By Gwen Klinkey & Charlize Pate Digital narratives come in many different forms. From video games to PowerPoint journals, technology has allowed modern authors a plethora of ways to market and publish their stories. In recent years, the traditional comic book has shifted gears and transitioned to online versions of the same content readers know and love while also providing new content to those just entering the comic “book” scene. Not only does this provide more widespread publishing opportunities for newer authors, but it also increases accessibility for those who may not otherwise have the resources to consume this type of media. Webtoon is a free, online resource for lovers of all illustrated narratives. Lore Olympus is a featured story on the app. The story is a modern retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone from ancient Greece; however, because author and artist Rachel Smythe takes creative liberties with the original myth she is able to draw on a common story that many of us know and change it into something that modern readers can identify with. Lore Olympus depicts “Mount Olympus” in the modern era with cell phones, social media, and other modern luxuries, while the mortal realm is still set in ancient Greece. Smythe tells the story of Hades and Persephone with a twist and explores other facets of the characters' lives, branching off from the original Demeter-centric storyline. The basic myth of Hades and Persephone was taken from the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which focuses on Demeter’s experience and tells the story from her point of view, but even in the original text one can see the cracks in Demeter and Persephone's relationship. This narrative expands on that concept and analyses the nuances of everyday life for a young girl with a tumultuous life. In its course, Lore Olympus has thus far tackled abusive relationships, both romantic and familial, rape and sexual assault, and relationships with an age gap. While these topics may seem particularly heavy for a comic, the ways in which they are presented, which will be explored later, are truly impactful for its audience which tends to linger in the same age range as Persephone (around nineteen years old). With a wide variety of art styles and storylines coming from the many authors and artists who use the Webtoon app to publish, there is something for everyone; however, Lore Olympus seems to be one of the most successful stories on Webtoon to date by a wide margin. What draws people into this narrative in particular? One factor may be the color scheme Smythe utilizes. The bulk of the story is illustrated in a watercolor style that utilizes mostly monochromatic color palettes. For example, the character Hades is depicted as entirely blue, and Persephone is completely pink. Likewise, the setting of the Underworld is blue to connect Hades to his realm just as the mortal realm is pink and bright to reflect Persephone’s characteristics. According to Smythe, this is not only used to catch the eye of the reader, but also to communicate important themes within the story itself. While Smythe is unlikely to reveal her entire thought process to us in the moment due to the fact that episodes are still being produced, it is important to note that the characters are often pictured in the opposite’s “natural habitat,” drawing on the discomfort of that person in the aforementioned situation. The vibrant colors in this piece are not only used to catch the eye, but also to communicate different emotions, personalities, and character traits throughout the text. Thus far in the story, the main emotion that has capitalized on this technique is anger. Throughout Persephone’s story she is constantly underestimated and taken advantage of, but because of her upbringing and other factors within her personality she doesn’t stand up for herself until she has boiled over with rage resulting in rather large and showy melt downs. Smythe uses red in these moments to not only tint the characters, but sometimes their environment too, even choosing to fully saturate the screen and use that to show the depth and complexity of the character’s emotion. This full immersion is something that can create a much deeper reaction that black and white words on a page and influence readers well beyond the traditional novel format. The story is told in an episodic structure, where viewers can scroll down through each “episode” and read a series of panels similar to a traditional comic book. The images range from colorful and dramatic images that take up the full phone screen and white spaces that may only contain a few words that indicate a character’s thoughts. While dialogue bubbles are typically used, different colored text may also come into play to distinguish the difference between any speakers we cannot see. There are also smaller images within the white space that may only encompass a small detail that would otherwise be overlooked in a larger picture. All of these components are interspersed throughout the story in order to create a comprehensible narrative. Examples of all of these can be seen in the images below. Lore Olympus is a prime example of the ways that digital literature can be used in a very simplistic way. While Smythe has not created additional media corresponding to her story, she is an active author who participates in Q&A’s and listens to fan comments which allows for the story to unfold in a way that most pleases the audience. She has also occasionally posted concept art and deleted scenes when she does not have time to put out a full chapter, or has had additional requests from her audience. This is achieved merely through commenting and social media accounts, the most basic form of digital literature. Using these things to one’s advantage can lay out a forward thinking narrative that pushes the boundaries of typical narrative formatting. Lore Olympus shows us that we don’t need to be programming masterminds to develop a successful digital narrative while at the same time proving that this is a progressive and productive way to produce content that can have a great impact on readers.
By Michael Foreman “Ruin… has come to our family.” These are the first words one hears upon beginning Darkest Dungeon, an indie rogue-like dungeon crawler RPG developed by Red Hook Studios first released on Steam early access in 2016, and “ruin” is certainly what players will encounter as they navigate their teams of heroes through dilapidated manor halls and ruthless caverns and landscapes in search of treasures to prepare themselves for the onslaught against the Darkest Dungeon itself. Darkest Dungeon is very unique due to its nature as equal parts a rogue-like and a turn based RPG. Players are first thrust into the game with the starter heroes, the Crusader Reynauld and the Highwayman Dismas, in the tutorial segment of the game - The Old Road. Dismas and Reynauld are always the same heroes at the start of every playthrough, having the same fixed unlocked skills and quirks (positive and negative hero perks, essentially) each time, but beyond those two, all other heroes that the player receives from the stagecoach each in-game week are completely randomized apart from the semi-random first week, where the player will always receive a Vestal and a Plague Doctor with random skills and quirks to form their first party of four. From the second week onward, all heroes, quests, and rewards the player receives are randomized. The player’s role is thus: they are the “Heir,” having been called by their Ancestor to return to their family home - now overrun with undead, cultists, witches, and eldritch horrors as the Darkest Dungeon - and push back the evils lurking within and reclaim their home and family treasures. The Heir hires mercenaries to send on quests to reclaim gold and relics, which are used to upgrade both their heroes and the hamlet in which they currently reside, far outside of the reaches of the manor, which in turn allows the player to receive more heroes and upgrade them further to take on more challenging quests, eventually preparing for an assault on the Darkest Dungeon itself. And as players continue to play and conquer increasingly difficult bosses, they may come to realize that the Ancestor, whose voice is given incredible character by Wayne June and narrates most of the game, is not quite what he seems… As one may guess, though, this proves to be no easy task, as the game so generously informs the player on startup: Indeed, Darkest Dungeon demands caution, and punishes players that recklessly plunge their heroes to their deaths. The player has a number of factors that must be balanced if they wish to maintain their own sanity and the health of their heroes while also making progress towards the game’s final acts. All hero classes have distinct roles, with melee-heavy fighters such as the Hellion or the Leper capable of large amounts of damage on the frontline while middle and backline heroes are more devoted to either supporting and healing the party and stunning and disrupting the enemy party, such as the Plague Doctor and the Vestal, or are capable of more balanced roles in dealing fair damage to enemies while also healing or guarding fellow party members, such as the Houndmaster and the Arbalest; if a party is to survive, the roles that heroes can perform individually must be carefully considered, lest adventurers find themselves with insufficient means of stitching their wounds or unable to quickly deal with certain enemies and sustaining more damage than necessary. Heroes will not only suffer physical damage at the hands of enemies that are encountered, but will also suffer mental stress, and if a hero suffers too much stress during a quest, they will most likely break and become Afflicted, reducing their stats and making them unpredictable in battle to the point of even potentially attacking their party members out of anger or confusion - and should they become even further stressed while Afflicted, they will suffer a heart attack and either be put to 0 HP and require healing or die instantly if they have no remaining HP. That said, there is a small chance that a hero will find their resolve strengthened under such tremendous stress, and will instead become Virtuous, raising their own stats and passively buffing or reducing the stress of their fellow party members as well. Because the consequences of Afflictions are so drastic, hero stress must be managed diligently; there are some heroes that are capable of reducing stress directly and prove essential in many more difficult quests, such as the Jester with his Inspiring Tune skill, but heroes will also have lowered stress upon killing enemies, scoring a critical hit, interacting with certain curios, or resting and eating at a campfire. The Heir’s heroes are all human, and while wounds can be healed and stress abated, they also have material needs that must be tended to and balanced in quests. Heroes will suffer random hunger checks throughout a dungeon, and thus, food must be carried at all times to prevent them from starving. Their torchlight must also be carefully maintained, and is one of the most important resources throughout a dungeon; should one run out of torches to maintain the light, or be so daring as to snuff the torch themselves, the darkness will strengthen enemies, unnerve the heroes and cause them more stress, and even the game’s soundtrack responds to the light level, with the ambient noises of the quest areas themselves and the battle themes growing more chaotic, aggressive, and sinister as the light level falls. But as the quest areas grow darker and more dangerous to heroes, so too grow the rewards for enemy encounters and treasure curios, which may tempt more daring and ambitious players to take the risk of running a quest without light to claim more gold and relics at the end of the journey… if their heroes survive, that is.
Darkest Dungeon is a truly unique game that, while not for the faint of heart, offers an extremely immersive, tense, and rewarding experience. It is very much a game about making due with what the player is given and continuing on in the face of extreme, sometimes seemingly insurmountable challenge. Heroes will die, quests will sometimes prove impossibly difficult, and resources will constantly wear thin, but players are never presented a Game Over (unless they play on Stygian or Bloodmoon difficulties) and will always be able to pull themselves out of a rut in order to soldier on towards challenging and conquering the Darkest Dungeon. By Spencer Avery & Joshua Wick The aptly titled, “Unedited Footage of a Bear” starts just like you’d expect it to: a clear shot of a massive grizzly bear, relaxing on a hillside, minding his own business. The bear stands there, scratching his ears a few times. The only audio that can be heard is the slight rustle of the wind, and the hushed, mundane comments of the filmers (stuff like “Wow he’s so big!” and “Look at those ears!”). About thirty seconds into this seemingly peaceful footage, an ad pops up (if you watch the video on YouTube, the ad even has the little “skip ad” button in the corner of the screen. We’ll get to that later.). The ad is for “Claridryl,” a fictional allergy medicine. The ad starts off fairly normal, with a hard-working Mom who is burdened by her allergies. She takes the Claridryl and the world instantly gets more colorful and clearer. It perfectly catches the tone of any ad that might be seen on daytime television for Claritin or Benadryl. The commercial seems like it’s going to end when the logo shows up on the screen and the mom is shown driving away down the street in her minivan with a pleasant smile on her face. But the footage keeps rolling, following the mom as she drives through the serene, suburban neighborhood. The upbeat music fades out to silence.
As the footage rolls, small details become noticeable. A bottle of Claridryl is spotted in the cupholder and some napkins litter the passenger seat. A close look at another shot reveals that there are several empty bottles and boxes of Claridryl in the back seat. The mom stops at a stop-sign and takes a puff from the Claridryl bottle. She speeds down the road but screeches the car to a halt when she sees something in the road. She exits the car, picks it up, and realizes that it’s a battered copy of the same sweater that she is wearing. She looks down the road. Standing about a hundred feet away is a bloodied clone of herself. It begins to run at her. From this moment on the video turns into a hellish nightmare, with ear-piercing distorted audio, psychotic mumblings, the mom terrorizing her children, and the clone backing over the mom with a car. Needless to say, this video is messed up. What’s really interesting, however, is the skip button at the start of the ad. If you were to click it, it would take you to the (sadly now defunct) website for Claridryl. The website appears normal, but if you click on the house in the background (the one that the mom lives in), the website takes you to a point-and-click digital tour of the house from the video. The tour lets you explore the entire house, complete with all of the disturbing easter-eggs that appear in the original short-film. The website itself (aside from the digital tour) distorts itself as you click on the links. The image of the bottle of Claridryl grows larger and larger with each click. A YouTuber even found that if you look at the source code for the website and highlight it, a message appears that spells out, “I know you’re here.” I found it fascinating how this little piece of digital candy made an already terrifying short film that much creepier. Horror can feel safe when it’s just on a screen, but when it jumps into something tangible, like a website, it feels that much more realistic and unsettling. Adult Swim, the media company that produced the short, is known for often using satire and provocative images to get politically charged messages across. Contrary to its appearance as a horror-style short film with disturbing imagery, “Unedited Footage of a Bear” is in fact a piece of political satire and activism, making social commentary on U.S. capitalist norms regarding antidepressants, addiction, and the vicious cycle therein. Initially, the first thirty seconds of the video is footage of a grizzly bear. This is reminiscent of the way that advertisement companies will often mask their products in layers of happy or sunny imagery to entice viewers without actually discussing their product. Meanwhile, once the real ad begins, the message quickly becomes clear. The text along the bottom warning of side effects is clearly hyperbolic and meant to lampoon the long lists of side effects that are included with medications such as antidepressants and other mood-altering drugs. The idea of addiction is introduced when the mother is driving home from the park, but instead of her children in the back seat, there are many empty containers of Claridryl, and we see the mother inhaling Claridryl as she drives. As she passes a house of a man who just committed several murders, you see someone (who takes Claridryl) experiencing a form of mania, which often leads to suicide and violence, and is an underrepresented side-effect of antidepressant drugs. When the camera cuts to the alternate version of her, we see skid marks similar to the ones left behind the car, and a curved camera angle with repeated images on either side of the street. This is a reflection of the nature of addiction, how despite sobriety, the struggle is ongoing and the past often becomes the future. Yet, while the other ‘mother’ does inflict tremendous pain upon her family and herself, she does not kill the original. This leaves the story open ended and on-going, as is the struggle often in these cases. While it may seem off-putting and convoluted, the piece itself is a brilliant social commentary on the way we market drugs to consumers, regardless of whether we need them or not, and how their consequences can be all-consuming in ways we don’t expect. This commentary is most similar to the work of Sutu in “The Ocean is Broken,” in which he makes political commentary on the issue of climate change, nuclear waste, and pollution. By Steven Burnett & Sam Moore The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is an open-world game developed by Bethesda Studios that was released in 2011. At the time, it wasn’t particularly revolutionary by any means, but since its release, Skyrim’s influence in popular culture all but skyrocketed. In fact, project director Todd Howard stated in 2016 that Skyrim had sold over 30 million copies worldwide - placing it within the 20 best selling video games of all time. Given its commercial and critical success, Skyrim’s influence in popular culture all but skyrocketed since its release. It is so beloved that one family even named their son Dovahkiin, after the name the main character is referred to as throughout the story. The base game on its own, with its expansion packs, could take a player hundreds of hours to fully explore. However, after what can feel like hundreds of playthroughs, some of the game’s audience has begun to grow weary of the game’s vanilla gameplay. The game itself is pretty entertaining, but sometimes players find that not everything works the way they want it to. Others are looking for a new storyline because they’ve played the original one hundreds of times in the nine years since it’s been released. Rather than turn to a different game, some PC and console players with particularly creative minds have turned to an alternative solution while still keeping their love for Skyrim alive -- modding. By altering or adding portions of the game, any desired changes can be made. This can include minor details, like patching a few bugs or adding a few items, to completely changing game mechanics or adding on entirely separate storylines. Some of the larger, more in-depth mods for Skyrim are known as total-conversion mods, which completely switch the game from one story to another. One such mod is called Enderal: Forgotten Stories. Free on Steam with the ownership of Skyrim, the mod is considered by many to be even better than the original game in many aspects- to the tune of a 9/10 consensus review on Steam and a 74% approval rating on PC Gamer. The mod rehashes the game’s original backstory and introduction, giving a fresh feeling to the beloved game. Instead of playing as an unfortunate traveler who is arrested and set to die due to a complete misunderstanding, the player takes the reins of a castaway in an unfamiliar place. Among the mod’s best qualities are the fresh story and advanced difficulty, which is definitely appreciated by the more experienced Skyrim players. Another popular mod that adds a huge amount of content to the game (while not being considered a total-conversion mod) is called Moonpath to Elsweyr, which adds a whole new DLC-sized region for the player to explore. It is entirely lore-friendly, adding references to the history of the Khajiit, a race of catlike beings existing throughout the Elder Scrolls storyline. In fact, the whole region of Elsweyr is a province included in official Elder Scrolls documentation, and its representation in Moonpath to Elsweyr is considered faithful to the source material. The main difference between Enderal and Moonpath to Elsweyr is the fact that Enderal is a total-conversion mod that completely changes the game’s story, while Moonpath to Elsweyr simply adds more story and exploration content to what is already in the game. More experienced players may appreciate this more than the common player, especially since Elsweyr can be added into an existing save file. Meaning, their characters that have been built as a result of hours upon hours of grinding can be used to progress through a new storyline and region. However, the complete stand-alone nature of Enderal allows the player to get more immersed with the changes and improvements upon Skyrim’s original mechanics. Regardless of which type of mod you prefer, one overarching theme remains consistent -- the player has a whole new aspect of control over the game and the narrative in which they play. Modding allows gamers a whole new layer of interaction with the original game. Particularly skilled modders can mold and reshape the game to their will -- along with that, the narrative itself. The “choose your own adventure” style of gameplay isn’t lost between mods; that has always remained consistent throughout mods. But the point of this is, through modding, Skyrim can go as far as becoming an entirely different game. It’s pretty common to find digital narratives that are impacted by the player/reader’s decisions; however, until now there hasn’t been anything quite like the freedom given to players through Skyrim mods.
By Jacqueline Freed One of my all-time favorite video games is the Ace Attorney series. I mean this whole-heartedly. It isn’t every day that you end up liking a character so much that you want to name your first-born son after him. Yeah, I am looking at you Miles Edgeworth, with your smug look and weird white ruffle from the 1800s. Goodness, Miles, you have a way of always stealing the spotlight. You aren’t even the main character of the series nor is this post about you. If you have never played it, in Ace Attorney you play as, you guessed it, an attorney. You work to defend your client being accused of murder. In court, you will use the evidence you have collected on the investigation days to prove your client’s innocence. You will break the annoying witnesses such as Lotta Hart, April May and Wendy Oldbag, end up getting to the bottom of case by proving what the murderer ate for lunch. Gameplay wise, this is more or less an interactive manga/anime. If you mashed the mechanics of Birdland with one of Sutu’s comics, that is essentially the game play mechanics involved in this game. You make choices in this game. You choose what questions to ask and where to go, but you can’t really move forward in the game unless you examine everything you need to in order to get all of the evidence, ask people all of the question options given to you, and present evidence to get more dialogue options. Overall, it is a pretty linear game; you will get the same outcome when you beat the game. Of course, there is a chance you can lose in court, but that just means you lose that section of the game and you will have to replay from the last save point to move on. The linear pathway is similar to Sutu’s stories, you can scroll through the comic and see the animations that come with it, but there is really only one path. However, the game is still more interactive than that. Birdland also had a set ending, but how you got there could be a little different. There are not many branching dialogue options in Ace Attorney like there is in Birdland, but there are still some similarities. You are able to present as much evidence as you want to people during the investigation sections without any penalty, but you may get some funny dialogue out of it. You should ALWAYS present your attorney’s badge to people while investigating because there are some hidden gems of dialogue in the game. In the end, you have to show specific pieces of evidence in court on specific statements or press specific statements during the testimonies to beat the game and move on in the case. Additionally, in class, we have discussed digital narratives that utilized music and sound to their advantage. In Jennifer Egan’s “Great Rock and Roll Pauses,” she would include clips of songs throughout the PowerPoint story and at many other points it would be silent. Ace Attorney has a pretty great soundtrack and it uses this to the games advantage. When you are in court and you present a piece of evidence that contradicts, your character will shout “Objection!” The testimony music that was playing at the time will stop. When there is that initial break in music you know you have presented the right piece of evidence and can sigh in relief. If there is no break in music though…get ready to be hit with a penalty. Additionally, if you presented a key piece of evidence that may just tear this testimony apart and solve the case, suddenly you will get this intense fast paced music because you are suddenly at the brink of things. Just a little bit more and you will blow this case right open! Until suddenly the prosecutor tells you that the autopsy report that you have is outdated. Of course, they couldn’t tell you that beforehand because that would prevent them from humiliating you. Additionally, the majority of the characters in the games have their own “theme song.” Similar to how in Sutu’s “These Memories Won’t Last” and “The Ocean is Broken” this adds to the story. In both of Sutu’s stories, the audio or music adds to what is going on at the time of the story. This is the same for Ace Attorney. When Prosecutor Blackquill begins speaking and is about to prove you wrong and make a point you can hear his theme “Twisted Samurai” playing in the background. This doesn’t play whenever Blackquill talks during court (this would cause for very choppy and annoying audio) so you know when it does play something is about to go down that is going to tear your case to shreds, which is very disappointing for you. As much as I love his theme, it definitely affects my mood for a moment there. The truth is, I could go on and on about this game. I love it so much. It is full of comedy and mystery, what can be more entertaining than that? There is also so many components that add to the story, even more than what I discussed here. I guess what I will leave you with is, while you enjoy the amazing soundtrack and dialogue of the game, go and figure out “Who dunnit?” and press the murderer until they have their inevitable breakdown.
By Justin Corp Undertale was Toby Fox’s first full RPG game, and Deltarune was a derivative of Undertale in several ways. In the game Undertale, the player controls a child who has fallen into the Underground: a large, secluded region under the surface of the Earth, separated by a magic barrier. The game contains plenty of lighthearted humor, absurdist jokes, and peculiar coding functions. However, the beauty of the game is the effect that all of your decisions have on the story. Undertale notably has three distinct endings: a pacifist ending, a homicide ending, and a normal gameplay ending. Decision making plays the biggest role in this roleplaying game, and the player is able to buy into this concept early on. As much as Undertale is a game about decision-making, Deltarune is a game that trivializes decisions that the player makes. Along every step of the way, the decisions that you (or the protagonist Kris) makes, are discarded or ignored entirely. The game starts with a character creation process that includes head, torso, and leg customization as well as a gift and a favorite thing. After you confirm your choices, the game discards your character and gives the text, “No one can choose who they are in this world”. Further driving in the futility of the roleplaying that the player should find enjoyable is the games expression of the protagonist Kris. Upon glancing in the mirror, the game provides the dialog, “It’s only you”. In Undertale, mirrors give a rewarding, existential reply of “It’s you!”, or even better, “Despite everything, it’s still you”. Deltarune is a game about futility. Everything takes its course exactly how it does for everyone else. By Nathan Dahill & Max Phillips Welcome to a world of hijacking cars, robberies, and owning the streets. Grand Theft Auto V is a game unlike any other. It intermingles gaming and a narrative that allows players to delve into the lives and stories of the three main characters. Gamers can follow the network because the game gives you the ability to embody Franklin Clinton, Michael De Santa, or Trevor Philips. Franklin was dealt a tough hand. He never met his father and his mother used drugs as an outlet to escape the abuse of his father. Due to her abuse, Franklin’s mother passed when he was a young boy. Even though his grandmother came in with a positive influence, Franklin turned to hustling in the streets and looking for anyway to make a gigantic profit. Next, we have Michael De Santa. Michael is an ex-convict that plays an important role that starts in the very beginning of the game. He runs into some trouble that causes his absence from crime to not be as relaxing as he’d hoped. Finally, Trevor Philips is a violent scumbag that is searching for an easy high and the biggest payout. SPOILERS ALERT AHEAD. PROCEED WITH CAUTION. The game opens nine years in the past showing a bank being robbed by Brad, Michael, and Trevor with a getaway driver at the ready. The police arrive and chase them down, and Brad and Michael get shot by a sniper. Trevor makes it out unscathed, leaving the other two behind. A funeral is conducted for Michael, but Michael is then shown looking on his own funeral. He sold out his team to authorities to gain safety for his family. Franklin comes into the picture when we move to the present. Franklin saves Michael’s son and comes under Michael’s wing. Jumping ahead, Michael runs into some trouble with a gang leader. The trouble brings Trevor back into the picture. Now the three are ready to take on the next wave of gangs, cops, and other problems thrown their way. One of the best parts of Grand Theft Auto V is not only it’s living, breathing world, but how the player can affect the world in several aspects, both online and offline. For example, most story and side missions that players complete will have some sort of impact on the game world. Certain buildings/set pieces that are destroyed/damaged during missions will stay looking that way. Breaking news about heists and other major events that the player is involved with will be broadcasted via in-game radio stations in vehicles. Characters the player interacts with during missions and even random characters will post on Bleeter and Lifeinvader (Grand Theft Auto’s fictional versions of Twitter and Facebook) about those events, whether they were directly involved or affected or not. Even the protagonists will sometimes comment on each other’s actions/choices done prior to the current conversation taking place, both in and out of cutscenes. Another great example of how the player/online community can have an impact on the game world is how they affect the stock in-game stock markets. There are two in-game stock markets where players can buy and sell stock from: LCN and BAWSAQ. In the LCN stock market, stock prices are primarily affected by a few factors such as story progress, in-game purchases, and, most of all, assassination missions (which can only be done by playing as Franklin). In the BAWSAQ stock market, stock prices are primarily affected by the game’s online community and in real time Grand Theft Auto V’s narrative is already fairly large in scope, but the fact that the player’s actions throughout the game’s narrative(s) cause the game world to react in various ways simultaneously makes the experience of playing that much more immersive, but the immersion doesn’t stop there. The Grand Theft Auto V: iFruit app directly connects to your Grand Theft Auto V experience/Rockstar Games Social Club account. There are few activities players can do in the app that can enhance their gameplay experience, such as being able to order and customize cars, or training a virtual dog through a series of minigames that reflects how Franklin’s dog behaves in the main game. Furthermore, players can even go on Lifeinvader and look at other non-playable characters’ profiles and posts to get a more in-depth understanding of them. Overall this is correlates closely to our recent class discussions based on transmedia and specifically the interactive asset. It is a form of transmedia that doesn’t require players to play the game and have the app to understand what is going on. Throughout this game the world in San Andreas can shift and even the narrative can be altered based on which character you are playing as. Rockstar Games created a prime example of how a digital literature can become interactive and allow players to delve into a different world! By Nick Black & John Collins Madden NFL 18, by EA Sports, has a story mode that is very unique. Almost every sports game every year has some form of story mode to it. However, Madden 18 does a fantastic job of differentiating themselves from the rest. The interesting thing about sports games that differ from the rest is, you can put yourself in your character’s shoes. You can imagine that it is you getting drafted and playing a successful career in the big leagues. You get to make choices and have to perform to a certain level to move up from the minors and/or stay on the big stage. In 2018, EA added a little twist to this narrative and made it to where you are playing as Devin Wade who is NFL hopeful as he competes on a reality TV show for quarterbacks called Longshot.
This is not the first form of digital narrative in sports video games; however, I think it is one of the better ideas. Madden 18 continues this story mode through to the next game, Madden 19. I believe this is a form of transmedia where they are continuing the story through several different video games. Moreover, Madden 18 also has several different possible endings so that also plays into what we are talking about in class with interactive stories. However, in Madden 20 EA started a new story mode in which they will continue for several games. Madden 18 was not the greatest because a large portion of the game is cutscenes and it could get pretty repetitive and cheesy. However, in the end, the story is very well written and keeps the player playing for hours at a time. I played through the story mode several times as it only took me a couple of hours to complete each time. There are several different endings to this story, all of which give the player different emotions. The endings include: Devin gets drafted and Colt does not, Devin and Colt both get drafted, or Colt gets drafted and Devin does not. Moreover, the easiest ending to come by is the ending which includes both friends getting drafted to the NFL. The story takes you through the journey of Devin Wade, a “washed up” college athlete who is trying to make it pro. Devin competes in a reality TV show where it runs quarterbacks through a series of tests. The player is required to make choices and perform at a top-level to remain in the games. You then get drafted to an NFL team and play a series of games through your rookie season. After that, the game is just like any other sports campaign mode. You just play your career as Devin Wade and work towards the Hall of Fame. The player could also go back and retry the story as many times as desired until they got the ending they wish. I think EA Sports has taken a step in the right direction with Madden 18. I really enjoy the decision making that takes place and how it really dictates the ending. I think the ability to choose what the character says and does gives the player a sense of responsibility because you are choosing what happens to them in the ending. Furthermore, I believe that this makes the game more fun and replayable because you are able to go back through the story and rechoose different options. Madden 18 has some kinks to work out, such as long, unskippable cut scenes that provide nothing to the story, but EA is definitely heading in the right direction with their digital narratives. |
AuthorWe are the students of "Digital Literatures" at Millikin University. These are some of the digital narratives that entice, inspire, and challenge us. Categories
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