In an article published by Jan Simons titled Narrative, Games, and Theory Jan differentiates the difference between External Observers and Immersed Players. Jan describes External Observers as people who apprehend “what has happened” in contrast Involved players care about “what is going to happen”.

Video Games and Storytelling

In the article Game Studies — Narrative, Games, and Theory, a quote stood out to me because I am not familiar with many video games. “Much depends, of course, on your definitions of narrative and simulation, which, in turn, depends on the language game you’re in and the moves…

Blog Post 1

Realistically, most people have been playing some form of games for as long as they can remember. Whether it be a board game like checkers or monopoly, games that help kids learn, or even video games. But do games need some form of a narrative? I believe the answer is no.

Narrative in Games?

Sometimes, all a gamer wants to do is to sit on the couch with a bag of Doritos on their left and a Mountain Dew on their right. They want to get lost in a mind numbing, shoot ’em up zombie game. Other times, it feels wonderful to get immersed in the narrative of an open-world video game…

No Need for Narrative

Obviously, “No Need for Narrative” is a bold statement and simply not true in all scenarios, however, there is no need narrative in all games. There are many games where a narrative is not present. Even in games where a narrative is present there are options to opt out of playing that…