BIBLIPEDIA

Ludology

Narrative vs game... Eskelinen argues that we should think of narrative and game / interactivity as entirely different things.

He says:

“A sequence of events enacted constitutes a drama, a sequence of events taking place a performance, a sequence of events recounted a narrative, and perhaps a sequence of events produced by manipulating equipment and following formal rules constitutes a game.�

Sure we might question the unproblematic application of traditional narrative theory to games as texts, but we might also wonder whether his categorisations here don’t circumscribe the definition of narrative a little too much? Is drama not narrative? And, this definition of game (manipulating of equipment, formal rules) could easily describe the process of making a video. Maybe ‘making media’ is a form of game?

Tags: game ludology narrative narratives-4

Note posted by: joe soap, the hopeless hobo on Thu 12 Feb 09

add note on this book