Let's discuss stories in video games. There have been many great ones. Some of them are linear stories that are already written and that you get to experience as one of the characters. Like God of war. Others are dependant on your choices and actions. Like the story in divinity 2

Others are even more self contained and are simply your experiences in the game world that occur due to systemic interactions. Like wild police chases in gta, the orcs you encounter in shadow of mordor or the way you clear camps in Far Cry.

The main difference between grand narratives and self contained narratives are the scale of story. In bigger games, the story is a portion of the role playing you do in the game. They help contextualise your character and action.

What is the point of linear stories in games though? Surely it makes more sense to do these in movies or book. The interactivity of the medium can be restricted when the plot points of the story forces your actions. It can even make the story seem contrived.

I feel like there are many games with great stories that would have been better delivered as movies or books. However there are a few games that explore how interactivity can shape story telling well.

In Firewatch, the story is happening around you. Your choices don't impact the story but they allow you to tell your own version of it. The story happens to you but the version of the story that you take away depends on your actions in the game. That makes it unique

Playing through the game in this case isn't just a way to deliver the story, its a way to participate in the story in a way that let's you think about it in terms of your own experiences. Whether you value trust or caution, what you view as betrayal, your own ethical values etc.

Another game that does both linear and emergent storytelling well is breath of the wild. There is a story and your actions in the world are contextualised by that story but if you choose to just spend the whole time exploring and collecting mushrooms, the game is cool with that

The way that the narrative is both guided by and in another sense completely separate from your actions in the game make breath of the wild very unique. It provides you with every tool but is completely fine if you use none of them. Bold decision that definitely enriches gameplay

Interactivity as an element of storytelling is something we should learn to use better for storytelling in video games. The potential for something ground breaking and unique is slowly being explored and I can't wait to experience more of it.