Styllez Ferguson

Emilia Grant
UWRT 1103
November 6, 2014
Nowadays, literature and video games have a lot in common with one another. With
advancements in the gaming industry, games have become more sophisticated. Video games
have always been associated with immaturity. Nowadays, games can teach the player something
better than a book can. For example, Call of Duty: World At War is a first person shooter video
game that gives the player insight on what World War II was like, which is gruesome and
deadly.
Games like Call of Duty: World At War are the most popular and have become more
prevalent in the past decade. Obviously, these games are not meant to be played by children,
which is why they are given a rating of M for mature. Because these games have become so
popular, that means more adults are playing games compared to the past. According to the
Entertainment Software Association, the average gamer is 30 years old(Neely-Cohen). Game
developers have realized this, so more sophisticated games have come as a result of trying to
satisfy the consumer. Developers spend more time planning out engaging storylines and
interesting characters, similar to what an author would do for a novel.
Production for a video game is time consuming to say the least. Most games take years to
develop, and costs of these games will be well over a million dollars! The goal of game
developers is to make a profit, so sales are very important. This is the time for the developers to
think about what to put in the game in order to guarantee its success. Story, target audience,

characters, environment, and theme are just a few of the elements that go through developers
minds when planning out a video game.
With books, depending on the target audience, the author will have to modify their tone
and diction in order to keep the readers attention. A book like Who Says? A Writers Research is
meant for young college students and writers in general. If this books target audience was ten
year olds, it would be a failure because the average ten year old would quickly become
uninterested in this book after reading a few pages. Video game developers have to do the same
when creating a video game.
The best way to find the target audience a game is aiming for is by looking at the games
rating. A new game released for the Call Of Duty series probably would not do too good in sales
if the rating was not M. Suppose a new Call Of Duty released that was rated E, which means
it would not have the blood, death, and profanity found in all other Call Of Duty games. The
average Call Of Duty gamer would lose interest in this new Call Of Duty. Most of the people
who play this series are teens and young adults who do not want a kid friendly environment in
their video games. The developers of the Mario games have the opposite target audience. When
they are creating a new game, their target audience is primarily young children. They keep this in
mind so they can create a game that a young child can have fun with.
Another thing the target audience effects is the story. Games like Mario do not
have very comprehensive stories because of the target audience. Young children do not have the
attention span to keep interest in an extensive and evoking story. Games rated M are usually
the ones to have stories that are very creative and novel like. Call Of Dutys campaign mode
always has a great story that is easy for the average gamer to follow. Call Of Duty 4: Modern
Warfares campaign mode had a very compelling story. It was well thought out and the

characters had such amazing personalities. The deaths of these characters touched the gamer
emotionally in one way or the other.
The story, or narrative, can be done in two ways. The first kind of narrative is the one that
is explained through gameplay. Its the aesthetic context of the game, explicitly stated by
visuals, sounds, and words(Lee). This is the typical narrative most gamers are used to seeing.
The other narrative takes a more intropective approach. As Lee explains,
The second kind of narrative is what I call the player story. Its the players
personal experience. As they play through the game, a lot of things happen in the
players mind: they experience a variety of emotions, they develop perceptions
and interpretations of characters and events, and they form relationships between
their own actions and the on-screen results. These things all work together to
create a different kind of narrative experience, one with its own pacing, characters,
plot, and dialogue, separate from the explicit story(Designing Game Narrative:
How To Create A Great Story).
This narrative can be found in all video games, even sports games. It is simply the experience the
player had from playing. Video game stories usually have many common elements found in
literature.
In literature, there are certain elements found that makes the story interesting and
appealing. These elements are important to the plot, which can make or break a story.
Protagonists, antagonists, and dramatic structure are found in most stories. These components
help the reader connect to the storys characters and plot. Likewise, video games stories have
these elements and they can be quite impressive.

Protagonists are important, their the main characters of a story. Story based games have
one or more protagonists that the gamer controls. The player becomes attached to these
characters as they play with them. The Last Of Us is a survival-horror and action-adventure
game, and it was one of the most acclaimed video games of 2013. The Last Of Us is a game
where the player has to survive an outbreak that turns people into vicious monsters. The
protagonists are Joel and fourteen year old Ellie. The player plays as Ellie in part of the story, but
throughout most of the story, the player plays as Joel. The player slowly gets attached to these
two, seeing how their relationship changes while playing.
Antagonists are the adversaries in a story. Their objective is to oppose the protagonists
and impede their goal. Similar to literature, a good antagonist will make a video games story
much more compelling. There are many antagonists in The Last Of Us, one of them being a man
named David. Davids disturbing encounter with Ellie leaves the player with a strong dislike for
him along with a feeling of uncomfortability.
In most video game stories, specifically games of the action-adventure genre, a dramatic
structure is found. The story introduces a problem, then it gets more intense until it reaches its
climax, and finally the problem is resolved in some way. In The Last Of Us, the story introduces
the problem by showing the beginning of the outbreak. Twenty years later, Joel meets Ellie, who
he finds out is the cure to the infection. This would be considered the rising action. The climax
comes close to the end of the game, when Ellie is in an operating room about to be sacrificed in
order to save mankind with a cure, but Joel refuses to let this happen and saves her, with
weapons. The problem, which is the outbreak, is not resolved, but the game ends with the player
seeing how far Joel and Ellies relationship has come.

Literacy plays a role when it comes to playing video games, especially nowadays. Games
can be tricky to get used to for first time gamers. The controls will be foreign, it will be tough to
get acclimated to being the one who controls the characters actions. The mannerisms of the
online community may seem psychotic to one who is not accustomed to playing with, and
hearing, these people from all over the world. Video games are also a form of literacy in itself.
Constance Steinkuehler calls it a form of digital literacy practice. Video games could be
considered an open canvas for which the player can inscribe the narrative however they want
(Steinkuehler).
Compared to novels and other works of literature, playing video games go a lot more in
depth. Books use words to present ideas over time, games add interactivity to this (Lee). In other
words, with games, one can decide what will happen next rather than having to wait to see. As
Wabash College professor Michael Abbott states "[Games] can truly do something that no other
storytelling can do - they put us in a situation where we're simultaneously the audience and the
playwright(Garrison).
Video games are looked down upon by society as being completely useless. Most people
do not view games as helpful, let alone educational. In fact, video games can be more effective
than original forms of literature when it comes to teaching. As mentioned before, video games
add something else that books and television can not, that is interactivity. When speaking on how
games in libraries effect the learning skills of teens, Steinkuehler says The games themselves
also seem to help struggling readers, with some reading text in video game format that was up to
eight grades above their reading level(Tung).
Learning how to play a video game can be challenging. It is the players job to learn how
to use the buttons of a controller to get the correct and most appropriate reactions out of their

character. In a shooter for instance, it would not be the smartest idea to run out in the middle of a
shootout. In order to advance to the next part, the player must use the right techniques to survive.
The advanced gamer has developed their own unique form of literacy.

Lee, Terrence. Designing Game Narrative: How To Create A Great Story. 4 November 2013.
Web. 5 November 2014.
Garrison, Lynsea. Game Creators Use Literary Tricks And Lure Audiences. BBC News
Magazine, 13 December 2013. Web. 15 October 2014.
Neely-Cohen, Maxwell. Appetite For Fisk: At The Intersection Of Video Games And
Literature. 9 April 2014. Web. 5 November 2014.
Steinkuehler, Constance. Video Games and Digital Literacies. Madison. International Reading
Association. 2010. Print.
Tung Angela. The Price For Making Libraries Full Of Toys And Games. Quartz, 2 August
2014. Web. 5 November 2014.