This is what I wrote to my friend Bernie who I often discuss
about theories of narratives in different mediums. I think it is an interesting thought
I came up with so I'll share it to you.
I have been studying a lot of films, comics, novels and musics during these past year especially these past few moths. This included comparison of different mediums like The Hobbit Film and Novel. I just came up with this interesting theory about the power to create the world and make believe in different elements.
Give Peter Jackson films(both trilogies) vs Tolkien novel(The Hobbit) which I have just read for example.
Films are capable of telling story through sounds and moving images.
Gestalt between good acting and set design make imageries that make believe.
Novel, however, only have words and possibly some illustrations. Although, words(especially tolkien's writing) tend to carry the essence of author's self and intention very strongly. Words also tend to make each subject it describes much more significant and fascinatingly, they make audience sub-consciously imagine the world surrounding the subject without using any words.
Comics are different. Well crafted comics can integrate powerful/cinematic imageries with dialogues or narrations that help expresses what we do not see. Although it can only create illusion of movements and sounds.
Games are also different. Depends on it's craft, each can contain different range of narrative elements. Typical jrpg usually have fair amount of each elements. Some have written dialogues for words that are not majorly important to the main story but that helps create a sense of open-ended border to the world. Modern rpg such as The Last of Us and Assassin's Creed however, rely highly on cinematography, speeches and programmed sound effects.
When we see potential to create world in different way in each elements we see more possibilities to find gestalt in different degrees of integration. I believe that we can find a new horizon of each mediums from this wisdom. Give video games for example. Making more believable game doesn't always mean make it more film-like but we should find the right balance between uses of different narrative elements. Video games can also tell stories uniquely from films. I remember myself enjoyed reading dialogues from one of my childhood translated mmo. The translation sounds very unfinished almost as if npc were mumbling to themselves but from that shattered pieces of informations there were so much voids for audiences to fill their imaginations. I haven't play Dark Soul myself but my friend who's pretty critical about video games said that it was a brilliant idea whether it was intentional or unintentional to make npcs speake broken speech. It support the design that left a lot of things verbally unexplained and let players figure them out with pieces of shattered informations(a common Japanese aesthetic called 'Ma' or potential void).
May be you could agree to the certain degrees from you experiences with Elder Scroll?
I know you enjoy reading myth and lore and I think those written words in books were powerful part of the game narrative, without actually visualizing it. People like me gets really excited to see old ruins or hint of ancient civilization or visual aid that trigger the curiosity, which lead me to reading in the end(I've been reading Tolkienpedia and Wookiepedia so much previously). Map might be one other good example.
Whether it's films, comic or novel or even music that has an album cover or side illustrations, I think they all have potential to become more convincing through the better marriage between different narrative elements.
I have been studying a lot of films, comics, novels and musics during these past year especially these past few moths. This included comparison of different mediums like The Hobbit Film and Novel. I just came up with this interesting theory about the power to create the world and make believe in different elements.
Give Peter Jackson films(both trilogies) vs Tolkien novel(The Hobbit) which I have just read for example.
Films are capable of telling story through sounds and moving images.
Gestalt between good acting and set design make imageries that make believe.
Novel, however, only have words and possibly some illustrations. Although, words(especially tolkien's writing) tend to carry the essence of author's self and intention very strongly. Words also tend to make each subject it describes much more significant and fascinatingly, they make audience sub-consciously imagine the world surrounding the subject without using any words.
Comics are different. Well crafted comics can integrate powerful/cinematic imageries with dialogues or narrations that help expresses what we do not see. Although it can only create illusion of movements and sounds.
Games are also different. Depends on it's craft, each can contain different range of narrative elements. Typical jrpg usually have fair amount of each elements. Some have written dialogues for words that are not majorly important to the main story but that helps create a sense of open-ended border to the world. Modern rpg such as The Last of Us and Assassin's Creed however, rely highly on cinematography, speeches and programmed sound effects.
When we see potential to create world in different way in each elements we see more possibilities to find gestalt in different degrees of integration. I believe that we can find a new horizon of each mediums from this wisdom. Give video games for example. Making more believable game doesn't always mean make it more film-like but we should find the right balance between uses of different narrative elements. Video games can also tell stories uniquely from films. I remember myself enjoyed reading dialogues from one of my childhood translated mmo. The translation sounds very unfinished almost as if npc were mumbling to themselves but from that shattered pieces of informations there were so much voids for audiences to fill their imaginations. I haven't play Dark Soul myself but my friend who's pretty critical about video games said that it was a brilliant idea whether it was intentional or unintentional to make npcs speake broken speech. It support the design that left a lot of things verbally unexplained and let players figure them out with pieces of shattered informations(a common Japanese aesthetic called 'Ma' or potential void).
May be you could agree to the certain degrees from you experiences with Elder Scroll?
I know you enjoy reading myth and lore and I think those written words in books were powerful part of the game narrative, without actually visualizing it. People like me gets really excited to see old ruins or hint of ancient civilization or visual aid that trigger the curiosity, which lead me to reading in the end(I've been reading Tolkienpedia and Wookiepedia so much previously). Map might be one other good example.
Whether it's films, comic or novel or even music that has an album cover or side illustrations, I think they all have potential to become more convincing through the better marriage between different narrative elements.
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