It was very refreshing to read some games critique from the bloody stone age. I would really like to - or would I really? - know what this Henry Jenkins chap has to say of the game industry today, because his essay was painful to read.
Going into it I thought "oh this seems interesting considering the recent calamity regarding Telltale Games", and when it reached the point where he said
"The past few years have been ones of enormous creative experimentation and innovation within the games industry, as might be represented by a list of some of the groundbreaking titles."and went on to list The Sims - actually the one without a number after it - I had to pause and scroll up and see when this terrible drabble was written. In the year of the lord two thousand and four. Oh boy. And it only got worse. Like this gem here
This is why we have narrative designers for games these days, to really push the storytelling aspects that a platform such as games can offer. Reading this today makes this guy seem a bit ignorant.
In the vein of that thought, we have a completely new genre of games that we have come to know as "walking simulators" where the player takes a passive role - much like Jenkins' quoting Adams in this essay, who said
"In its richest form, storytelling -- narrative -- means the reader's surrender to the author. The author takes the reader by the hand and leads him into the world of his imagination. The reader has a role to play, but it's a fairly passive role: to pay attention, to understand, perhaps to think... but not to act"Walking simulators, some might say they encompass a lot of games these days, is where storytelling is heavily focused, often limiting the player's actions to moving around and thus not breaking the pacing of the narrative.
Similarly, there has been an increasing demand for story-driven games where people want to get emotionally involved in living the narrative through the eyes of their character. The aforementioned Telltale Games were the master of this, housing some of the best storytellers in the industry. It was their niche, what they were known for and what only they could do. Sad to say though, that the studio's story ended in a tragedy just last Friday, on 21st, when they announced they would close, firing 250 of their staff on a few hours' notice.
A friend of mine, who works in the industry, mentioned it is going to be very interesting to see who will rise up to fill this gap since TTG demonstrated games such as The Walking Dead and Wolf Among Us sold very well.
TTG's brand was light, story-driven narrative experiences, but they're certainly not the only kind of story-heavy games on the market currently. I recently played Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, which was released in 2017 and praised for it's immersive story. Personally I felt it fell a lot into the category of a walking simulator since, at the end of the day, even with the added combat, the game was just a vessel for telling the story. The story was very pervasive and seemed just to want to get a point across, while you, the player, were just the listener.
I liked Hellblade as it wasn't just a story but also a statement on mental health. It was a bit of a simulated experience of what it is to live with a psychosis, and that is why I'm fascinated by where we are and where we're heading towards in the game industry; focusing on delivering important, relatable experiences where the player can assume the role of their character and empathize with the story in a completely different way than before.
ps. I apologize for not making a post last week - I lost the track of time due to my workload. I swear I didn't mean to miss it, I had ideas in my head for several new posts :(
