Interactive Storytelling: Video Games as Cultural Texts in Digital Humanities

 

Interactive Storytelling: Video Games as Cultural Texts in Digital Humanities

Interactive Storytelling: Video Games as Cultural Texts in Digital Humanities

For a long time, the term “cultural text” has been reserved for novels, plays, poems, and films—works that clearly belonged to the humanities. Yet in today’s digital age, video games have grown into one of the most important cultural forms of storytelling. They are not only entertainment but also artifacts that reflect social histories, values, and struggles. Within the field of Digital Humanities (DH), video games are now examined as serious cultural texts, worthy of the same critical attention as books or cinema.

What makes games distinct is their interactivity. Unlike traditional media, video games allow players to actively shape stories, take on roles, and make choices that carry consequences. This makes them powerful cultural texts and a vital subject of study for anyone interested in how digital culture influence’s identity, history, and human experience.

Storytelling in a New Medium

Stories have always been central to human life. From myths and epics to novels and films, storytelling helps societies preserve memory and shape imagination. Video games extend this tradition but add a new layer: active participation.

In a novel, the reader turns pages, but the story unfolds exactly as the author wrote it. In a game, however, the player’s actions matter. In role-playing games such as The Witcher 3 or Mass Effect, the player decides how characters respond to moral dilemmas, shaping not just dialogue but the direction of the narrative. The story is no longer fixed; it adapts to choices.

For digital humanities scholars, this interactivity is key. Games are not simply stories told to players; they are systems where storytelling emerges through interaction.

 

Games as Windows into Culture

Video games also function as cultural mirrors. They reflect the hopes, anxieties, and histories of the societies that produce them.

• History and Memory: Games such as Assassin’s Creed recreate past worlds—whether Renaissance Florence or Ancient Egypt—inviting players to “walk” through history. Although these reconstructions blend fact and fiction, they raise questions about how history is represented and remembered.
• Politics and Society: Independent titles like Papers, please turn everyday bureaucracy into a moral challenge. By making players act as immigration officers, the game highlights the tension between survival, law, and compassion, echoing real-world debates about borders and state authority.
• Identity and Representation: Games also influence how race, gender, and sexuality are understood. Narratives in Life is Strange or Gone Home focus on LGBTQ+ experiences, offering stories often overlooked in mainstream media. These games expand cultural recognition and challenge stereotypes about who gets to be at the center of a story.

Through these examples, it becomes clear that games deserve analysis as cultural texts because they capture not only entertainment but also the social fabric of their times.

Meaning Through Participation

What sets games apart from novels or films is that interpretation does not happen only after the story—it happens during it. Meaning is co-created by both the designer and the player.

Consider Detroit: Become Human. The story follows androids fighting for freedom, but the outcome depends on player decisions. Each choice opens or closes narrative paths, producing multiple possible endings. The text here is not fixed—it evolves with every playthrough.

Other games, such as Minecraft or The Sims, offer no single storyline at all. Instead, players build their own worlds and experiences, creating personal stories that exist only within their unique gameplay.

Digital humanities see this as a shift in authorship. The “author” of the story is both the developer who designs the world and the player who interacts with it.

Educational and Public Value

The study of games as cultural texts has strong potential for both education and public engagement.

• In the Classroom: Students can analyse how games represent history, politics, or identity, comparing virtual depictions with primary sources. For example, comparing Civilization with historical documents reveals where entertainment diverges from fact.
• Digital Literacy: Games train players to navigate interfaces, evaluate systems, and collaborate online. Studying them equips students with digital literacy skills crucial for today’s world.
• Public Humanities: Beyond universities, museums and libraries now create game-inspired exhibits, and communities build “mods” that reshape existing games. These practices allow cultural heritage to be shared in playful, interactive ways.

By blending entertainment with critical engagement, games serve as bridges between academic research and public experience.

Ethical and Cultural Questions

As with any cultural text, games bring challenges that require careful reflection.

1. Representation: Many mainstream games still rely on stereotypes or exclude marginalized groups. Critics point out that depictions of certain regions—such as the Middle East in war games—reinforce harmful cultural assumptions.
2. Violence: While research does not draw simple links between games and behaviour, the prevalence of simulated violence raises ethical questions about what kinds of experiences we normalize.
3. Accessibility: Not everyone has access to gaming technology. Socioeconomic divides shape who can participate in this cultural form.
4. Commercial Influence: As part of a billion-dollar industry, games are driven by corporate interests. This raises questions about artistic freedom and the tension between meaningful storytelling and profit.

These concerns remind us that while games are valuable cultural texts, they must be studied with a critical eye.

Communities and Shared Stories

Unlike most traditional cultural forms, games thrive on community.

• Fan Cultures: Players create fan art, fan fiction, and online discussions that extend the meaning of games far beyond their original design.
• Mods: Modding communities alter games by adding new characters, environments, or narratives, allowing alternative cultural voices to emerge.
• Streaming and Esports: Platforms like Twitch turn gameplay into a live performance, where audiences share in the story as it unfolds.

These practices highlight how games are not static objects but cultural ecosystems shaped by communities as much as by developers.

Looking Ahead

With advances in virtual reality and augmented reality, the role of games in digital humanities is set to expand even further. Immersive technologies will make it possible to walk through reconstructed historical sites or step inside narratives that mix fact with imagination.

Serious games are also emerging as tools for research, healthcare, and social change—demonstrating that games are not only cultural texts but also practical tools for addressing contemporary issues.

Video games as cultural texts invite us to rethink storytelling in the digital age. They combine narrative, technology, and interactivity in ways that reshape how culture is produced and understood. By placing players inside stories, they transform audiences into participants, blurring the line between creator and consumer.

Within digital humanities, the study of games underscores their power to reflect cultural identities, question social structures, and build communities. They remind us that culture is no longer something to be observed from a distance. It is something we play through, contribute to, and share.

Far from being just entertainment, video games are among the most vibrant cultural texts of our time—challenging, participatory, and deeply human.