An Incredibly Brief and Largely Incomplete History of the Relationship Between Video Games and Other Forms of Media
Video games started with a digital version of ping pong called, simply, Pong. Pong is an example of how games in the real world have influenced video games. For a while, that influence flowed in a single direction. Arcade games and early video games took influence from board games and the science fiction and fantasy genres.
Other forms of media began to exert their influence over video games. Adaptations of movies (E.T.: The Extraterrestrial and Raiders of the Lost Ark) andcompanies with large IPs like Disneymade their way to the Atari 2600 in the early 1980s. We can, to this day, see big IPs like Star Wars dominate the video game industry.
Outside of a few adaptations of the popular games like the Pac-Man animated series (1982) and the Super Mario Bros. (1993), Double Dragon (1994), Street Fighter (1994), and Mortal Kombat (1995) movies, we did not see video games influence other media in a significant way. Today, that story is different.
Video games have influenced the creation of entire new genres of other forms of media. Most noticeable in Isekai Anime and LitRPG Novels (sometimes called Progression Fantasy). These genres do more than adapt the content of specific video games; they attempt to go further by using the mechanics of video games.
That Time My Video Game Was Reincarnated As An Anime
Isekai Anime gained amazing popularity in the mid-2010s. At its core, Isekai is a standard portal fantasy like Chronicles of Narnia (1950)or Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). The genre contains further specificity, though. The main character is either transported or reincarnated into a world that has several mechanics of a video game.
Isekai was so popular that there was concern that it was flooding the manga and anime market, making it hard for other genres to gain a foothold. It owes video games some credit for that success, because it could not exist without them.
People in that other world may have character classes, gain experience points, or have menus to manage. Things that Peter and Alice never had to deal with.
Portal fantasy has been around for a long time. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is contemporary with works such as Les Misérables (1862), Crime and Punishment (1866), and Little Women (1868), but there was never a concern that it would smother the success of other works. The popularity of video games and the clever inclusion of mechanics rather than a direct adaptation in Isekai Anime gave the portal fantasy genre its insane boost.
New Achievement Unlocked: Read a Book!
LitRPG has soared in popularity among Science Fiction and Fantasy fans in recent years. Series like Cradle (2017) by Will Wight and Dungeon Crawler Carl (2020) by Matt Dinniman are often on top 10 or highly recommended lists.
This genre of fantasy novel sometimes overlaps with the portal fantasy and the Isekai model of transportation or reincarnation, where the main character has to discover the mechanics along with the reader. Dungeon Crawler Carl follows this model. Carl lives in a world we would be familiar with, but finds himself locked in a dungeon with RPG mechanics like menu navigation and leveling up, elements from video games as a whole, like achievements, and fantasy whimsy, like talking cats.
Other LitRPGs, such as the Arcane Ascension series (2017) by Andrew Rowe, feature characters who are familiar with the mechanics of their world. They select classes and level up as part of everyday life.
Video game novelizations have had decent popularity in the past, but nothing compared to the reach Dungeon Crawler Carl has had. Like with Isekai, I believe the spike in popularity comes from the adaptation of mechanics, not stories.
Are You Sure You Want to Quit? All Unsaved Data Will Be Lost.
Video games have gone from having little influence over other forms of media to being the source of entirely new and incredibly popular genres. It has been a reversal of how the relationship between video games and other forms of media works.
Video games have moved from the influenced to the influencer. There have been attempts to make video games that use the mechanics of novels or movies, but they have not reached the popularity of Isekai or LitRPG, save for a few exceptions like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Warhammer: Rogue Trader, which is itself an adaptation of a novel series.
I think it is incredible how this intermingling of media is used to create brand new art, and I look forward to seeing how video games and other media influence each other in the future.