Is it Books, Movies or Video Games for You?
I’m a dreamer and I constantly let my imagination runs wild. That’s why I’ve always been drawn to stories. I can spend hours totally engrossed in a good novel. When it comes to role-playing games, I can lose myself exploring the fantastical world. For movies, I do get hooked by strong characters and plots that keep me thinking long after it ends. Whether it’s a book we read, a video game we play, or a movie we watch, each medium offers a different way for us to experience a story.
The best stories are the ones that don’t just entertain but leave a mark. In this post, I want to share what I’ve found about how books, movies, and video games each create that magical experience in their own way. I let my geek out when I spent hours reading and researching how different mediums offer unique experiences and discuss which types of stories excel in each format.
By the end, I hope to give you a sense of what each medium can offer, and maybe even inspire you to experience a story in a way you haven’t before.
Books: The Original Storytelling Experience
I only became interested in reading when I was in high school. I remember my friend lent me this book called Remember Me by Christopher Pike. Since then, books have been my personal doorway to other worlds. While I could go days or weeks without reading one, but whenever I do read a good fiction, I can completely lose myself. There’s something about flipping through pages of a well-written story, especially when it’s a mystery thriller or suspense novel.
Depth and Imagination
Putting aside books with visuals such as graphic novels, manga and comics, books written only in text require us to visualize everything. The lack of visuals in a book, however, isn’t a drawback, at least not for me. In fact, it’s what makes the experience so powerful. We get to imagine the characters, hear their voices, paint the landscapes and decide how fast or slow we want the scenes to unfold in our mind.
For me personally, the imaginative involvement is extremely satisfying with mystery thrillers, where every detail comes alive and makes the suspense more thrilling. When reading a book, we pretty much experience the story in a way no one else does. Two people reading the same book may have entirely different mental images of the same scene, making the story feel uniquely ours.
Control and Reading Pace
The best thing about reading is the control we have over the pace of the story. We can choose to pause in order to reflect, or we could also re-read a chapter. This is true for me when i read mystery thrillers. When I feel a major twist coming, I can tend to go back to earlier chapters to pick up on clues I might have missed so I can make sense of the series of events leading up to the crucial moments. The control and flexibility readers have over books allow for a more introspective journey where we get to appreciate each character’s development and explore the details of the plot.
When Books Shine
Books have advantages over other mediums when the stories need depth, have complex plot, extensive character development and intricate world-building. Fantasies, sci-fi and mystery are the type of genres that tend to have layered twists. This is where books thrive as the narrative can be unfolded at its own pace, allowing us to experience every nuance. Whenever I’m reading a mystery novel, I enjoy diving into each clue, discover secrets at my own pace and enjoy every twist as it comes. Books are definitely the ultimate storytelling medium for anyone who loves getting absorbed in the smallest details and have vivid imaginations.
Movies & TV Series: The Impact of Visual and Audio for Screen-Based Storytelling
Even though I watch more TV shows than movies (blame Netflix and Disney Plus), both media have a similar function in delivering stories. In a way that books cannot, screen-based storytelling draws us in with its noises and images. The visual components in the fantasy and sci-fi genres help bring to life worlds and ideas that are beyond our imaginations, and I trust I speak for everyone when I say that this is true.
The Sensory Immersion
Movies and TV shows are better at what we call sensory immersion. The combination of cinematography, special effects, and music can instantly pull us into a story, making everything feel real even the fantastical ones. In a sci-fi or fantasy setting, the visuals also help to bring us face-to-face with things we haven’t seen before. For example, it can be hard for us to read and picture how sci-fi tech and alien worlds as they’re all unfamiliar elements in our everyday experience. Obviously, right? But, when they come alive on screen, it makes the experience all the more enjoyable.
Pacing and Passive Engagement
Compared to books or games, movies and TV series are more of a sit-back-and-watch experience although I think I can do the same with books, you know, I sit back and read? Anyhow, what I meant here is that we don’t really control the story’s direction or pace. Each episode in TV series or scene in a movie are designed to keep us hooked and turn us into couch potatoes! This is quite common in genres like fantasy and sci-fi where they have cliffhangers and dramatic visuals. The passive engagement can be refreshing when we just want to escape without needing to make choices or piece things together.
When Movies & TV Series Excel
Screen-based storytelling shines in genres where visuals play a critical role such as fantasy, sci-fi and I would say, horror as well. In these genres, we often encounter elements that are difficult to imagine on our own, such as alien civilizations, complex futuristic technologies, or magical realms. For horror, jump scares on screen provide better thrilling experience compared to reading about it. Rather than struggling to piece together descriptions, movies and TV series bring these worlds to life, letting us experience them visually and emotionally.
Video Games: Interactive Worlds and Player-Driven Narratives
Video games provide something really special, in my opinion. Instead of just watching the stories unfold, it’s an opportunity to be part of it. Unlike books, movies, or even TV series, games make us an active part of the experience. In addition to following a character’s journey, we get to make choices, work out puzzles, and even help to shape the plot. Particularly in genres like horror and role-playing games that rely heavily on atmospheric effects, this offers us a whole new level of immersion.
Immersion Through Player Control
We are more than just spectators in video games. In the game, we take on the role of the character. The control and interaction pulls us deeper into the story because it feels personal. When we’re exploring an open world, making alliances, or even just managing inventory, the game becomes our story. Every decision and every quest feels like it has weight because we’re the ones making the calls. Games like RPGs, where we usually get to customize our character and influence the storyline, make that journey even more memorable and impactful.
Atmosphere and Sensory Experience
Video games use visuals, sound, and pacing to great effect. There’s nothing quite like the tension of walking through a dark, abandoned mansion while hearing haunting music or experiencing jump scares in horror games. Video games are able to create an experience that’s often more intense than a movie or book. When we’re the one holding the controller, shooting at enemies or running away from zombies, the emotion becomes much more personal and nerve-wracking.
When Video Games Shine
Video games excel when the story demands interactivity and player choice, or when atmosphere is key to the experience. Horror games, for example, become much more gripping when we’re the ones turning every corner and bracing ourselves for what lies ahead. RPGs and adventure games let us shape the storyline and see our choices impact the world, making the story ours in a way other mediums simply can’t. For anyone who craves immersion and a hands-on role in how the story unfolds, video games offer an experience that’s hard to match by other medium.
Finding the Storytelling Experience that Speaks to You
Books, movies, and games each offer something different and unique to storytelling that can deeply resonate with us but it all depends on what you’re looking for. For me, I consume each mediums based on my mood and the kind of story I want to dive into. But, if I really have to choose one over the other, I think you know my answer to that. I guess my blog says it all. At the end of the day, storytelling isn’t just about consuming a narrative but also connecting to it.
