Definately an interesting and though provoking article. Personally I've always found the idea of Videogame novels odd and slightly off putting and have never been able to venture into that realm of literature myself. I guess it?s because, to me, they really aren?t very literary and they never feel like actual ?literature?.
I suppose I consider videogame novels to be one step below the much lambasted ?Game Fiction,? a term frequently bandied about in speculative fiction circles which refers, in its most refined essence, to works of fiction based on Roleplaying games, specifically Dungeons and Dragons. They bare all the hallmarks of those games, characters with discernable classes and events that can be easily recreated within the role-playing game.
Take the much lauded Dragonlance Chronicles, the novels in that trilogy are obviously part of an epic Roleplaying campaign that must have inspired the players and game masters to transform it into a novel, yet it still has many hallmarks. A dungeon crawl complete with a great artifact for the heroes to find, negotiations to make and even a boss to fight. While it is readable, it feels silly and not particularly literary.
As well some games that are transformed into novels, Baldurs Gate being an interesting example, show the problem of Character Creation in relation to story. How can one write a novel about a story in which the players craft and manipulate the plot with a character of their own design, with a personality imposed upon that character by that player? To someone who has played the game, the novel will never feel right, it won?t be the character they grew to know and love. Similarly what if you didn?t recruit the characters portrayed as ?main? in the story, what if you ditched Immoen, or Khalid and Jahera.I suppose it works in Mass Effect because you can neglect Commander Shephard by setting the story before his/her appearance but the problem persists.