Last week we discussed the topic of Ideal Stories, as presented in Jesper Juul's article Games Telling Stories. This week we are going to discuss another point he brings up: games have similarities with narratives, but aren't narrative themselves.
For example, Juul states that many video games start with the player lacking something, with the objective being to resolve that lack. This is a common theme in traditional narratives. Another example he brings up is the fact that most games follow a quest structure and contain a protagonist. Quest structures are again common in narratives: this is when a character has to go on some kind of journey to resolve something. The idea of a protagonist is a huge similarity as well because almost every story has a main character.
It is also an oft-repeated but problematic point that game sessions are experienced linearly, just like narratives. [1] Juul states that this isn't relevant because we are denying the very experience of playing the game, which involves numerous branching paths, replays caused by deaths, quitting, etc. The experience is so different from reading a traditional narrative that a person will lean forward (active) while playing a game, and lean back (passive) while reading a book. [1] Juul also goes so far as to state that the playing of a game includes the awareness that this playthrough embodies one possible path out of thousands.
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/
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