Each month’s Musings theme provides readers and community bloggers with the opportunity to have their thoughts posted on the front page.
Thanks to Clint Hocking’s blog, I’ve been thinking a lot about narrative and its place in videogames. Though a fair number of past Monthly Musing themes have revolved around the merits of linear, scripted game narratives, we haven’t talked very much about the sorts of narratives that designers like Hocking consider infinitely superior to the pre-baked stuff we’re all used to — namely, the stories you create yourself.
Boatmurdered. Alice & Kev. That One Time You Jumped a Car Off a Ramp in GTA3 and Totally Landed on a Grandma. These are stories that can only be told in the medium of videogames, and they arise entirely out of a mixture of player activity and exploitable mechanics.
Do you have any stories like these to tell? What do you think about the merits of these unique, player-created narratives versus prewritten stuff like Metal Gear Solid? Which games provide the best toolset with which to create your own narratives?
As per usual, make sure to tag your cblog with the Monthly Musings theme, and make sure your blog is titled, “I, the Author: blah blah blah.” If you’ve got any questions, ask ’em below. Otherwise, get to the cblogs and start a-writin’.
