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 you want to make” (Simons). One game I am familiar with is The Sims. It is a game in which you create a character and explore different story lines or ways you want the game to be told. The game itself has rewards if you complete tasks such as growing a garden or learning how to cook for example which is similar to goals one has to reach to grow in the game. The game itself doesn’t necessarily have an ending point in which one knows they have successfully won or lost. That quote relates to my thinking of The Sims by making the game yours, you chose the moves and decisions you want. Playing the game allows you to create a story you want to be told, there aren’t any rules as to how to play in the game.

That also relates to a question in the article Video Games are Better Without Stories, “Are the resulting interactive stories really interactive, when all the player does is assemble something from the parts” (Bogost)? To answer, I would say that it is an interactive story being told because there isn’t an identical story being told from one person to another; each story is different. I think having a story to follow makes the games just as interesting to complete, it allows one to look forward to something such as a new level.

Also in the article Game Studies — Narrative, Games, and Theory it talked about death or behavior that is out of the ordinary. One author wrote, “What player would actually commit suicide, even virtually” (Simons). Then they go on to discuss how the game Grand Theft Auto is a game in which the player is crashing cars, robbing people, and/or shooting others. I have never really thought about it in that way of the storytelling aspect of that background. I do think it is an interesting study of why people are creating a game such like that to relate to. That also is

In the book “Play/Write” specifically looking at the article written by Jill Morris “Narrative Realities and Alternate Zombies,” In her classroom, she creates a situation and then the students have to respond in a way of alternate reality. It allows them to create their own story. She also brought up a point about how students aren’t engaging well in traditional delivery of lecturing. “If you use PowerPoint, if you introduce clickers, if you have them make a personal website, this will somehow make class relevant for them” (Morris 267). She did research as to technology in the classroom and increased engagement in students.

To conclude my thinking of narratives and video games would be a quote from the Narrative, Games, and Theory article. “For game players, characters are vehicles onto which they project their own goals, skills, experiences and understanding of the game. Characters in games, one might say, are functional and not emotionally and psychologically characterized entities as their counterparts in narratives” (Simons). In this article, they described narratives as past and previous experiences, “how things came to be what they are” (Simons). In video games, the determination of how the game is going to end up is not always decided in the beginning like narratives are. I think that is what makes the game interesting by not knowing the ending. Therefore, in my opinion, video games would be more interesting if they did have a story line to it.

References

Simons, J. (2007). Narrative, Games, and Theory. Game Studies, 7(1). Retrieved September 18, 2017, from http://gamestudies.org/0701/articles/simons

Bogost, I. (2017, April 25). Video Games Are Better Without Stories. Retrieved September 18, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/video-games-stories/524148/#article-comments

Morris, J. (2016). Narrative Realities and Alternate Zombies. In Play/Write: Digital Rhetoric, Writing, Games (pp. 255–268). Anderson, SC: Parlor Press.