As a long time listener of your podcast, I’ve found (too) many interesting books to read as result of your suggestions.

I understand that video games aren’t completely alien form of media to you either, and I’m wondering if there have been video games that have influenced your thinking or that have been otherwise exceptionally interesting experiences?

Jarno

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Hey Jarno-

I’m glad you asked this question, as it gives me an excuse to talk about a meta-concept that directly applies to the concept of playing video games for the reasons you described.

“Medium agnosticism” refers to a relative indifference to medium, and a focus, instead, on content.

What this means in practice is not deciding that you like books and only books, but instead being open to stories delivered via any medium, and then judging those stories on their own merits, based on the metrics of the vehicle that carries them.

The written word, delivered as a book, has certain attributes that would be difficult to replicate in film.

Similarly, translating a TV into a podcast or a play into a tweet wouldn’t make a lot of sense, unless some heavy editing—arguably changing the content into a completely new thing—were to take place.

I’m presenting this concept here because a lot of people perceive video games to be a medium suitable only for delivering shoot-em-ups and sports games. And while there are plenty of examples of both genres across all possible gaming platforms, I would argue that gaming is also experiencing a bit of a renaissance when it comes to storytelling and, more broadly, the conveyance of experiences, regardless of the device or platform you’re using.

The reason for this renaissance is multi-faceted, and includes variables ranging from a larger diversity of voices on the creation side of things, to a larger diversity of players utilizing a more varied array of devices to play the resulting titles.

The result is a space in which, yes, there are still plenty of fairly predictable, if often quite well-made, shooting games, but there are also deep, rich, complex, emotion-tugging, thoughtful, perspective-expanding games out there that will (if you’re anything like me, at least) change your perception of what a game is, and make you question the delineations we’ve made between games and other types of media.

If you’re looking to engage with such games, and willing to keep an open mind about what it means to play a game (setting aside, in some cases, even the concept of “winning,” as some of these games are about the experience, the journey, rather than achieving any particular outcome through skill or tenacity), here are some that I would recommend checking out, based on my limited personal experience (and please note that this is nowhere near a complete list of wonderful games that fall into this incredibly broad pseudo-category; the descriptions are excerpts Wikipedia):

Firewatch — The story follows a fire lookout named Henry in the Shoshone National Forest, a year after the Yellowstone fires of 1988. A month after his first day at work, strange things begin happening to him and his supervisor Delilah, which connects to a mystery that happened years ago. Henry interacts with Delilah using a walkie-talkie, with the player choosing from dialog options to communicate. His exchanges with Delilah inform the process by which their relationship is developed. (Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and iOS.)

Gone Home — Set in the year 1995, Gone Home puts the player in the role of a young woman returning from overseas to her rural Oregon family home to find her family currently absent and the house empty, leaving her to piece together recent events. (Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.)

Her Story — In the game, the player searches and sorts through a database of video clips from fictional police interviews, and uses the clips to solve the case of a missing man. (Available on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.)

The Stanley Parable — The player guides Stanley, the game’s protagonist, through a surreal environment while the narrator, voiced by British actor Kevan Brighting, delivers exposition. The player has the opportunity to make numerous decisions on which paths to take, and because at times the narrator says what Stanley will do next, the player can choose to ignore the narration and make a different choice. Every choice made by the player is commented on by the narrator, and depending on the choices the player makes, they will encounter different endings to the game before it restarts. (Available on Windows, Mac, and Linux.)

Cibele — An adventure video game about a romance developed through an online multiplayer game. (Available on Windows and Mac.)

2064: Read Only Memories — Set during the Christmas season in 2064 in Neo-San Francisco, California. Parallax has created a line of products called “Relationship and Organizational Managers” (ROMs), a line of personal assistant robots that have overtaken smartphones and computers. The player takes on the role of a journalist trying to track down their kidnapped friend and Parallax engineer Hayden Webber. They are aided by Turing, who is Hayden’s creation and the world’s first sapient machine, a self-modifying robot that can learn and grow emotionally. (Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS, among others.)

Papers, Please — The player take the role of a border crossing immigration officer in the fictional dystopian Eastern Bloc-like country of Arstotzka, which has been and continues to be at political hostilities with its neighboring countries. The player must review each immigrant and returning citizen’s passports and other supporting paperwork against a list of ever-increasing rules using a number of tools and guides, allowing in only those with the proper paperwork, rejecting those without all proper forms, and at times detaining those with falsified information. The player is rewarded in their daily salary for how many people they have processed correctly in that day, while being fined for making mistakes; the salary is used to help provide shelter, food, and heat for the player’s in-game family. In some cases, the player will be presented with moral decisions, such as approving entry of a pleading spouse of a citizen despite the lack of proper paperwork, knowing this will affect their salary. (Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Playstation Vita.)

Dear Esther — The player’s only task is to explore an uninhabited Hebridean island, listening to an anonymous man read a series of letter fragments to his deceased wife, Esther. As the player reaches new locations on the island, the game plays a new letter fragment relating to that area. Different audio fragments are revealed in each playthrough of the game, presenting a slightly different narrative each time. (Available on Windows, Mac, PS4, and Xbox One.)

This War of Mine — The game, inspired by the 1992–96 Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War, differs from most war-themed video games by focusing on the civilian experience of war rather than frontline combat. Characters have to make many difficult decisions in order to survive everyday dangers. There are various endings for each character, depending on the decisions made in the game. (Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS.)

Reigns — Assuming the role of a medieval king, the player swipes left or right on a card depicting an advisor, in order to accept or reject their suggestion. Each decision will have a consequence, changing the balance between the four pillars of the society: the church, the people, the military, and wealth. The king’s reign ends whenever one of the four metric bars becomes full or empty, and the game continues with the player controlling their heir. (Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS.)

Florence — The player follows the story of 25-year-old Florence Yeoh as she lives her daily routine and meets Krish, a cellist she sees in the park. The game features little written dialogue and tells Florence’s story through a series of brief chapters. The game uses basic puzzles to reinforce pieces of Florence’s life as players progress through her story. (Available on Android and iOS.)

That Dragon, Cancer — The autobiographical game is based on the creators’ experience of raising their son Joel, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer at twelve months old, and though only given a short time to live, continued to survive for four more years before eventually succumbing to the cancer in March 2014. The game is designed to have the player experience the low and high moments of this period in the style of a point-and-click adventure game, using the medium’s interactivity and immersion to relate the tale in ways that a film cannot. (Available on Windows, Mac, and iOS.)

Solar 2 — The player is given an asteroid, and their main mission is to accumulate enough mass to become several astronomical objects. The game ends when and if the player manages to accumulate enough mass to become a big crunch, which then produces a Big Bang. (Available on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS.)

80 Days — The year is 1872 and Monsieur Phileas Fogg has placed a wager at the Reform Club that he can circumnavigate the world in eighty days or less. The game follows the course of this adventure, as narrated by Phileas Fogg’s manservant Passepartout, whose actions and decisions are controlled by the player. In their role as valet, players must manage finances, their master’s health and time, as well as buying and selling items in different markets around the globe. (Available on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS.)

Explore, immerse, have fun!