Justin Hall Reviews GameStudies

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GameStudies.org
By Justin Hall

What's The Story?

Two schools of thought emerge in these early stages of videogame analysis. Some concern themselves with narrative and story, comparing games and other literary forms. The second school of game analysis is more concerned with gameplay models. To them, the very essence of a game is its interactivity; the type of choice and interaction is what distinguishes games from novels, movies or hypertext narratives.

A search on Dictionary.com for narratology comes up with this:
No entry found for narratology in the dictionary.

Suggestions:

ne'er-do-well
northland

Academia necessarily concerns itself intimately with modes of discourse; this fledgling publication of game studies is no exception. In this first issue, articles by Marie-Laure Ryan, Jesper Juul and Selmer Bringsjord languish in a debate over narratology.

Considering how little game theory exists, there is definitely a rich array of divergent thought in these essays. Anyone hoping to place electronic entertainment within a spectrum of media will find good resources here. Still, with my trained eye hunting for specific game analysis and reference, it seems the authors weren't analyzing games so much as they were citing the texts and media lineage that would validate a postulated study of games. These three articles read like elaborate preparations for a journey that an experienced reader might already feel ready to undertake.

Reading over these comparisons of games and hypertext fictions recalls Ted Friedman whose Web-posted papers examining SimCity and Civilization dared to apply academic analysis directly to games themselves. In contrast, his work appears inspiringly forthright; GameStudies would do well to put down their George Landow books and download some Dani Bunten games.

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GameStudies.org By Justin Hall

GameStudies.org
By Justin Hall