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Video game stories are better than film, say majority in study
Published 13:05 29 Aug 2023 BST
Updated 13:06 29 Aug 2023 BST
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'People haven’t always associated video games with good stories'
The stories in video games are better than those in TV shows and films, a study that will surely divide the internet has found.
Given the immersive nature of games, and the advances in technology, it is perhaps not that surprising.
But while the very best TV shows can't compete with the live-action aspect of gaming, they can spark real emotional responses as fans build relationships with characters one episode at a time. And then there's film. Recent ones, like Oppenheimer and Barbie, have made headlines for months, the even helped shape popular culture and ideals.
A recent study asked people whether they thought video game stories were better than those in TV or film.
According to August Man, the survey of 1158 respondents by Buffalo 7, found that 67 per cent think games are better.
August Man noted that the gaming industry has grown exponentially and now accounts for more than half of the UK’s entertainment market and is bigger in North America than Hollywood. While long discounted as child's play, the storytelling in games can no longer be ignored. Clearly, if the survey findings are anything to go by, people really rate them.
The study also created an index to determine which games have the greatest stories, calculating their appeal using average rankings in Reddit posts, YouTube videos, Google hits and critical articles (as well as other factors such as game length and number of comments) to create an overall score.
According to this criteria, The Last of Us sits at number one, followed by God of War, Red Dead Redemption 2 and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Respondents were also asked which game they think has the most memorable story, and those results chimed with the "greatest story" ranking.
Forty seven per cent of respondents said The Last of Us’ story is the most memorable, followed by The Witcher 3 (35%).
Slightly less popular picks included Undertale, Hades and Portal 2.
James Robinson, marketing manager at Buffalo 7, told August Man: “People haven’t always associated video games with good stories.
“Historically, storylines in games were a bit of an afterthought, something on which to hang the action, something which was secondary to the gameplay itself. People didn’t play video games for the storylines.”
Robinson added that gaming has gone from strength to strength, both in terms of the increasing quality of games and the growth in the gaming industry as a whole.
“Gaming went from the outlier to the mainstream, and as such, story-telling went up too. It’s no surprise that Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us came out top in both our data sets. The game tells an engaging and emotionally draining tale and it’s no wonder we’ll soon see it adapted into it’s on HBO series.”
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