Meaning and action are complementary principles in the gaming activity and literary form called the “quest”. So argues Jeff Howard in his recent Digital Humanities Quarterly article, “Interpretive Quests in Theory and Pedagogy“. By quest, he means a journey in search of meaning, a journey that can include goal oriented activities if it takes place in a game world. Meanings can be functional and thematic. Functional meanings have to do with game tasks and things. Thematic meanings have to do with stories, which are about people and emotions. Quests mediate between storytelling and game play only to the extent that meanings go beyond utility. He suggests how. continue reading »

Corvus Elrod wrote a very thoughtful and well-argued post regarding a debate on the difference between experiencing a story and playing a game. Much of his argument hinges on his definitions of “story” and “narrative” and the distinctions between these two terms. He also makes the point that even a static story is always really two stories, the intended story and the experienced story. I completely agree with this point. Reader participation is active, not passive, and the meaning of any story – or any text at all – is always a co-creation of author and reader. This insight makes it more problematic to posit simple comparisons and contrasts between not only static and dynamic stories, but also between stories and games.

continue reading »