The New Digital Storytelling – Chapter 6 – Gaming: Storytelling on a small scale
- What are your main insights and ideas from the given L&K chapter?
- I liked the part where it talked about being able to imagine yourself as the character. It mentioned simplistic characters like Mickey Mouse and Hello Kitty make it easier for us to imagine that we are the characters. More elaborate characters make us think of someone else, not of ourselves. It’s important for us to identify with the characters in a game. I can think of quite a few games that creating the character is the very first step of playing the game – World of Warcraft, Everquest, and Sims are all examples. Creating these characters make it easier to identify with those characters that we are playing. I just never thought of it in a psychological way.
- What unique terminology, jargon, buzzwords, and other concepts appear in this reading that required your careful attention and definition? What are your interpretations of these words and concepts?
- I don’t think there was any jargon that I’m not used to since I have studied games quite a bit. I did like some of the games that this chapter mentioned because they were good examples. Plants vs. Zombies has such a strong story that even my 5 year old son even played the whole game. We all know how hard it is to keep a 5 year old’s attention but that simple game did.
- How does this reading challenge/expand/contradict your definition of (digital) storytelling?
- This isn’t directly related to storytelling. It does talk about having characters that the player can identify with though. I can see how this would translate to digital stories. The author has to make sure that the viewer can identify with him or her. If the presenter comes into a digital story and talks about some scientific theory that no one can understand then the meaning will be lost on the viewer. The author has to bring it to layman’s terms and make sure the audience can follow along.
- What additional scholarship, popular media, teaching resources, or other media are related to your developing understanding of both (digital) storytelling and this chapter?
- I will be reading the next chapter from this book for my next chapter review. I feel like this chapter was the first half of a larger point to be made. The next chapter is on large scale games so I look forward to seeing the similarities and differences based on the type of game.
- I will be reading the next chapter from this book for my next chapter review. I feel like this chapter was the first half of a larger point to be made. The next chapter is on large scale games so I look forward to seeing the similarities and differences based on the type of game.