Just Story It

We are the stories we are told. Each of us alone and all of us together are the living embodiment of all the stories we have heard and all the stories we have told each other. Narrative shapes our behaviors, our thoughts, our actions.

The original title of this article is "The Universal Language of Story." But there's no new there. The article is OK but missed the point of the video referenced in the post, I think.

What IS news about the article is the 20-min. TED video. In the video, Jane McGonigal shares her passion for how gaming and storytelling together can make a better world.

The extent of my electronic gaming consists of Solitaire, Majong, or Sudoko on my phone or iPod. But after watching this video, I'm inspired to take the leap into online gaming.

What Jane does in this video is share how storied games train us in ways that allow us to pull together for the social good. Now that's amazing and a fabulous twist on how and why linking gaming and storytelling into our business practices could lead to amazing results.

Then make sure you watch the video on "Beyond the 'Like' Button: Digitally Addictive Storytelling and the Brain" in the next post here in this collection. The 2 go hand-in-hand and will really open your eyes.

So watch the video, get your creative thinking cap on, and game on!

Nonetheless, there is a powerful sense that the fun of a game and the fun of a story are different in some way. What is that distinction?

I love this post because it goes into depth about the nature of play, gaming and story sharing. It's a great romp through the imagination and another facet about why storytelling is so powerful -- whether you are sharing a business story or just sharing a story with friends.

I've long said that storytelling is deep play.  This article explains the how and why of that. The author talks here about the emotions of play he has identified and how that connects to our imagination -- and the imagination of our listeners when we tell a story.

This post is Part 2. Part 1 is about Stories and Games: Art. Can't wait to read that one next!

Can games be art, and should we care either way? Every culture respects some activities and objects as 'art', and grants to these a certain esteem that is entirely apart from their practical uses...the question of whether games can be art is misguided, because all art is a kind of game. To understand why this is so, there's no better place to start than looking at the relationship between games and stories.

Here the author Chris Bateman covers the connections between stories, gaming, and art.  How cool!  I really like his points about the similarities and differences between games and stories because there is too much written out there saying every game needs storytelling to be effective.  But what the heck does that really mean?  This article does a nice job explaining it all -- and linking it to art.

As he says, "...because when we look at books and films as artworks we judge their artistic merits to a great degree on the quality of the story they produce, and the techniques they use to evoke that story, and thinking in this way makes games look like a poor candidate for the esteem afforded to art."

But gaming, art and stories to go together -- and there's more to this statement as Chris shares with us in the article! Enjoy the read.

I greatly admire novelist Salman Rushdie and was delighted to watch this 4.39 minute video where he shares his thoughts on how the Internet and gaming is affecting the ancient art of storytelling.  He has some words of caution for us also though that we would be very wise to heed.  

Watch the video and get your mental stimulation for the day.