Are video game stories better than film and TV?
As pop culture continues to dominate with superhero movies and TV series, we ask whether video game narratives are worthy of their own accolades.
The debate was reignited by a survey claiming that players believe video game stories are superior to those in film and TV. We’re here to dive deep into storytelling in games and whether the medium is a contender for the best storytellers in the business.
Playing a game for hours on end can be a bit like binge-watching your favourite TV show, so it’s no surprise that some see similarities between the two mediums. Comparing video game stories to TV shows is a different ballgame, though, as peak television offers layered storytelling that’s almost unrivalled. Still, watching someone play a game can feel like sitting down to a long film, creating moments like this BioShock 2 moment that are truly memorable.
On the other side of the debate, we have people who don’t think that video game stories are as good as they are often made out to be. For some, it’s the interactive nature of games that make them more memorable than films. After all, if you can’t remember a 100-hour long story, what is there to tell about it? Others argue that it’s difficult to forget a 90-minute movie because it’s so condensed.
There are also those that just prefer watching streamers play games, because it allows them to engage with the story without playing. It’s a different kind of storytelling, but one that’s still unique to games. We’ll get into the unique storytelling aspects of games later, but for now let’s look at the pros and cons of both mediums.
The pros of video game storytelling
It’s subjective, but there are some people who prefer TV shows to movies and video games in terms of storytelling. The length of narrative games allows for more character and world development, while maintaining the tension of a TV show.
The length of a game also allows for the development of a plot that’s not possible in film or TV. Games like The Witcher 3 or Red Dead Redemption 2 are able to tell compelling stories in a long format – something that’s not possible in the mediums of film and TV.
The playthroughs and the binge-watching experience aren’t limited to games with a long single-player campaign. Maintaining high tension for 10 hours in a horror TV series is also a difficult feat. If you watch a movie for that long, it’s often difficult to maintain the same level of tension.
The pros of TV shows
However, there are also some benefits to TV shows that are unique to the medium. The most obvious of these is the fact that TV shows can have multiple seasons, diving into characters and world-building in a way that’s not possible in video games.
The comparison to TV shows is also a good one because the length of episodes is often similar, with the average game being around the same time commitment as an hour-long TV show. This is also a benefit of games over film, as a film is a singular experience that’s over in a couple of hours.
The cons of video game storytelling
On the other side, there are some significant downsides to video game storytelling that are difficult to dispute. Firstly, there’s the argument that because games are interactive, the stories are less impactful. Some argue that because you can change the story, it’s less memorable than it would be if you were just a spectator.
