Nielsen goes over the issue of narratives in gaming and whether it's possible to tell a story through a game. Many believe it is not. "One argument is that the medium cannot tell a story; much current theory centers on what many perceive as an incompatibility between gaming and storytelling."
Nielsen uses Blade Runner as an example to prove games can have and that many actually need story lines. He shows the reader an example of one scene from the game. Many options are given when the player is given dialogue and he or she must think of the best way to respond, or the way they would respond, in order to advance the story.
Another argument Nielsen uses is the use of cut scenes in most adventure games today and how they are necessary. Five reasons he gives are to introduce central narrative tension, shape the narrative in a certain direction, compensate for missing game narrative, associate the game with cool modern cinema, and to provide the player with information. If games couldn't tell stories, then cut scenes would not be necessary, and thus these reasons would not exist.
I agree with all of what Nielsen said, because many adventure games now tell stories. One example is one of my favorite games, Knight of the Old Republic. In this game, you play a regular soldier, who eventually gets to use the force, and your goal is to...basically do as you choose. Guidance is given, but you are completely free to be the nicest person in the world (and join the Jedi) or be a complete asshole to everyone (and join the dark side). You decide how nice you are to your teammates (and if you say the right things, start some romance), how you treat regular civilians, and how you treat enemies (do you kill them even if they surrendered to you?). This game was revolutionary and I remember playing it and thinking how similar the game was to a choose your own adventure book. Except this was way more in depth. If those books were stories, why can't a game be a story?
Do you think in depth games with big storylines will ever be the main source of entertainment, as opposed to movies, television, or books?
I think games with big storylines can become the main source of entertainment. Television, movies, books, and etc have been the main sources of entertainment in the late 20th century because games were still on the developing progress, and the games did not embrace much of storylines. Now that technologies have improved, so have video games, video games can now substitute the old entertainments. They have potential to become the main source of entertainment because they can adapt many different and outstanding aspects from other sources of entertainments, such as cut-scene from movies and literature from books. In short, video games can become a multipurpose entertainment, where users can access as much controls and freedoms as possible.
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