Assignment 6: Video Game Story or Critique

Hi All,

Based on the voting results, option 2 was slightly more popular than option 1. However, to serve the interests of both groups, I’ve put together a two-part option for our final minor assignment.

For assignment six, you have two options. The first option is to develop a storyline for a yet-to-be-developed action/adventure video game. In your treatment, or short outline, you should carefully describe your hero or heroine, outline the predicament they face, and show how the player will take an active role in meeting the demands placed upon them by the game world. You may choose any environmental theme or gaming subgenre, but your overall game should fit into the action/adventure narrative theme. In this context, a quest, kidnapping, exploration, redemption voyage, or any other movement into unknown, unfamiliar, or dangerous territories would serve as appropriate scenarios for you to place your players into. Remember the three act structure described by Bob Bates in last week’s reading: first, get your hero up in a tree, then throw rocks at her, then figure out how to get her down. In other words, your game story should have a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end. If gameplay details (e.g. controller actions) are useful for your narrative, then by all means include them. Otherwise, the specific details (gameplay, platform, technical requirements, etc.) are not necessary for this assignment. Keep in mind the tension between narrative and interactivity — you should strive to create a story that is both dramatically satisfying while at the same time leaves ample opportunity for the player to explore your virtual sceneries and to have fun. The overall length of your video game story should not exceed a single-spaced page in Microsoft Word (approximately 500 words). Feel free to include sketches or other visual materials that you feel would support your game’s vision.

If you choose option one, this will be due to your blogs and WebCT by Sunday, July 15th at 11:55PM.

Your second option will be to write a critique to one of your classmates’ video game treatments from the perspective of a narratologist or a ludologist. In other words, you should apply ideas and concepts from the First Person text, from the supplemental readings, or from the Wiki module postings to support an opinion about whether or not that particular treatment would make for a satisfying video game, a successful story, or neither/both. As you write, try to remember the fundamental positions of narratologists (that story is an essential and critical part of video games; that cyberdrama is possible and plausible; that narrative ideas and theories from legacy media may have value in new digital worlds) and of ludologists (that gameplay is more important than narrative; that narratologists are often misinformed or use narrative terminology too loosely; that video games deserve their own theories and rhetorical toolboxes). To complete option two, you will need to read a treatment from one of your classmates’ blogs and then post a critique of their treatment using the comment function anchored to their posting. You must also upload a Word document to WebCT containing your response and critique by the due date. Your response should be between 350 and 500 words, and you may choose to distribute your word count between multiple game treatments if you like (for example, you could choose to respond to only one game as a narratologist, or to two different games as ludologists, or to three games in different modes for each one). I think we’ll find that both positions have their merits and that perhaps the most reasonable method of inquiry lies somewhere in the middle of these polar positions.

If you choose option two, this will be due to your blogs and WebCT by Sunday, July 22nd at 11:55PM. Note that this option will give you an extra week, since you’ll obviously need the materials produced by your classmates before you can begin to critique them. If treatments are posted early, though, feel free to post your analysis or analyses at any time.

Rubric for Both Parts (out of 10 points total):
___ / 2 Completeness (length and content requirements met)
___ / 3 Writing quality (syntactical and grammatical correctness)
___ / 5 Quality of game story (option 1) or Analysis with theoretical support (option 2)

As always, extra collaboration and interaction is highly encouraged! I would love to see an in-depth debate surrounding some of these game treatments, so let’s see what we can come up with! Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions!