From Pixels to Participation
The past, present and future of video games
From the little pixels of early arcade games to immersive experiences that serve as a hub for a spectrum of different participants — players, viewers, broadcasters, commentators, and more — video games have evolved drastically within the past few decades and continue to evolve as a medium for storytelling. Jade Raymond, Group General Manager of Electronic Arts and one of the selected speakers for this year’s Future of StoryTelling (FoST) Summit, reflects on the history of video games, her own experiences as a video game maker, and the future of video game stories.
Reflecting on her role leading the creation of Assassin’s Creed fourteen years ago, Raymond explains how the game was conceived in such a way that it could continue as a franchise, passed on to other creative teams that were given their own artistic license, while staying on-brand.
“The next step is not just being able to hand over that core creative seed to other creative teams… [but to consider how to] structure it from the start to be a real ecosystem, where it’s not only other professional creative teams that can take your franchise… but [also] where players can,” she says. It is a question of how to “structure version 2.0 of a franchise from the start” so that it can live on not only through other creative teams, but also through its fans, thus blurring the line between creator and audience.
This increasing level of audience and fan engagement that Raymond points to is happening across a variety of entertainment industries and is bolstered by the surge of virtual reality and other technological innovations. This has led to the rise of the “narrative designer,” a new type of storyteller in the world of video games, charged with recognizing players’ ever-growing engagement and integrating player agency into narratives. It seems likely that such roles will only proliferate as companies continue to make room for fan-created content and ownership of video game narrative arcs.
An analogy that Raymond draws upon is the birth and longevity of conspiracy theories. “[There’s] power [to] having a mystery where people can be involved in creating the truth,” she notes. When envisioning the next big video game, the most pertinent questions become: “Is there anything we can build in, so that the stories that are the most interesting ones — the most interesting ‘conspiracies,’ if you will — get folded back into the story we’re crafting?”
“Is there anything we can build in, so that the stories that are the most interesting ones — the most interesting ‘conspiracies,’ if you will — get folded back into the story we’re crafting?”
One powerful example of audience-driven conspiracy weaved back into the story is that of Bigfoot and Grand Theft Auto. Bigfoot was first rumored to exist in GTA: San Andreas, but players could only see the creature at certain times. Publisher Rockstar Games then decided to make this myth a reality by adding Bigfoot to their hit game GTA V. The addition of Bigfoot, however, was part of a much larger mystery that gamers enjoyed digging into by skimming through code and forming groups to piece together clues to a hidden mission.
In fact, creating these opportunities for players to uncover hidden secrets and moments of surprise has become a trend in the game industry, as noted at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2017 that took place in Los Angeles this past June. It also raises the question of how and if, in a world of instant communication and accessibility facilitated by the Internet, video game creators can develop even more sophisticated means of players generating compelling narrative for each other.
While this territory may be the most challenging and unresolved for creatives, Raymond argues that it is also the greatest opportunity and a chance for experimentation.
