Let's take a step back from social issues and politics... And look at a often forgotten art form- storytelling in video games. Video games single-players campaigns are basically movies which players can interact with the story, experiencing it, feeling that they made it happen, and is part of it. Its potential is HHHUUUGGGEEE. If a movie about risking it all to save another's man's life is so touching, video games can bring that further. And it has been brought further. Who didn't feel shock when the nuke went off in Call Of Duty 4 and you are left crawling on the ground, looking at the mushroom cloud and your doomed existence? It doesn't have to be shocking; the "fuck yeah!" moments of triumph when you stand on a mountain of corpses, accomplishing something vital to the story. For me, Halo's (except Reach and Wars) endings has always been awe inspiring- the "fuck yeah" moment followed by the beautiful soundtrack of the game.
I am going to focus on FPS for this one, simply because I don't play enough RPGs to fully talk about it. But FPS are the equivalent of action movies, and its storytelling is important, too.
A good video game story does not only take place on the surface- there must be substantial canon to hold the universe (of the story) together. Halo has done this extraordinarily well, even though the execution of the campaigns in the video games has always been slightly weaker. Well, at least the earlier days, before Microsoft and Bungie retcon the shit out of it.
The Halo Universe is extraordinarily dark. Let me give you a synopsis if you have forgotten. In the 26th Century, Humanity has colonized deep space under the hegemony of the UN. However, with this hegemony, perpetual insurrection (read: Current state of Iraq/ Afghan wars) has been ongoing, and by the very best estimates, the rebels will overrun the UN in 30 years. The worse, 10.
Desperate times need desperate measures, and the UN abducted a few hundred kids for the only reason that their genes are compatible for argumentation. These kids were forced into strict military training at extremely young ages than turned into Super-humans, with extremely high fatality rates, while many others became crippled.
But before this Super-Soldiers can be used to fight rebels, an unknown alien empire bounded by religion suddenly attacks and declares a religious genocidal war against us, which we have no chance of winning.
It get much, much darker. Like orphans being turned into suicide warriors, and the religion of the aliens being to ascend to heaven by activating relics from an ancient species. Unknowingly to them, these are weapons used to wipe out life in the galaxy to starve a parasitic race called the "Flood" of hosts.
Of course, these were activated killing its creators because the flood overran them, the arguable master species.
The whole universe of Halo is dark, sad, desperate. There are no goods- and while people who don't read the books do not know about this, you can always feel the huge implications in the games. Its such a powerful backstory that even if the game's storyline sucks, this drags it along extremely well.
On the other extreme end, there is the type of storytelling in Call of Duty and most twitchy shooters in the market today. They are Michael Bay movies, in a nutshell. Paper thin plot devices carrying a player from 1 setpiece (ie. a dramatically epic battle scene).
When scrutinised, these stories just fall apart with glaring holes (Read this if you have played the campaign of Modern Warfare 2), but the huge explosions and OMFG battles make you not notice them, at all. I mean, who the hell questioned the humanitarian implications of the EMP in Modern Warfare 2? You just see planes falling from the sky!
Its bad, there is now way around it, but similarly to Michael Bay's movies, they make a fuckton of money as consumers don't care about the finer aspects of storytelling.
Now, I have neglected Role-playing games, because their storytelling is completely different. While in most FPS, you are just pawn being pushed through a predetermined story, RPGs custom tailor the story for you, with different endings. And this is where the true innovation really lies. The problem here, is RPGs has a niche market- most consumers are more interested in the OMFG setpieces previously mentioned. But games like Mass Effect (I want to play but still don't have the chance, so I can't really comment on it.. Sry) are trying to bring action into the genre, which is a great step forward. The problem? Typical RPG encounters don't need a huge amount of design. FPS/RTS battles need to be choreographed with X type A enemies coming from angle 1 while Y type B enemies coming from the right- very time intensive, and with alternative storylines, the creators do not have enough time and resources to make such a complicated game profitable. But its starting to change now, with better AI.
A typical script for a Triple A RPG release these days is 5 novels long- so you can see how intricate this aspect of video game design can be. A good story in any medium- be it movies, books, TV Shows or Video Games, make the player feel for the character feel for the characters- and video games are at that stage. The potential for interactive storytelling is limitless- and I have no doubts that video games will become the premier form of storytelling in the next 20 years.
Fun fact: The video game business is bigger than Hollywood.
Basically, summed up:
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