Game vs. Story

We all understand the value of story, or in its various carrying medium such as cinema and literature. We experience a fullness in emotion and intellect after a story. There are always moral and politics in a story. And game seems to need story to create a deeper experience or meaning. One can enjoy a game simply because of its visceral and immersive thrill such as first person shooter, role playing game, etc. Yet without a storyline or characterisation the game remains a repetitive exercise and our reflexes and motor skills. Our emotion and intellect was not stimulated. However, reading a novel is the most economical way to experience a story in full. Human imagination plays a vital role in filling up the imaginary world and actions of a story using language alone. A writer or a novelist can generate the entire world and believable character on his/her own. yet a movie or a game requires a whole team of people to create. Then what is it about a game that is so captivating for its players as well as creators? The complete recreation of a world and lively characters involved all the elements of the arts: visuals, audio, sensory, form, space, emotions, intellect, subtext, meaning... it is a complete creation of a world, almost a realisation of an alternate world, its reality all its own. In a way the maker of game is like a creator, seems more so than the novelist or the writer. This creation of worlds, or the fabrication of it, is the summation of all the arts: painting, architecture, music, muiltimedia...cinema and then game and now virtual reality, is a form of renegate to this the creator of the natural world, or this reality. The human mind in an unamed urge to be free from its confine, the human body. Isn't the writer doing the same? One may ask, but a game world where one spend time to inhabit is different from a novel, it can be re-entered again and again if the game itself is complex enough or the depth of meaning profound. It is indeed an alternate reality. Yes, in game the maker wants to create an alternate reality.

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