Taking a Cue From Video Games

I finished reading Mass Effect: Revelation on Friday.  I am not going to write a review for it here, but I wanted to mention it because it got me thinking about how video game stories are structured. When it comes to Bioware games, they tend to be steeped in rich lore. A lot of franchises treat lore as a sort of after thought. More games these days tend to throw things together only after the publishers commission a second and third games after the first makes a bajillion dollars. Mass Effect, however, is structured very much like any great Fantasy or Sci-Fi series.

Drew Karpyshyn does a fantastic job of fleshing out this very realistic lore for the future of our planet, and the design team does an amazing job of making Citadel Space this very organic feeling place. On top of settings you have all of these histories for all the other races and how they found their own way into Citadel Space. I had a very good understanding of who all of these races were after playing through Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, but Revelation was amazing at illustrating the more finite details. I mean, you could read through the whole codex in game, but it's a lot more interesting when you are being walked through it by characters you care about. That's what storytelling is all about; showing, not telling.

What I am getting at, is that video games are an untapped resource when it comes to world building and lore. It's even worth it to look at the not so elaborate ones for ideas on how you would do things differently. Just like doing peer reviews in English class, seeing other people's mistakes makes you a stronger writer. I am working my way through the entire Mass Effect series chronologically before Mass Effect 3 comes out. I plan on taking some notes on my way through; picking up little things I notice along the way regarding what makes me feel emotionally connected to that universe. The Mass Effect universe gives me the same fuzzy feeling as the wizarding world of Harry Potter, or Middle-Earth, or Oz; just so enthralling.