After reading Bogost’s “Video Games Are Better Without Stories” article it got me thinking… are games really better without stories? I find myself disagreeing with his argument. If you take the stories out of video games then you’re left with games like Tetris and Candy Crush. In reality, I would never rank a game like Tetris over any game with a proper storyline. Games like BioShock allow players to immerse themselves into a fictional world and play as someone they’re not. When I play video games I’m making moves as if I am the character itself. Video games are an opportunity for us all to escape from the real world and story-less games like Tetris don’t provide that escape. Tetris and Candy Crush are games I like to call “Subway games.” They’re games you take out to pass time. You play them on your commute to work or school with no real purpose or goal in mind. However with narrative games they provide a storyline that allows you to continue building or exploring a world you’ve been working on forever. It drives you to keep returning to the game to see what comes next.
In Bogost’s article he mentions why narrative games can’t just be made into films. He says “Real-time rendering tools are as good as pre-rendered computer graphics these days, and little would have been compromised visually had the game been an animated film. Or even a live-action film” (Bogost). My take on why narrative video games should not be made into films is because the experience that video games provides is different from the experience that films provide. People that play video games are looking for choices – the opportunity to pick their own path. However, when you are watching a film, that freedom to choose is taken away. Even if games provide a false sense of choice, there is still opportunity for us to pick our own path. Players are “in control” when playing video games. However, when you watch films, you are forced to sit back and analyze the story. Sure, the story line of games are important and making the game into a film would help audiences better understand that story, but we are not here only for the story, we are here for the experience. We are looking for the opportunity to be someone we are not.
What if games were also made into films? How would that affect the gaming community? What would happen if people playing the game also had the opportunity to watch the full story? I feel like it would be interesting to see the full story play out. However, I also feel as if it would ruin the experience. The element of surprise is one thing that makes playing video games so entertaining. Not knowing what is coming next keeps players on their toes and keeps them wanting more. I do think though that being able to see a video game’s narrative being played out from beginning to end might be cool.
DMS 448 Spring 2020 
I agree with you that it would be very difficult to compare a game like Tetris to one with a such a rich world and story like BioShock. I also disagreed with Bogost’s argument about narratives and felt that he was being very short-sighted and, like Joan mentioned in lass, gate-keeping the gaming community.
I feel like an important element of gaming that Bogost chose to neglect is that players can really take their time. As much time as they want, really. Viewers do not have that option when they are watching a movie. The experience of watching a movie is completely constrained by the length of the film and the details that the editing crew deemed important enough to leave in.
I love movies as much as the next person, and sometimes I’m more in the mood to watch a movie than play a game, but the experience of playing a game does not compare. In a game, the player is able to stop and admire the scenery as long as they want. They can read extra information provided in the environment that help flush out the world and/or story. They can examine items. They can attempt to talk to every single NPC in sight if thy really want to. You can spend hours exploring every single nook and cranny of the world around you in a way that is simply impossible in movies. And often the player will find things in the environment that enrich the narrative, whether directly or indirectly. I don’t think that kind of rich, exploratory version of narrative should be discredited.
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