Alan Moore wrote short book called "Writing for Comics," where he espouses on how he feels comic book writers should strive to tell stories, but also how writers should tell their stories. One of the most important parts of this is choosing the appropriate medium for the story you want to tell, and to accompany that, to exploit the attributes of that medium which make it unique. This is where I feel like video games are still in their infancy. Not very often are stories in video games more effective because they are on video games. That is why I think that this feature is important. By locating emotional moments in games I think you can get a better grasp on what makes the medium effective in a way that is unique from movies, books or comics.
I actually think that Nintendo has a greater grasp on this concept than many other "story" heavy games. Because of the interactive nature of video games, the player can become connected to the protagonist, and to the world more than in another medium. That's why I enjoy Nintendo games so much, the narrative is your experience in the game, and the sparse moments when your control is taken away are used to punctuate and add inflection to that narrative. I also enjoy games like FF, but I have enjoyed the narrative appeal less with each iteration, as they become more about exposition, and to be honest, the narrative content isn't strong enough for that. This is why I will never play another Metal Gear after I stopped playing two. To paraphrase, Alan Moore says that typically, books tell and movies show, but comics are in the unique position to do both and they should utilize that to get the most out of their narratives. To me, video games aren't about telling or showing as much as they are about doing. You want to see truly interesting narratives that push the envelope of the medium, then more video game writers and developers should start there.
Topic: The Most Emotional Moments in Nintendo Gaming Talkback Thread (Read 9794 times)
