Comparing The Stanley Parable And Coffee Rush

Tom Bissell, in his essay, “Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter” has described video games and how they are unique and different from movies, books, or even interactive films. Bissell says “I came to accept that games were incompetent with almost every aspect of what I would call traditional narrative.” This is showing the readers that even though there is a plot and story line, as characters can control and alter the story line or outcome by what you do or see throughout the game.

The video games of today take many forms, ranging from immersive fantasy worlds, to simple point and click programs with little, to no plot. Some games aim only to demonstrate an educational concept in a fun and interactive way, while others allow the player to step out of reality and enjoy a world of their own making. It is this wide variety of game types that makes it impossible to judge "video games" as a whole. For this purpose of this essay, I will acknowledge video games as belonging to one of two camps - violent, nonviolent, or educational.

This shows the wide verity of this game which adds more to the reason why this game is magnificent. You might ask how this information applies to his thesis: “Why video games matter?” All of this information provides logical facts that interest gamers around the world. The game provides a traditional narrative that allows for an experience framed in terms of wandering and lonesomeness, a purpose that is needed.

Video games have come a long way since Pong rid children of their quarters in 1972. In the past few years, a dramatic shift in the publics’ view of games has occured. What was once considered a kid’s toy capable of turning brains into mush is now enjoyed by the average age of 35 (Essential Facts). In recent times, another paradigm shift has begun for gaming: the road to becoming an art form. Today, museum curators from across the globe continue to accept video games into their collection, adding to its legitimacy. However, just as movies struggled to be considered art in the 1970s, the path for video games has not been smooth sailing. Many critics, such as the late Roger Ebert, have been increasingly vocal about their reasoning for why a

With the thorough investigation of “The Stanley Parable” this week, I find myself not only questioning the game in ways I hadn't previously considered, but I also find myself questioning other games in the same way. When I had first heard of “The Stanley Parable” I was simply under the impression that it was an open ended game with multiple endings and a hilarious narrator to carry the show along. With this in mind, I was thrilled to play it because I love comedy in any format, especially that found in video games. And while it was hilarious and filled me with intrigue, I had completely overlooked the more deeply entwined lessons this game was providing. In class, as we watched Alex deliberately piss off the narrator (though we voted on the

What is the definition of videogame? According to the dictionary, it is a game played by electronically manipulating images produced by a computer program on a television screen or other display screen. I have loved to play video games ever since I was a little kid. I still remember the first video game I ever had, it was called Sega Genesis 2. It was one of my all-time favorite games. I was so sad the day it died because of its “old age”. I do not actually remember how old I was, but I remember that some years passed before I received another one. The second videogame I ever had was the PlayStation one. Over the years I stuck with the PlayStation videogame-type until now that I have a Ps4. It is amazing to see with our own eyes how much videogames change over the years. It is funny how every time a new console game comes out I hear the phrase: “it looks just like real!” As a matter of fact, as the technology evolves, the videogames evolve. Since the first videogames were created their content, controllers, and graphics have evolved over time into the games that are played today.

Video games are capable of building one’s character. Tom Bissell, an American journalist, explains from personal experiences in his book Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter, how video games are able to “develop and customize one’s character indirectly” (218). Bissell argues that “Video games have always told some form of stories;” these stories are what enable and create the experiences the gamers are exposed to in the games (220). He states that the real-life experiences recreated in the games play a crucial role in improving the gamers’ ways of thinking, and personality traits (219). The freedom of choice video games offer in forms of what to do and where to point the camera in the game, teaches the gamers how to make decisions wisely and be responsible for their consequences, urging them to

Stories are the telling of chains of events that follow a character through a hardening journey as the audience tags along and shares the experience as if they were in the position of the character. Stories are not only told in books. Storytelling is told in many different forms of art such as in poetry, music, and movies. However, there is one other form of storytelling that is on the uprising--it’s video games. The twenty-first century as we all know is the age of the millennials and technology plays a huge role in everyone 's life as it continues to improve as we advance through the years. One major concept that separates storytelling in books and movies from video games is that in video games, you are the character. You are put in the experience and call the shots on the decisions that the character has to make in the game. The main thing that is so captivating about video games is that it’s immersive. The players who play as the characters in the game establishes a bond with them and the players also become emotionally attached to the characters that they 've journeyed with throughout the story. Regardless, all forms of storytelling are made of the basic story components and have many benefits that can be obtained by reading or listening to a story.

Video games have always, since the early 1970’s, been a favorite pastime of numerous humans around the planet. The medium has allowed many populaces to escape reality and journey to faraway lands where they assume the role of the main hero or heroine. This creation of false worlds and lives brings comfort in the lives of many and “one of the pleasures of play is this very suspension of reality” (Guerra). While gaming started as a harmless way of spending the hours blocking out the rest of the world and diving head first into a new life, it has slowly crossed the line from harmless fun into potentially dangerous instruments. The fact that technology has advanced into such a magnificent art form can be considered a blessing and a curse. Modern day video games contain story lines and graphics that can cause

Moreover, in its normal context (with a running narrative), a video game is split from reality so the player is more conscious of what is and isn’t acceptable…in studies, subjects play the game with no idea of what is supposed to be happening.

Egenfeldt-Nielson (2014), suggests that studying games from a lens of exploration, will fill the space that ludology and narratology fail to fill. This failure is identified by the limitations of each of the two fields where they separately focus more on different genres of games. Narratology seems to have its strength in studying systems like adventure games where storytelling and narrative plays a more important role in overall gameplay experience. In this type of game a ludic point of view has less to contribute to the discussion, however, ludology is better suited to analyzing games of strategy and action genres. Therefore limiting our views to those of only ludology and narratology leaves a gap in our understanding. All game genres should

Thesis: Storytelling in games gives the gamers the opportunity to be involved in the game, experience the characters, stimulate feelings like fear and excitement and let the player know they make situations happen and the choices they make affect the outcome as well as motivate them to continue on.

On the surface level, all the games presented for this assignment are directly applicable to the everyday lives that the student gamers or their parents and guardians are exposed at school or in life. While some of the games were developed to be more deliberate in their approach to reach certain content or social agenda, these games could easily be incorporated into school curricula if planned carefully. In fact, a couple of games in this week’s offerings could be a more than relevant supplement to certain core subjects and specific units of instruction and still be engaging and challenging enough to hold their attention to think critically. Additionally, one or two of the games allow for the student gamer to take learning into their own hands and create games that help themselves and their peers. Yet conversely, there was one that may be too grand in instructional scope that students may be thrown off by the amount effort just to progress within gameplay. Nevertheless, all of these games have the potential of being placed in day-to-day school instruction.

Today, for the video game hobbyist, there’ll be no disappointment when it comes to choosing games that reflect his/her personal values. Contrary to the beliefs of many people, not all video games promote violence, revenge and bloodshed. Some of the important values found in video gaming include, commitment, compassion, leadership, encouragement, intelligence, helpfulness and heroism. For example, the game, Walls of Jericho promotes leadership, intelligence, commitment, focus and heroism as the player strategically destroys Jericho’s walls to keep his followers following and happy. While a person could read a book or watch a movie about these values, it is not the same

However, it is goals which bestow these interactions its purpose (Costikyan 2002). Goals are a stimulus in games which motivates players to interact with the game system further and furthermore. These goals could be an explicit win-state, a set of victory conditions or smaller goals that adds up to the bigger objective in the game. Goals could be in numerical form such as getting the highest score or in status form such as the development of a city. On the other hand, there are games that have no explicit winning conditions. These are usually sand-box games like Grand Theft Auto V or simulation games like The Sims series, whereby players have a wide variety of goals to choose from or a wide variety of possibilities to play with. Therefore, games are goal-directed interactions that involves decision making (Costikyan 2002), that are up to the player’s discretion and the system of the game. Games are compelling this way because each gameplay of the same game will be dfferent….