I know enough about the video game subculture to know better than to call myself a serious “gamer.” Even when I was younger, when my parents might have gone so far as to call me “addicted,” I knew that I could never hold a candle to my friends and the hours they would sink into perfecting their button-smashing skills. That’s mostly due to having cultivated a niche area of interest when it comes to the medium. It would have been more accurate to say that I was “addicted” to story.
Truth be told, I’ve never had much patience for the shooty-bang multiplayer video games that have dominated sales charts for years now. But what I have always appreciated is story. I am the only person I know who purchases a Call of Duty game to play through the single-player storyline without ever touching the online multiplayer component. This is because video games are poised to offer the most unique medium of modern storytelling through unprecedented levels of emotional immersion. They…
