Life is Strange: Before the Storm developer on how games are tackling new subjects
Brendan Sinclair, writing for GamesIndustry.biz:
Large publishers are increasingly signing on for games willing to be seen as exploring questions of sexuality, identity, and other weighty topics. [Life is Strange: Before the Storm narrative director Zak] Garriss isn’t sure exactly what happened to cause that, but he’s grateful for the change regardless.
“Part of the answer probably lives outside of the industry,” he said. “The evolution of television narrative has done a lot to explode our understanding of the limitations of storytelling in general. I look at TV 20 years ago versus TV now, and I see a savviness, and a willingness, and a courage to tell more complex stories, more non-traditional stories. And we’ve seen success with that. We’ve seen audiences resonate with a bigger variety of narrative and I think that’s sparked and inspired more imagination in the industry, top to bottom, from indie all the way up to the biggest publishers in the world.”
TV isn’t responsible for opening the floodgates on what stories can be told in popular media. TV reflects the changes, but I don’t think it drives them. The real culprits are:
Shifting social and cultural norms, especially around who is seen as deserving a voice
The internet, which allows anyone to bypass gatekeepers and deliver media to historically underserved groups
Regardless, I am grateful we have the diversity of games and media we have.
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