Game Studies and Narrative

Frans Mayras paper "What is game studies?" discusses the topic of digital games as a part of culture and the evolution to become a discipline in its own right. The definition of a discipline, according to Mayras, is to have;

1. A subject of study,
2. Theories within that subject,
3. Methods of practice,
4. Terminology that relates to the subject in a particular way.

Or a learned community that aims to evolve the knowledge of the subject of study.Games have all of these points as shown by the numerous academic groups and journals associated with the creation and analysis of digital games. Mayras continues discussing the development of games studies by discussing the ludology vs narrative debate. The debate is between those that see games as a medium for narrative purposes, while ludologist believe that computer games don't need any narrative to be a game. Ludology helped to show that games are unique and in need of a separate discipline. 


Jullian Kucklichs paper "Literary Theory and Digital Games" discusses the idea of digital games as a hybrid medium in particular with relation to literature. Kucklich shows the similarities between digital games and literature and uses three approaches used in literature to demonstrate the different answers of how reality and fiction relate. These approaches are;

• Poetics: the study of literary conventions and rules,
• Hermeneutics: the study of literature's meaning,
• Aesthetics: the study of literature's effects.

Poetics in digital games are the general conventions that are used in games such as the idea of scores and difficulty curves. The genre of a game affects the poetic conventions and rules that are expected from the game, such as the expectation of a range of weapons in a first person shooter.

Hermeneutics is similar between games and literature as despite the interactive nature of games the meaning that is created is affected by external forces. In particular the intertextuality of a text shows this approach, if you play a game such as Space Quest without any external film or literature knowledge of space some of the game play may be lost on the player.

Aesthetics in digital games are noted as being 'aesthetics of control' as what immerses you into the game world is the interactivity and that is often through the control of an avatar or protagonist. Also the control of the game on the players emotion such when a character you were emotionally invested in dying.