Readings – Kyna

Narrative Environment and How to Do Things with Video Games

Both of these pieces deal with the utilization of environment experience. Narrative Environment deals more with the explicit use of environment submersion as an escape from the narrative-less cityscape of Southern California. The discussion focuses centrally on the environment existing for the sake of itself. The purpose of the narrative environment in this case was not something to be enjoyed in passing, but to be explicitly visited with the intent of having an experience. Video games, specifically MMOGs, are cited as a virtual representation of this immersive environment.  How to Do Things with Video Games is written with much the same focus, with the exception of reasoning behind our need for a surrogate environment. While the first writing tends to place blame on our ‘historyless’ surroundings, the second blames the efficiency of travel. We are no longer required to experience the world we pass through, and instead everything is streamlined. Video games offer a surrogate environment to experience in place of what we are missing out on.