Play’s Republic

A note about this post: Soon after publishing it, I received an amiable email from the author of the blog to which I refer below. He’s suggested I read his whitepaper in order better to understand his argument. I’ll post an update presently.

Let this link stand as a reminder that there is a palpable need for scholars of literature and film to help others (within the games industry and without) understand how to talk about narrative. We need to do a better job of sharing all of the work that has gone into reader-response models; the thinking we’ve done about mediation; the different rhetorics of expression. We need to think about making critical anatomies of gaming; a Gates of Horn for Diablo; a Mirror and the Lamp for Quake. I admire the author (and his readers) very much for applying themselves to the project, to be sure, but it seems that the time has come for scholars of story to begin taking games and simulations more seriously. Soon, no one will.