Games Studies 0101: Games telling Stories? by Jesper Juul

mrcclass

mrcclass
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An interesting little article on the role of narrative in computer games. I do believe that narrative, the basic human enterprise of telling stories even to ones' self, is so deeply rooted in human cognition that it shows up in everything we do. My agenda, I suppose, is that education should... more

Reviewed by mrcclass Jan 26 2008, 06:33am ( 1 review ) • gamestudies.org

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Rated by mrcclass on Jan 26 2008, 6:33am

An interesting little article on the role of narrative in computer games. I do believe that narrative, the basic human enterprise of telling stories even to ones' self, is so deeply rooted in human cognition that it shows up in everything we do. My agenda, I suppose, is that education should not be ruthlessly ignoring or banning the games that students play; rather we should embrace the cognitive possibilities inherent in them. From the conclusion of the article: "I would like to repeat that I believe that: 1) The player can tell stories of a game session. 2) Many computer games contain narrative elements, and in many cases the player may play to see a cut-scene or realise a narrative sequence. 3) Games and narratives share some structural traits. Nevertheless, my point is that: 1) Games and stories actually do not translate to each other in the way that novels and movies do. 2) There is an inherent conflict between the now of the interaction and the past or "prior" of the narrative. You can't have narration and interactivity at the same time; there is no such thing as a continuously interactive story. 3) The relations between reader/story and player/game are completely different - the player inhabits a twilight zone where he/she is both an empirical subject outside the game and undertakes a role inside the game."

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