INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE: Gameplay Blog

WEEK THREE: Prince of Persia

Did linear storytelling in your chosen game(s) engage and excite you as a player? Explain why or why not.

The narrative for Prince of Persia felt very linear, beginning with a cut-scene, where you as the main character, are being regaled by the Prince's story, and it is revealed that the gameplay is you "reliving" his life. The cutscenes that appeared in game gave me the narrative points that gave me motive and understanding to what I was doing and why. Furthermore the cut-scenes gave clues as to where I had to go, and the path I had to take. What I liked is that it didn't tell me how, I had ot figure that out through trial and error, which is something I found satisfying, so when I made it to the next cut-scene I found it worth while.
The story however I felt was almost too linear, which for a narrative  game is really good, and Prince of Persia. But when I got stuck in game, in a room where I couldn't solve how to get out, the linearity was very annoying, and reminded of the ludus quote, that it was "strictly controlled by pre-existing rules" and there was no way for me to progress, as I had accepted it was linear. So the game was successful, to a fault. I did give up.