As a student majoring in English, it is my duty to interpret, analyze, and critique literature given to me by my professors; however, as a passionate fan of video games, I often find myself contemplating the deeper meaning that developers have sprinkled into their works of art. Gaming has not only shown me the fun of competing online, but more importantly, it has also allowed me to interact with some of the best stories ever told.
As I progress through my degree at UFV, I have found it harder and harder to believe that the English department has yet to offer a literature course studying video game narratives. Although UFV has yet to acknowledge the art form as literature, universities, like the University of Toronto, have incorporated video game-driven English courses into their curriculum.
Not only would this course cost no more than an average class at UFV, it would also be as beneficial as a traditional English course focused on novels, poems, and short stories. Courses at UFV can be expensive, and so can the books students are forced to buy; however, sticking to video games like Gone Home, Bioshock, Fallout 3, and Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead, a teacher can have enough material to analyze, while costing students less than $70.
Each of the games mentioned were not picked just because I had a great time playing them, but because they can teach students about the medium’s influential story telling. Gone Home, by The Fullbright Company, is set up like a horror game, but as the game unfolds, the player is greeted with a family drama about a daughter coming to grips with her sexuality. It is a game that teaches students how to implement genre tropes to mislead the player — or reader — and how to successfully subvert expectations.
From the surface (pun intended), Bioshock seems like a generic science fiction and first-person shooter, however, towards the end of the game it is revealed that the phrase “Would you kindly” is a trigger phrase used to trick the protagonist, Jack, into committing acts on violence. As the player hears this phrase countless times throughout the game, they are never asked to think much about it. This reveal demonstrates the importance of building up a plot twist, as well as questions how many have become desensitized towards violence in video games.
Bethesda Softworks’ Fallout 3 on the other hand, made the list because it teaches the importance of world building. Novels like George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series can be used to teach world building, but a video game like Fallout 3 also shows the importance of implementing sidequests to enrich a player’s experience. Allowing the player to have freedom to explore an open world, and take quests that are not part of the main narrative builds a sense of realism a novel can not do.
Lastly, Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead is such a dense game that it could fill up a course by itself. The game showcases the lengths to which humans will go to protect the ones they love and survive in dire situations. The game throws out complex controls to specifically focus players on the narrative. With The Walking Dead, players are asked hard questions throughout the narrative, like whether life is worth living or not when those you love are all gone. Furthermore, the game works to question which is more important, morality or survival?
Since the video game crash of 1983, the gaming industry has bounced back and become a $138-billion-a-year business. With games like Red Dead Redemption 2 making over $700 million in its first three days, it is safe to say that fans desire story-driven games. UFV’s English department uses novels, poems, short stories, and even comics to further students’ understanding of literature, but professors should look to video games as well. The video game industry needs writers, and UFV can help students understand how video game storytelling differs from a novel, so that if they apply as a writer at a company like EA, Ubisoft, or Bethesda, they will have the upper hand.
For many students in the English program, writing a novel or collection of short stories sounds like an amazing career goal; however, the video game industry has opened up new and exciting job opportunities for writers. The ***Oxford English Dictionary classifies literature as “pieces of writing that are valued as works of art.” Video game narratives fit this description. With other universities giving video games the appreciation they deserve, a class in the UFV’s English department would be a good step towards acknowledging how video game narratives have impacted the literary world in the recent years.
