Fiction and Narrative in Video Games
stories helps the player understand:
we understand our lived experiences as stories
you memorise things by costructing stories in your head
it’s events with causes, that we place together and see patterns to help us understand what’s going on around us
stories provide consistency, weaving the different elements of the game together
games with story are different from story-driven games
pacman is a game with story, even tetris has a story
while final fantasy is story-driven: cutscenes with some clicking and stuff in between, one linear story, much like a movie, one-way communication
who is the storyteller in a good game? it’s YOU! playing games is storyBUILDING! the order of events is decided by the actions of the player
the world is told to the player, and discovered through the gameplay
level design vs narrative design