Video games aren’t often acknowledged as a source of inspiration in the writing community, but I’ve noticed that there are many writers who are gamers. Video games are a media form that has only grown in popularity, so its no surprise that they would become increasingly influential on writers. Video games are also often released in a series, where each game expands upon the world and story of the last entry. The result is that video games gain a following similar to a popular book series. Successful video games can spawn their own spin offs, fan fiction, comics, TV shows, and movies. TV shows and movies based off of games are notoriously bad, but the official books published on the coattails of a successful game franchise are often of a high quality. The success of the Halo games, a sci-fi video game series, has led to the production of twenty-eight novels that have become hugely important in the sci-fi community. Video games are majorly inspiring to many writers, and today I’d like to share a few titles that have been influential in my own creative journey.
I’m sure it comes as no surprise that I gravitate toward story-driven role-playing games. For the less gaming literate, role-playing games or RPGs are a type of video game in which the characters gain skills and experience as they level up. Dungeons & Dragons is a tabletop RPG, and is popular with many of the same people who love video game RPGs. Video game RPGs also often have a fantasy or sci-fi setting, which lands them squarely in a genre populated by some of my favorite books. The Legend of Zelda is one of my most beloved video game series. Ocarina of Time and Breath of the Wild are my favorite entries in the series, but I have enjoyed every game that is part of that franchise. Link’s story is a classic one: the predestined hero defeats a great evil to save a maiden and the kingdom. That fairy tale never gets old, and is just as enthralling in the tenth game as in the first. The classic fairy tale of the Zelda games is always a little different; the cast of characters changes, along with the shape of the world, and sometimes even the races that inhabit it. Link always sets out on his journey with little fit to challenge the great evil, but slowly accumulates the needed gear and skills through battling monsters and solving puzzles. In the open world Zelda games, there are also many side-quests that Link can complete, earning him money, special items, or other rewards. It’s become a favorite joke of the gaming community that while Princess Zelda is imprisoned by evil, Link is trying to catch the biggest fish in the lake or is catching chickens for a farm girl. Despite the distractions, Link does eventually get around to confronting the great evil, and he and Zelda work together to seal it away, at least for a time. Evil always returns to Hylia, but so do the heroes fit to confront it.
The Zelda games are as familiar as an old fairy tale and are still as fun to play as they were when I was young. I’ve always appreciated the simplicity of the Zelda games. Link has a concrete ultimate goal that is conceptually simple: evil must be destroyed and the princess rescued. There is little room in that plot for moral ambiguity, and the games have always had a sort of playful optimism about them. In my own writing, I’ve sought to emulate the classic, fairy tale feel of the Zelda games, their optimism contrasted against an ultimate sense of dread, and the excitement of exploring a new world.
At the other end of the fantasy spectrum, the Elder Scrolls games have been influential on my writing. It’s games like Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim that have made this series one of the most popular and most successful in the past couple decades. Just as in all RPGs, the player’s character begins their journey in the world of Elder Scrolls as a nobody with no equipment and no skills. The worlds for these games are massive, filled with hundreds of characters, innumerable quests, and packed with interesting locations. In the Elder Scrolls games, the player levels up their character’s skills through use, a delightfully fluid and realistic skill progression. For example, players that enjoy sneaking and backstabbing enemies will become better at those skills until they are master assassins. Those who enjoy magic will become able to cast spells more frequently and will learn spells of increasing power. There are even schools of magic, so that a player can specialize in illusion or destruction spells. The possibilities in these games are endless, and each play through is different than the last. Additionally, there are moral choices that the player must make. They can decide to steal and murder, even joining guilds dedicated to those dark crafts, or they can become paragons and defenders of virtue. Ultimately, the player must confront the major quest line, usually something that threatens the end of the world. Aside from this one major quest, there is no direction for the player and they are free to forge their own path in a world that seems to breath with a life of its own.
One of the most inspiring features of the Elder Scrolls games is the depth of their lore. On every bookshelf in the province of Skyrim there are books that the player can actually pick up and read. Some of them are history books, others memoirs, cookbooks, ledgers, or treatises. Some books can level up a skill for those who read it, but most are simply there to make the world a more full and rich place. I want my fantasy worlds to have that kind of creative vigor. If a reader were magically placed within my world, I would love for it to be as immersive as Skyrim. Civilizations should be full of history, legends, and myths but buried beneath a thick layer of the mundane. Not everything in an epic must be epic. People must still make a living, eat, sleep, and have relationships. Each “side” character is the protagonist of their own story, and they have their own motivations. Building a world with that kind of detail and realism requires a massive amount of work, but it’s worth it because that makes the setting stick with people. The Elder Scrolls franchise has given gamers worlds and time periods with which we have become intimately familiar. We know its history, politics, and economics. We have our favorite characters that we enter into complex relationships with. We buy houses, collect items, and get married all within the fantasy world. When a new game releases, we eagerly read the old history books in game to find out what happened to the people and places we loved. I would love to write a world that people care about as passionately as people care about the world of the Elder Scrolls games.
I’ve really only had room here to discuss two video game franchises and take a glance at how they have inspired me. I could spill a river of ink talking about specific characters and quests from just these games and how they have impacted my creative experience. There are many more games that have influenced me as a person and as a writer, and I know the same must be true of all those who have a favorite game. For me, video games have had a greater impact than television or movies on my creative direction. Like reading, playing games can be thrilling or relaxing depending on your appetites, and offers a wonderful sense of immersion. If you have had a game or series that has been dear to you, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Happy gaming!