Kathmandu, April 16 -- Games have never been as mainstream and comprehensive as they are today. The video games of today are bigger, tell complex narratives, and built on technologically elaborate gaming engines. Games are also no longer the province of certain countries, like the US or Japan-they're much more diverse and multicultural. The protagonists, narratives and settings embrace the global appeal of video games.

Contemporary games draw on the diversity of different cultures and send their protagonists off on globe-spanning romps. And so, Lara Croft in 2018's Shadow of the Tomb Raider lands on the island city of Cozumel in Mexico, with sequences taking place during Dia de los Muertos celebrations.

In the past couple of decades, a ...