This here cafe has a sizable noisy corner filled with talk of television, so by gum, a smaller corner can fit in for a more niche pursuit.
When most people think of video games, they tend to think of noise and bright flashes; style with no substance whatsoever. And for a great many games (many of them very entertaining) I’d definitely agree. However, there are some amidst all the explosions and such that are, dagnabbit, literature and art in their own right.
There’s quite a few to be found in the Interactive Fiction genre–that’s what used to be called text adventures, once upon a time when they actually sold commercially, and sold pretty well. Some (by no means not all) standouts in my opinion:
Infocom’s “A Mind Forever Voyaging”–most IF of the time was heavily puzzle-based. How do you avoid the groo? There’s a tight passageway here that you can only squeeze through if you drop all but 3 items–what can you just not afford to put down? That kind of thing. AMFV had a grand total of one puzzle, where timing was important, in the endgame. Otherwise–it was focused on atmosphere, description, and experience. The player’s alter ego was “Perry”, an AI who has only recently learned that it is, in fact, not a real person–Perry had spent all his time previously in an interior simulation of a human life, from day one. In the game, the player guides Perry through further simulations of a city, starting at the near-future of the game’s near-future present, and jumping forward a decade at a time and bearing witness to its accelerating downward spiral.
Although it doesn’t sell anymore, there’s been something of a resurgence in modern-day IF. I’m a big fan of Adam Cadre’s shorter IF titles “Photopia” and “Shrapnel.” Both are nearly or totally puzzle-less experiences, and I don’t hesitate to call them art. Other notables, Ian Finley’s “Babel” and Michael J. Roberts’ “Kaged” (links aren’t handy off the top–or bottom or middle–of my bookmarks, sorry).
Strong narratives aren’t limited to IF–though it certainly shows up there more often, due to the lack of anything flashy whatsoever to try. “Planescape: Torment” has one of the strongest and best stories I’ve ever seen in any game, f’r’instance, the ending of which made me teary-eyed. Both “System Shock” games had brilliant atmospheric moments and stretches; playing the first gave me the first time I can recall being enraged at a game villain for purely narrative reasons, and when that same villain makes her reappearance in the sequel, it was one of the creepiest moments ever had in front of a monitor (real shame about how the game ended though).
What do you think, sirs?
