Blog: "Finding videogame's true voice"

[Sexbad]

I really hope that you get a computer that can play Cryostasis some day.

Anyway, typo in the second paragraph: "Obviously, I do think this is the right approach. Instead..." I imagine that you actually don't think it's the right approach.

Anyway, now for my input into this discussion. I've never really taken the time to write a whole essay (as I should) about this, but I'm not really going to focus on the so-called gaps that we fill with our minds.

I think that in order to take the vidya to its limits as a storytelling medium, we need to focus on interactive storytelling, not just telling a story through the environment.

The latter option is what most storytelling-advanced games do. It follows the age-old adage "Show, don't tell." Since games are interactive in nature, they have something more special than any other known medium. Their adage can be even better: "Touch/do/access/play, don't show." I feel that Penumbra touched on this concept by having characters like Red and Clarence who responded to your actions while remaining in character. For instance, Clarence's reaction to you in the Library expanded on his character because of how you looked around for a solution and perhaps ignored the book.

Other games like Cryostasis (every time I mention it, I get a mini-orgasm) take this even further by having you perform very interesting actions that have severe significance in the plot. For instance:
1.) Fighting against highly representative monsters, the effects of weapon impact and the color scheme of the environment changing while shit happens.
2.) Not only learning of the demise of the crew, but actually taking part in their demise and eventual revival (This is the best use of gameplay telling a story that I've ever seen).
3.) Thrusting you into representative situations full of bizarro stuff. I'm not going to brag, but at one point in the game, you literally

Spoiler below!

fight a film.