Narrative of video games

Short description: Overview of narrative's importance to video games

"Story Mode" redirects here. For the Minecraft spinoff game, see Minecraft: Story Mode.

In the early days of video gaming, narrative elements were minimal due to technological constraints. Games like Pong (1972) focused solely on gameplay mechanics without storytelling components. As technology advanced, developers began incorporating narratives to enhance player engagement. Text-based adventures such as Colossal Cave Adventure (1976) and Zork (1980) introduced simple fantasy narratives, laying the groundwork for storytelling in games. The evolution continued with titles like Half-Life (1998), which integrated storytelling seamlessly into gameplay without relying on traditional cutscenes, setting new standards for narrative in video games.

## Contents

* 1 Overview
* 2 History
* 3 Criticism
* 4 See also
* 5 References

## Overview

Stories in video games are delivered in a myriad ways. While it is most common to deliver exposition through cutscenes,[1] games have also delivered their stories through environmental storytelling, such as in Bioshock.[2][3] It is also common to deliver narrative through other means, such as via in-game text entries presented as journal entries or correspondences, or in audio recordings.[2][4][5] Narratives do not even need to be given through spoken or written word; the game Inside tells its narrative through the scenery and events the player experiences as they progress through the game without any form of language.[6]

Narratives in games are of varying significance to the experience; while an increasing number of game stories are intended as the main focus, simple stories that are only intended to serve as a justification for the gameplay have been a common approach.[2][4][7] Certain genres, such as adventure games and their various sub-genres, have narrative as an essential element, while others, such as real-time strategy, do not require detailed stories as a feature.[8][7]

Some games feature a "story mode" (sometimes also called "narrative mode"), a mode that is designed to focus on the story. The application and use of the term varies; it is sometimes used to discern from other modes of gameplay that do not feature story as a significant element,[9][10] such as its use to distinguish from the online multiplayer mode of Grand Theft Auto V,[11] or as an alternative difficulty setting which is intended to allow players to enjoy the narrative of a video game without encountering significant difficulty that may hinder their progression.[12][13][14]

## History

Video games were first popularized with Pong. Pong was a simple virtual game of tennis in which, developer Nolan Bushnell said, the primary goal was "fun." According to Bushnell, games in that era had been so technologically challenging to produce that "it was exhausting to get the game to play without worrying about story" and as such, story was not a concern for many developers.[7] Text adventure games such as Colossal Cave Adventure and Zork featured simple fantasy narratives which have been compared to Dungeons & Dragons.[7]

In later years, technological advances allowed developers greater options for expressing story in a video game, which led to more expansive and ambitious narratives.[7][2][1] Half-Life, released in 1998, made significant innovations in how it presented its narrative, such as its choice to tell its narrative without the use of cutscene cinematics or breaking up its world into levels, and is often credited with having codified many modern storytelling conventions within the medium.[15][16][17][18]

## Criticism

While video game stories have received praise,[19][20][21] it has also been argued that video games are not an ideal medium for storytelling, and that the overall quality of narratives within video games is not equal to those in other forms.[22][2][23] Writing for The Atlantic, Ian Bogost criticizes the environmental storytelling approach to narrative used in first-person games with an exploration focus, such as BioShock, Gone Home, and What Remains of Edith Finch, opining that the structure of such games, which requires players to explore environments and piece together the story through observation and discovery, offers little advantage over other storytelling mediums such as an animated film or novel.[24] Bogost argues that the appeal of video games lies in their technical achievements, and that a game which chooses to focus on telling a story is "unambitious" and has no appeal that cannot be found in a more traditional work.[2] During a panel held at the University of Southern California, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas expressed skepticism about the quality of storytelling in video games, asserting that the interactive element of the medium infringed upon the potential impact of any story a game might try to tell, with Lucas commenting, "By its very nature there cannot be a plot in a game."[22]

In contrast, literary scholar Eric Hayot says that video games, while not directly comparable to novels or films, are an evolution of many long-enduring storytelling traditions that have been observed throughout human history.[25][26] Hayot argues that interactivity "was a story mode for centuries, if not millennia, before the invention of the microprocessor."[26] Hayot does qualify, however, that he believes the tradition of "winning" in a video game "provides an interesting brake" on the range of stories that can be told in the medium[27], though he cites Undertale and The Last of Us as two examples which subvert this tradition.[26]

Some video game stories have been criticized for being conveyed in cutscenes perceived as being of excessive length which takes time away from the gameplay.[1][28][29] Other critics have supported the inclusion of lower difficulty options which favor story over difficulty of play;[12][30] for instance writer Oktay Ege Kozak, who expressed in Paste Magazine that while they enjoy playing video games for their stories, "I also suck at them" and would prefer that gameplay difficulty was not mandated in order to access a game's story.[30] Such options have been included in various titles, such as Hades (where it is called "God Mode") and Software:Mass Effect: Andromeda.[31][14]

John Carmack, a developer of Doom, is often quoted as having said that "Story in a game is like a story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but it's not that important," a quote which originated from the book Masters of Doom.[32][33][1] Carmack has since amended this opinion to acknowledge the existence of games where story is a greater focus; however still maintained that he believes games which prioritize gameplay are the "most important".[34][35]

## See also

* Video game writing, an overview of the associated profession
* Ludonarrative dissonance

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Young, Shamus (2019-05-21). "Rage 2: Shut Up and Let me Shoot Stuff" (in en-US). https://www.escapistmagazine.com/rage-2-shut-up-and-let-me-shoot-stuff/.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Bogost, Ian (2017-04-25). "Video Games Are Better Without Stories" (in en). https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/video-games-stories/524148/.
3. ↑ Lawardorn, Damien (2020-01-27). "The Rise, Fall, and Place of Environmental Storytelling in Games" (in en-US). https://www.escapistmagazine.com/the-rise-fall-and-place-of-environmental-storytelling-in-games/.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Leary, Kyree (2016-05-03). "A grungy machine-age videogame prioritizes storytelling over difficulty" (in en-US). https://killscreen.com/previously/articles/a-grungy-machine-age-videogame-prioritizes-storytelling-over-difficulty/.
5. ↑ "Let's talk about video game lore" (in en-CA). 2022-07-15. https://www.destructoid.com/lets-talk-about-video-game-lore/.
6. ↑ Sheehan, Jason (December 31, 2017). "Reading The Game: Inside". NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/12/31/573832118/reading-the-game-inside. Retrieved November 14, 2022.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Byrne, Seamus. "The evolution of video game stories: from Nolan Bushnell to Blizzard Entertainment and beyond" (in en). https://www.cnet.com/tech/gaming/video-game-storytelling-evolution-bushnell-schafer-morhaime/.
8. ↑ Bronstring, Marek (12 February 2012). "What are adventure games?". Nito Games - Adventure Gamers. https://adventuregamers.com/articles/view/17547. "Adventure games focus on puzzle solving within a narrative framework, generally with few or no action elements."
9. ↑ Good, Owen S. (2017-12-07). "2017: The year of story-driven sports video games" (in en-US). https://www.polygon.com/2017/12/7/16745268/game-of-the-year-goty-madden-nba2k-best-sports-games.
10. ↑ Maher, Cian (2022-09-03). "Goat Simulator 3: Still a silly game about being a really annoying goat" (in en-US). https://www.polygon.com/23333263/goat-simulator-3-preview-release-date-gamescom. ""Rather than being a pure sandbox that’s exclusively designed to facilitate mayhem, Goat Simulator 3 has a story mode.""
11. ↑ "Grand Theft Auto V - Rockstar Games". https://www.rockstargames.com/gta-v. ""Current players can transfer both GTAV Story Mode progress and GTA Online characters...""
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Bush, Stephen (2021-06-09). "I play video games on easy mode. Here's why" (in en-US). https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2018/05/i-play-video-games-easy-mode-here-s-why.
13. ↑ Ramsey, Robert (2017-02-16). "Narrative Difficulty Returns to Mass Effect: Andromeda for Those Who Just Want Story" (in en-GB). https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2017/02/narrative_difficulty_returns_to_mass_effect_andromeda_for_those_who_just_want_story.
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Francis, Tom (2012-03-07). "Mass Effect 3 Narrative Mode and Action Mode explained" (in en). PC Gamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/mass-effect-3-narrative-mode-and-action-mode-explained/.
15. ↑ Byrd, Matthew (2020-02-12). "Half-Life: The Forgotten Innovations of the PC Shooter" (in en-US). https://www.denofgeek.com/games/half-life-innovations-history/.
16. ↑ "Half-Life at 20: why it is the most important shooter ever made" (in en). 2018-11-21. http://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/nov/21/half-life-at-20-valve-shooter-sci-fi-horror.
17. ↑ Robertson, Adi (2018-11-19). "Half-Life turns 20 today, and it feels more original than ever" (in en-US). https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/19/18102541/half-life-20th-anniversary-retrospective-first-person-shooter-design.
18. ↑ Macgregor, Jody (2020-09-04). "Years later, Half-Life's influence is still being felt" (in en). PC Gamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/22-years-later-half-lifes-influence-is-still-being-felt/.
19. ↑ Meikleham, Dave (2022-11-02). "The 30 best video game stories ever" (in en). https://www.gamesradar.com/the-best-videogame-stories-ever/.
20. ↑ "The 25 Best Interactive Story Games" (in en). 22 April 2020. https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-20-best-interactive-story-games.
21. ↑ "The best story-driven video games to play in 2022" (in en-US). 2022-05-30. https://ftw.usatoday.com/lists/best-story-video-games.
22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Bishop, Bryan (2013-06-13). "Lucas and Spielberg on storytelling in games: 'it's not going to be Shakespeare'" (in en-US). https://www.theverge.com/2013/6/13/4427444/lucas-spielberg-storytelling-in-games-its-not-going-to-be-shakespeare-usc.
23. ↑ Ebert, Roger. "Video games can never be art". https://www.rogerebert.com/roger-ebert/video-games-can-never-be-art.
24. ↑ Shaw, Adrienne (10 November 2024). "Video games as cultural studies other". International Journal of Cultural Studies 28 (2): 343-353. doi:10.1177/13678779241295771. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13678779241295771. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
25. ↑ Jackson, Ashawnta (2022-03-05). "Are Video Games Like Novels?" (in en-US). https://daily.jstor.org/are-video-games-like-novels/.
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Hayot, Eric (2021). "Video Games & the Novel". Daedalus 150 (1): 178–187. doi:10.1162/daed_a_01841. ISSN 0011-5266.
27. ↑ Mukherjee, Souvik (15 September 2015). Video Games and Storytelling Reading Games and Playing Books. Springer. ISBN 9781137525055. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137525055. Retrieved 9 December 2025.
28. ↑ Krishna, Swapna. "Help, I'm Stuck in Cutscene Hell" (in en-US). Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. https://www.wired.com/story/yakuza-like-a-dragon-cutscene-hell/. Retrieved 2022-11-12.
29. ↑ "Are Cutscenes Ruining the Way We Remember Video Games?". 17 September 2010. http://www.gamernode.com/are-cutscenes-ruining-the-way-we-remember-video-games/.
30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 Kozak, Oktay Ege (2020-06-08). "The Case For Story Mode in Videogames" (in en). https://www.pastemagazine.com/music/story-mode/videogame-narratives-story-mode/.
31. ↑ Kuchera, Ben (2020-10-06). "The genius of Hades' God Mode" (in en-US). https://www.polygon.com/2020/10/6/21504219/hades-god-mode-difficulty.
32. ↑ "Doom Eternal review - the same orgiastic thrills with a creeping weight of story" (in en-gb). Eurogamer.net. 2020-03-17. https://www.eurogamer.net/doom-eternal-review.
33. ↑ "GDC Austin 09: Storytelling Through Independent Games" (in en-CA). 2009-09-19. https://www.destructoid.com/gdc-austin-09-storytelling-through-independent-games/.
34. ↑ John Carmack [@id_aa_carmack] (2018-08-17). "This old quote still pops up, but I caveat it today -- there are undeniably lots of games where the story is the entire point, and they can be done well. I do still hold that the most important games have been all about the play, not the story." (in en). https://twitter.com/id_aa_carmack/status/1030511549688016899.
35. ↑ Lindbergh, Ben (2020-03-20). "'Doom: Eternal' Is Bigger, Faster, and More Badass Than Its Predecessors" (in en). https://www.theringer.com/2020/3/20/21187980/doom-eternal-review.

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