I got some new books. Game Writing Narrative Skills for Videogames is one of them. I have just browsed it throught, but I desided to comment one thing that I noticed.
In Chapter 1: Introduction to game narrative Richard Dansky writes:
Immersion is arguably the ultimate goal of videogames. Immersion is making players forget that they’re sitting on their couch twiddling joysticks with their thumbs, and instead making them believe they’re mowing down Nazis, leaping from platform to platform over boiling space sludge, or exploring a mansion full of masticating mutants. (p. 16.)
How immersion is the ultimate goal for video games? The argument is missing, and I do not thing that there are very good arguments to back up the claim. To me, it seems that the author(s) is exluding wide variety of possible effects by setting up immediacy as his ultimate goal. Irony or comic effects can be heightened by other non-immersive means as seen, e.g., in Monkey Islands series. Also, Fahrenheit’s split screen technique is not about making players forget that they are sitting on their couch, but creating tension dispate that the game reveals it gameness.
Anyhow, I need to read the whole book. Despite the abobe-mentioned stuff, the book seems really interesting.
Bateman, C. (ed.) (2007). Game writing: Narrative skills for videogames. Boston: Charles River Media.
Petri Lankoski 