), in one point of the game, you need to save Kate, one of Max’s friends from school, who goes up to the roof and threats to commit suicide after she was a victim of social media shaming. Max’s character tries to convince her not to jump as the player chooses the words and the direction which the conversation is headed to. In order to save Kate, you had to pay attantion earlier in the game to details about her life (so you’d know the right things to say). The game really deals with controversial subjects like social media, shaming and teen suicide and that’s another amazing aspect of how video games changed into a storytelling form of art. Personally, I failed saving Kate and she jumped. That was the point where I realized how good this game was beacuse I was so sad, I couldn’t keep playing for a while. The impact that a good story has on people is phenomenal, and when you combine this with a game, you can deliver the story in the best way possible.
Another big change to video games is cinematography. In the past, you could place the camera “above” the scene and that was it. Yes, there are still many successful games that use 3rd person approach to the game, But I believe that in order to use games as a true storytelling platform, Every frame needs to be planned (just like in cinema). Using a real cinematic approach to video games can change the way the user live the story and get emotionally involved. Of course nowadays we can do a lot more that we could have done in the past, with the amazing advance of technology. Every game desginer can accomplish almost anything that he envisions and bring the story to life.
Thinking about Mise-en-scène when designing a frame in games, can add a lot to the storytelling aspect. Things like the Camera angles and movements, composition, colours and lighting — all should be considered when creating a game. “Life is Strange” uses all that to bring the fictional town of “Arcadia Bay” to life. With different locations (High school, Dorms, Scrapyard) that has meaning to the story, and a lot of little details that add to the characterisation and to the clues that helps the user move forward. Creating a game with the thinking process of creating a film, makes video games the ultimate experience for it’s users.
I believe that the future of gaming will bring us more ways to live the story fully. It’s already happening with VR and AR, where soon we’ll not only be emotionally invesed in the story, but also physically invested in the entire world of the game. The future will allow us to fully transition to become the main character of the game and walk through this imaginary world as if it was real, which will bring the experience to be almost complete. For right now, the boundaries are slowly Disappearing when games puts the narrative first and allow users to welcome themselves into the game’s world.