The Cast

  Probably the most obvious and essential to a story are its characters.  Characters give a story life, excitement, conflict, and resolution.  Without characters stories would probably be abstract and non-linear.  Characters, as they pertain to video games, are controlled by game players and it is left to the players to define who the character is that they are controlling.  I have heard that all the character development happens in cut scenes of games to further the story and that the player does not have control over those inner thoughts or feelings of characters that lead them to act a certain way.  Interestingly enough, some recent games have attempted to fix this consensus, and although the methods are not perfect, they show that the future holds serious potential for complete control over playable characters.

    The role-playing game Mass Effect has noteworthy features of character development through its character creation process.  When you first create your character you can choose your gender and choose various background and visual elements to personalize your character, but also shape his or her identity. You may also choose from three different classes: a soldier, an engineer, or a biotic.  Each class has its advantages, disadvantages, and special abilities that pertain to it, but you can also be a hybrid of different classes if you so choose.  The great thing about all of these features is that during the game you encounter other characters and you must engage in conversation with them.  Based on the things you made your character out to be determines how you get spoken to by others and in essence, how you are thought of in the game world.  Also, when you are talking to other characters in the game you are given the choice of how to respond to them; how you respond will dictate what kind of person you are by adding points to two categories: Paragon and Renegade.  Paragon is the "good guy," I mean you are already a good guy to start the game, but this classification means that you are polite, cool, etc.  Renegade, however, means that you talk violently, take no bullshit, and that you threaten people.  This has a great impact on the overall story because you become notorious or "that guy" within the game world and it shows.  All of your actions based on what type of person your character is will affect the ending of the story as well and playing through the game as a different class gives some variance in game play as well.  

Main character as a Renegade.  The red/orange meter by his head shows that he is almost a 100% villainous, hardcore, Terminator-like bad-ass.  The light blue meter shows how much "good" is in him or his potential to be good.  His personal features also change with his personality of what the player makes him to be.  His face seriously looks evil.     

In contrast to the Renegade above, this woman is almost 100% Paragon.  She is not evil at all really and it shows in her "Talents" panel in the right of this screenshot.  She is not intimidating and has incredible charm. How fitting.  Obviously this can all change and she can be a tough girl  who may give ol' John (just above her) a run for his money.  

Features like these tend to only show up in role-playing games, but hey, it's a great start to what can hopefully become a game player essentially controlling his or her own character development and story with the movement of a joystick and pressing some buttons.                 

Annotated Bibliography of a Related Topic

1. Suellen S. Adams, “The case for video games in libraries,” Library Review 58, no. 3 (2009): 196. 
   

Suellen Adams explores the idea of having libraries including actual video game services along with its service of providing literary material. Adams goes on to define the purposes of libraries and explains what video games can bring to a library and how they can fit in to and support a scholarly atmosphere. She uses some general knowledge of trends with video games and facts from the nature and effects of playing video games to help form her main points and explain them. 
Adams argues for gaming and for gamers that video games are constructive and do not waste time because they require the player solve problems, complete puzzles, reflect, and in general, process lots of game elements going on simultaneously. She explains that reading is involved and in some games, essential to its game play. Adams also mentions that video games in libraries will foster tight-knit communities at a library and that not just young adults can play, but elders as well. Holding tournaments or the standard just-for-fun service of video games at the library are great social environments. Plus, video games "level the playing field" for those who cannot access this technology and develop computer skills to become skilled in the realm of our high-tech state. Lastly, Adams provides different scenarios and brainstorms on video game programs that a library could use to support its learning and social environment. 
The ideas provided by Adams are certainly relevant to an aspiring librarian, current librarians, and for those interested in video games. Being that we are in the seemingly ever-advancing digital age, this essay is completely relevant and although video games in libraries do exist, to have this become widespread so that games in libraries is normal would be another luxury and resource of information. 

Just Thought I Would...

...share some comments that I made on some other bloggers post on video games and storytelling! The links to the respective articles are posted below each response comment.



Great article!  I completely agree with lots of points that you make on here.  One thing I would like to say to try and understand video game-narrative structure is that the cut scenes just keep the story moving forward.  As far as the player going from "A to B," this is true to some extent, but I think that "A to B" is just as important as the cut scene.  That player involvement obviously requires getting to some point, but there are obstacles in the way in order to get to that point, just like in films.  If there's an undercover cop chasing a criminal through a city his obstacles are parked cars, traffic, other people, possibly bikers, and other minor things.  To draw some parallels, this chase scene is the "A to B" that is needed to get to the "cut scene" where the story will be furthered more by the cop arresting the criminal, killing him, or whatever.  All games are made of this structure as you noted, but I feel that the interactive parts should be given more credit and not just an excuse to play a game.  Anyhow, I thoroughly enjoyed this article.  I'm glad someone else is writing about storytelling and video games because this topic is rather hard to find over the Net.

http://www.suite101.com/content/storytelling-in-videogames-a102922



Interesting article.  I really like how you put everything in perspective and let people know how hard it is for video games to be thought of as an art form.  Honestly, I used to never know which thing would happen first: a comedy wins an Oscar or video games becoming a medium of storytelling on the levels of film and books.  Now, after Halo, after Half Life, after Resident Evil, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, and Grand Theft Auto, I feel that video games are inching forward to officially becoming an art.  In my opinion, they already are an art form because I'm interested in 3D animation and visual effects and I've done class projects and finals that can take significant amounts of time.  These projects are not slouches.  Since relatively the same thing goes on in the production of video games, I totally understand what it takes to make a game.  I honestly think it's a shame to see how much art direction goes into so many great games that have awesome stories only for them to be discredited as art because of their nature of play.  Critics make it seem like because video games are play and play is fun, that they are not legitimate art forms.  I'm an artist as well and I'm not bashing art, but what about those people that go to galleries to view artworks?  Is that not fun for them?  Otherwise they probably wouldn't be going.  Look at film, everyone loves movies and watching movies is fun, but that does not take away from their credibility as an art form.  I feel that the context in which fun is placed is misconstrued because play is considered fun and unproductive - while "viewing" artworks, "watching" films, or even "reading" books is not fun (even when art, film, and literature enthusiasts say it's fun).  I don't understand.  Now that I've ranted enough, I thank you for writing this article because I know that you care for the future of video games as much as I do.  Great article!      

http://www.suite101.com/content/storytelling-in-video-games-a220527