By Danuta S.
This week, we talked about storytelling in various digital media, but mostly we talked about video games as a form of digital storytelling–which I thought was interesting. I have never really played video games much in my life; I have attempted to learn how to play them once or twice, and I mostly push buttons until something happens or my character dies in some very spectacular way (and the latter is usually the case). My gaming skills aside, I never really considered video games with regards to having a narrative, they usually suck out any higher thought beyond, “OH GOD, I don’t want to die!” (at least for me).
The class discussed why video games are sometimes more successful more pedagogical tools than other more traditional forms, like books. In order to understand how to play a video game, one has to play the video game. This involves understanding the game’s story (or sometimes this can be the objective), exploring the video game world, and making choices that succeed or either fail. What is important here, is the idea of FUN that the game construct engenders; this is something of which historians should take note.
The forms of traditional history need more FUN. I tried out Tapestry, an application that allows you to create tappable stories. I wanted to explore one of the mediums for digital storytelling, and, at the same time, actually talk about some of the benefits of digital storytelling (and–let’s face it–to play with .gifs).
Check it out here (and enjoy):