I have this strangely vivid memory that has been popping up in my mind lately.  Sometime in the middle of November 2010, I was at a NaNoWriMo meeting with some fellow writers.

For anybody who is not aware of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), it is a challenge to writers to write a 50,000+ word novel over the course of the month of November.  People who participate in NaNoWriMo run the gamut from casual hobbyist to published author, with everybody taking it to a differing degree of seriousness.  The one thing that I can assure you about all of these people is that they enjoy writing, and most of them enjoy reading at least as much.  So, when I talk about a NaNoWriMo group, you can be pretty sure I am talking about people who know stories.

This one evening, though, I was talking with them between sprints.  I remember little about the discussion except for one thing.  At some point, we were discussing different stories, and I brought up story elements in video games.  One of the other writers seemed downright offended that I would ever mention the stories of video games in a writing group!  I jumped off of that argument pretty quickly--I hate confrontation, and at the time, I was not prepared for it at all--but it has left a lasting sting in my impression of how people think of stories.  People who seem so involved with storytelling ought to be able to pick out a plot anywhere it occurs, whether that is in a book, movie, or game.

If I had the chance to speak with this person again on the subject, I would ask them this: What makes video games not valid as a storytelling medium?

It seems like there are a lot of things that differentiate storytelling in a video game from any other medium.  However, the more you consider each element, the more they seem to have in common with everything else.  Video games are simply a different collection of tools that allow a person to progress through a story.  For example, you can argue that choice over what characters do is a divergence from typical storytelling... however, there are books that do that, even if they are a minority.  Simple visual representation does not mean much in that argument, either; remember that graphic novels, pictures, TV shows, and movies are also considered "valid" storytelling media (by the by, the same people who do NaNoWriMo also have Script Frenzy in April, which is the same idea, but with movie scripts).

The more you look at it, the only things that separate video games from other storytelling media are the game elements.  When a game is designed well, the story elements and game elements blend together, and the game elements contribute to the setting, producing an immersive experience.  However, they do not typically affect the plot, itself.  While a gamer must overcome challenges to progress in the plot, these challenges still affect the protagonist(s) in a way that is consistent with the story.

All in all, the stories in video games have the same elements as stories in any other medium.  They have characters, plots, settings, and means for conveying all of these.  Some games focus more on gameplay than storytelling, and that might be where this disdain for video game storytelling comes from.  However, if you are expecting Pac-man to teach you life lessons, I think you are looking in the wrong place to begin with.

I intend to explore the specifics of video game storytelling in future posts, as it is quite a broad topic.  Stay tuned!