Michael Mateas: A Preliminary Poetics for Interactive Drama and Games

Enactment vs. Description

Acton is a great part of life but we can not leave on action alone. Though it a great way to keep a player connected to the game it should not be viewed so highly. There are video games in which a simple story line and decisions are enough.

Description does not have to a lower then Enactment. I read many novels and I find more action in the novels then in the video games. What good is a great video game if the player does not use it as a story. It's the same with a novel. A great novel can be the worst book in the hands of some readers.

Intensification vs. Extensification

One thing that I really like about video games is never having the same outcome. You can play it one or twice but the outcome will change according to you actions. It keeps the game fresh every time. For example, in Kong it was simply moving out of the brawls way but it was different each time. Again, I'm a book worm and I find that novels even after reading time after time can still be fresh.

I believe there should be a balance between creating a video game that has both multiple outcomes and is extensive. We need videos games that are in depth and have verity. There are games that focus on graphics, depth of character, verity of outcomes, but they never find that balance. Its always to much of one thing and not enough of another.

Unity of Action vs. Episodic Structure

To each it's own. Each story is diff rent and so should each game. Some video games are better fit to have different incident all adding up to one. Video games in which you must do missions to ultimately arrive to the final battle. Other video games are more fit for Episodic Structure. Games such as The Sims. Where different incidents occurs threw the process and the ultimate mission may not arrive yet or at all.

Ken Perlin: Can There be a Form between a Game and a Story

Transference :

Becoming identified with the character

Many times I find my father and brother yelling at the top of their lungs at the soccer players. "Go left, Go right, what kind of a kick was that!". Why is it that they yell, the soccer players can't her them. Yer when I'm watching a movie I find myself lecturing the protagonist.

Perlin does a great job of ex planing transferring and also the difference between a video game and book. His examples of The Bicycle Thief are the movies in which I find my self auguring with the protagonist. And although I know the protagonist is not real or that his suppose to being falling I cant help but to argue.

The most amazing thing about transference is that its completely voluntary. I sometimes find myself watching movies that I find uninteresting and ask my self "this movie makes no sense this would never happen in real life". We volunteer only when we identify our self with the movie, book, music, or video game.

Agency:

the right to make choices

Agency is viewed as the choice one makes. In a novel their is no choice to make because the story is set in stone. That is not the same case with video games. Video games depend on agency. But I don't believe that because you can make a decision it should be placed above another literature that you can't.

Though you can't choice the actions of the characters in a novel it does not make it less then a video game. The point of having a choices is for the player to learn and become more identified with the game. I believe that that can be done in a novel as well.

Janet Murray: From Game-Story to Cyberdrama

What is the question: is there a game-story or is there a story-game?

In Murray's opinion it is "Is there a story-game?". Her explanations are logical.

• digital medium being will-suited to gaming because it is procedural and participatory

As Murray stated in From Game-Story to Cyberdrama procedural is generating behavior based rules and participatory is allowing the player as well as the creator to move things around.

Having generating behavior based rules allows the game to have a more realistic prospective. As Bryan Loyall stayed in his response to Murray. Loyall gave an example of the game Otto and Iris, in which if you did not pay enough attention to one of the characters they would become upset with you. I have played many games in where I could harm my own teammates and there was no consequence. Allowing the player to have control gives the player a Narrator feeling. This helps create a story.

• games images: still, moving , text, audio, and 3 dimensional

Because of all the media form in video game the video game becomes more real. It is able to be more interactive then another form of literature.

• the similarities structures in both video games and stories

Murray explained that both video games and stories have similar structures. Both have contest and puzzles. As in both have protagonist/antagonist and a challenge for them.

In the game Kong, Mario was the protagonist and Kong the antagonist. The challenge was to rescue the prince without being killed. The story is very simple but no less a story.

• and the similarities between our lives and video games

Something that caught my attention from Murray was her statement that our daily life is a game. I have heard many times that our daily life is a story. If its both a game and a story then it makes sense that games our stories.

Murray talked a lot about the Sims. A game in that has all the elements that I have on this post. It has generated behavior based rules, allows the player to be in control, multiple medium, protagonist/antagonists, and challenges. Yet what I find most interesting is the fact that it relates so will with our daily life. That makes the game feel even more real.

In the end I would also go with Murray's question: Is there a game-story? Yes

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

Consider how the documentary creates a narrative.

• Narrative is the shaping of a story. It guides the audience threw the story form the prospective of another. The documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters does just that.
• When watching or hearing a narrative story you voluntarily disassociate with your self and associate with story. In The King of Kong I my self became trapped into the narrators tale.
  

How is narrative different than story?

• As we hear our family and friends stories we begin to analyze it and shape it in our own opinion. When reading a book or article in which the narrator shapes the story to his view there is little analyze only to recognize to.
• The narrator's job is to give form to a story making you only the audience. A story allows you to become the narrator.

Who is the hero and who is the villain?

• Steve Wiebe is the hero and Billy Mitchell is the villain. Wiebe is portrayed as a hard working family man, who's only wish is to redeem him self of past fallers. Mitchell is viewed as a conniving business man who only wishes to stay on top at all cost.


• The documentary only allows the audiences to see Wiebe's struggles and Mitchell's ambition. The audience falls for Wiebe and despises Mitchell.

How does the documentary relate to Video games as Literature?

• The documentary not only proves that literature does not have to be in text ( because the the documentary it self is a narrative story) but also shows similarities between itself and the video game Kong.
• The documentary has a hero and a villain. Kong is the villain and Mario the hero. The documentary has a sold will defined plot. Kong's plot, though simple, is also sold and will defined. A man (Mario)attempting to reach his goal (saving the princess) and a villain(Kong) standing in the way. Both also had multiple obstacles that at many times surprised its audience.
• Threw this documentary we are able to comprehend literature in different levels.