The past decade in Videogames has seen a gigantic step-up in terms of it's ability to tell cinematic stories and memorable, branched narratives that shape itself based on the choices made by the player. Both of these elements have ushered a whole new era of non-linear storytelling in gaming that is simply unmatched by any other entertainment medium that has ever existed. Today, almost all the games that's out there and those that are currently being made, make use of this in some way or the other, resulting in added layers in their narrative that rewards multiple playthroughs.
But underneath this non-linearity lies a groundbreaking and genre-bending innovation that took place in gaming quite silently and to this day, is barely appreciated or even noticed. And today's article is about what it really is and why it's been so pivotal in shaping Videogames of the 21st Century.
All Videogames are primarily made up of 3 core components that work in synergy to create and deliver the experience that we know as games, and these are namely Gameplay, Level Design and Storytelling or Narrative. And all of the truly great games often combine or use a fusion of these components to create a symbiotic aspect that greatly enhance the overall experience in one or multiple ways, making the game much more enjoyable and re-playable.
To know more about how these fusions work in Videogames in detail, you need to read up on the Fusion of the Elements article.
And what has allowed all of these branched, layered narratives to exist in Videogames in the past decade and a half, is the fusion of two of the biggest and most unlikely elements and they are--the Gameplay and the Narrative. What really happened is that the devs actually made the Narrative a part of the Gameplay, which now allows the player to 'play' the story in multiple ways by selecting different narrative pathways and this is the groundbreaking and genre-blending innovation that exists at the DNA of any title that has used a sprawling narrative experience.
From the legendary Mass Effect trilogy to The Witcher 3, from Cyberpunk 2077 to Baldur's Gate 3, the unlikely fusion of these two elements (Gameplay and Narrative) lies at their nucleus and is the reason why the storytelling experience is so compelling in these great titles.
And what makes this particular fusion so important is that historically, both of these elements have been poles apart from each other as Videogames have always put gameplay above their story or storytelling and the ones who stand as stark exceptions tend to be mostly about the narrative experience anyway (games such as Life is Strange, Firewatch etc). And that's why the merging of Gameplay and the Narrative which enables the Story to become a part of the Gameplay is just so darn revolutionary and transformative to Videogames.
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