As AI inundates our culture, that’s why we must protect human storytelling in games | games

A A few days ago, I clicked a button on my phone to send money to a company in Singapore, thus taking ownership of the video game I co-created and am the head writer of: Zombies, Run! I’m a novelist who wrote the best-selling, award-winning book Power, which was made into an Amazon Prime TV series starring Toni Collette. What on earth do I do when I buy a gaming company?

Good. Firstly. Zombies, run! private. It’s special to me – the game started as a Kickstarter and the community that has grown around it has always been incredibly supportive of what we do. He is special at what he does. It’s a toy to practice with. You can play it on your smartphone – iPhone or Android – and we tell you stories from the zombie apocalypse in your headphones to encourage you to go faster or just make your workout less boring. Gaming is often portrayed as a bad form of entertainment, but I designed a game that basically helps people get healthier.

Zombies, Run! It also focuses entirely on storytelling. My creative partner Adrian Hone and I were talking about doing a project together. “Let’s do something to make running more fun,” he said. I said, “What if we did a story where you’re being chased by zombies?” And here we are.

As you play the game, you are immersed in a world where every run makes you a hero – you collect supplies, rescue a child from No Man’s Land, and investigate the mystery of how the apocalypse started. I’ve always focused on good storytelling. And it works. Players of the game become so attached to the characters that many of them laugh out loud or even “cry while running.”

One of my jokes about storytelling in video games is that the way we tend to talk about it — in the games industry, in games journalism, and even in marketing copy — is largely “don’t care about the quality, feel for the presentation.” We say things like “This game has over 100 hours of story” or “This game has over a million words.” Imagine a movie marketing that says the script contains 29,000 words. Or sell a novel on the basis that it will take a long time to read.

This is not how you do it. You tell the story. You give a hook. She says: “A single woman returns home one evening to find a man claiming to be her husband living in her house. When he goes up to the attic, another husband comes down in his place.” Now you can’t wait to find out what happens next. (This, by the way, is the wonderful comic novel Husbands by Holly Gramazio — who I believe is the only other best-selling novelist who also makes her own video games.)

Now that I own a gaming company, what will I do? My feeling is that I should focus on the basics. There’s a world of gaming that believes it can replace writers with large, AI-powered language models. I think this will make the writing worse and worse. AI writing is good for boilerplate text that is almost always the same. It is good for non-writers to bring their experiences to the world. But storytelling is different. It is human minds that find companionship with other human minds – we need stories, basically, so we can feel less alone. To know that others have gone through things somewhat similar to what we have gone through. Things that make us laugh, cry, even while running. You get that from work that’s unlike anything else, you get that from the unique work of other individual human minds.

In fact, zombies, run away! It has always been a world with strong values. We are not a harsh right-wing, individualistic apocalypse, where one person can get through with just their guns. In our world – as in the real world – humans live by working together.

While we still have many exciting escaping zombies, and combat storytelling with the undead, I think there’s probably also a place in ZR! Universe for a 10-mission arc where you have to find all the statues and paints you need to complete the “Demons and Darkness” expansion set; Or the place where you work to bring an overgrown garden back to beautiful, thriving life; Or creating and running the first post-apocalyptic mobile library, while also trying to figure out what happened to the first librarian who mysteriously disappeared, leaving only a series of cryptic notes in an ancient manuscript.

Ultimately, I think this is the time in the world to think about how to rebuild after a series of catastrophic events.

I think selling the story by the hook and not by the hook is a sign of a lack of confidence in the form. We don’t need to lack confidence. Gaming is the largest entertainment industry in the world. If we want to be taken seriously, we have to take ourselves seriously. Stop talking about presentation, start talking about quality.

What are you playing?

It was the Xbox 360’s 20th anniversary recently, and one of the names that appears on every list of the console’s best games is the oppressive twin-stick game Geometry Wars. If you’re craving something similar, you should download immediately Evil eggA dual-stick blaster with cool Commodore 64-style visuals and sound effects. Shoot everything that moves, press the left trigger to boost and collect hearts to stay alive.

At first, she’s a bewildering mass of rainbow pixels, but as wave after wave of devious alien pests explode, she begins to understand the patterns of different enemies and earns upgrades like the Executioner’s Sword, which cuts enemies down in an orbital cut of laser particles. Evil Egg is polished, sexy, and wild-looking, with a great understanding of the genre and its unique dynamics. It’s free on Steam but I implore you to download it on Itch.io and set a price that works for you. Keith Stewart

Available on: computer
Estimated playing time: 10-More than hours

What are you reading?

• There’s been a lot written about it horsesthe artistic game that was recently banned by the digital platforms Steam and Epic Games Store. I particularly enjoyed this article by Harper Jay McIntyre, which addresses horses, formality, and the transgender experience. The article manages to bring in many elements of modern game criticism and academia while offering a very personal response to the game.

• The most interesting retro gaming articles are those that re-evaluate lost or parodied titles rather than simply celebrating the classics. Was it the Atari 2600 version? Pac-Man Worst game ever? Not according to this compelling analysis from the AV Club’s Garrett Martin who sees it as a brutal, misunderstood gem. I find myself agreeing.

• It’s also nice to see a legendary game paid tribute in an interesting way. The BFI’s look at legacy Time crunch It is considered a shotgun game in relation to cinema, referencing Beverly Hills Cop and Run Lola Run rather than simply comparing it to Sega’s similar Virtua Cop game.

What to click on

Question block

This comes from the reader Rebecca:

“My old grandfatherThe ad is coming to stay with us at Christmas and we want to see what’s going on with video game graphics these days. Are there any titles you recommend that will allow him to explore the beautiful locations without getting shot at?! We have a PlayStation 5 and a somewhat old computer.

Your best option here is to go on one of the big open world adventures and find an area free of enemies. If you subscribe to PlayStation Plus Extra, you can download and equip the amazing game Cyberpunk 2077, marvel Spider-Man, ghost Tsushima or Assassin’s Creed Valhallaall of which give you fast (and safe) access to amazing vistas. You can completely bypass the threat of impending violence by playing a driving game, e.g Forza Horizon 4 On PC (which is set in Britain so he can explore some familiar scenery). Alternatively, if visual realism isn’t as important as beauty, use a more convenient standalone title such as Chia, a trip or Fire control It might fit the bill. I really hope he enjoys them!

We’re still looking for your Game of the Year nominations for our end-of-year special – let us know your nominations by hitting reply or emailing us at pushbuttons@theguardian.com.