How playing video games enhances your creative and artistic skills?
It’s common knowledge to any aspiring, or practicing writers that in order to be successful in writing, you must take inspiration from literature. Whether it’s classic, or stories made by modern authors, you have to take the time to read. Stephen King did say “if you don’t have the time to read, you don’t have the time to write, simple as that.” But what if there is another form of medium you can take creative inspiration from?
Video games at first weren’t meant to have the elements of a story, until of course, the introduction of role-playing games. The RPG genre was a huge game changer in the gaming industry, which brought elements of storytelling into video games. And with storytelling comes the elements of character-building, world setting, and plot devices. All of which are foundations to a creative writer’s journey.
Personally, I never liked reading books when I was young, but I am fond of video games. I spent my childhood playing video games, and never did I think it would help me get into the writing industry. Who would’ve thought the hours spent in front of the PlayStation would contribute to my creativity, and a puzzle game like wordscapes could give me that extra juice I need to start writing? If you still find that puzzling then, allow me to tell you the story of how video games helped improve my skills as a creative writer, and storyteller.
An introduction to Character Building:
Every good story needs great characters. Living, breathing, and unique characters that will have a journey in the imaginary world you created for your story. Oftentimes the struggle lies in describing those characters as you create them through writing.
Video games, especially role-playing games like Code Vein, or Dragon Age, give you the option to create your own character before you start your adventure in the game world. This was my first introduction to character building. The visual aid brought upon by a game’s character creation tool served as a guide in helping me describe my character in written form. Bioware’s Dragon Age went as far as customizing your avatar’s personality, and how that chosen personality affects your interaction with the non-playable characters in-game. If you have an aggressive personality, you’ll end up causing more problems, rather than solving it with a diplomatic personality.
Video games are a great way to test out how the character you imagined inside your head will interact with those around them, and experiment on the narrative that if this person were to truly communicate with the world, what would be the outcome?
An inspiration to telling compelling stories:
When you finally have your character step into the world of a role-playing game, whether you’re tasked to be a hero that will save the world, or simply a salary man accidentally caught in an on-going conflict, you already have a story unraveling in front of you. And as you explore further in your adventure, you’ll find yourself taking on more than what you bargained for.
In storytelling you have to lay down the lines first, and that means setting up the world your character will be in, introducing the on-going conflict at hand, and how your character plays a role in that conflict, ultimately reaching its conclusion. When you play video games, you get to experience that trail of thought first hand as you control the main protagonist and journey through the levels up to the final boss.
The science fiction action-RPG game titled The Surge is one good example of a basic, yet compelling storytelling. The main protagonist Warren, a cripple looking to have a purpose in life with the aid of technology, and a mega corporation, suddenly found himself tossed into a world filled with metal scraps, and deranged cyborgs. Then as you try to escape your deadly fate, you will soon uncover that the company you’re working for has dark secrets, which could affect the entire world.
The storytelling elements brought upon by games like this can give you a glimpse on what the creative process its writer went through. You can then apply the same elements to your original story, which can contribute to making you a better writer.
A great way to stimulate your mind before writing a story:
We’ve talked about how video games can help you fuel your creativity as a writer, but what about the physical, or should I say the mental effects of actually playing video games? For every task there is a right tool for the job, so they say. And one of my struggles as a writer is well, starting the write-up. I usually need to stimulate my mind a little bit in order to get the creative juices flowing, and one of my pre-writing rituals is playing Wordscapes. In a nutshell, it is a spelling game. It increase your knowable as you learn new words to increase your vocabulary.
Word games are great mental exercises if you share the same problem of needing stimulation before you start writing. A few crossword puzzles might get you the jolt you need to get the words flowing through your head into your paper. After all, what’s the use of all that creativity if you couldn’t find the words to tell your story?
People might not think video games can play a huge role other than entertainment, but with its integration with other creative elements such as storytelling, educators around the world are already considering games as a form of educational tool that can help develop our future generations. But if you’re still unconvinced as to how a video game can improve a writer’s skill, you can try to experience it first-hand. Borrow one from a friend, or buy one during sale, only then you’ll witness the magic behind a game’s story.
Author’s bio
Jonathan J Kingston is a video game enthusiast, gamer, and a veteran video game news writer for Games.lol. He spends his free time hunting for free game sites and testing their reliability.