Another game in the "I can't imagine this working well in other media"-category is Senua's Sacrifice. Like, sure, the story could be critically subsumized as "generic identity struggle", but the way it's written and and delivered only works in a game. Perhaps that's a decent first cut for a story in a videogame: If you made this a movie instead, would it still work? If you make a movie out of e.g. any of the Call of Duty games, you'd mostly end up with a generic action movie without having to change the script.
This question hints at how well gameplay and story interact which each other. In most action games, they barely interact at all.
(Also, as interactive experiences, games just are not necessarily dependent on having a story, as the article points out. If the experience is good enough, a story isn't really necessary. Alien Isolation doesn't have much of a story, but visceral, devastating gameplay. Bethesda games generally have poor stories, but it doesn't really matter because the gameplay is open ended enough that everyone can just make their own story inside the game. Online games don't have a story, or some thin veneer to put on a loading screen; they don't need that, because the people are here solely for the gameplay experience.)
> If you make a movie out of e.g. any of the Call of Duty games, you'd mostly end up with a generic action movie without having to change the script.
This is kind of a funny comparison, because the first Call of Duty game was practically a string of set-piece action scenes, and sometimes plot lines, that were very obviously lifted from popular WWII war movies from the prior few years. IMO—and I doubt this is an uncommon sentiment among people who played it—those were also easily the best parts of the game.
This question hints at how well gameplay and story interact which each other. In most action games, they barely interact at all.
(Also, as interactive experiences, games just are not necessarily dependent on having a story, as the article points out. If the experience is good enough, a story isn't really necessary. Alien Isolation doesn't have much of a story, but visceral, devastating gameplay. Bethesda games generally have poor stories, but it doesn't really matter because the gameplay is open ended enough that everyone can just make their own story inside the game. Online games don't have a story, or some thin veneer to put on a loading screen; they don't need that, because the people are here solely for the gameplay experience.)