James Wallis uses genre as the fulcrum for balancing game rules and narrative structure in story-telling games, which he differentiates from RPGs through their emphasis on the creation of narrative over character development.
The source is the essay-review on www.electronicbookreview.com written by James Wallis.
"In the ongoing debates about storytelling and narrative in games, the various commentators often overlook a key point: even in the most cutting-edge examples of the state of the art, it is not the players who tell the story, it is the game. Whether computer games with a narrative element, board games, card games, or face-to-face role-playing games, the essential plot and structure of the narrative is predetermined before the game begins, and cannot be altered."
"Human beings like stories. Our brains have a natural affinity not only for enjoying narratives and learning from them, but also for creating them. In the same way that your mind sees an abstract pattern and resolves it into a face, your imagination sees a pattern of events and resolves it into a story."
"the game's mechanics must take into consideration the rules of the genre that it is trying to create: not just the relevant icons and tropes, but the nature of a story from that genre. A fairy tale has a very different structure and set of requirements than a horror story or a soap opera, and a game must work to replicate that. "
"In most games, the structure is simply the way the game is played. In story-making games, it is also the principal way that the narrative shape of the story is formed (...)."
"Structure is not the same thing as rules. (...) That's how the game plays. It's not how the game works."
"The key to a successful story-making game, at least in the ones that have been released so far, is simplicity of design. (...) it does mean that rules have to be integrated with structure and genre to form a coherent package. I am a self-confessed proponent of "elegance through simplicity" in game design, and I realize that this doesn't fit every taste, or every style of game. "
All quotes were directly pulled out of the essay.
Kenneth Hite argues that the long-running, H.P. Lovecraft-inspired Call of Cthulhu franchise differs from traditional tabletop role-playing in its focus on suspense rather than character growth. Hite's analysis suggests that in its origins and emphasis on narrative structure Cthulhu is a highly literary game.
The source is the essay-review on www.electronicbookreview.com written by Kenneth Hite.
"A scenario in Call of Cthulhu can be organized like the layers of an onion. On the surface, suppose that the scenario looks like it's about a conventional haunted house. It might even look like a hoax. (...) The sixth edition version is slightly less proscriptive than the first, substituting "can" for "should," and being headlined "An Example of A Plot" rather than the sterner "How to Set Up a Scenario" from the first edition.The sixth edition also provides a sidebar with step-by-step guidelines for "Building a Scenario":(...)1) A mystery or crisis is posed. . .2) The investigators become linked to the problem. . .3) The investigators attempt to define the mystery. . .4) The investigators use the clues and evidence to confront the danger. . .5) The mystery or problem is solved. (Ibid., 136)."
The quotes was directly pulled out of the essay.
In the books, Wild Cards Day is celebrated every September 15, in memory of September 15, 1946, the day that Jetboy spoke his immortal last words while Dr. Tod loosed an alien virusover Manhatten.
The quote was rewritten directly from the essay.
How should we explain to someone what a game is?
I imagine that we should describe games to him, and we might add:
"This and similar things are called 'games'." Ad do we know anymore about it ourselves? It is only other people whom we cannot tell exactly what a game is?
But this is not ignorance. We do not know the bounderies because none have been drawn.
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosphical Investigations, aph. 69.
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (sometimes known simply as Knights of the Old Republic or KOTOR) is a role-playing video game set in the Star Wars universe. Developed by BioWare and published by LucasArts, the game was released for the Xbox on July 15, 2003, and for Microsoft Windows on November 19, 2003. The game was later ported to Mac OS X, iOS, and Android by Aspyr, and it is playable on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One via their respective backward compatibility features.
The story of Knights of the Old Republic takes place almost 4,000 years before the formation of the Galactic Empire, where Darth Malak, a Dark Lord of the Sith, has unleashed a Sith armada against the Republic. The player character, as a Jedi, must venture to different planets in the galaxy to defeat Malak. Players choose from three character classes and customize their characters at the beginning of the game, and engage in round-based combat against enemies. Through interacting with other characters and making plot decisions, the alignment system will determine whether the player's character aligns with the light or dark side of the Force.
(Souce: Wikipedia)
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an open world action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth main installment in The Elder Scrolls series, following The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on November 11, 2011.
The game's main story revolves around the player character and their quest to defeat Alduin the World-Eater, a dragon who is prophesied to destroy the world. The game is set two hundred years after the events of Oblivion, and takes place in the fictional province of Skyrim. Over the course of the game, the player completes quests and develops the character by improving skills. The game continues the open world tradition of its predecessors by allowing the player to travel anywhere in the game world at any time, and to ignore or postpone the main storyline indefinitely.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Fus ro dah!
I used to be an adventurer like you, but then I took an arrow to the knee
The game is distributed on a paid-for basis and thus requires to be purchased via Steam or Bethesda for the PC version, or Xbox Store/PSN for the console version; either way, you need an account.
Mass Effect is an action role-playing video game developed by BioWare and published by Microsoft Game Studios and Electronic Arts. Originally released for the Xbox 360 video game console in 2007, it is the first game of the Mass Effect series. The game takes place within the Milky Way galaxy in the year 2183, where civilization is threatened by a highly-advanced machine race of synthetic-organic starships. The player assumes the role of Commander Shepard, an elite human soldier who must stop a rogue agent from carrying out the machine race's galactic invasion. The gameplay requires the player to complete multiple quests that generally involve space exploration, squad and vehicular combat, and interaction with non-player characters.
(Source: Wikipedia)
Fallout 3 is an action role-playing open world video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. The third major installment in the Fallout series, it is the first game to be created by Bethesda since it bought the franchise from Interplay Entertainment. The game marks a major shift in the series by using 3D graphics and real-time combat, replacing the 2D isometric graphics and turn-based combat of previous installments. It was released worldwide in October 2008 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.
The game is set within a post-apocalyptic, open world environment that encompasses a region consisting of the ruins of Washington, D.C. and much of the countryside to the west of it, referred to as the "Capital Wasteland". It takes place within Fallout's usual setting of a world that deviated into an alternate timeline thanks to atomic age technology, which eventually led to its devastation by a nuclear apocalypse in the year 2077 (referred to as "The Great War"), caused by a major international conflict between the United States and China over natural resources and the last remaining supplies of untapped petroleum. The main story takes place in the year 2277, around 36 years after the events of Fallout 2, of which it is not a direct sequel. Players take control of an inhabitant of Vault 101, one of several underground shelters created before the Great War to protect around 1,000 humans from the nuclear fallout, who is forced to venture out into the Capital Wasteland to find their father after he disappears from the vault under mysterious circumstances. They eventually find themselves seeking to complete their father's work while fighting against the Enclave, the corrupt remnants of the former U.S. government that seeks to use it for their own purposes
(Source: Wikipedia)
Fallout 4 is an action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fifth major installment in the Fallout series, and was released worldwide on November 10, 2015, for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The game is set within an open world post-apocalyptic environment that encompasses the city of Boston and the surrounding Massachusetts region known as "The Commonwealth". The main story takes place in the year 2287, ten years after the events of Fallout 3 and 210 years after "The Great War", which caused catastrophic nuclear devastation across the United States.
The player assumes control of a character referred to as the "Sole Survivor", who emerges from a long-term cryogenic stasis in Vault 111, an underground nuclear fallout shelter. After witnessing the murder of their spouse and kidnapping of their son, the Sole Survivor ventures out into the Commonwealth to search for their missing child. The player will subsequently explore the game's dilapidated world, complete various quests, help out factions, and acquire experience points to level up and increase the abilities of their character. New features to the series include the ability to develop and manage settlements, and an extensive crafting system where materials scavenged from the environment can be used to craft drugs and explosives, upgrade weapons and armor, and construct, furnish and improve settlements. Fallout 4 also marks the first game in the series to feature full voice acting for the protagonist.
(Source: Wikipedia)
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a 2015 action role-playing video game developed by CD Projekt RED and published by CD Projekt. Based on The Witcher series of fantasy novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, it is the sequel to the 2011 video game The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings and the third installment in The Witcher video game series. Played in an open world with a third-person perspective, players control protagonist Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter known as a Witcher, who seeks to find his missing adopted daughter on the run from the Wild Hunt, an otherworldly force determined to capture and use her powers. Throughout the game, players battle against the world's many dangers using weapons and magic, interact with various non-player characters, and complete main story quests and side quests to acquire experience points and gold used to increase Geralt's various abilities and gear. The game's central story features multiple endings that are determined by Geralt's choices made by the player during certain points of the story.
(Source: Wikipedia)
