From the moment video games became more complex than Pong and Spacewar, they became a platform for high-concept genre fiction. Science fiction and fantasy have thrived in gaming because gaming’s interactivity allows players to live vicariously as courageous heroes in strange, exciting locales. It’s remarkable to see how, in just a half-century, the fantasy genre has grown from the text-based Zork to staggeringly immersive works like Skyrim, Elden Ring, and Baldur’s Gate 3.
Not only have video games provided the opportunity to create rich original worlds, but they’ve also let gamers inhabit worlds that have already been dreamed up. There have been numerous hit games based on The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, and the Witcher books provided the basis for one of the most acclaimed RPG series of all time. But curiously enough, A Song of Ice and Fire and the resulting HBO television franchise, Game of Thrones, have never enjoyed a serious success in the world of gaming — which raises the question of why.
