Video Game Storytelling: Is It Really a New Medium?
I will spare you the pretentious exercise of establishing that storytelling is an important social function for humans. I’ve already written enough undergraduate papers about obvious topics, and if you haven’t read enough, I’ll just do you a favor and spare you anyway. So let’s just say that we like to tell stories and be done with it.
Vacation
I will be taking a short break/vacation for the rest of my all-too short summer. My next essay will appear on August 22nd, and regular updates will resume thereafter. Until then, thanks to everyone who has been reading, and I hope to catch you all again soon!
If you’re not on my mailing list already, leave me a comment or send an e-mail at mikebbetts@yahoo.com. When writing does resume, you will be the first to know.
Homicidal Tendencies in Portal: A Review
After my last post, I was fortunate enough to enter into a debate with a colleague about whether or not the “are games art?” question even matters. Happily, we determined that, for the most part, it doesn’t matter one bit. I stand by my post, though, and I’ll tell you why: labeling a game “art” can be useful if we take “art” to mean something that intentionally communicates a message above and beyond – and possibly through – its pure aesthetic value. For games, this means communicating something about the human experience other than whether or not its constituent gameplay elements are entertaining. So calling Portal art isn’t simply an exercise in pretentious categorizing; it’s just recognizing a profoundly disturbing and wonderful experience for what it is.
