An analysis of the themes of Rime, and in particular how we engage with thematic analysis and narratives more broadly.
Tag Archives: Storytelling
On Storytelling – Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
A thematic analysis of FromSoftware’s Sekiro which covers the concept of immortality – how the pursuit of immortality is corrupting and it is important to accept our finite lives.
On Storytelling: Theming and Humanity
Science fiction loves to pose complicated philosophical questions to us. And no question feels more in line with the genre than “what is a human?” But this question as a theme of a piece of art like a video game can be done well or poorly. And in particular, it can run into an initial bias based on which characters look human. In this essay I explore a few examples of games that raise this topic to show how getting an audience to engage with the topic is about more than just posing the question.
The Narrative Twist and the Immersion Problem
Twists are a common trope of storytelling at this point. The surprise of twists make them interesting, a way to prevent stories from feeling boring and predictable. But as we become more familiar with twists, they become predictable too, and that has an impact on how we consume narratives. This essay explores the causes and impacts of attempting to guess where a story might go, and how that can run counter to our own immersion within a game.
Moral Choices: Video Games, Judgments, and Rationalization
Video games can try to get us to think about complex moral problems through their systems and stories. But these tough questions can run up against an annoying facet of human psychology – our ability to rationalize. In this essay I use the ending sequence from The Last of Us to illustrate how the audience can use ambiguity to escape critically thinking about the media they consume, and what this means for game development.
On Storytelling: The Lorebook
Video games love lore. It allows for rich worldbuilding that is hard to get from brief glimpses of the environment or snippets of dialogue. But one conundrum is how lore is incorporated: the big book of lore that you can access from the menu. This essay explores the issue of reading in games and ways in which games can fail and succeed at getting players to want to do that reading.
On Storytelling: Bloodborne
Bloodborne offers some of the most confusing writing in any FromSoft game. Its story is told in a style that is not merely minimalistic, but barely even there. And yet, for those who wish to dig down into it, there are various themes that can be pulled from it. In this essay I will be doing a thematic analysis for Bloodborne and analyzing its world, narrative, and mechanics to pull together a core message for the player.
On Storytelling: Playstyles and Endings
Ideally, a video game’s story should react to your actions as a player. How you play the game should affect the story. And yet, that fascination with interactive storytelling lends itself to problems about how we approach a given game – or maybe even games in general. To what extent might your own approach continually funnel you toward a specific ending? In this essay I explore the conundrum of trying to mesh interaction and storytelling and the strange dilemma that faces developers.
On Storytelling: The Promise of Mystery
Mysteries can be fun and engaging, and hold a lot of promise when a player can be the main character. Yet, so many games that offer mysteries end up falling short. Where do they go wrong? In this essay I will be looking at some ways in which games that hold the promise of a mystery end up not making good on that promise.
On Storytelling: Narrative across Media
Video game stories can often be so big that they can’t be contained in a single game. We need a whole series of games. Or maybe even games and books and movies. But how does trying to tell a single cohesive story in this way affect the actual narrative(s) that we get?
Abstracting Games 