My senior project at my university is to design a Video Games as Literature course. I've got it all lined out and organized, but I need some games I can use.
In terms of the basic course structure, throughout the semester we will study specific genres and the storytelling concepts that they employ. However, I cannot simply show video of the games; interactive narrative can only be fully experienced if it's played, after all. I could have stuck with a few PC games, but I didn't feel like restricting myself to one system's options, I didn't like restricting myself to old or simple games (since I couldn't be sure of the power of the students' machines), and I imagine a few students would only have Macbooks without Boot Camp. So instead I organized the course by genre, allowing the students to choose out of a list of applicable games which they can then play for each genre study (rather than a textbook, these games are the texts, to be rented or bought for the course). But I need lists of games on varying systems for the students to choose from for each study. The list of studies are as follows:
First-Person Storytelling - Games from the first-person perspective that are worth studying from a literary perspective.
RPG Study - Broken up into JRPG and WRPG sections, to compare the styles of gameplay and storytelling from both cultures, since both are critically important to gaming's narrative identity but very, very different.
Adventure/Visual Novel - A study of games from point-and-click adventure games to Japanese visual novels, studying the ways in which these specialized genres tell their stories and overcome gaming's need for violence and conflict.
Indie Games - A study of what makes small-budget and independently-developed games different, how they are important, and the place that "art games" have in the medium.
Immersion - A study of immersion and atmosphere, the effect that all elements of an interactive artwork combine to create.
This will be followed by a more independent study, where they can choose any game they want and write their final essay analyzing it as an interactive narrative and a work of storytelling art. I do not need a list for this since they can choose any game from their experience.
A given game can overlap between studies; for instance, since Bioshock includes impressive first-person storytelling as well as immersive tension, it can be an option for both the first-person study and the Immersion study (though the student would only be allowed to use it for one).
Can you help me think of games that belong in these categories? Since this is just a project and the class will not necessarily be implemented (not right away, anyway), I do not need to have played all the games listed. Just give me ideas. Also, as a note, horror games fall under "Immersion" in this case. Cramming an entire medium into a single semester is harder than I would have expected.
tl;dr - Tell me what games are worthy to be studied in a Video Games as Literature course and how they fit into one of the above categories.
NOTE: If you are here to complain about how games are not art, how the issue is pointless, or anything along those lines, please just don't comment.
In terms of the basic course structure, throughout the semester we will study specific genres and the storytelling concepts that they employ. However, I cannot simply show video of the games; interactive narrative can only be fully experienced if it's played, after all. I could have stuck with a few PC games, but I didn't feel like restricting myself to one system's options, I didn't like restricting myself to old or simple games (since I couldn't be sure of the power of the students' machines), and I imagine a few students would only have Macbooks without Boot Camp. So instead I organized the course by genre, allowing the students to choose out of a list of applicable games which they can then play for each genre study (rather than a textbook, these games are the texts, to be rented or bought for the course). But I need lists of games on varying systems for the students to choose from for each study. The list of studies are as follows:
First-Person Storytelling - Games from the first-person perspective that are worth studying from a literary perspective.
RPG Study - Broken up into JRPG and WRPG sections, to compare the styles of gameplay and storytelling from both cultures, since both are critically important to gaming's narrative identity but very, very different.
Adventure/Visual Novel - A study of games from point-and-click adventure games to Japanese visual novels, studying the ways in which these specialized genres tell their stories and overcome gaming's need for violence and conflict.
Indie Games - A study of what makes small-budget and independently-developed games different, how they are important, and the place that "art games" have in the medium.
Immersion - A study of immersion and atmosphere, the effect that all elements of an interactive artwork combine to create.
This will be followed by a more independent study, where they can choose any game they want and write their final essay analyzing it as an interactive narrative and a work of storytelling art. I do not need a list for this since they can choose any game from their experience.
A given game can overlap between studies; for instance, since Bioshock includes impressive first-person storytelling as well as immersive tension, it can be an option for both the first-person study and the Immersion study (though the student would only be allowed to use it for one).
Can you help me think of games that belong in these categories? Since this is just a project and the class will not necessarily be implemented (not right away, anyway), I do not need to have played all the games listed. Just give me ideas. Also, as a note, horror games fall under "Immersion" in this case. Cramming an entire medium into a single semester is harder than I would have expected.
tl;dr - Tell me what games are worthy to be studied in a Video Games as Literature course and how they fit into one of the above categories.
NOTE: If you are here to complain about how games are not art, how the issue is pointless, or anything along those lines, please just don't comment.
