Stories in Video Games: Here’s the Story
Once Upon a Time, there was a girl who never considered herself a gamer, EVER, but she found herself in a class in which she has to read and write all about video games. To her surprise she is not only interested in the context, but is actually getting flashbacks of found memories spent over her computer, television, and cellphone playing… *gasp* video games.
Now for the meat and potatoes of this post, the girl will be describing what her experiences with video games were, thus far, and whether or not she is or is not in agreement with the authors of the required reading.
Story telling is an important aspect in everyday society and life. We tell stories day to day to our friends and family whether that be in person, over the phone, or on social media. We read articles, watch television and movies, and some rare specimens even still read books (and I do not mean E-readers). But the arguments for today is whether or not stories have a place in the video game world.
In the first article written by Ian Bogost titled “Video Games are Better Without Stories”, you may or may not be surprised to learn that Bogost is not in support of the story telling aspect of some video games. When I first began to read this article I thought it was confusing, “who cared if there is a story or not?” I thought, but by the end… I still felt I could care less if there was a story or not, but I understood his point that the story was unnecessary. Bogost argued that the goal of the storytelling aspect of games was that eventually players would be able to manipulate and control the story in real time. In summary Bogost was unimpressed with the fact that some games could have simply been better if you sat and watched them in a cinema instead of playing detective trying to piece together the story with each passing level. For me it reminds me of the games: Lego Batman, Lego Starwars, and Call of Duty, now all of these games have the “free play” option where you can manipulate the game however you see fit and can play, essentially, with whatever character, or weapon, you desire. However, there is also a portion of the game where you can choose to follow tasks and only after following those tasks will the story continue. Now, I think these types of games would be a happy choice for Bogost, who seems so bothered by the concept of stories in the games, this way he could enjoy either with or without the story (Bogost, 2017).
The next reading was an article written by Jan Simons titled “Narrative, Games, and Theory”. When I was reading Bogost’s article I could not help but think about games such a Sims, Neo Pets, Club Penguin, and other nonstorytelling games, be it online or not, where you had complete control of your character and the tasks you wanted to accomplish. There was no set end and the game could essentially keep going on forever. This concept is something that is discussed in the article written by Simons. Simons addresses that in “in-world” games, where you are set to do as you please, there are set goals or achievements in which a player has an opportunity to earn points which will allow them to level up and open the world further. In that sense, technically the players do not have full free will in the game. However, Simons argues that similar to characters in a novel, first time players of the game will experience agency as they move throughout and discover the limits to the new world. Essentially, Simons states that players should feel as though they are in control, when in reality they are not.
Simons has a very long article where she makes good points, many of them, one of which is that narratives offer a platform for experimental thought, a statement I found very interesting. Simons states that for example the question “what if the Soviet Union invaded the USA?” that is something that can be explored through a movie or a video game. It sparked a thought of the Nazi Zombie game in Call of Duty. I do not think Simons necessarily had an argument for or against narrative but mainly just discussing the different types of gaming experiences to be had and the benefits to each (Simons, 2007).
The final part of required reading was “Narrative Realities and Alternate Zombies: A Student-Centered Alternate Reality Game” by Jill Morris. In this essay Morris discusses how she, and some colleagues, decided to explore the concept of narrative and chronology in games by creating their own game for their students (which is so cool). The students in Morris’ class were more interested in creating believable characters and playing roles than they were in actually adding to the narrative of the story. However, the players at a different university were more interested in “what happens next?” than anything else. Morris then goes on to discuss the different forms of games that have developed since the 1970s. She then discusses the introduction to the use of narrative and the emergence Alternative Reality Games (which I thought were called Virtually Reality Games but I digress). In Morris’s conclusion she states that she feels an interactive narrative was successful for her class. I thought that Morris’ idea to incorporate video games into her classroom was a very interesting and successful idea. I definitely think that it improved her students learning experience because they were able to interact so personally with the subject that they were studying. I think that this demonstrates the characters and the roles they play are more important than the story itself. They were studying business and the story focused around a business mindset, however the type of business did not matter as much as the interaction between the characters/players and their roles. I think however that the Zombie part made it slightly more fun, but again unnecessary (Eyman and Davis).
To wrap up this post because I am unsure how long it is supposed to be games with stories or without stories. I do not know. I like games with and without stories. I am sure you do too. I do not think there is a problem with having a narrative as part of a game. I do not think games will ever replace or be at the same level of story telling as a movie, television series, or a book, however they are their own separate form of entertainment and storytelling platform. As long as a player feels entertained and challenged I think the game has been successful.
Cited Sources:
Bogost, I. (2017, April 25). Video Games Are Better Without Stories. Retrieved September 15, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/video-games-stories/524148/
Simons, J. (2007). Game Studies. Retrieved September 15, 2017, from http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/simons
and the book the essay was found in is Play/Write: Digital Rhetoric, Writing, Games edited by Douglas Eyman and Andrea Davis.
