Ideal Stories

Over the course of this blog we have analyzed concepts and devices used in video games to tell stories. But in his article Games Telling Stories, Jesper Juul introduces the question, "Do video games tell stories?" [1] This is a much debated question because video games are vastly different from films and books, mostly because of interactivity. Jesper presents a handful of arguments for and against games telling stories. One of the arguments he presents for gaming as a narrative medium is the concept of ideal stories.

An ideal story is usually presented to the player by means of the game manual, back of the case, intro, etc. It is an ideal sequence of events that the player has to realize. [1] Jesper uses the classic arcade game Space Invaders as an example. In Space Invaders we as players are presented with the ideal story that the aliens have invaded and broken the positive state we were living in. The ideal story ends with the aliens being defeated and our positive state being restored. We fight them to return to peace. As players we are fighting to realize a sequence of events, but the actual playing is not the sequence. [1] And in the case of Space Invaders, the ideal story can never be fully achieved: after a wave of aliens are killed, a new one appears. It's endless.

The first shots being fired in the endless game of Space Invaders.

Ideal stories are not possible in films and books because there is only one possible sequence of events. There is no interactivity from the audience/reader. The story presented exists in its singular possible form.

Next week we will take a look at another one of the arguments Jesper presents in his article.

References:

1. Juul, J. (2oo1). Games telling stories.
Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research, 1 (Issue 1).
Retrieved from http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/juul-gts/