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June ‘07 Round Table – Updated 7/09
By Corvus | July 9, 2007
I thoroughly enjoyed last month’s Round Table entries (link). I was initially a bit worried that such a broad and simple topic might result in fewer entries or, worse, bland look alike entries. More fool me! There was a decent amount of variance to people’s take on the topic. So, I’ve decided to follow it up with another broad topic this month. One which is near and dear to my heart. You’ve read my thoughts on it often enough, now it’s time to hear what you have to say.
As always, participation in the Round Table is open to all and sundry and you can rely on the FAQ to guide you through the submission process (link).
June ‘07 Round Table
Two Great Tastes?How important are stories to video games? Does your favorite game have an inherent story or not? Would it be better if it did have one or didn’t have one? Do you prefer games which allow you to tell your own story, or ones which provide a compelling story for you? Take any approach which strikes you and discuss the role of story in video games.
Deadline: Midnight, Sunday July 8th.
Participants:
Thomas of Mile Zero manage to somehow pre-guess the theme of this month’s Round Table and had an excellent starting post up before I announced it (link).
Gianfranco of GB Games joins us with his inaugural Round Table entry! I’m pleased as I’ve been enjoying his blog for a while now. His post is on why story isn’t any more important to video games than graphics or fun… unless you’re talking about audience story, of course (link).
Travis has updated InVerse, Verse Studio’s blog, with an entry for the Round Table in which he explores his relationships with story games vs. toy games (link).
King Lud IC joins the Round Table with it’s usual quintessentially Patrick-esque resilience and requisite drug reference (link).
Marcus, another InVerse blogger and Verse Studios bigwig, has submitted another, rather succinct, entry and in doing so has inspired my contrasting entry (both in content and lack of brevity no doubt) which will make its appearance next week (link)!
If you missed it, I tossed up my own Round Table ramble yesterday in I-I-I Ain’t Got No Stor-eee (link).
Chris Bateman has added his Round Table entry as well, exploring the premise that games are an inefficient narrative medium (link). I, of course, wholeheartedly disagree with him on almost every point in his post and will try and find the time to thoroughly argue with him before the Round Table is done!
I had more to say on the topic (link) and Chris reposted his reaction (link).
TIm McDonald of Bastard Numbered has submitted a last minute, and possibly final, entry on the topic, appropriately enough, Apocalyptic plot line (link).
[UPDATE]
Duncan slips our final entry in under the wire! Head over to Ghosts in the Game where he explores the line between gameplay and story (link).
Thanks for all the great submissions! June’s topic is closed and July’s topic will be posted lated today.
Tagged:Blogs of the Round Table, storytelling. | 7 Comments »
June 11th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
Eep!
I do think the broader topics work great for the Round Table, but seriously, what more do I have to say on this topic? 
I shall mull…
June 12th, 2007 at 4:47 am
*eltrohc* Surely there’s always one more thing to be said, Chris! Or a refined and clearer way to rephrase something previously said?
But, yeah. I’m still trying to decide what my entry is going to be as well!
June 12th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Heh, it’s always great to hear that someone reads what I write. B-) I look forward to reading the rest of the articles.
June 14th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
“quintessentially Patrick-esque resilience”
Ha!
June 27th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Jeez… just because you disagree with Chris about his entry doesn’t mean you shouldn’t put the link up there.
June 27th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Eeek! Oddly, the link was actually there, just not the word ‘link’. I wonder how I managed to drop the ball on that one?!
June 27th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Censorship, I cry!
I look forward to hearing your rebuttal, assuming you can find the time.