Second Journal Entry

Luis Lopez

GD 201

Professor Richmond

02/14/22

Second Journal Entry

Within Hamlet's Hit Points it discussed how narrative came to evolve within the media of games. It gave the example of how Dungeons and Dragons would allow the players to continue to grow their characters after each and after adventure rather than being a one and done thing. Additionally, it would be difficult to separate players who simply wanted to complete the campaign and disregard the “life” of their characters and players who wanted to grow their character as well as simultaneously go through a thorough campaign with them. Also, the book discussed how narrative plays an important role in a game. They mention that there are certain rules that have consistently produced good stories in books and movies however it is possible to follow them and still deliver a bad story and vice versa, where they can be broken and a good story can be produced. Within The Medium of The Video Game it goes into great detail and provides examples of how a game world, narrative, player choice, and character design can all impact how attached a player can get to their player or “the story” of the game they're playing. For instance from turning simple pixels into the vague form of a person in older 8 bit games of the atrai era or basing their game in a subsection of a world that’s already been established e.g a Star Wars game. The author mentioned Pac man was a fine example of this where the goal was to get a high score and there was no particular story however it was interactive and personified by naming all the characters and giving them “personalities” through their movements.