Technology tells a tale: digital games and narrative

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Schut Kevin
2003 DiGRA '03 - Proceedings of the 2003 DiGRA International Conference: Level Up

In this paper, I discuss the debate over digital games and narrative in light of medium theory (also known as media ecology). The communicative environment created by a society’s media can favor certain kinds of cultural change. After analyzing the stories (or lack of them) in three very different games, I argue with ludologists that games are not narratives. I believe, however, that the digital medium has encouraged the transformation of what our culture thinks of as a story.

 

Build It to Understand It: Ludology Meets Narratology in Game Design Space

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Mateas Michael Stern Andrew
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

Building experimental games offers an alternative methodology for researching and understanding games, beyond what can be understood by playing and studying existing games alone. Through a simultaneous process of research and artmaking in the construction of the interactive drama Façade, new theoretical and design insights into several game studies questions were realized, including the hotly debated question of ludology vs. narratology. This paper describes some of the ways that building games can inform researchers about what game scholarship should be focused on and why, and ways that building games can offer new perspectives on existing forms and genres.

 

Theory Wars: An Argument Against Arguments in the so-called Ludology/Narratology Debate

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Pearce Celia
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

This paper offers an alternative to the agonistic debate presented by Gonzalo Frasca in “Ludologists Love Stories Too,” in Level Up, DiGRA 2003 Conference Proceedings (Frasca, 2003). While Frasca’s position is that the ludology/narratology debate is spurious and fraught with misunderstandings, his paper simultaneously succeeds in deepening the gap by further polarizing the alleged two sides of a debate that, in Frasca’s words, “never took place.” Furthermore, the paper adds to the misunderstandings by further mis-labeling, mis-quoting and decontextualizing some of the points made by others. In this paper, I argue that there is little value in polarizing scholars into two “camps,” even if one is doing so in an attempt to bridge the gap. As some of the scholars quoted by Frasca (some of whom I will refer to here) have pointed out, the argument is neither interesting nor productive. It begins to sound more like a theological argument than a deep form of discourse—somewhat like saying “communists love capitalism too.” The very act of bestowing the suffix “-ist” is a kind of spell-casting exercise that only serves to reinforce the so-called false polarity that Frasca attempts to critique. And in fact, I am certain that a number of scholars who have been been grouped into the referenced camps—myself among them—would prefer not to be classified in either camp, but be allowed to move freely across the spectrum if ideas that lie between play and narrative without being forced to take a “position” on either end.

 

Exporting Wars: Literature Theory and How It Explains the Video Game Industry

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Dymek Mikolaj
2007 DiGRA '07 - Proceedings of the 2007 DiGRA International Conference: Situated Play

The video game industry is the combination of two worlds: technology (IT) and show-biz/media/cultural industries. This paper explores this tension by exposing the shortcomings of the culture economics perspective and its lack of understanding for the unique characteristics of the video game medium, thus subsequently proposing a deeper analysis of the medium by turning to literary theoretical perspectives on games, such as ludology and narratology. Due the lack of technological dimensions in its theoretical framework, narratology is deemed less fruitful as an analytical tool and ludology is preferred. Ludology, with Espen Aarseth’s cybertext theory elucidates aspects of “interactivity”, author-medium-reader power relations and the mechanical organization of textual machines, which provides perspectives on practice in the video game industry.

 

Simulating the Storytelling Qualities of Life: Telling Stories with the Sims

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Heliö Satu
2005 DiGRA '05 - Proceedings of the 2005 DiGRA International Conference: Changing Views: Worlds in Play

The stories vs. games debate has been prominent during the early years of game studies, and few other perspectives have been introduced to the discussion. In the paper, Game Researcher and Concept Designer Satu Heliö from Sulake Corporation introduces new concepts with which to approach the supposed divide. She argues that concepts such as narrative mindset and social schema provide better means to understand game features and player motivations regarding such game genres as role-playing games and popular game series such as The Sims.