In praise of computer role-playing games

Recently, someone asked me what 5 movies I would take with me if I were stranded on a desert island.

“Well,” I said, “THE LORD OF THE RINGS, BATMAN BEGINS, THE DARK KNIGHT, INCEPTION, um…”

I sort of stalled out after that. The thing is, film as a medium really doesn’t do it for me. I’ve seen exactly three movies this year: BRAVE, THE AVENGERS, and THE DARK KNIGHT RISES. Part of that is because I simply do not enjoy the theater-going experience – watching a movie accompanied by the bratty children of strangers is not terribly fun. Another part of it is that I enjoy other mediums more. I have seen three movies this year, but I’ve read forty-eight books.

And I like computer games much more than movies. But it has to be a specific kind of computer game. Specifically, a game that either tells a story, allows you to participate in a story, or lets you create your own story.

And of those games…wow! I can think of more than five to take with me to that hypothetical desert island. DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS, THE ELDER SCROLLS III: MORROWIND, the BALDUR’S GATE series, PLANESCAPE: TORMENT (oh, that was a classic), MOUNT AND BLADE, BETRAYAL AT KRONDOR, and a dozen others.

See, mindless games, like “Angry Birds” or whatever don’t do it for me. The game has to tell a story. Computer role-playing games like BALDUR’S GATE or DRAGON AGE are particularly good at that. And the technology for doing so has improved a great deal over time. BALDUR’S GATE has a compelling story, and almost perfectly recreates the experience of tabletop D&D gaming, but has some technological rough edges since it came out in 1998. A game like DRAGON AGE, by contrast, continues to tell a compelling story, but offers a technologically smoother (and less pixellated) experience.

I think a computer RPG, properly done, can deliver a kind of storytelling experience superior to a movie, since it can achieve an level of player investment that is harder to get from a movie viewer.

So if I’m stranded on a desert island, I might not be able to think of five movies to take with me, but I definitely can think of five computer games.

-JM