Aaron Caraway
About 16 years of experience playing video games has impressed upon me that there is always an elephant in the room – video games are often not the preferred entertainment medium among the groups of people I have grown up alongside and interacted with my whole life. To many, gaming is simply a flash game on a school computer or the next big mobile game on smartphones (titles previously the preferred mobile game were Flappy Bird and Angry Birds). However, video games exist to scratch an itch that no other medium – not books, comic books or movies or TV — can ever treat. Video games, through their union of graphics and narrative, and their myriad gameplay styles which impact our perception of genres of mainstream entertainment, are truly the only all-purpose entertainment medium.
Video games have held my interest not necessarily from a historical standpoint but for how that can potentially reach any extreme in an entertainment spectrum between graphics and narrative, two pivotal elements of almost any work of art. Every mainstream work of entertainment exists somewhere along this spectrum: comic books are a marriage of the two, using descriptive artwork alongside dialogue and monologue to convey the characters and scenarios depicted on the page. Books, obviously, lie on the extreme narrative end of this spectrum, conveying every aspect of the work through careful use of words. They aim to not only present the conversations between characters but the actions between characters and their surroundings, giving the reader a mental picture of what is going on in any particular scene without any visual reference. Movies and TV shows can reach a middle ground between graphics and narrative but tend to appeal to the graphics end of the spectrum through film and editing techniques – the intention is often to elevate the narrative beyond what is said or seen onscreen.
Where video games fall on this spectrum depends largely on the developer, but like comic books, each title is a marriage of these two factors. The unique part, however, is that video games are meant to be interacted with by a person, called the ‘player’. Indeed, video games enter a realm untouched by any other medium by virtue of being something the person experiencing it can touch and often times affect. Because of this, neither aspect can dominate the other – the most captivating narratives in video games take place within a world the player can explore and come to understand outside of the exposition and plot points. Likewise, while a game can offer a rich, vibrant world to explore, there is still a narrative – a ‘point’, if you will – to the world around you.
Much as in any other medium, video games are often classified by genre, but unlike any other medium, as these games are meant to be interacted with by a player, the style of gameplay is another classification of the video game medium. Action Adventure, Horror, Comedy, Drama, Mystery – these words alone could describe any piece within a given medium. Just as The Boy is a horror movie, the Resident Evil series (a zombie-apocalypse style tale depicting the outbreak of a virus which heavily mutates the affected population) are all horror games. The Avengers series of movies and the Uncharted series (depicting treasure hunter Nathan Drake on his quests to pursue ancient legends, such as the Lost City of El Dorado) could both be described as Action.
With video games, however, the type of gameplay affects the player’s perception of that genre greatly. A couple of prominent examples of gameplay types are the Fighting Game, the Shooter, and the RPG. Let’s examine these through the lens of the horror genre: A fighting game typically pits two players against each other, or a player against a bot. The Mortal Kombat series (depicting to-the-death struggles between various worlds) could be considered a Horror Fighting Game – the playable characters often look suitably gruesome and scary, using attacks that would be gory in nature like ripping limbs off or incinerating their opponent.
Shooter gameplay can come in two forms – First Person Shooter (FPS) or Third Person Shooter (TPS.) A ‘Horror’ FPS (such as the Left 4 Dead games, which follows a group of 4 characters as they try to survive the zombie apocalypse) would convey to the player, by virtue of the camera being where the characters’ head should be, that they are for all intents and purposes the character. Because of this, particularly scary segments solicit a much stronger response emotionally – when a monster jumps out to attack, they appear to be attacking you – as if they invaded your physical space. A Horror TPS (such as the Resident Evil series), however, would not solicit anywhere near as strong a response. In a TPS, the camera is placed behind your character, usually to either side. That same monster that jumped out to attack you before now appears to be attacking your character, and while the sense of urgency to defeat this creature may remain, you are confident that you are not in danger.
Finally, a RPG – or Role Playing Game – has the potential to offer the most freeform gameplay of all styles. The idea behind these types of games is that at least partially, the character you play is one of your own design – RPGs attempt, in various ways, to make the experience as freeform as possible, allowing you to create your character’s appearance, personality and skill set with your weapons of choice, which may also have been made or customized by you. In a ‘Horror’ RPG such as Bloodborne (an eerily Lovecraftian tale of a nameless persons struggle to cure themselves of a disease plaguing the now-overrun city of Yharnam), and in this same situation where a monster jumps out to attack you, the player would have various methods of dealing with this monster. They may prefer to be up close and personal, carrying the biggest instruments of destruction at their disposal. They may choose to be highly defensive and outlast this monster. They may choose to lure it into a trap, or deal with it from range. Should the opportunity present itself, particularly clever players may find ways to avoid this monster entirely. If the distinction between genres of entertainment due to various gameplay styles is understood from these examples alone, then consider that this is only from one genre and three of the most mainstream gameplay styles used today – taking into account the other genres of entertainment and the myriad of gameplay styles not covered in this piece (and especially taking into account the developers’ takes on these genres, birthing what could be considered a new form of previously understood styles of gameplay), the possibilities are almost endless.
If my decade-and a half interest with video games has taught me anything, it’s that while they are often not the source of entertainment for the public as they are for me, video games afford me the pleasure of visiting worlds and engaging in them in such a way that is impossible in reality. Many may call this ‘escapism’ – this notion that I, and by extension all gamers, choose to play these games and visit these worlds in an effort to leave our own. To those people, I say this: If only it were that simple. If only I simply wished to go to these incredible worlds people dared to create, and leave this one behind. The truth is, however, that I fancy the thought of being a traveler of sorts far more than having travelled – my love for this all-purpose entertainment medium, that which can not be measured simply by graphics and narrative or quantified by their gameplay styles, means that I cannot simply go to some new world and leave well enough alone. I’ve spent 16 years happily exploring works of fiction that we’ll never see happen in reality quite the same way, and that means that I’ve got many stories to tell. For those of you not convinced, enjoy your time on this earth, with people you love and things you like. I’ll be exploring Fallout 4’s Commonwealth, or preparing for my journey into Dark Souls III’s Lothric. If I’ve been able to pique your interest any, feel free to join me.