There has been a long debate over if video games should include narratives or not. On one side of the argument are the ludologists who believe games and narratives should be separate from each other. On the other side of the argument are the narratologists who believe the stories are what make the game a game. Environmental storytelling has become one of the most debated topics in the game studies world. According to Ian Bogost in his article “Video Games Are Better Without Stories,” environmental storytelling “invite players to discover and reconstruct a fixed story from the environment itself.” (Bogost). Ludologists believe that environmental storytelling isn’t interactive like a game at all. Instead, environmental storytelling is comparable to cinema, tv shows, or a book. According to Bogost “Games’ obsession with story obscures more ambitious goals” (Bogost). Although both sides have provided valid arguments, I personally believe narratives are important to help enhance gameplay as well as a player’s immersion.

“Narration functions both to draw us into the character and add a framework of humor to the journey” (Salter 30). I totally agree with this quote as I do feel that the story or journey in a video game is what enhances our gameplay as well as enjoyment. In King’s Quest: A Knight to Remember everyone knows that Graham will become a king as that’s how the story begins. However, it’s the individual journey and interactions that make the narrative of the story. Many games utilize this mechanic of choice in their gameplay such as Until Dawn where our choices impact certain elements of the game that occur later on. This unique mechanic is what I believe makes Until Dawn fun and different. Despite all of this, narration also serves another purpose: world building.

When it comes to environmental storytelling and narratives in a games, the word world building comes to mind. I believe that narratives and environmental storytelling help build the world of whatever game you’re playing. One game that utilizes this technique to create an immersive world is BioShock Infinite. Right at the start of the game we are introduced to the environment of the “lower world” that is shown to be rainy, gloomy, dark, and dangerous. When we (the main character) are blasted into the utopian city of Columbia, the environment is shown to be bright, pure, and peaceful. The lower world is depicted to be old since everything looks run down. At the same time Columbia is shown to be a safe haven or Eden. In addition to this, players are able to find a museum in Columbia which offers a “state-sponsored version of historical events” (Wolf 77). This museum gives players more narrative to better immersive themselves into the culture and history of BioShock’s world. The game also is not open world. Although this is seen as a negative to many gamers, Wolf argues that “this creative choice to withhold information, ironically, makes the world seem more complete, even as it retains an air of mystery” (Wolf 77).

Environmental storytelling and narratives help players get more immersed into the magic circle of a game. Although there are games like Tetris that have no narrative, games like BioShock (in my opinion) have more depth and immersion. I am a firm believer that it’s the journey that matters, not the destination. Games with stories show the progression of a journey which allows players to create their own little narratives.

References

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

Huntemann, N. (2019). How to Play Video Games. New York, NY: NYU Press.

Representation is one of the ways that diverse characteristics of people and cultures are displayed. It is seen in all forms of media. However one of the many problems with this is that representation isn’t always positive. Media like games and tv can represent someone in a stereotypical way, which is a negative representation. Games in particular have difficulty with breaking from traditional characters and stereotypes that conform to hegemonic masculinity and femininity that is inherently submissive and lacking of any independence. The representation of masculinity and femininity is therefore negative.

 Within games and game culture, shows like the Guild, mentioned in “Gamers, gender, and cruel optimism”, although at first glance appear to be progressive with a main female protagonist and a diverse cast, falls flat to be as such. Zaboo, one of the members and gamers in The Guild, tries to impress codex, the female protagonist, by becoming independent and gaining muscle mass. While doing this, he attempts male bonding with Vork, the leader of the group. These few acts signify Zaboo’s need to be within male gender expectations. In the same way, our female protagonist fails at any attempt to be more than just skittish and indecisive. Besides some minor feats, she refuses all opportunities to grow, especially when given the opportunity to be a guild leader. The Guild presents its characters consistently in a bad light. 

On the other hand, we could say shows like Video Game High school provide a better side of femininity, not necessarily masculinity. Although they do not inherently try to be progressive, characters like Ki have some sense of leadership and independence as she attempts to become a better programmer. There is also Jenny Matrix who is feminine, but a hardcore esports gamer that expresses her own needs before her love interest, which breaks standard norms. The problem is, even those two do not compare to the main character, Brian D., who progresses from a clumsy kid that doesn’t know what he is doing to an esports professional. He accomplishes much more, but he is the protagonist. One could say that the main protagonist could be a female who takes on the same tasks, but with the toxicity of online gaming communities, the show would most likely receive harsh reviews by the male gamer target audience. 

On to the topic of games, we do have progressive attempts and many of them do succeed. However, a lot of games that have been mentioned focus on many masculinity stereotypes. In the Last of Us, Joel has many characteristics of strength. Muscle mass and leadership are two of the connections to masculinity that prove the continuous focus on a strong male protagonist. Although we do see new trends like dadification which represents a more positive aspect of males, this still diminishes the strength of Ellie, the young female working beside him. Luckily, this modern representation is far less negative than Leisure Suit Larry and its stereotypes of the LGBTQ community.

Without proper representation, gaming culture will never change. There will be backlash within the community from it. There will also still be negative representation in games regardless of the positive. However, if there is an attempt at change, things might be more inclusive and diverse within these communities.

Works Cited

Amanda C. Cote & Cody Mejeur (2018) Gamers, gender, and cruel optimism: the limits of social identity constructs in The Guild, Feminist Media Studies, 18:6, 963-978, DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2017.1376699

Payne, Matthew Thomas, and Nina Huntemann. How to Play Video Games. New York University Press, 2019.

Societal progress has pointed towards positive change when it comes to representation and the acceptance of communities and individuals who ‘differ’ from the established norms, but can the same be said for video games? Video games, in actuality, serve as a large influence in both culture and behavior, so why aren’t these growingly accepted communities represented? The classic macho-masculine, superhero strength six-pack physique, heterosexual male character ever-present in video games still remains dominant. Where are differing races? Where are the females, both feminine and masculine? Where are the lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer representational characters? Why aren’t they given the same storylines and popularity that the heterosexual, white males are?

As we analyzed in class, the game, The Last of Us, has become a Playstation hit for its storyline, violence and usage of graphics. The game is undeniably one of the best due to its developed narrative and intricate gameplay, but does it promote the repression of undermined and underrepresented groups? The narrative, after all, follows the journey of Joel, who is put in charge to protect Ellie from all the potential dangers they may encounter while exploring a post-apocalyptic United States. Who’s to say that Ellie is unable to protect herself? Why is the male character, yet again, placed in the dominant role while the female figure is expected to be submissive?

Along with the lack of female character representation, the article, “Where Is the Queerness in Games? Types of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Content in Digital Games” written by Adrienne Shaw and Elizaveta Friesem, attempts to analyze an archive of LGBTQ characters present in games. The article states, “The common sentiment in the existing literature is that games are rarely able to subvert normative gender and sexuality, but if improved, they might be able to do a better job. The structure of the game industry and process of commercial game design tends to reproduce more problematic or marginalizing forms of representation” (3878). By this statement, the article further emphasizes the lack of queer representation in video game culture despite the continuous cycle of video game production.

The examples the article discusses, which made up the authors’ collected archive of LGBTQ representative games included, Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within, and Carol and Greta: Fallout 3, which are, thus, considered homosexual and ambiguous due to reliance on suggestive narratives. The characters themselves are never explicitly revealed to be homosexual. The text states that the historian mentions that Gabriel’s character in The Beast Within identifies with King Ludwig II who is known to be gay. It is only suggested that this character is a part of this community and his gameplay as a homosexual is repressed. Carol and Great, throughout Fallout 3 are represented through their actions and behavior as a homosexual couple, but again, it is never explicitly revealed to the player. The text emphasizes, “In general, women’s homosexuality seems to be more often marked through relationships to other women and men’s homosexuality appears to be marked more often through stereotypical signifiers” (3881).

In conclusion, it is evident that narratives and popularized video games are not doing such a good job in ensuring the representation of these repressed communities. I believe that these communities deserve the right to experience gameplay with characters in which they can identify with and relate to. As a heterosexual female, even I, struggle to find characters in which I feel powerful and empowered playing as. It is time for a change.

I think it is certainly the perfect progressive climate for a wider range of representation and the elimination of repression in video game culture.

Sources used:

Shaw, A., & Friesem, E. (2016). Where Is the Queerness in Games? Types of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Content in Digital Games. International Journal of Communication, 3877–3889.

Walkthrough – The Last of Us Wiki Guide. (2014, December 9). Retrieved February 19, 2020, from https://www.ign.com/wikis/the-last-of-us/Walkthrough

Today, representation in media is a large point of contention with many people. Nowhere is it more clear than in video games where representation is not only shown, but also needed. For me I’ve gotten used to being able to identify with the character of the game no matter. The earliest memory I have is playing the Pokémon Trading Card Game for the Gameboy Color. You play as a male protagonist going around the world collecting medals from eight Club Masters and go on to defeat the four Grand Masters. It played out similar to the main series games but now uses the trading cards. Me being the naïve self that I was misgendered the character and thought that they were a female from the start. It wasn’t until I was older that I learned about the Japan only sequel that you had the choice between a male and female character.

Pokémon early on is known for not including a female character in the main series games. It wasn’t until the release of Pokémon Crystal for the Gameboy Color that a female was established as a choice for players in the series. While this is before my entrance into the series, it is still something to wonder about. The game developers wanted to include a female character from the beginning. Plans for Green, the female character were in development alongside the characters of Red and Blue. Concept art even exists for of all three facing off against each other. Yet it took them four years to include a female character into their games. Furthermore, it took until 2013 with the release of Pokémon X and Y for players to finally customize their character. While options were limited in terms of skin tones, and clothing, expression aside from the cookie cutter character was available for the player.

Pokémon is just an example of a game series that lacks representation. Many mainstream games are lacking representation of any sort. Communities such as the LGBTQ and religious communities are some examples of groups that don’t get much representation within games. For games that do have LGBTQ representation, at times they can rely on stereotypes for their character. While it may be harmful to use stereotypes Shaw states “LGBTQ characters’ gender and sexuality in the series are often conveyed via stereotypical signifiers (e.g., men acting effeminately or women acting masculine). This should not be read as bad in and of itself because as film scholar Richard Dyer discusses, sexuality is difficult to represent outside of those performative codes.⁹ What are often critiqued as negative stereotypes are performances of identity that are a part of some LGBTQ peoples’ lives (i.e., there are gay men who perform effeminately; there are women who identify as butch). Dismissing them as unrealistic or bad dismisses people who are often marginalized within LGBTQ communities.” (How to Play Video Games 111 – 112) As we discussed in class, with the use of stereotypes but the purpose of the stereotype and why it is used. When developers represent a group they have to be careful about the implications of using harmful stereotypes. A way around this is to not rely on stereotypes and base the character off of someone in real life.

Aside from representation, we talked about identity. I think representation and identity go a bit hand and hand. If you are represented in a game, then you can more identify with a character. That isn’t to say that you can’t identify with a character. I’ve identified with male characters in video games and place myself in their shoes for the sake of the story. Hopefully by having more representation in video games, players are able to better have parts of their identity show up in games.

When I was growing up, I always just played whatever games that my sister played. I was never concerned that most of the protagonists were male and therefore not a representation of myself. The thought of a certain group being left out in games wasn’t something I really thought about until recently because I was raised in a straight, white, cisgender, and very religious background; I wasn’t really aware of any LGBTQ+ discrimination in society, let alone video games, as a kid simply because they were never really discussed around me. Representation of these various groups of people in video games is very important because the inclusion can help various players immerse themselves into the game when they see characters that represent who they are. However, the importance of representation lessens when such representation is simply incorrect or even harmful. Adrienne Shaw gives us a prime example of this poor representation in her chapter on the Leisure Suit Larry series in How to Play Video Games by Matthew Thomas Payne and Nina B. Huntemann. Shaw describes how the game series makes fun of the LGBTQ+ community and is riddled with jokes that are varying degrees of homophobia and transphobia, explaining that “the core message that male homosexuality is undesirable, female homosexuality is only important to the extent that it is titillating to men, gender nonconformity is a mark of deviance, and transgender people are a joke are consistent” (115). These negative depictions of LGBTQ+ people through LSL’s various characters can be very off-putting to some players, especially those from that community. Personally, as someone with a handful of friends in that community, I wouldn’t feel comfortable playing a game that stereotypes and makes fun of them.

Gender is something that is also discriminated against in video games with many games portraying men to be dominant and powerful when compared to lesser female characters. In another chapter of How to Play Video Games, Soraya Murray writes about how many video games have a hyper-masculine hero as the protagonist with great mastery of skills and weapons, as well as his surroundings, that he uses to protect a side female character that is much weaker. Murray cites The Last of Us as breaking that norm in a way because the protagonist, Joel, is shown to not always have the right answer or the necessary tools needed to do something; Joel has to scrounge around for food and makeshift tools while learning to survive. He still plays the part of the protector when it comes to Ellie, the girl he is tasked with smuggling to another surviving zone, but the two often work together or rely on each other when completing certain tasks (103-106). Joel’s character and his relationship with Ellie go against, in a way, that hyper-masculine protagonist trope in video games because while Joel is still protecting Ellie, she helps him out on multiple occasions, meaning that Ellie is not completely helpless like other female characters in other games. Ellie’s character can also be seen as a positive representation of girls in video games because while she is not a playable character and rarely engages in combat, there are a few times where she briefly fights alongside Joel, which shows that girls are also capable of defending themselves.

All in all, representation is a seemingly integral part of video games that makes them much more enjoyable to the player when they are included.

In the third week of this course, world-building was an aspect that really shaped my understanding of the pivotal components of a video game. I was so interested in this topic that I looked up the different effects that world-building can bring about, other than in-game. It was then that I came across Nuren Iftekhar’s article, “Learning worldbuilding from video games”. In this article, the author talks about world-building and how it could compare to literature. Iftekhar states, “Literature builds up the atmosphere through worldbuilding alone whereas video games have graphical and audio stimuli to go with it” (3). When analyzing this quote, I realized that video games can be considered a form of a book or story. The only difference is the luxury of having graphics and audio to help form the image of the world. With the help of these two components, video games allow for people to put an image towards understanding what something possibly looks like. Likewise, this means that if authors want to be truly successful, they need to work really hard on describing the setting they want their readers to imagine. To bring in another point, some people may be better verbal learners than visual learners. To me, visually understanding a world is the easiest approach here. Think about describing our real world. No matter what people may write, our world is too complex to be fully communicated to another solely over words. The closest form we can get towards imagining something so extensive is through graphics.

Another point of this article is that little details that sometimes go unnoticed actually play a crucial role in games. Iftekhar puts it as, “It can be a poster on the wall with information that would seem mundane otherwise, the ramblings of a non-playable character about his day-to-day life, the terrain with all its vegetations and inhabitants, the currency that sets the tone for the world, the clothing that tells you more than you need to about how well off their economy is or perhaps about the weather” (5). As we can see, there is a chance that throughout your gaming career, you could have missed some of the signs that these little details were trying to tell you about the fictional world you were engaged in. I know I have. Having read this article, I plan to look at the finer parts of the world’s where games are based upon. By doing this, I truly believe that I stand a better chance of understanding the time period a game is based upon and an overall purpose of the characters and how they interact with their environment.

Lastly, when looking at the article “Learning worldbuilding from video games”, I think that we can establish some connections with one of the assigned readings for this course, Mark Wolf’s, “BioShock Infinite: World-building”. Iftekhar’s article surfaces more on the ideas of literature and video games, while Wolf’s work is more about narration and how the real world compares to imaginary worlds in games. For example, Wolf states, “BioShock Infinite demonstrates that video games not only tell engaging stories and can introduce us to immensely detailed imaginary worlds but also invite us to reflect on our own world. Even when the worlds depicted are overtly fantastic and unrealistic, they can nevertheless create desires in their audiences, cravings for new technologies such as flying cars…” (80). With this quote, we can say that some may look at a game’s environment and compare it to what they want to see in real life. This forms a direct correlation between video games and literature, which is arguably Iftekhar’s purpose. This means that people can reflect on the real world as they read as well. Although it may be harder to envision, people can have fantasies about what they want to see in our world vs the world in a book.

To sum it all up, I think that people should become aware of how important a game’s environment really is to the overall message and story of the game. We can even draw a connection to video games and literature. Either way, both writers and video game creators have a tough task at hand. That task is making the environment/setting clear to their audiences. And with us as the receivers, how we choose to put meaning towards the environment/setting is completely voluntary.

-Andy Kissoon

I am personally a really big fan of having narratives within video games.  I don’t think games have to have narratives within them to be good games, but I do feel like there are many unique and amazing games that are solely based on a narrative.  Within the article, Video Games Are Better Without Stories, Ian Bogost states “Players and creators have been mistaken in merely hoping that they might someday share the stage with books, films, and television, let alone to unseat them” (Bogost).  I feel like this statement is implying that video games are trying to be just like books or movies instead of being seen as its own separate and unique platform. He mentions that video games will not be able to tell a narrative better than other things, but I feel like he is missing the point.  Experiencing a narrative through a video game is unique on its own.  Instead of passively experiencing a narrative, players are able to be active in the stories that are being told. I believe that this leads to a stronger level of immersion.  Playing a game demands the attention of a player more than a movie demands the attention of a viewer.  A player can feel like they are a part of the narrative instead of just feeling a disconnect and like they are on the outside looking in. I love to watch scary movies and even though I may get scared, I am still able to commit and watch the movie to the end.  However, I find it very hard for me to play certain horror games because it feels like a more intense experience.  The survival or escape of the main character is up to me.  I have to make sure that I don’t mess up or that I make the right decisions or else something bad will happen.  When watching a movie, I know that I have no influence on the events that are going to take place.  I can passively just sit there with little to no energy and experience the narrative.   With books it is the same thing, the beginning, middle, and ending are all written already.  No matter what my personal thoughts or decisions would have been, it doesn’t matter.  With a video game, more times than not I can choose what to do and how to deal with the obstacles.  I believe that all different forms that content can come in should be accepted for what they are.  Video games has its many differences from other forms of media and that should be valued.  The modern version of gaming is still something very new, and the incorporation of narrative is also something very new to gaming as a whole.  I believe that the stories that can be experienced through games will only grow and expand.  The ways in which people can influence a narrative will only grow.  I see a lot of potential in the future of gaming and I find that exciting.

Works Cited

Bogost, Ian. “Video Games Are Better Without Stories.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 25 Apr. 2017, http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/video-games-stories/524148/.

 

 

Mohammad Farraj

DMS 448

Blog Post 2

            Over the years, the gaming world has released an abundant amount of games that has been very accepted in the community. To prove this, sales have shown to grow the companies profits and even on  streaming scale, Youtubers have taken the liberty in producing “lets play’s” or even “walkthroughs” to show the over all content of the game. More importantly, these factors such as profits, walk throughs, let’s play, shows how strong the narrative within these games are. Without these narratives, the concept of being a successful video game would vanish. However some members of the gaming community would disagree and dismantle this perspective. Therefore, the narrative within a video game ultimately helps define it.

            With the support of different mediums such as films, it helps inspire and cultivate the foundation of video games narratives. Over the course of the years, the gaming community has witnessed different mediums such as films essentially transforming into video games with compelling and interactive choices within the narrative. This includes examples such as an interactive film on Netflix called, “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch”. In the article, “Black Mirror interactive film: Inside the 2 Year Journey of “Bandersnatch” by Jackie Strause, challenges the idea of what is a video game and how the players choices can define the story. In the gaming community, “people have never seen this before, so they could come to it with preconceived notions, especially if they think this is a video game or a heavy definition of what interactive is” (The Hollywood Reporter). What this shows is that, it raises the standards for both film and video games by having both components from each medium (i.e video games and films). To analyze this even further, the narrative within these mediums help provide a structure within these simulations. By having this design structure where players can pick their fate and essentially see the “Butterfly effect” this helps cultivate the narrative in their own way. Thus, having their own unique input on the experience itself. Ultimately, supporting the stance on how narratives build a videogame. However, there are members in the community that believe in how a narrative doesn’t define a video game.

            Members such as Ian Bogost, don’t believe that narratives make a videogame. In the article, “Video Games Are Better Without Stories”, by Ian Bogost, states how as the narrative contines within video games, it becomes hard to contain or even control it. He states how, “the problem becomes increasingly intractable over time. But those worlds feel even more incongruous when the people that inhabit them behave like animatronics and the environments work like Potemkin villages” (The Atlantic). What this shows is that, Bogost believes that as the narratives progresses, the player faces the challenge in trying to maintain the understanding and grasp of the narrative. That the environment within the story makes the player loose themselves and their objective as they are transformed into robots with an empty goal. Thus proving why he takes the stance in why the narrative doesn’t define or support a video game.

                                                            WORK CITED PAGE

Strause, Jackie. “’Black Mirror’ Interactive Film: Inside the 2-Year Journey of ‘Bandersnatch’.” The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2019, http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/black-mirror-bandersnatch-netflixs-interactive-film-explained-1171486.

Bogost, Ian. “Video Games Are Better Without Stories.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 25 Apr. 2017, http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/video-games-stories/524148/.

I just want to start this off with my personal thoughts of going on right now. So when we were going over the semester long projects on Thursday, I felt a bit stressed. Overall looking at the work it doesn’t look too bad, but I tend to get carried away with my stress to the point where, the scenario is really close to the worst possible way the events turn out. This may seem like a bad way to view life; for me it’s been effective because it keeps me on my toes. My initial idea for the research project was to do the paper, since it might be easier to convey my thoughts through text. Once I started thinking about the second multimedia project option, it didn’t seem like the worst idea in my head, but I’m having trouble with the part where the gameplay has to go along with what I’m arguing. What I was hoping for with the multimedia option is I make my point and the gameplay has less to do with what I’m talking about, basically I wanted to do this in podcast format, rather than trying to make the gameplay go along with my argument. Now with the game project, this peaked my interests in terms of initial concept, but I’m stuck about a few things: first I don’t know what type of game I want to make (like if I wanted to make an rpg, or visual novel), second the story of said game, and third I’m worrying that since I’m new to making games that might limit me a lot. 

Moving on to what we talked about in class this week, so the whole idea behind the balance of narrative within games. The examples brought up during class were Kings Quest and BioShock Infinite. These games took two approaches to world building to develop the story and add substance to the games. Kings Quest left it up to the player to find meaning with the bare bones story. So in this instance even though the game didn’t flesh out the story there can still be complexity behind the face value of the gameplay. An example where people argue this idea is with Tetris where the game itself doesn’t tell a story, but people read in between the lines, and argue there can be a deeper interpretation of the game: the game can be seen as a microcosm of everyone’s daily day to day life and how we all get caught up trying to manage so much, and at some point people reach their limit. In comparison a game like BioShock Infinite the game takes the time to flesh out the world through direct and indirect means to help immerse the player in the universe it is set in. This game can also be seen with a deeper story than what’s being shown, but this time the initial story is more expanded upon. Now people are having the dispute of if world building makes a game better or lack of world building can make a game worse, with games that don’t spend too much time with a story or world building, it’s up to how much the player wants to put in, when talking about looking for deeper meaning in these games (the effort one puts in can equate to what they get out). On the other side of the coin games that put in time to put effort into the initial story/world, the player doesn’t have to think as deeply about it, but the option is still there too. There’s no right answer to this, it is what the player wants to put in to decide what they want out of the games they’re experiencing.  

This past week, we discussed the purpose and effect that narratives have in games. One of the articles, “Video Games Are Better Without Stories” by Ian Bogost, stood out to me in particular. He asserts that films tell stories infinitely better than a video game ever could; therefore, games should forgo complex narratives in favor of straightforward entertainment and settings.

I highly disagree with this article on a personal level. I have been playing games all my life and I can confidently say that some of the most memorable games were the ones with incredible narratives. For example, I played Nier:Automata a few years ago and was absolutely blown away by it. On a surface level, it is a grindy, beat-em-up game about androids with fan service strewn about. The gameplay and story are entertaining enough but what really stood out to me was the multiple endings. Many of the characters and philosophers they’re meant to portray are intended to make the player contemplate where we derive meaning and purpose in our actions. It explores various ways we create purpose for ourselves and highlights the potential dangers in which we rationalize purpose. (Spoiler warning) And once we have completed the game, which took me around 300 hours to complete, we are given the choice to sacrifice our save game in order to help a random stranger beat the final boss easier. And I chose yes. The story’s purpose was to teach us to feel empathetic towards each other, and to sacrifice for each other even if we gain absolutely nothing from it.

From a business stand-point, it wouldn’t make any sense at all to remove narratives from video games. Some of the most successful games of the industry have narratives intertwined within them. To name a few: Skyrim, Warcraft, Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, and Fallout would be a hollow shell without the intricate narratives that immerse us into their respective universes. If we, theoretically, removed these games from existence, the video game industry we know today would be much smaller and less popular. This would only harm and limit the capabilities of game developers as well as reduce the social acceptance and diversity of games in culture. Also as a side note, I feel open world games like Skyrim and Fallout would be extremely difficult to portray as a film due to their heavy reliance on the player’s decisions.

At the end of the day, why should it matter whether a complex narrative is added to a video game or not? Personally, I see video games as a modem for people to share their creations. Whether it be a story driven “walking simulator” or a mindless, fast-paced shooter, it shouldn’t really matter.

References:

Bogost, Ian. “Video Games Are Better Without Stories.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 25 Apr. 2017, http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/video-games-stories/524148/.