Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
IS IT A STORY OR IS IT INTERACTIVITY?
Let's take a few moments to discuss the basic theories of video games. Even though computer scientists
have studied video games from a technical position for a while now, the coverage and analysis of video
games as an artistic medium is relatively new. There are two primary ways in which video games are
analyzed these days.
Video Games as Stories
One group of people regard a game as something related to a topic, a play or other media based
on a story. Those interested in tying the concept of gaming as an extension to storytelling are called
narrativists.
They tend to regard video games as complex “cyberdramas” through which players can
become other people and participate in other worlds. Of course, many games may have multiple
conclusions and results due to the aspect of choice in the game. For narrativists this puts a video game
into the category of interactive i ction.
Video Games as an Interactive Experience
The other group of people regard games primarily from the basis of the interactive structure within the
game itself. Every game comes with its own set of rules and restrictions as to how the game should be
played. These people are known as
ludologists
, and they look mainly at how the structure of the game
places demands and restrictions on the player, and how the player then navigates their way through the
restrictions in the game. These restrictions can then af ect the social and artistic qualities of the game as
a result.
Video Games are Emergent
In spite of the fact that each of these groups have dif ering viewpoints on the basis of what games are,
they do tend to agree that most games depend on emergent principles. The term refers to complex
outcomes that can result from the interaction of simple rules.
A rather beautiful example of this is the forming of snowl akes.
Snowl akes form when water from clouds freezes, and the method
in which they freeze, the temperature, the wind direction, each of
these are simple factors that result in a staggering level of complexity
and diversity. In fact it's so complex that no one snowl ake looks like
another.
There are two types of emergence commonly referred to by scholars,
intentional
and
unintentional
. Intentional emergence is something that
has largely been designed or engineered. The results can be complex, but
in ef ect everything has been calculated. You tend to know what's likely
to happen given a set of basic rules. Unintentional emergence means
that something arises unexpectedly from these simple rules, possibly
even appearing to be random, or something close to it.
This snowl ake is an example of emergent
behavior in nature.
Credit:
Andrew Magill.
