It is one thing for something to be called good or bad. But what is worse is something to be labeled ‘good’ for reasons that are the opposite of what it is. It is like describing a criminal as ‘holy’ or the priest as ‘demonic’.
I am referring to this IGN editorial which might surprise people on why I not only disagree with it but say it is flat out wrong. The editorial is trying to claim that Wii Sports Resort is a pinnacle example of narratology. If you don’t know what narratology means, it means what you would think: of games making narratives.
Narratologists are the most absurd ‘members’ of gaming. The hardcore are geniuses compared to them. Narratologists tend to write in an academic style, which they believe makes them masters of literacy, refer to anyone who disagrees with them in snarky language, and conveniently redefine their narratology definition when they get called on it. Good communicators, good teachers, and good writers know how to make the complex become understandable.
Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
-Hamlet (Act II, Scene II)
Bad teachers, bad communicators, and bad writers make things more confusing and more complex than they ought to be. Narratologists are almost always academics because, as you know, they have to be an academic because they couldn’t make it in the real world.
In the real world, no one would buy anything like this. These guys do not know how to sell, and they likely have never ‘sold’ goods in their entire lives. When you laugh at them, refute them, or even ignore them, they proclaim with a nose held high: “You just aren’t smart enough to understand narratology!” Then they change the definition of ‘narratology’ again.
Anyway, why does the editorial writer possibly believe Wii Sports Resort is a narratology game?
In Resort, the mechanics are secondary to the overall theme. It’s a vacation game. It’s not about archery or wakeboarding. It’s about escape. Nintendohas created a grab bag of tangential mechanics sprung from the central themes of escapism and relief form a world without the thankless constraints of daily life.
If this is true, then why is the collection so obtuse? Ping Pong doesn’t fit the Resort theme, neither does dogfighting or swordfighting. No one is going to do Sword Shodown at a real resort.
Look at this video. Note the similiarities of the games in it to what you find in Wii Sports Resort.
Just because a mini-game collection has games that fit a theme doesn’t make that a narrative via setting or anything else. Just because Wii Fit Plus has a locker room as a hub or setting doesn’t turn Wii Fit into a narratology game. The theme is as generic as possible. If Wii Sports Resort is an example of narratology because it has gameplay modeled after a theme, then every game is an example of narratology because all gameplay is modeled after a theme in the end (unless the game is so primitive that a theme cannot be displayed).
Where I come from, we call this ‘cheating’. You can’t tweak a definition to mean almost every game ever made.
Prior to the Wii, the narratologists were orgasmic with their academia clucking about grand narratives and all. But the Wii has truly ruined them. It is clear people are not buying the Wii for any narration at all. So-called “casual gaming” seems completely opposite with ‘narrative’ games.
Instead of any intellectual honesty, narratology are playing so loosey goosey with their definition of narratology (which only they define which is remarkably convenient). It comes across to me as if they are grasping at straws now. WuHu Island is not a narrative guys, give it up. Neither are the Miis.
One good thing about this generation is that we are flushing the narratologists and their bloated academic text down the toilet.
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