If you care about storytelling in videogames, you should probably watch this video.
It wasn’t all that long ago that games had no story to speak of whatsoever. Why were the ghosts chasing Pac-Man? Who were the Space Invaders you were shooting down? Was Left Paddle really a hero or was he a villain protagonist? Then, with the advent of early interactive fiction like Zork and Ultima, game developers started caring more about story – and the interest in interactive storytelling in games has waxed and waned ever since.
The video you see here to the right is a superb encapsulation of the history of – and the discussion surrounding – the role story plays in a videogame. Speaking their minds on the subject are big old-school names like Ultima creator Richard “Lord British” Garriott, Gabriel Knight writer Jane Jensen, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy designer Steve Meretzky. On the modern side of things we have people behind blockbuster franchises noted for their storytelling like BioShock, Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted.
Suffice it to say, if you’re interested in the topic at all you owe it to yourself to watch this eleven-minute video produced by the folks at Game Theory. It’s well worth the time you’ll spend on it.
