In this ongoing series, we ask SF/F authors to describe a specialty in their lives that has nothing (or very little) to do with writing. Join us as we discover what draws authors to their various hobbies, how they fit into their daily lives, and how and they inform the author’s literary identity!
I have a healthy obsession with computer gaming, and I call it “healthy” because if I admitted that I get entirely too little sleep or sometimes forget to eat because I get so sucked into the world of a game…well, I’d have to stop if I admitted that. So no, my love of games is nothing but healthy, thank you.
Some of my earliest memories are of perching like a big-eyed owl and watching someone else play video or computer games. My dad bought “me” a Sega and the ridiculously challenging Lion King game to go with it, so I spent a lot of my formative years watching him stubbornly keep playing and dying. I had a cousin who would play Rollercoaster Tycoon for hours on end, and I’d be right there at his elbow, watching him build epic monstrosities and offering breathless suggestions that got ignored half the time. My mom was a big fan of The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, and I’d pester her into playing just so I could sit there and watch the world and the story unfold. It always felt a little like watching a movie to me—a much longer, more interactive movie, but still a pretty passive experience.
And then there was one day, in the middle of a Morrowind session, that my mom had to leave for just a few minutes. She was stuck in a boring, plot-advancing conversation, and told me to take over. It felt a little like trespassing, moving from my stool into the real computer chair, and I was half convinced I’d break the whole game as soon as I touched the mouse…but I chose a dialogue option. And another. And another. And then I went off on a quest to kill some stuff, and without even knowing it I was playing the game. And I was hooked.
That obsession has never gone away; it’s just that now I don’t have to pester people to let me watch them game. Instead of feeling like I’m just watching a long movie, I can now feel like I’m intimately involved in an authentic, detailed story.
Really, the story is what it comes down to. My favorite kinds of games are role-playing games (RPGs) like the Elder Scrolls or Dragon Age series. Both franchises are pretty spectacular for a lot of reasons, but the biggest factor for me has always been the storytelling. In The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, your character is at the center of big, world-changing events, an epic plotline that makes me, as a storyteller, very jealous. Yet it’s ridiculously easy to play the game for days on end without doing a single thing to advance the main plot, because there’s just so much you can do. The world of Skyrim is rich and full of realism, because in real life the path to any specific goal usually isn’t a straight line, and lots of things happen along the way to send you on detours. Sometimes, even though you know there’s a kingdom that needs saving, it’s more fun to go poke giants with sticks.
It’s this sort of choose-your-own-adventure aspect that I love so much about games. With a book, you can have a world that’s just as rich and realistic, but there’s still only one outcome, one path to the end-point: whatever the author chose to write. There’s no way to step off-track, to go poke giants or chase butterflies or inspect that weird creepy hut you passed by the other day. Like a lot of early computer games, you’re locked into one track, one outcome. But with an open-world game like Skyrim, the sky is literally the limit, especially considering the dragon-riding feature. You can be any kind of character you want, and have a real impact on the world and the story with the choices you make. That kingdom you didn’t save because you were busy poking giants? Turns out the king had a relic that would’ve helped you save the world and now it’s gone along with the kingdom. The game has changed, because of one seemingly meaningless choice.
Books give you a single path through a manufactured world. The best games, the games that grab me and won’t let go, give you a manufactured world and let you discover your own path.
RPGs have the same sort of escapist appeal for me that reading does—a way to get drawn into another world and discover everything that makes it unique. But they’re just one of the two types of games that completely sap all my willpower to walk away from the computer.
There are also logic or puzzle games, which is a pretty broad genre that can cover everything from Tetris to hidden object games to room escape games and everything in between. These sorts of games occupy an entirely different section of my brain, and I get something entirely different out of them: rather than immersing myself in a new character and new world like in an RPG, for puzzle games I tend to completely ignore any plot that gets tacked onto the game—these plots tend to feel pretty predictable and flat, and honestly I don’t care why I need to escape the room, or why I need to save my long-lost great uncle from his archeology expedition. That doesn’t matter. I know the mechanics of the game already, and that’s the fun part.
I would be just fine with a game full of puzzles, devoid of any context…which is why I was so happy to find The Witness recently, because it’s exactly that. You wake up on an island and wander around solving puzzles. That’s it. It’s wonderful. I’m sure the ending is building towards a bit of plot or an explanation, but I’m not sure yet (I’m forcing myself not to play any more of it, because with all my deadlines I can’t afford to be sucked into the wonderful little game any more than I already am). Honestly, I won’t care whether or not I ever find out why I was on the island, or who built so many puzzles for me. The fun is in the puzzles themselves.
Puzzle-type games make me think, make me use the parts of my brain that don’t always get used in my day-to-day desk-job life. There’s nothing quite like the rush of figuring out a puzzle I’ve been poking at for hours, and it’s a much different rush than virtually riding a dragon. Both awesome, but in different ways.
These days, I try really hard not to pay attention to new or upcoming games. I have a to-be-played list just as long as my to-be-read list, and I have too hard a time walking away from a game once it’s pulled me in (I wasn’t kidding about that forgetting-to-eat thing). I carefully budget my time so that my real life and my gaming life can coexist peacefully…and if that ever actually happens, I’ll let you know. Until then, I’ll be the one with sleepy eyes and carpal tunnel.
Rachel Dunne is the author of In the Shadow of the Gods, the first book of a new dark fantasy series, available June 21st from Harper Voyager. She is an avid gamer, reader, and nerd, and doesn’t have enough time in the day for all her introverted activities. She lives in the Midwest with her great beast of a dog, Goliath.
There is some truth to this, but well-made games do a great job concealing just how few paths are open to you. Open world games like Skyrim do offer more options, but they also depend on the player providing the details that a more guided game experience offers. The main story of most games will wait for you to finish your side tasks, with a few exceptions.
I remember hearing some of Bioware’s writers speak at an industry event, and their talk was just as much about constructing believable, but dead-end choices as fleshing out viable paths. The tools games and literature use to create the illusion of depth might be different, but the need for that illusion is just as strong in both media.
Okay, The Witness, sounds great. I grew up playing the Myst series, so anything that goes “you wake up on an island” can catch me.
@1 I played Dragon Age II once and was really impressed at how much seemed to hinge on my choices. Based on what I’ve heard, it seems that things had proceeded on rails with a lot of pretend turn-offs that you never end up choosing to take.
See I actually disliked Skyrim because I felt it lacked a story. I mean, yes, it’s this epically scoped game. But it was too sandbox. I’m definitely not asking for hand-holding or a single-track plotline, but I played Skyrim for hours and didn’t even know if I had a mission or a quest or any kind of objective. I had no idea what my character’s motivations were beyond “don’t get caught by the guards who seem to appear at random and highly inconvenient times” and “something about getting away from somebody… or something. Oh look, a flower”
Eh, I get that it’s an awesome game to many. But I like my RPGs with a little more context and story than just “here’s a world, go… do things”.
It didn’t help that the combat and mechanics didn’t really enthrall me either.
However, all the Dragon Age games have been amazing. Basically, Inquisition did for me what Skyrim could not.
(For the record, I love sandbox games like Minecraft, but that’s because they are intended to be sandbox and not RPG and thus are built in a more conducive manner to that style of gameplay)
Great article. Your excellent ;) choice in games has put your book on my “to read” list. I’m looking forward to it. Have you tried the Sci-Fi route and done the Mass Effect series yet? If not, I recommend it.
@3 noblehunter
Bioware usually does a good job of making your decisions feel meaningful, but they keep a tight limit on the number of major plot streams that come from those choices. Dragon Age usually has 2-4 major plot threads and a number of ending cards/dialogue lines that reference more minor decisions. They’ve become experts at making you feel more in control of the story than you are.
@@.-@ naupathia
I’ve enjoyed both Skyrim and the Dragon Age series. It just depends on what I’m in the mood for at a given time.
If you like the Dragon Age storytelling style and want a bit of a throwback, you might want to give Pillars of Eternity a shot. Gameplay is more like DA:O and Baldur’s Gate 2 than the later Dragon Age games.
Morrowind? Are you sure it wasn’t, say, Daggerfall, just to make me feel a little less old?
When we speak of RPG video games with great stories we shouldn’t forget the Witcher series. I love Skyrim and the other Bethesda games but like naupathia @@@@@ 4 I didn’t find the main story in Skyrim particularly good. It was OK. The Witcher’s main story is fantastic and your character’s decisions matter.
Skyrim is still taking years from me.
” You can be any kind of character you want, and have a real impact on the world and the story with the choices you make. That kingdom you didn’t save because you were busy poking giants? Turns out the king had a relic that would’ve helped you save the world and now it’s gone along with the kingdom.”
That may be the theory of Skyrim, but it’s not the practice.
I second the recommendations for Dragon Age and Mass Effect. For some great RPGs with dynamic storytelling but more of a traditional D&D style, you should definitely check out Planescape: Torment, or Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2. I’m looking forward to the long delayed sequel to Planescape coming out in the next year!
Here begins my Witcher rant: After all of the talk around the Witcher series, I thought that I would give them a go. I picked up Witcher 1, but quit early in frustration with the horrible controls and drunk camera movements. Moved on to Witcher 2 and quit immediately due to the same problems. After some time passed and people were still raving about Witcher 3, I tried get into Witcher 1 again and simply overlook those flaws… GAWD what an awful game!
You play a generically handsome and stoic hero whose main power seems to be making panties moist. In the very first chapter, you interrupt 2 rape attempts, the first victim immediately throws herself at you in thanks, and the second waits a couple of chapters to do the same. Despite making a point to get through the game without getting intimate with anyone, and it still forced my character to have sex during a cut scene. Plus, when you do inevitably click on the wrong dialog and initiate coitus with one of the games many, many prostitutes, you are rewarded with a “trophy” card. I’m sure that the game has some redeeming qualities, but damned if I’m going to stick around to find out. /rant
I was talking specifically about the last one, The Witcher 3. It’s light years ahead of the TW1. The first two aren’t even open world and you don’t need to play them in order to enjoy TW3.
The setting is in a harsh, war-torn world with many mature themes. But you aren’t “forced” to have sex with anyone. In my playtroughs I have had the main character have sex on only one occasion, IIRC, and this was with the love of his life. What you are forced to do is make decisions which affect the lives and fates of people and often only the lesser evil is available as a choice.
Rather than seeing an RPG like Skyrim as having open-ended advantages that reading a novel does not, I feel the contrast comes down more towards an opportunity to create a story rather than listen to one – together with all the discussion above about how successful various games are at providing that experience. Naturally it is like crack for writers: no world-building required, just jump in and live your own story. This is where Skyrim is more addicting than something like Dragon Age, if you have no need at all to be guided by a story but essentially live your own. You decide for yourself why butterfly hunting is important, you don’t need the game to tell you. On my second play I’m nothing but a bounty hunter – that’s my story. Get a bounty note, fulfill it, get the next one. I’d resent it if the game tried to steer me elsewhere.
Bioware does great work with cRPGs. They earned their reputation with games like Baldur’s Gate and Knights of the Old Republic, and the Dragon Age and Mass Effect series are masterpieces, in the old sense, proving their mastery of the craft.
If you can track it down, Arcanum was supposed to be quite good. It was sort of a sci-fi/fantasy/steampunk hybrid, from what I understand, but I never did manage to get myself a copy.
If you like open-world stuff like Elder Scrolls, consider Bethesda’s Fallout sequels (3 and 4). They’re solid post-nuclear-apocalypse action RPGs.
For a bit of cyberpunk action-RPG gameplay, the Deus Ex series is incredibly good (though DE2 is skippable and may not be all that stable if you do decide to have a go). Deus Ex was revolutionary in its time, and Human Revolution is amazing. I haven’t picked up the latest entry yet, but I fully expect it to live up to its pedigree.
As for puzzle games, have you tried the Portal series? If that isn’t able to draw you into the story, I don’t know what will.
Going back in time a bit, but there was an open world RPG called Draken II: The Ancients Gate on the PS2 and it was brilliant. Not only were you basically a medieval Lara Croft using a wide array of melee weapons, you also could mount your dragon and engage in aerial combat with other flying creatures. Both your character and the dragon were upgradable and there were a ton of side-quests. If you can, track down a copy and give it a try. It was awesome.
@14 Porphyrogenitus
Arcanum and a lot of older RPGs are available through GoG.
I’m actually partway through Final Fantasy VII, which I picked up on my PS4, and which I’m playing for the first time since I bought my first PlayStation back in 1997 specifically for FFVII. I have to say I love the cheats!
(And here’s food for thought: The first Game of Thrones book was released before Final Fantasy VII.)
I’ve enjoyed all of the Witcher games, warts & all, and I love just about everything from Bioware, including Jade Empire, which I really need to replay one of these years.
I’ve tried a couple of times to get into the Elder Scrolls games, but didn’t have any luck with either Morrowind or Oblivion — partially it’s because they felt too open; also, I found the combat (trying to move the mouse in a specific way to swing the sword in a specific way) kind of off-putting. I thought Witcher 3 and Dragon Age: Inquisition did a better job of giving a relatively open world but with more of a main plot to draw you through.
I’d also recommend Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which was kind of Baby’s First Open-World Game, but in which I had lots of fun going everywhere and doing everything.
I haven’t seen a lot of recommendations for puzzle games, so I thought I’d plug the Portal series if you haven’t played it already.
The first game is mostly just an elaborate “escape the room” with a unique mechanic, but Portal 2 is just amazing – great humour and voice-acting, with a ton of quotable one-liners.
The original Portal was just about as close to a perfect game as I’ve ever come across. I’d also recommend Ico, which had great atmosphere & exploration, mostly interesting puzzles, and kind of crap combat. Ah, well.
@17, good going on Final Fantasy VII. That game is still great today. When you finish that game, may I suggest you try Final Fantasy XII. Pretty good story with cool gameplay. I play all my games on my Xbox as I’ve never been much of a PC gamer. That’s probably why I LOVED Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Skyrim. I tried the first Dragon Age on my Xbox 360 and didn’t really like it that much. The gameplay just didn’t translate well. So I’ve been on the fence about Inquisition for the Xbox One. Is the combat more action oriented or turn-based in that one?
@20 — I’ll definitely play FFXII, but I’ll be waiting for the HD rerelease, which I think is due out next year?
I’d say the combat in Inquisition is much more action-based than it was in DA:O. If you want, you can (like I did) frequently pause to issue specific instructions or switch to different party members, but you can also give everyone a basic set of instructions and then just play it in real time.
For me, the best part of all of the Bioware games has been the characters — I often find myself forming parties based not on what’s the most tactically advantageous, but on which pair of companions have the most amusing banter.
If you’re interested in the issue of freedom of decision in games, “The Stanley Parable” is worth looking into. It’s a tongue-in-cheek exploration of the illusion of choice in games.
@11 Don’t even look at Witcher 1 or 2 again. Witcher 3 is a perfect entry point to the series, and the only game of the three that you need to play ( though the recently announced standalone version of Gwent may change that).
In Witcher 1, Geralt is an amnesiac, and the novels are largely ignored. I played about halfway through before getting bored with it, and haven’t bothered with Witcher 2.
In Witcher 3, Geralt remembers the events of the novels. The storyline in Witcher 3 is a continuation of the novels more than it is of the previous two games, though characters from the games do make an appearance. The journal entries and the various in-game books you find are good at filling in the gaps. The result is a standalone game with a character that has a rich behind-the-scenes history.
There is one decision in Witcher 3 that in my opinion makes the entire game worth playing. Subtle spoiler: I chose to save the children. As far as making choices have consequences, this one left me reeling.
@21, I’ll have to pick up Inquisition. The combat you describe actually sounds a lot like FFXII interestingly enough. Gotta finish Fallout 4 first though :)
@anticonnor: Thanks for the warning that the Witcher game is right on track with the book. I couldn’t even get halfway through the novel, there was so much rape culture and damseling.
*Yay, I was almost raped by that guy, of course now I want to have sex with YOU.*
Ridiculous- when are authors going to get tired of that trope?
Regarding the Witcher series, as lerris @@@@@ 22 don’t bother with the game from almost 10 years ago. Start with the latest one- The Witcher 3, one of the best ever video games.
Writing for a video game is on my bucket list. The right side of my brain would love the freedom of exploring myriad storylines simultaneously, while the left side geeks out at the thought of managing a spreadsheet to track all of the different plot forks.
Someday…
Absolutely wonderful! Thanks for sharing :D:D