Listen to this Article

I’ve been reading Sam J. Miller’s Blackfish City, one of the best-reviewed Sci-Fi novels of 2018. I couldn’t escape this nagging thought as I read about the floating city of Qaanaaq and the surrounding post-apocalyptic world ravaged as a consequence of rising seas: “video games are behind.” When it comes to Sci-Fi, video games are well behind the literary zeitgeist. The new wave of science fiction is defined by sardonic interpretations of humanity’s future, far from the optimism of the past.

Sci-Fi video games feel stuck, ruminating on the same questions over and over. Take 2018’s Detroit: Become Human, which explores that age-old question: “What if robots developed human characteristics?” It’s trite, it’s all been done before, and worst of all, the answer is always left vague. It isn’t satisfactory to simply pose a question with your narrative if that same question has existed in the cultural consciousness for years. Video games need an infusion of new blood, and there is no better place to look than the literature of today.

Blackfish City explores modern crises from the perspective of a future that has already suffered as a consequence of those crises. After years of unchecked climate change, the world is mostly swallowed by the ocean. What remains is a post-flood world, with the floating city of Qaanaaq and other surviving civilizations on higher ground. The survival of humanity is no triumph, humanity did not band together to achieve this small success, rather wars were fought and society only grew darker. The future looks to be as dark as the past.

The grim world of Blackfish City, especially Qaanaaq, is one of the most interesting settings I’ve had the pleasure of exploring. How excellent would it be to explore it through a more interactive medium, perhaps even a video game? It would certainly be more interesting than something like Destiny, with its bizarre alien rubbish and scientific-mysticism. That’s old news. The same tropes repeat ad-infinitum, rampaging AI, human augmentation, robots with feelings, etc.

The last Sci-Fi game I played that did something new and exciting was Horizon: Zero Dawn. Guerilla Games’ 2017 smash hit led me to a revelation. I thought narrative games just weren’t for me, that I wasn’t concerned about a game’s story. No. I love narrative in video games, but I rarely see any great narratives to delve into. As we move further into the age of live-services, it feels as though the industry is forgetting that before skinner-boxes and endless grind loops, the narrative was how you kept a player engaged.

Why watch a film with a bad narrative? Why read a book with a bad narrative? You wouldn’t bother. Games though, they don’t strictly need narratives, I admit that. The interactivity of the medium opens up many new avenues for engagement. That said, why not try something new? CD Projekt Red optioned Andrzej Sapkowski’s The Witcher book series and ended up with one of the most revered fantasy RPGs ever, and those books weren’t even that good (half-joking).

The point I’m trying to make is video games have everything to gain by borrowing from literature, and nothing to lose. This is how great successes in other industries have come about, think of Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, or The Godfather. Need I go on? Today’s Sci-Fi novels are the home of creativity. As our world faces unprecedented crises, glimpses into our future like Blackfish City, resonate in a way that the space operas and robot wars of modern video games just can’t.

That’s not to discredit space operas or robot wars. Sci-Fi novels are doing those better too. Gareth L. Powell’s Embers of War is a space opera with strong characters and a humanity that is rarely seen in the genre. For robot wars, you have Mecha Samurai Empire, set in the world of Peter Tieryas’ United States of Japan series. In truth, you needn’t use a specific book from USJ, the series’ universe overall is ripe for video game antics that would outclass anything we have today.

I am not decrying all Sci-Fi games as garbage, but rather I’m using them to demonstrate how the games industry as a whole is falling behind, and I fear that creativity in the medium is becoming rarer. At least within the triple-A sphere, games follow trends, and one innovative or interesting idea is rehashed for years until the next new thing pops up. In contrast, literature follows culture, and as a consequence, the greatest successes tend towards the new and daring. I don’t have much hope for the triple-A space. In truth, I’d delight in seeing most triple-A publishers collapse. Where I do have hope, is the indie sphere.

Smaller developers would, I daresay, learn more from reading something like Blackfish City than they would from playing almost any triple-A game. Developers need to expand the scope of the stories they tell and catch up with the zeitgeist. A story-focused game in the vein of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter that explores the themes of a novel like Bethany C. Morrow’s MEM. A satirical romp like The Stanley Parable exploring the bizarre ultra-corporate world of Dempow Torishima’s Sisyphean.

There is a wealth of untapped lands and worlds ripe for exploration in video games. There are themes that look beyond the same-old worries of yesterday and tackle the imminent dangers of today. Video games are art, but they don’t always feel like it. Forgive me, because it is a pompous thing to say, but the art of video games is so often corrupted by corporate interference.

These are the same corporations that don’t explore new worlds, that don’t take risks, that have only just begun making any effort to make LGBT players feel included. These corporations tear games apart for season passes, microtransactions, and an endless stream of cash. If they really want to succeed they need to catch up with their narratives, but also with culture in general. The industry has spent too long insulated, taking cues from the successes within itself, and not looking outwards. The stagnation of Sci-Fi is emblematic of that. Stop following trends, and start following culture.

For the latest in gaming and entertainment, be sure to like Gaming Historia on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. You can also support us via Patreon, which allows us to create better content for our audience.