6 Reasons Why Horror Is Gaming's Most Important Genre

Though this looks like two reasons, they are so profoundly interconnected as to be essentially indivisible and together constitute the deepest reason for gaming's connection with horror. Unlike horror stories in literature and film, gaming has a unique advantage, arguably the essence of what distinguishes gaming storytelling from other mediums and that is agency.

Horror stories in film and literature are ultimately passive, relying on the reader or viewer developing an empathetic connection with the characters. Gaming horror can similarly exploit this, but has the added advantage of agency, of players being responsible for the progression of the story and the action of characters.

That is the key to why Horror is especially effective in gaming and subsequently why Horror has had the relationship it has with gaming - Horror taps directly into that aspect of gaming which ultimately distinguishes it from other storytelling mediums.

Some of gaming's best narrative moments understand this: Bioshock's famous 'would you kindly' twist is entirely routed in this special agency gamers have and have become so used to.

Arguably, no other genre so directly engages with gaming's unique agency aspects more than horror.