A panic is fermenting among established men of letters. “Video games will kill the narrative!” they say, and shut their eyes and ears against the perils of lions and tigers and video game writers, oh my! Keep your eyes open, though, and you see the narrative art is in no mortal danger from pixels and d-pads. But though predictions of narrative’s imminent demise are hysterical, they draw attention to an important point. Video games suffer from an ignorance of traditional narrative form and tools. Story lines are sloppy and weak, character development is non-existent, and I could go on. Game narrative must have a central role in game design and writing; however, the art is still underdeveloped and its place in the medium still uncertain.

Video games as they currently exist are, for the most part, creatures of plot. Now, there is a difference between Plot proper and Story proper. Plot is the individual events that happen in a narrative. Story is the pattern of the narrative, a function of characters and their interaction with each other and their environment. Finding a plane full of money in the woods is Plot. Claiming it for yourself and the interpersonal mayhem that ensues is Story.

In plot-driven games, the player is led by the nose through a cascade of events, monsters and puzzles, all disparate threads having little to do with each other save the player-character experiencing them. These games, like the Grand Theft Auto franchise or dungeon-grinding role playing games, fail to create an emotional connection with the player because the various elements of the game do not build into a coherent whole. That missing continuity of characters and events is the missing Story element.

Some games do build themselves around a plot-and-story narrative. But it often takes over the game, with long cutscenes and a rigid structure. The path is set, and the actions of the player have very little effect on the outcome, beyond the binary choice to win or lose. The player is left with the feeling he is playing a movie instead of playing a game. Because he is expecting a gaming experience and not a movie-watching experience, the chance for emotional connection is lost.

Obviously, a game narrative will not be a film or book narrative. Novels and films both place the consumer in a passive state where it is easy and attractive to let oneself fall into the hands of the author or director and to feel what the characters feel. Playing a video game requires much more activity on the part of the consumer, and though the player believes he controls the game’s outcome, he does not. The illusion of player-control must be maintained as game herds him towards its scripted end. A way to maintain this illusion is to make the player-character change during the course of the game: give the player character a traditional character arc. As the character acts, the environment necessarily changes in its reactions to him, and the player is forced to adapt to the consequences of choices he has made in the game. The technical demands of such a plastic environment are great, but it has already been attempted in games like Mass Effect and Fable II.

Character development and continuity of any kind is a major problem in video games. More often than not, in games where NPCs play a large role, the shorthand of mono-myth and classical fantasy is used: he’s the Mentor, she’s the Fair Maiden, he’s a Thief, and they’re on a Quest. The narrative design trend seems to be towards simplicity, which is to me a shame. Narrative complexity, in terms of characters and story-lines, rewards both the player and the creator. Emotional connection requires continuity, and rational narrative build to a dramatic climax. Interweaving narrative continuity with gameplay is a design challenge. But that does not mean it can’t be done. Narrative cannot remain relegated to cutscenes between bouts of gunplay and puzzle solving.

As the stories told via video games get better, the emotional connection between player and game grow stronger. Players return to games they have a connection with, and to studios that produce those games, just as authors, film directors and actors collect fans. It is in the economic interest of the industry to encourage narrative development in big-budget games. Game writers and designers have a millennia of story-telling history to draw on. While the mono-mythic Hero template is popularly co-opted for video-game plot-lines, it is not the only story out there. The tools of story-telling are out there. We just have to adapt them for our medium.

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