Columbia Game Culture

This reading has a lot to do with the development of a story, and how each different aspect of a story (such as narrative, event driven, player controlled, etc.) Breaking down the mechanics into metaphorical 'lego building blocks', we begin to see the distinction between how different types of stories can lend themselves to different principles, referring to the 'lego building blocks' mentioned earlier. This in turn effects the gamers' experience within the virtual world -- and how we (as gamers) percieve the universe in terms of freedom).

The reading goes on to discuss how we, as gamers, respond to specific situations in video games, such as the repetitiveness of completing areas that are difficult for us to algorithmatically solve. It also goes on to compare the differences between a running narrative (film-esque) and a user-driven environment (video games.) This section of the reading allows us to understand the psychological aspect of how gaming effects us, along with how each different type of game (FPS, RPG, 3rd Person Adventure, etc) has different approaches in creating the illusion of freedom to a gamer.

Comparing film and video games as a reference point, we begin to see the similarities between the two -- but we also see how video games are surpassing films in the sense of user interactivity.