Where Do We Go From Here?
The process of exploring how this distinctly interactive medium utilizes its unique capacities to tell its stories does, however, provoke some questions as to the sustainability of the medium in the long run. If these elements that we’ve covered are indeed universal to any text that can accurately be called a video game, then how long will it be before every new game is merely derivative of what came before? More so than a concern over originality of content, though, this question of derivability may be symptomatic of the broad limitations of the medium, limitations made clear by the very fact that we’ve been able to account for these formalistic elements of interactivity at all.
Think of it in terms of the actual experience of playing a game. Arguably, a game is doing its job best when the player is not actively aware of how the game is manipulating the very elements we’ve discussed, as to be aware of this inevitably affects how the player responds to the game. As we’ve seen with games like Bioshock, the experience of games is largely dependent on the player entering the game with a preordained set of expectations that the game’s systems purposefully manipulate so as to tell that game’s story. To be aware of the narrative tools of games as we are now is to undermine this expectation, which may be fatal to the immersive quality of a game if it fails to account for this possibility.
"Will our interactivity always have the value that it currently does, or will repeated exploitation of the elements we’ve covered water it down to the point of having no substantial effect?"
If we’re actively considering how our perspective is being shaped rather than just breathing in that perspective, or if we’re considering how the way we’re playing a game may intentionally be reflecting that game’s thematic content, then we’re not really immersed in the way that the medium demands. If we’re too acutely aware of how these games are manipulating us, then are we really engaged in the experience in a meaningful way? Will our interactivity always have the value that it currently does, or will repeated exploitation of the elements we’ve covered water it down to the point of having no substantial effect?
In less academic terms: is the magic of video games bound to be lost?
I, of course, can’t answer that question with complete satisfaction, but, as a long time gamer who’s continued to be surprised by the innovations within this medium over my relatively brief time with it, I maintain faith that there’s still a lot that has yet to be offered.
I think of modern games that have actively challenged the expectations of the medium and the inventive ways they’ve done so – like Gone Home, which did away with any need for action or complex input from the player, using the player’s simple traversal of an environment to tell it’s story, or Nier: Automata, which requires the player to literally delete their save data in order to officially complete the game, ditching the need for permanence of progress in order to make a statement – and I realize that there is still deep potential within games to explore narratives that transcend formalistic categorization.
Wholly unique games like Return of the Obra Dinn show that there's still untapped potential in games
It’s also important to realize that none of these titles exist in a vacuum. Every new game works to recontextualize the state of the industry in ways both minute and massive. Once a game like Bioshock comes out, for instance, every other game has to exist within a new framework established by what that game has done. In the case of Bioshock specifically, it’s become impossible for any game to perfectly detach the player from the experience, since that game’s story placed player culpability under the spotlight in such stark fashion. After that, there’s simply no way to play a game without realizing that they’re playing us as well, and that expectation has been embedded into the video game experience ever since.
Rather than think of this as checking-off a box from a finite list of possible innovations, think of it as shutting the door to what was taken for granted in games up to that point and opening the door to what games will be from that point on, through which our understanding of the medium is thoroughly recalibrated, countless new experiences suddenly becoming available by virtue of that past game’s innovation. This thought could be applied to any game, really, meaning there are countless future possibilities, each with their own distinct innovations beyond them that we are still too far away for us to recognize. One might say it’s a stretch to assign this level of importance to every game, but even if you were to grant it just to the games we’ve covered here, the options feel limitless.
"Every game works to recontextualize the state of the industry in ways both minute and massive"
Even the elements we’ve outlined are largely incomplete when examined close enough. What I’ve dubbed as ‘Playing Story’ is intended to encapsulate how the actual gameplay of a game reinforces or reflects the larger narrative, but the actual means by which this may be accomplished is so broad that it’s kind of insufficient to lump it all into one category.
The same could be said for any of the four elements I’ve deconstructed, meaning that while we may have identified some of the core components of video game narrative, we’re still far from knowing enough so as to fundamentally disrupt the entire video game experience. Knowing this, I’d consider the work of this project as the broad strokes of what may one day be a more comprehensive outline of exactly how players’ interactivity tells the story of games. Even then, by the time such an outline will be achievable, I’d wager that video games will still be several steps ahead of us, and I see no reason for this trend to not continue for future generations to come.
Perhaps this will prove frustrating to those who feel the need to articulate to the most microscopic degree exactly what the experience of playing a video game is and how it is formulated, but to me, the thought that I’ll never actually get a complete grip on it is what makes the medium so appealing. It means I’ll never stop having these truly eye-opening experiences, that I’ll always have more to learn and to discover for myself. I suppose time will tell if my optimism is misplaced, but for now, I guess I’m choosing to believe there’s still magic to be found in games.