Narrative

I can't decide which side is more convincing on the whole games are/are not a narrative debate. With games, the author and the reader have a confusing, unclear relationship. In one part, the game can be seen as a 'database' as mentioned in the lecture and in another aspect, we could say that without an interesting narrative, it would be hard to keep the player interested. After a brief Google scholar search, I came across an article by Celia Pearce who argues that we shouldn't keep looking at games from the perspective of other disciplines as doing that is just trying "to put a square peg into a round hole." And so by arguing about what the function of narratives in games are, we are missing the whole point of what games are about - PLAY.

According to Celia Pearce, "The first and most important thing to know about games is that they center on PLAY. Unlike literature and film, which center on STORY, in games everything revolves around play and the player experience. Game designers are much less interested in telling a story than in creating a compelling framework for play." So with this thought in mind, we should be looking at the topic of the narrative in a "play-centric" context.
She gives the example of the game Chess by comparing it to Macbeth (Shakespeare). The game and the play both have a narrative but the narratives of the two examples operate in their own ways to suit their own genre. The narrative in a Shakespearean play works to engage the reader or the audience to get into the characters whereas the narrative of a game of Chess is involved with the "strategic conflict between the players" and thus with the physical 'play' of the game.
It was also interesting to note in the article how she refers to the Chess pieces as the player's avatars that serve the players intentions - thus linking to the subject of agency. So, with a play or a novel, you want the reader/audience to be engaged with the character in a way so that they empathise with them. With games, game designers want you to "project [yourselves] in to them" instead. So, in the end, it seems like although, looking at games and their narratives in the lenses of other disciplines is helpful, we should accept that games are a whole new medium of their own that needs its own lense for scholars to look through as they perform a different function to books or films. Games are meant to be interactive, even if they are just a set of data that has all be pre arranged, and are meant to include the player's own personal projections unto the game to shape the player's own characters and narratives.