Playing Stories, Telling Games, Writing Reflections: Reflections on Module 3
Source: http://www.fair-shop.co.uk/Grand-Theft-Auto-(PSP)_B0007NLSHE_p.html
Okey went to his tutorial and then he went to the pub.
Is this a story?
It very well may be, as it describes in summary, a series of events. But why are these events important? Why did these events take place? How did these events occur?
If one looks at story telling from a theoretical narratological standpoint, we would realize that the aforementioned sentence needs more than just a series of events to truly produce a satisfying, intriguing and thought provoking story, at least in my opinion.
The third module in the Media Culture masters programme taught me to think more theoretically about narrative presentation; not just in games, but in film, art, and literature. Games can tell stories, but the stories that they can tell depend on what game you are playing, and relating story telling to film or literature would require investigation into the medium the story is presented in and the purpose and intentions of the author, narrator, audience, and participant.
Listening to Notorious B.I.G.'s hip hop classic, "Warning," I become immersed in his lyrical story telling, creating a narrative in my mind of how he plans to prevent his saboteurs from planning a "heist" at his home.
Watching Christopher Nolan's Memento, I create multiple narratives in my mind whilst watching multiple stories being told in reverse. Told through the eyes of a character/narrator who suffers from short term memory loss and uses polaroids to help remember past events, we must rely on his memories and his visuals to create coherent stories as to what exactly constitutes the movie's plot and focus. Otherwise, we may decide to fill in the multiple interpretative gaps in the story, using our own imagination to link various events to others.
I read and interpret artworks, creating a "feedback loop" between the author and myself. Artworks such as Leonardo's Mona Lisa have a story to tell: Who is the mysterious woman? Why does she have that grin on her face? Why is she situated in such a grim environment? I interact with Mona Lisa, I interpret Mona Lisa, and I create an image and/or characterization of Mona Lisa in my mind.
Whilst performing in a videogame like Blade Runner, I create muitple narratives through my interaction with characters and equipment and exploration in the virtual and dynamic "Off World."
Source: http://www.brmovie.com/Game/index.htm
Indeed, as Brenda Laurel points out, "Media represent us to ourselves in a multidimensional way," (Laurel, 1993, p.210) and one way it does this is in its ever changing presentation of narratives in our cultural discourse.