Fiction's Final Frontier?

I am a bit of an anomaly in that I love books and I love video games.  So when I read a few months ago that Random House was working in conjunction with Stardock to create a video game, it felt like two of my favorite worlds were colliding. I knew that houses had been publishing books based on video games--hello! War Craft--but the idea of turning the relationship around is completely new. Already, Random House has created a video game division to work with their authors and various gaming companies. I instantly thought that this would be my dream job. Make the games historical and set in another country, and basically all of my passions would be residing under one umbrella. 

After thinking more about this new publishing venture, I began to think about the difference a good plot and character background can make to a game. When I play RPGs, I admittedly get complete sucked into the storyline (just ask my husband, or for that matter, my cats). In fact, it is because of this very fact that I haven't written a blog post in a while--I was kidnapped by Mass Effect 2 for two weeks. I started to realize that I get sucked into the world of the game the same way that I get sucked into great books. I keep going on missions the same way that I can't stop flipping the pages of Harry Potter. The lines between the game and real life start to blur until you are Commander Shepard, or whatever other character you are playing. In essence, an RPG is a choose-your-own-adventure-and-character-profile book that unfolds through a gaming consul instead of on paper.

So what does this mean for books? Well, obviously not everyone plays video games and there are millions of people in the world who prefer getting their fictional stories in print. While there are numerous parallels between RPGs or story-based video games and novels, they are by no means equal. Each brings its own unique traits to the table. For one, it is easier to see the science fiction and fantasy genres adapted to games that it is to see with romance novels.  But the growing video game market, and the fact that it competes with books as another seller of leisure-time material, means that it can't be completely ignored. The question then is whether the two entities will continue in isolation or if other companies will follow the lead of Random House and Stardock and collaborate.

Collaboration can seemingly bring benefit to both sides. Publishing houses can tap into a new revenue stream with a different financial model, something which they desperately need. Acting as a consultant provides them the opportunity to negotiate payment upfront which would help cash flow and would provide them with a source of revenue separate from the constraints of booksellers. Game developers gain access to a bank of proven writers and the expertise of publishing houses in editing and molding content. This would allow them to meet the increasingly high standards of the gaming community for realistic and enticing plot, dialogue, and character development.

However good this arrangement looks on paper, the true test will be when Stardock's game is released in the fall. Only the future will tell if there is a role for authors and publishers in the video game universe and if fiction has found a new frontier.