Writing for the video game generation

Most of the authors I’ve met have no interest in video games. There are a number of reasons for this, ranging from the practical (those who devote their lives to literature usually don’t have room for much else) to the demographic (based on my observations, authors are usually women aged 35 and over, and while games are less and less exclusive to teenage boys, we haven’t reached equality just yet). 

I’ve never had a problem with the idea of video games as works of art. As a child I noticed that Metal Gear Solid (a game which significantly influenced the plot of my first novel, The Lab)had a story far more original and stimulating than most of the movies I’d seen. I do, however, have a problem with the notion that games are responsible for a worldwide decline in literacy. If, as writers, we accept that we’re losing our readers to games, then maybe we should also accept that games are offering something our books are not. So are we going to wring our hands and ask what the world is coming to? Or are we going to write differently, focusing on the things books can provide and games cannot?

If you’re wondering what those things are, fear not. I think I’ve got it figured out.

Three of the five senses

Immersive as games are, they can only show the player how something looks, and how it sounds. They cannot describe taste, smell or – despite the best efforts of motion-control creators – touch. It’s more crucial than ever before to include these sensations in novels, so that readers really feel like they are present in the story. (I once fainted while reading a particularly gruesome scene in The Cleaner by Paul Cleave, and then vomited later when recalling it. Violent as video games can be, I’ve never had such a visceral reaction to one.)

Read the rest at The Book Zone!