...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
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