Games Telling Stories By Juul Analysis

Compromise between Games and Mediums for Storytelling In present society, videogames are seen primarily as forms of cheap entertainment to those who want to spend their free time gaming. Because of this assumption, stories in games aren’t legitimately considered to be works of art, simply due to the fact that they are stories in videogames and not movies or novels. This is an issue today because some game writers spend considerable amounts of time crafting intricate stories for players of the game and despite their efforts, the stories they construct aren’t recognized as works of art because video games aren’t considered a viable medium for storytelling. In his essay Games Telling Stories? written by Juul, he argues this very point: that videogames
Video games have only come about recently and unlike reading novels and watching movies where there is only one way of experiencing them, there are multiple ways to experience games that are only growing in variety. Traditionally, a player required a controller to interact in a game. But as time moves forward, gaming devices like the oculus rift headset, a virtual reality device, are pushing the boundaries of player immersion in the game world. In other words, the gaming console as a medium is pushing towards a more immersive experience in gaming; allowing the player to better experience the game and potentially be more involved in the story. Which brings me to how we define the terms “narrative” or “story”. I consider a simple definition: a narrative or story, is a series of written events that attempt to evoke emotional responses in the audience. This definition is much broader when compared to Juul’s as it doesn’t impose stringent requirements to narrative and allows for more mediums to be considered narrative. Consider mediums such as theater performances and comic strips, both well-established mediums for storytelling. Theatre performers constantly change for respective plays, therefore the play can’t be faithfully replicated to multiple times and fail to meet Juul’s standards. With regards to comic books some, such as Marvel and DC comics, have multiple universes in which backstories are volatile and are irregular. This aggresses on Juul’s point that narrative has already happened and can’t be changed, whereas in this case some comic authors are rewriting the past to fit a new future. Both of these mediums don’t fit Juul’s definition of narrative: yet we still consider these two forms of medium excellent ways of telling a