Narrative and Deaths

In the last part of the chapter, it says that there are disputes whether or not video games can be a narrative. The digital critics argue that video games are a ludology instead of a narrative. They believe that the games are too interactive for it to be considered a narrative. As it is a good argument, it does not justify the fact that most of these have stories. The games have that narrative structure to present the story to be as compelling. Of course, I am not talking certain games like Tetris. Games like Red Dead Redemption or Bioshock have epic storytelling that gamers can be emotionally invested in. I see that these games do show a narrative even though it is very interactive.
The other article by Lisbeth Kalstrup talks about death specifically in the World of Warcraft. Death in WoW is a game mechanic that sometimes can be very tedious and glorified. It can be good and bad in some way. Still, death in the game is common as gamers usually experience it a lot. As a WoW player, I do usually deal with death every time I play. Of all the instances, I think except for one aspect is that I really hate to die. Even though the game is still playable after death, you cannot do anything except for walking endlessly. The game play stops until the player character has been revived. There is a lot of time wasted after death as you can either wait for a healer to resurrect or just run to the corpse to get resurrection. All of this is frustrating and annoying. However, like it is mentioned in the reading, the death mechanics is different in the battlegrounds where resurrection is almost instant. Especially, in the Warsong Gulch battleground (Capture the Flag), I would sacrifice my character to damage or kill opposing flag carriers to help my team. Also, when I carry the flag, I expect death so I try to advance as much as I can so someone from my team can pick up the flag and capture it from a lesser distance. This shows the glory aspect in WoW as I want to always even though I could a lot of times during the process.

Here is a little comic about death and the undead: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/community/comics/gallery.html#20

-Vircell