Before I get onto the real post, I must say that I was going to start off by giving a lot of backstory about myself as a gamer, but my page has refreshed and no way am I going to spend another 40-60 minutes typing that.

Anways, storytelling in gaming has come a long way. From the days of yesteryear in which there was no story whatsoever for many Atari 2600 games. You can also count the Magnavox Odyssey, but those "games" were so primitive, I'm not sure they can be considered videogames. Initially, videogames, much like any entertainment medium began as just a means of entertainment. A distraction, if you will, from real life. Film, Music, and literature all began this way as well. Of course, film, music, and literature came long before videogames and therefore had time to mature and grow into an artistic medium by the time gaming was just starting out.

The NES and Master System were when games started to have stories, but they were mostly just poorly written excuses to go around doing whatever it is you do in the game. RPG's such as Final Fantasy and Phantasy Story attempted grand, epic stories. Later iterations would improve upon the beginners in storytelling.

Fast Forward again to around 2000(give or take 5) with Console and PC gaming. This is where narrative in gaming started gaining serious traction with games like Half Life, Deus Ex, The Longest Journey, System Shock, and System Shock 2 on PC and consoles/PC having countless JRPG's, Indigo Prophecy, Dreamfall:The Longest Journey, Max Payne, Max Payne 2, the GTA series, Half Life 2, Psychonauts, Beyond Good and Evil, Silent Hill 2,3, and 4. etc...........

It was largely thanks to the success of the PS1 and for opening up videogaming to a much larger market. Prior to the PS1, most adults thought games were "kids' stuff", but thanks to the 3D hardware, production values, and larger focus on more "mature" games, the market exploded and suddenly many more teenagers and adults took gaming seriously. Their marketing strategy of targeting 18 year olds because "when you're a little kid, all you think about is wanting to be 18. When you're an adult you wish you were 18 again" payed off.

Gradually, the market expanded from that point on and gamers started to realize that maybe there was more potential to be had. Last generation was when gamers wanted more story in their games and developers were facilitating their needs with the games I mentioned above. Unfortunately, fun was the mantra most stuck to and still do. I doubt we will ever see a decent amount of artistic/narrative experiences in gaming compared to their opposites. This generation, the notion of storytelling in gaming took off. This gen some games have mediocre gameplay experiences and/or poor design, but live by creating an engrossing tale. This goes to show not just how vgaming has mature over the years, but also how the average gamer has evolved. During the NES/Master System era, if you were to give a gamer a game with bad gameplay, but a fantastic story, they would most likely call it crap or boring.

We have been conditioned to accept games for what they are trying to be. I myself became very involved with games taking the narrative approach over gameplay this gen with games like the Uncharted franchise(not so much story, more excellent characterization), Mass Effect franchise, Alan Wake, Heavy Rain, Catherine, *insert countless JRPG's here*, and The Witcher 2.

What is with my unflinching adoration for deep gaming experiences, you ask? I suppose I have my parents to thank partly for that, as well as teachers. My mom always thought games were pointless or stupid. She only bought me so many games to keep me occupied. My dad thought the same thing. It always bothered me because whenever I was punished, my mom would say something along the lines of "no more of those stupid **** videogames", and yet watching movies would be just fine. I never understood it.

I finally got fed up with it and everytme I heard of a story driven game, I would buy it in hopes my oarents would see the value in games and ended up going from buying them for the sake of it to really enjoying them. I do like movies, but I find them more "Pointless" than games.

I see much more value in an interactive medium where I can be an active particpant in a linear or open-ended story as opposed to simply experiencing a linear story passively. I adore games with good stories or artistic merit. They legitimize my passion for gaming and my future career ambitions(videogame journalist). I never feel like I'm wasting my time with games of this type. Every second seems to matter, sometimes even more so than school work because many of these games are far more complex story wise and thematically than most work I end up doing in many subjects at school. Hell, the majority of my extensive vocabulary(I literally have the largest vocabulary of any student at my school) is largely thanks to videogames.

Some of this post may seem to have been filled with superfluous information, but to me all of it seemed imprtant. I wanted to explain even more, actually, but that would have likely taken another or so. A topic as weighty as artististry/story in gaming can get me going very in depth. I would love to write more, but I have little time left. I want to go play The Witcher 2.:P

As disclaimer, I do not only like Story driven games. I am completely open minded. I play everything(Sonic 3 & Knuckles is my 3rd favorite game for pete's sake), however, I believe that narrative is an important step gaming must take in order to be taken as seriously as literature and film and to give justifiable motivation behind the gameplay/design.