Unreliable narrators in books is a catch all term for characters that are unable to accurately look at and description their environments, situations, and the other characters they interact with. Most characters could be described as this as, unless the piece is written in a third person omnipresent point of voice, you can't get an … Continue reading Spec Ops: The Line, and Unreliable Narrators
Tag: storytelling
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Making the Most of your World
The game, for the most part, gives you pieces of myth talked about as if they had happened recently or at least in the recent past. These feats of heroism, of divine intervention are talked about with a firm belief. Now, the Greek pantheon is largely considered myth and fun stories to retell rather than … Continue reading Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Making the Most of your World
Games Don’t Emulate Film or Books: A Response to Ian Bogost
Ian Bogost recently had a piece published on the Atlantic titled Video Games Are Better Without Story. There, he argues that games can only attempt to perform a compelling narrative but it will never be as strong as it's media predecessors, such as written literature (books without additional media supplements) and film. The argument he attempts to persuade … Continue reading Games Don’t Emulate Film or Books: A Response to Ian Bogost
The Lack of Female Protagonists in Games
I've only recently started to think on this in a way that's more than a passing thought, like it's something that's existed but that it was so common I never really stopped to think about it: why is there a lack of women as the central roles in story based games? The only ones that … Continue reading The Lack of Female Protagonists in Games
Making the Player Care
If someone can figure out how to make a characterless RPG, let me know. In the meantime, both the player character (customized or premade) and non-playing characters are an important aspect to role playing games, but just having characters doesn’t make a compelling story. While I’ll be straying into basic concepts also found in general story writing … Continue reading Making the Player Care
Dragon Age 2: Telling a Greek Tragedy in Video Games
I’ll keep saying it as long as it’s funny and relatively true: The Dragon Age series is a dating sim loosely disguised as an RPG. The big difference between it and actual dating sims is the level of story happening alongside it. Dragon Age II sticks out to me due to the callback to older story … Continue reading Dragon Age 2: Telling a Greek Tragedy in Video Games
A Look at Turn Based RPG Storytelling
In this, I’m going to talk about two games: Fire Emblem: Awakening and The Banner Saga. While a lot of the comparisons I’ll go on to make can be chalked up to being developed in an established game developing company in a well defined series that’s taken its time to find the right formula for a fun game and the other … Continue reading A Look at Turn Based RPG Storytelling
Stories in Simulation Games
The open-endedness of a simulation game is one of endless entertainment, but there is an argument to be made that the kind of entertainment it provides is less substantial in its base form when compared to role playing games. I'm going to dispute that. The only story in simulations is the story you give it, … Continue reading Stories in Simulation Games
Storytelling in Games and Novels
When you look at the parts that make up the storytelling in published novels, the imaginative narratives in collaborative storytelling tabletop games, and story focused video games, there's not too much of an inherent difference between the three aside from medium. While tabletop games like Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder are more like video games … Continue reading Storytelling in Games and Novels
Video Games Deconstructed 