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My rather aged Xbox 360 |
However, taking a survey on the
books in my life made me think of other places I find stories. A primary one for me would be
videogames. I find that I probably play
videogames as much if not more than I read, and I probably spend more money on
videogames each year than on books (partially because games cost more).
At this point, books are widely
considered “legitimate art,” while videogames are not. Likely this is just growing pains, since
videogames are relatively new and books have been around for a while. Movies went through a similar phase in their
early years.
Minecraft cover art |
Another part of this may be that
Minecraft,
for example. Yet it’s still incredibly
fun to play, and allows for the players to create their own narratives. Others seem more like somewhat interactive
movies, consisting mostly of cutscenes and telling a story, but with almost no
gameplay. It’s a difficult balance to
achieve, and one style is not necessarily better than another.
some games have no story,
some games have no story,
Yet even when games do tell a
story, frequently it isn’t a very good one.
This is something the industry seems to struggle with. A lot probably has to do with balancing story
and gameplay. Battlefield 4 left a lot to be desired as far as story, but the
game parts of the campaign were still fun to play. On the other side, The Last of Us had an incredible story, but I’ve heard the gameplay
was repetitive.
It takes a long time for a game to
produce both, and distributors are trying to crank out as many games as
possible. However, games with longer
development periods can be successful.
Take GTA V as an example. It was in development for far longer than the
other blockbuster games of 2013, and did better as a result (despite a rocky
online launch).
In future blogs, I may take a look
at some other examples and continue to try and figure out where videogames
belong in the community of storytelling.
I don’t necessarily think they should be judged in the same way books
are, but games like The Last of Us
have proved that videogames can tell compelling stories as well as books or
movies. My hope is that as this blog
continues, we’ll see the quality of storytelling in games rise.
The Last of Us, don't get me started. If you haven't played it, you owe it to yourself. The entrance of video games into the art world has long been a centerfold for discussion, but in my opinion, they've already earned that role. They have a base story that rivals movies and novels; however, the emotional response inferred from a game is much left to the player's interpretation and involvement. While this might be the same in the movie and book industries, they can lead your emotions much more than video games do. Books also allow the reader much more involvement in each scene than a video game or movie can. Yes, in a video game you get to "live" the experience. But if you are anything like me, living an experience leaves a lot of description falling to the wayside in comparison to a book.
ReplyDeleteI do think that the average video game does have a ways to go before the platform can be respected in its own devices, but there are certainly gems among the rubble that deserve praise.
Loved your post this week! I hadn't thought about the common thread of storytelling binding books and video games together. Terraria has recently been stealing much of my time away from my literature courses during my down time, so seeing this post definitely made me smile (have you played Trine?!). That being said, you're super right about games struggling to focus on a story without bogging itself down by clunky game play.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this topic is something interesting to think about, I also agree with the comment from ejlongblog - I think that, while you may "live" the video game experience, books offer much more for the imagination and in this way lead to more involvement. By personally setting a scene inside your head based on your own personal interpretation of a book, I think one would become more invested in a book. In a video game, you're simply interpreting visuals set forth for you by the creator of the game - more is explicitly "given" to you.
I really like this topic. I know we went through a lot of information last semester when we were in the senior seminar class about storytelling and gaming. I think you could pull a lot from that class when/if you talk about video gaming and storytelling in the future. I think that would really help those who haven't had the same exposure to gaming and storytelling if you could pull from the resources from that class. I'm very interested to see where you will go with this.
ReplyDeleteHey James, here are some of my thoughts on the matter. http://cathyday.com/2013/11/26/is-gaming-bad-for-fiction-writers/ I don't play games, but I do think they have become a major narrative experience for millions of people. My question for you is: do they get enough publicity already? Do they need the same kind of help that books do to "get the word out."? I have no idea!
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