I’ve always had a penchant for experimental narrative. Growing up I read books that played with storytelling.
Italo Calvino’s “If On a Winter’s Night a Traveler” was one of my favorites. Anything by Kurt Vonnegut and a lot of work by the Beat Generation of authors.
Considering that, it would only make sense that throughout my years of gaming, I have developed an affinity for a similar experimental approach to games.
There is an argument between gamers regarding what is actually a game. It has resulted in terms such as “nongame” or “interactive fiction.” Does a game include basic mechanics and rules? Or is it a story that you have an active role in?
I don’t choose sides in this debate, because I enjoy all types of “games.” But it is the ones that are story driven that grab my attention most. I enjoy a number of typical shooters and role-playing games, but the ones that experiment with the medium entertain me most.
Recently, I have been interacting with a story called Cloud Chamber, which uses found footage and documents, mixed with mapping and social media to engage the audience. This is what many would call a “nongame,” because it lacks game mechanics. Instead, the community works together to solve a mystery together by investigating what is presented to it.
Prior to playing Cloud Chamber, I enjoyed a more traditional game called Ether One. Of which the story focused on the troubles of dementia, albeit through a first person perspective — which would make it easier for people against experimental gameplay to accept it.
However, the game is a single player experience that takes place in the mind of a elderly woman with dementia, and the player is tasked with the goal of reviving her memories.
A bit different from the run-and-gun mentality a lot of games require. And different dispositions are associated with each genre.
I’m a man who enjoys stories, especially if it is a gripping one. The mode of delivery makes no difference, as long as I leave the experience feeling something.
Games that experiment with narrative are more akin to providing that kind of experience. Granted, there are plenty of first person shooters that have amazing stories — but at a base, make-me-feel-something level, it is usually not the case.
Which brings us back to books. Is a choose-you-own adventure story less of a book than a literary work? No, because they both use the same medium to achieve different outcomes.
Just as story driven games reveal parts of the narrative and traditional games lead you through the narrative. The same goes for cinema. A surreal french art film, a romantic comedy and an action movie are no more or less of cinema that the others. It is a matter of taste.
The point is, no matter the mode of delivery, the desired outcome is the point. If a person doesn’t like to play anything less that games involving shooting, so be it. The goal of all games, or nongames, is entertainment.
And just like any other medium, we can pick and choose what we deem worthy of our time. But the arguments between those on both sides are moot points. No one side is right or wrong, both just have different preferences.
Perhaps a the compartmentalization of genres within gaming needs to be revisited. So that, much like viewers browsing Netflix, players can know what they are getting into and know whether they want to give it a chance or not.
