Don't get me wrong, I understand narration encompasses all written fiction but that doesn't mean the aesthetics of the narrative are always well executed. I keep coming back to the idea of the narrative recently because with the release of Mass Effect 2 everyone keeps talking about how well executed the narrative of the story is. It's more than mere game.... the narrative helps it transcend.
I watched a special on Syfy about Mass Effect 2 and one of the things they kept talking about was the narrative as if this was a new concept. It's not. We have already had some truly impressive games (too many to name here). I've been talking and writing for years about the importance of narrative in games.
No matter how visually stunning or well executed a game is, what makes it transcend is the narrative. Think of all the games for the iPhone and how amazing those were because of the unique new way to play via the accelerometer. It was new, it was exciting but none of those games transcended more than just their game status. Narrative helps video games transcend. More and more companies are coming to understand this (and some already have).
No matter how advanced we get with game play and graphics, truly immervise, fantastic games will focus on their narrative. That's not to say we won't have great games that are just plain and simple fun to play because we always will. In their attempt to transcend, video games need to do a little less hand holding with their big brother film. While video games can look up to their big brother "film" they also need to remember their unique capacity for storytelling. Which brings me back to my first point... comics are comics for a reason and great comics don't need to become film to be brought up to another level of greatness. If the story would have best been told as a movie, then Gaiman would have written as a movie script. Sure, there's a lot of money to be made by this cross marketing, but it's honestly not always in the best interest of the medium to do so.
