Example (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Sunday, September 14, 2014, 18:05 (3869 days ago) @ TTL Demag0gue

The phrase "show, don't tell" is a common adage among writers. It's not the difference between visual versus textual media. Rather, it basically boils down to the idea that the author needs to detail the action of the scene, rather than always resorting to an information dump.

Here is a great example from the Last of Us. Spoilers:

You can come across posters for a teen werewolf movie, that's a parody of the twilight films. If you look at it, Ellie asks about the film, and Joel tells her a bit about it. Ellie wonders why Joel would go see such a silly film, and asks who dragged him to see it. Joel says "Nobody".

It's the way he says it, you KNOW his daughter dragged him to see it, and he's dodging that because he isn't over her death. I got that right away, but if you look closely in the beginning of the game, she has that same poster in her room.

Instantly you know Joel is still feeling guilt over his daughter, without any of that being told to you. That's showing.