Transmedia: Storytelling for the Digital Age

Chelsea Stark:  "As Disney characters go, Mickey Mouse is the alpha and the omega. But now, gaming is giving a voice to a lesser known character: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" ...

Daniel Robson: "The debate about whether games are, or are not, art has always struck me as deeply stupid, for the following two reasons" ...

Anthony Mole:  "Some critics argue that video game narratives are poor, in comparison to books and movies; however, maybe video games simply offer a different kind of story experience?"

Brian Crecente: "Hawken: A year and a half ago no one, beyond the team of nine working on the game, had ever heard the name. But by the end of this year, if all goes to plan, Hawken the game will launch in the eye of a transmedia storm that includes a video web series, a graphic novel, feature film and plans for an animated television show, action figures, a novel and perhaps, one day, lunch boxes."

Erik Kain: "Blatant sexism and misogyny in gaming culture may be the work of a minority of gamers, but it’s still an important issue that deserves an open conversation. The ugly backlash to Anita Sarkeesian’s Tropes vs. Women Kickstarter project is an illustration why."

When we talk about games, the word "immersion" gets tossed around a lot.

"Ben Abraham takes a look at the word and the concept and draws some interesting conclusion[s]".

In the new story, Mickey is asked to return to Wasteland, the ersatz Disneyland of failed characters and forgotten places, to help with a new invasion of half-toon, half-robot terrors...

DRC:  Warren Spector talks about lessons learnt from the original Disney Epic Mickey video game, its sequel, and the recently rediscovered Hungry Hobos cartoon.

When you take the time to examine Odin Sphere as more than just a video game, you realize it's a literary masterpiece; a vessel for delivering a complex fairytale that tells not just of dragons and princesses, but of the human condition.

Chris Suellentrop:  "In 2007, Irrational Games released BioShock, a videogame that took the first-person perspective and remorseless slaughter of blockbusters like Halo and Call of Duty and set fire to the medium’s narrative conventions and audience expectations. The result may have been gaming’s first work of art" ...

Keith Stuart:  "Dan Houser and his brother Sam are responsible for some of the most fascinating (and controversial) video games ever" ...

Mark Langshaw: "Few fictional characters have captured the world's imagination like James Bond. Ian Fleming's iconic spy took literature by storm in the 1950s and 60s, and went on to feature in one of the most prolific film franchises of all time" ...

Ethan Clevenger: "Recently, I came across Ico: Castle in the Mist, a novelization based on the critically acclaimed PlayStation 2 title Ico. This struck me as odd" ...

Jake Shapiro: "In the past decade as videogame storytelling has become slightly more adequate, plot twists have been an important tool for making the player reevaluate their role in the story."

In this super-sized edition of Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter DocSeuss tells us the difference between being immersed and being engrossed, and explains why he believes the future of gaming depends on games that submerge us in fantasy worlds.

DRC: A response to Ben Abraham's An Argument Against "Immersion" in Video Games

"There are few franchises out there with as beautifully ironic a title as ‘Final Fantasy‘.

Fourteen games in its main series, numerous spin-offs and side sequels, films, novellas and even an anime TV series… if anything the name is one weighted in an overwhelming desire to live on."

DRC: An amazing indepth series of articles.  Follow the links for part 1 & part 2.