There is actually a deep discussion behind this, but let me start with Aristotle's 'poetry'. As I learned previously, 'poetry' was the oldest book that discuss about the dramas, poetry, and others. it is also, one of the most old books ever to be published and kept (although the comedy part has been lost as it went through dark ages).
As we, and nielson & co can tell, a literature in form of narration is one of, if not the oldest form of it. Nielson puts it as 'precisely because it is so well established, literary studies has been easily exposed to the study of newer media, such as cinema, as the first spets in the creation of new disciplines usually are inspired by the old ones'.
Ludology, on the other hand, is something on opposite side of narration, which is identified as 'to consider video games as games, and not as narratives or anything else'.
*before I go into this article, my take is that not a single game can be defined under pure ludology terms - no game can have no narration or storyline. (even Katamari had a storyline, really).
Having said that, I agree with the moderate version of its definition, which emphasize more of game play than a storyline. Although ludologist calls the stories 'just uninteresting ornaments or gift wrappings to game, and laying any emphasis on studying these kinds of marketing tools is just time and energy', they could not come up with an alternative.
I can think of 'sims' as to have the least storyline and perhaps the closest form of being 'ludologic game', but I think 'sims' is very special game itself where it tabs into your very deepest desire of being 'another human being that I can't be part of'. I hope this can be discussed later in the lectures.
At the end of it, nothing cannot be sustained without a storyline; even the most challenging and demanding, fun games would require a storyline that users can at least follow. Without a valid narration, a game is literally a sandbox.
My question is, do you think any game would fit under ludologists' claim of being pure fun? and what do you think about all those "sims" series? how does that category fits among our reading?
In order for there to be something to play in a game, something has to happen on screen. Whatever that is, that on-screen event, that is the story of the game. Even in a game like Tetris, where the story is as simple as "some blocks fell in this order and eventually reached the top of the screen," some form of narrative progression occurred.
ReplyDeleteRobby:
ReplyDeleteI agree - and that's my whole point of posting this; I was talking to my friend about it and he did agree that unless ancient games such as pong or chess would only qualify those conditions.