Are video games interactive stories or a system of rules?
Jesper Juul thinks that they are not stories, but I do agree with his claim about games being unique and having a specific vocabulary. I was happy to hear that Game Scholarships began in the literature department.(My major is English Literature). When talking about interactive fiction games I believe that they are computer-assisted storytelling. After reading Koster and Laurel I feel a concentration about what is the purpose of video games? This is a good question that I am not sure of, but I have a few ideas. Koster presents the concept that video games are based on theories and fun whereas Laurel focuses on producing games for the female population. It is interesting that Laurel uses the terms popular culture and culture worker because this refers to productive researchers of society. Some questions that I have about the article include, Are Koster and Juul's presenting the same idea of video games being fun? With this being said, is a video game a story or a teaching tool? Based on Laurel's viewpoint about video games and Juul's viewpoint that video games are neither stories or system of rules, I feel that video games incorporate all of these factors. Being a college student at a liberal arts school this topic presents many ideas about video games, but shows how they can be interpreted .
Comments (1)
I thought it was very informative to see the ideas that each of these authors provided towards video games. I reacted in a similar manner to this article. It made me ask myself, what exactly makes a video game so unique as compared to other mediums of art. The statement that video games that have an enriched storyline, such as Myst, have little replay value. Completing the game a second time through provides no benefit. Games that are simple yet give us a challenge which we can improve upon certainly provokes us to replay in order to better our performance. I felt as though the purpose of a game was to provide a story, allow the user to choose his path as the story progresses and along the way possibly learn a lesson or two. These lessons may be big or small, but I have always felt as though I took something of value from a game. So in essence I have found each element from each author present in games.
Posted by Brandon Gnesda | January 10, 2008 8:46 PM
Posted on January 10, 2008 20:46