Smith, M., 2018.

Game Narrative in Immersive Media

There has been a longstanding academic debate around the issue of videogames as a narrative form, often characterised as a split between ludologists seeking to understand games in terms of their formal characteristics and rules, and narratologists seeking to understand games as a narrative form. In recent years theorists and practitioners such as those writing for the International Journal of Computer Games Studies have sought to bridge the gap between these two approaches, and frameworks have emerged for writing about games that take into account the medium's ludic and narrative qualities, and are potentially of interest to those writing about and working in emerging immersive media such as 360 video. As the body of research into storytelling for immersive media grows in parallel with the proliferation and popularisation of new technology, this paper will argue that this new research into immersion and narrative will benefit from acknowledging and building upon the conclusions of those working in and writing about videogames, where precedents exist for many of the challenges and questions faced by writers and artists interested in new immersive technology. The paper aims to offer a brief literature review of the current state of academic debate on the issue of videogames as a narrative form, with the intention of providing a basis from which to build further research and practice in storytelling for emerging immersive media forms that builds upon and is informed by the existing body of research and practice in the established immersive media form of videogames.