The RPG and Modern Fiction

I recognize that I'm making quite a claim with the RPG and video games. I understand those who think that video games are not a viable source of art, or who are just resistant to the idea of seeing a video game as comparable to something so historically influential as the novel. I think Virginia Woolf in her essay titled "Modern Fiction" brings up several ideas that point more to my line of thinking, that video games, and in this case the RPG, are very much okay as a form of modern fiction. At the beginning of her essay, she writes:

In making any survey, even the freest and loosest, of modern fiction it is difficult not to take it for granted that the modern practice of the art is somehow an improvement upon the old.

In the modern practice of the art of fiction, do we take for granted that we have come a long way? Will we embrace what is currently acceptable canon saying, we have canon and need no more? So how is the RPG an improvement upon the old? RPGs are a manifestation of many years of the practices of art and writing with both graphics and storyline. To have a playable story that will keep readers involved, there needs to be good writing. True, the 'fun' element to playing RPGs could also keep readers at it despite poor writing (I'm looking at you, Illusion of Gaia), but the inclusion of reading is a major component to why the RPG is a form of novel. I feel that those who would strongly oppose the video game being a viable form of fiction haven't considered Woolf's words above.

If everything were not the 'proper stuff of fiction,' we would not have classic books like The Time Machine, or classic RPGs like Chrono Trigger.

In the making of RPGs (in the case of a bigger company), there is plenty of writing going on by teams of people. This method is more relatable to the film, but the film can also be compared to the novel. That's about as much as I will say though concerning the film; it's a subject that deserves its own space. But how about this method of writing, this novel thing where this genre of video game tells a story? Because it's so different from writing a regular old novel, is it of lesser worth? Woolf says the following:

In any case it is a mistake to stand outside examining 'methods.' Any method is right, every method is right, that expresses what we wish to express, if we are writers; that brings us closer to the novelist's intention if we are readers.

So if I am a writer for an RPG, I shouldn't feel like any obligation to doing it the same way as always, I should focus on doing what allows me to express what I wish to express. If I'm a reader (player of the game), I can use whatever method that helps me understand the RPG novelist's intention.

On a more imaginative note, when I originally read Woolf's title, the following passage which comes towards the end of her essay stood out, and I wasn't sure why:

And if we can imagine the art of fiction come alive and standing in our midst, she would undoubtedly bid us break her and bully her, as well as honor and love her, for so her youth is renewed and her sovereignty assured.

It seemed to resist a clear understanding of exactly what she meant. Did I like it because of the thought of some fantastical entity named Fiction being alive? Yes, but more profoundly was this idea coupled with the context of the RPG as a new form of novel--it makes more sense. By bullying Fiction in the sense of creating an interactive story which is called a role-playing game, Fiction is renewed and honored.

People riding on a big chicken-like bird similar to how we on earth would a horse? I accept.

To close, while old British authors like George Henry Lewes say things to authors like "Let him paint what he knows," ("The Lady Novelists") Woolf's final words of writing speaks better to the RPG's being a modern novel. Just because something hasn't been done or considered before doesn't make it out of bounds:

'The proper stuff of fiction' does not exist; everything is the proper stuff of fiction, every feeling, every thought; every quality of brain and spirit is drawn upon; no perception comes amiss.

So gaming companies, both large and indie, keep them coming!