Games are an interesting topic. Everyone is familiar with video games in some aspect, whether they be Halo 3 rock-stars, or Pac-man. Video games have unarguably altered and guided our culture to new places. Some video games even told a story or a concept that had not been done before.

Video games tap into several essential parts of our psyche. The first is the concept of play. Played tag when you were little? Hide and seek? Play is how our brains develop, on several levels. Its how our brains explore different permutations of strategies, of how to adapt, think, and learn. It was always more fun playing with new people, or in a new place, wasn’t it? Play is so very essential to normal brain development.

We explore and experiment, in safe parameters. And that is play, exploration and experimentation. Lion cubs play, so they can explore strategies for attacking and disabling prey… safely. Wolf cubs do it… gazelles do it. Its natural, and essential for growing up.

Another part of our psyche video games work with is the story-telling part. Language is useless without a need to tell stories. And, from there, society, civilization forms, from language and communication. And games, they don’t let the game developers tell a story. Video games are a way for us, to experience and even affect the story. Its power, responsibility, combined with play. We can see how good actions affect the game, and how bad actions affect the game. We form our own stories from the play. Video games nowadays are a combination of both these concepts, forming a very powerful, very effective method of communication.

My point in this post, is that video games not only are an extension of concepts we’re familiar with, but they can also allow us to play and tell stories we cannot do otherwise. We can certainly pretend to be a space fighter pilot, and the sky is the limit. And video games allow us to do the same thing, but within the constraints of the game and the story. Even all the way into adulthood and beyond. (We certainly can’t pretend to be a space fighter pilot in public, now can we… )

There are stories, there are play concepts that simply cannot be explored in traditional media, mostly because of the limitations of the media(and laws. Pesky, pesky laws.). A long, complex game like Chrono Cross or Final Fantasy IX or Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time simply could not be represented in traditional media. They’re too long for a movie. And definitely too complex or too boring to try to represent in a TV series. Those games work, either through the time they can devote to telling the story of each of the characters and the final narrative thread that ties it all together, or the finely tuned, perfectly balanced gameplay and exploration. It simply would be too complex, or not complex enough, or not interesting enough to watch or read.

Video games offer a different way to tell stories. The key point is, thats it is the player experiencing the stories, through the medium of play. This means some stories cannot work in games, or that due to limited imagination, stories are made more movie-like. (Metal Gear Solid anyone?) . Games can deliver an experience, can deliver a story the player made themselves. Which is more compelling, a story you came up with… or a story they discovered and created themselves?

Think about what most gamers end up talking about. At first, maybe the cut scene at the end of disc 20. Or… perhaps what they achieved with their character. How they fared against another person. People who play video games don’t talk about the games… but the stories they made. That is the true wonder of video games, is that you, the developer, the designer, the writer, the art person that works on the nose designs, you are allowing the players to tell their stories, through play and story telling.