As an impartial observer, I often find myself perusing online forums in search of titillating new discussions, mostly pertaining to video games and all the rage surrounding them. However, on one fine evening while enjoying a fine beverage and listening to some wonderful jazz musics, I uncovered a rather interesting string of posts on Rock, Paper, Shotgun. I quickly became a very partial observer.

The issue at hand was whether or not video games, as an artistic medium, could be vehicles for narratives and storytelling, particularly ones that portray and promote a specific ideology. When I ask myself the question, "can video games be narrative vehicles as powerful as literature," I think, 'why, yes, they certainly can be!' and a few great games start to come to mind. Games like The Witcher 2, BioShock, Mass Effect, even the great Deus Ex - but where does fiction stop existing for the sake of expanding upon itself and instead exist only to perpetuate the gameplay and move the player from setpiece to setpiece? Read onwards to find out.