Video Games Are Better Without Stories
Being a huge fan of the genre of &quot;interactive narratives&quot;, I have to disagree. 
Games like Gone Home, Life is Strange, Mass Effect, Skyrim, Fallout, Deus Ex, and others have had a profound impact on me. The author doesn&#x27;t seem to make a compelling point why they would be better as books or movies. I haven&#x27;t really been able to derive a more coherent argument from the article than &quot;they&#x27;re worse because they&#x27;re worse, so they should not be games&quot;. I think that is a bit harsh on the incredible achievements of the games that painstakingly build an interactive narrative on a medium that is both technically and artistically extremely challenging. Take Mass Effect for example, to me the whole franchise has been one of the most successful science-fiction stories ever. It rivals Star Trek, Star War, and The Expanse. Especially since Mass Effect came out during a period where Hollywood had pretty much given up on the genre as a whole. 
Mass Effect constructs this beautifully detailed and coherent universe set in a future where mankind discovers advanced technology from an ancient race. This propels mankind into a new era of exploration, conflict and intrigue. 
Te reason why Mass Effect &quot;works for me&quot;, besides the &quot;world building&quot;, is that you have the ability to construct a secondary narrative on top of the one presented by the game itself. You are allowed, and encouraged, to make decisions and reflect upon them. While it&#x27;s all arguably superficial and closed-world, the moment you immerse yourself &#x2F;in the character&#x2F; it offers something very few books and movies can: the ability to guide the story, and become a &quot;person&quot; in a complex world. Then again, I&#x27;m biased…but so is that author it seems.