Email: Comment on Narratologists Grasping at Straws

Sean,

I enjoy reading your blog. Most of the time when discussing other articles, there’s a fair amount of opinions on each side. I usually tend to agree with yours, but that doesn’t prevent me from seeing the other side as having valid points.

The guy who wrote the IGN editorial, though, strikes me as one of those times where what the guy is saying can’t even be considered a valid. It’s like his opinion isn’t cogent with itself. It’s like it’s not even a freakin’ opinion; it’s just wrong! Do you ever get that feeling, like, “seriously, how can you THINK this?” It just doesn’t seem possible.

To be fair though, although I skimmed a large part of his editorial, he didn’t seem like a “narratologist” to me, but rather a guy trying to say Wii Sports Resort was one of the best games ever, using every argument possible, including bad ones. As far as I could tell he only had one little section about the “narrative” of WSR (it was two pages too). The end of your blog on the subject struck me as a bit of a gross generalization — I don’t think these “narratolgists” are by any means all academics nor are of the same cloth in any way. They seem to be just another breed of a gamer, which aren’t directly connected in any tangible way other than shared interest. Although some of the ones you have pointed out (such as the long video with the guy talking fast with basic animations) do fit your generalization, I don’t otherwise think it’s the case for most of them. Thanks for reading,

Another email, from the same person as above:

I take back what I said about him only having a “little” section about the narrative aspect of the game. After looking closer it is much more the theme of this entire editorial. It seems upon skimming my mind selectively chose to believe that he couldn’t possibly be that dumb.

Heh

If Wii Sports Resort is a narratology game, then pretty much what ISN’T a narratology game? Of course, they will say that we don’t ‘truly understand’ narratology, link to some papers that try to sound academic, but it is clear they are moving around goal posts.

This desperate outreach to make Wii Sports Resort into a narratology game raises questions. Why try to turn it into a narratology game? What is the point?

It is pretty clear that Expanded Market gaming, which is the future of gaming, is not about narratology. Perhaps the narratologists are trying to prevent their own extinction.