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In the modern world of video games, the average gamer thinks that the only thing important about a game is the gameplay aspect in order to be entertaining. This seems to be based off the fact that older games barely had any story yet some were considered classics. This is not the case anymore because of one significant fact, which is that the basis of a story, and it's progression, has been a vital leading cause for entertaining people.

Dating back from 100 to 1000 years ago, maybe even more, there have been mainly two types of entertainment for people. These are interaction, which toys, yo-yos, and wooden swords fall under, and story, which music, movies, and books fall under. If you were to look at the history of humans, you will see that alot of entertainment that was available for people who weren't kids were anything that told a story.

And these stories would sometimes hold epic tales of warriors fighting each other to the death, deep philosophical answer to many life's question, have satirical content holding great character that we all love to hear or read again and again, and most of all, stories that we could invest ourselves into and enjoy all the plot points and twists. We invest ourselves into it because naturally, we invest our time into things that have a certain intrigue, mystery, questions we have that need to be answered, and how the story progresses, or how it unwraps itself.

It is like I were to tell a friend that I have the most amazing creature known to man inside a box, but I will not show you what it is. Already my friend has questions about this creature and wondering what it could be, thus making him invest into trying to find out what it is. Even though it is small, it what got him to pay attention to what I was saying.

This is basically what determines whether a novel or movie will be considered a classic or a failure, and what made them to be the most dominant form of entertainment. Toys did not succeed as well because older people are usually lazy.

Toys were more interactive and required the person to do work, think and put in input to receive a output. This is also the definition of work or mundane task, and considering our imagination grows weaker as we age, somehow battling the evil dark lord sauron for the faith of middle earth, or being a orc to conquer earth, just doesn't come to mind when playing a Lord of the Rings version of Risk. And since there is no life to the objects nor does the outcome affect anything around you or make a difference, there is little incentive to engage oneself in this form of entertainment, as people love to see positive results. This is where video games will combine both of these entertainment and make them stand out as the best form of entertainment.

This is what makes video games stick out among forms of entertainment. They are both interactive and story telling, sometimes effectively mixing the best things o f both of them. They not only involve the player to put in input and develop their problem solving abilities, but also includes story which gives the player a drive to play the games.

The mario games had a basic set up of you having to save a princes from a evil dinosaur. This is the idea of the story but it's not entirely. The story mainly resides in how the game is played. A good game will consistently increase the difficulty as the player plays the game, making them feel more powerful and better at it. A good story will give the player a sense of accomplishment when the player finally figures out a tricky part of a level, or find a way to jump over a large gap until they reached the final stage where everything they learned is put to the test. Once they beat it, the story will end on a happy note, thus making the player feel proud of themselves. If the player dies, the story ends on a low note, making the player feel more of that shame by letting the know that the kingdom is still in crisis because you failed to rescue the princess.

It doesn't always depend on how you progress through the game, because infamous 2 had probably some of the greatest story telling techniques in video games and story overall. One great thing it did was building tension.

Right when the player begins the game and starts playing, the player goes up against the final boss. After the match and thinking you defeated the monster, it becomes apparent that you lost most of your abilities and that the monster rebuild itself after you dealt to him one big attack like it was nothing. Adding to the fact that you are on the other side of the country and the monster is quickly closing it's distance between you and itself and that you will need to face him again, increase the tension and gets the player more involved in the gameplay and story, thus adding more enjoyment to the game.

Even how some character acts in the story to help you and what they do can make a character more endearing to players. In the game Super Metroid for the SNES, Mother Brain was a boss battle that no one can beat before a special event occurred. She could take out almost half of your total health and you hardly did any damage to her, making her a prominent and scary opponent to face. Right when you were at 1 health point and mother brain was about to finish you off, a metroid that look to you like a mother, comes in and starts sucking the life out of the mother brain, saving you from death. The metroid then starts to give you all your helth back and a weapon that allows you to defeat the boss, right before the mother brain kills the metroid.

You rarely see this in games where a character has a significant presence in games, to the point where player loves them. Players see how much they like a character in a video game not by the dialogue but by what they did to help the player. The metroid above is a perfect example of how story can be great in games. The player is the leading role in a story, as a video game is an escapist from the real world. The player felt glee and happiness as they saw the metroid save them from the wrath of mother brain final attack and the one that gave them all their health back and giving them one final weapons to defeat the brain. It was because of the players conviction for revenge for their fallen love one that got them to fight back at mother brain and end the terror that she brought on to the world, allowing the story to end on a happy note.

No movies, books, chess boards, battleships, songs, or toys can make a person react as strongly, learn as much, or become more involved then a video game could. There is no greater feeling to be had knowing that you made a difference in a world for the better and that you stopped a evil being from destroying that which you found most valuable. It what makes video games so ingenious because it's one thing to see a hero going through trials upon trials to progress the story and have a satisfying or great end, then if the viewer did all that.