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