Readings from first week.

The Influence of Literature and Myth in Videogames by Douglass C. Perry, talks mostly about how video games as we know them today are more than what meets the eye. Once Upon A Time by William Vitka informs us of the capability videogames can have for the future. The handouts that we got in class, one by Zimmerman and the other by Montfort are about the structure and make up of video games. Let's jump into how each of these goes along with the others.
The things that influence a lot of video games are books, and tales. I found it interesting how so many of the books that were popular got turned into movies, and then into video games! Like William Vitka said in his essay, each person is a storyteller, and "cannot help but tell stories." Videogames are a type of story, and the player is the one changes how things go in the story. Like Perry points out to us in his essay it will come down to what one has the best story, and what content that a player can get into.
Now off the breakup of how video games are made up, let's take a visit to Narrative, Interactivity, Play, and Games by Eric Zimmerman. Zimmerman points out to us that these three words that make up his title, also make up a video game. Starting with narrative- the videogame must move on or have certain "events" that take place. Next we have interactivity- basically when the player of the game does something there will be a response to it. Play is the next one the list, and it means to have "free space of movement within a more rigid structure." Lastly we have game- this is known to us as having one or more people playing going with the rules to face a problem that has a logical finish.
To put all four of these items together we see that the events that happen in a game will have an effect on what outcomes the play picks, and how they choose to do so while they have to free space in the game to do so. The game as a whole can be described as something that will be affected through the playing process due to the narrative and interacting, and how the player reacts to them all.
Now to go into Interactive Fiction by Nick Montfort who opens the door to how new media in interactive fiction. Montfort talks about story, game, storygame, puzzle, novel, world, literature, problem, riddle and machine all have in influence on how we understand this kind of fiction. Story has to do with the action and adventure that will go in the text. Game would have to do with how a player works toward a goal they set for themselves, and how they are going to get there. Storygame is when a story is better interpreted by images rather than just text. Puzzles get the reader or player to get more involved in what is going on, and help them to better get a sense of what is going on. Novel is just a way to see how long something is suppose to take you to get through on average. World is showing us the importance of a plot that keeps the story going. Literature is the output of text that makes something unreal seem to come alive. The problems are questions that come about to get a solution to something that is going on in the story. Riddles are things that must be solved in order for the story to move along, but they take much thought and understanding. Lastly machine refers to the rules of IF and how it can be viewed. Not only looking at the story or game of something try looking at it how literature and puzzles interact with each other.
As we see here we start with how video games are influenced today, and we move forward to how they should be influenced in the future, and how they should go about making these needed changes.