Level 1 - A New Start....

So this signals the start of the blogging thats particularly important, as I embark on a journey of self development through my masters studies. I suppose these posts will inevitably come across as more serious then any previous blog writing I have done, but I will endeavour to keep them entertaining while also addressing the  relevant work. I always think a blog should present itself like it would you speaking, however that rarely seems true in my case due likely in part to my rather fast and frantic method of conversation (Needs to be addressed?).


Anyway so today marked the 'proper' start of my masters studies where we really start doing our own stuff (We were about on friday but it mainly consisted of a tour of Preston, strange Lancashire beer, and parched peas). It did however involve an impromptu session of getting to know the masters classmates I'll be going through this with which was a big plus, and we got on fairly well I would say so thats a bigger plus.


My chosen area of study for my masters will be narrative and gameplay and how they come together, what has been termed as ludonarrative. This will involve more in-depth studies into the 2 individual areas of narratology and storytelling within various mediums and the various elements which make up ludology (the study of games and their design). The 2 areas have sparked a fairly recent line of debating, consisting of 'narratology vs ludology' suggesting which of the 2 is more prevalent, important or even to a degree relevant. At this point in time i'd like to think that neither are mutually exclusive and the potential is within the combination of the 2, however whether this is eventually the case remains to be seen. 


Within my studies of these areas I will also look into the 'Silent Protagonist' debate, the conversions between areas of media (eg movie to video game, video game to comic), the effect characters, environment and genre have upon the 2 and other mediums of game such as board games, pen and paper role-playing games and 'choose your adventure' style gamebooks. These studies will then branch to further areas of relevant research which will all ideally contribute to the final body of work (whatever that may be). 


After firing out all my related ideas I have chosen for the moment to look into whether the genre of a game impacts the importance of the narrative. Which from the get go I thought sports and puzzle games would be examples of genres which by in large don't feature a large amount of story and rely solely on gameplay or in the case of sports games the faithful recreation of the real sport. Whereas a genre such as an RPG would seem to rely very heavily on narrative which is usually the force which drives the character and enhances the experience in such games.


Well this post has turned out longer then expected but I suppose and introductory post will tend to do that, so for the moment I will continue mt research and post again when any breakthroughs come to mind or when I have enough research to make another blog post necessary.




P.S I'm aware the level system in my titles has a slight wif of cheese but I consider okay when not pushed to the extreme, plus I figure it will be an easy way of documenting my posts in chronological order if for whatever reason I should have to. Also certain elements of my writing may make more sense if emoticons were usual however a friend once informed me they are unprofessional *sad face* (Ignore that relevant last emotion)