Technology & Innovation - Issue 11

game like Bioshock can draw on a rich heritage of storytelling to support its gameplay. Peeking at the inventory of items a player has gathered can tell us lots about the world of the game and the player’s role within it, since every piece of the puzzle will have been designed to tell a story. Games ask you to navigate maps, collect treasures, use tools and find creative solutions to problems – but it’s the fertile ground they provide for exercising the imagination that’s perhaps their most beneficial feature. Sophisticated open-world role-playing games like Skyrim are so rich with possibilities that they’re as good as sitting down with a pen and a sheet of paper and being asked to write a story. Even comparatively ‘simple’ games like Animal Crossing can be a blank canvas upon which to create whatever you like. Storytelling gifts To be clear, nothing can replace the experience of reading a book – but sadly, not everyone enjoys it as an activity. Many reluctant readers struggle with exercising their visual imagination or concentrating. They may be interested in storytelling, but simply prefer to explore it in a different medium. Technology will continue to rapidly advance and change society in ways we can’t predict. Audiences are diversifying, withmedia becoming ever more tailored to the interests of individual viewers and players. Within a few decades, the line between books and games may become blurred. We might one day see a VR edition of The Hunger Games that lets readers compete alongside their favourite characters. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Morgan Owen is an author; her latest book, The Boy with the Haunted Heart , is available now (£8.99, Scholastic) 5 EXERCISES 1 The Sims 4 base game (without optional add-ons) is available to play on PC for free. Use the character creator to build the protagonist of a story – a character that you’ve invented. Choose a relevant aspiration and three personality traits from the menu the game provides. Think about how their facial features, walk style, voice, clothes and accessories will express their personality. As an additional task, decorate a bedroom for this character. 2 In the game Animal Crossing , players can travel to a location called Harv’s Island to stage a photo shoot. A tutorial teaches you how to use props, costumes and villagers as extras when setting up a scene. Take three pictures – one to represent the beginning of a story, one for the middle and one for the end. Use these photos like panels in a comic strip to create and illustrate a short visual sequence without using any words. 3 Describe the contents of your inventory in a video game you’re currently playing. Think about what the objects represent and how they function within the game’s universe. Then write a scenario in which your character uses one or more of these items to create a positive change in the world. 4 Write an essay about the fictional kingdom of Hyrule, the setting of the Legend of Zelda games, as if it were a real place. You don’t necessarily need to know the games, since there’s plenty of reference information about it to be found online. Summarise its culture, mythology, biology, geography and history, before concluding with a paragraph comparing it to our own world. 5 Write a short story with three different endings, depending on the actions taken by your character. For example, what would happen differently if they stayed to fight the villain, ran away from the villain, or attempted to befriend the villain? Until then, video games can be embraced as a fun and accessible way of nurturing important storytelling skills, because gaming isn’t just an interactive story experience – it’s a gift to storytelling, not a threat to it. 33 C L A S S R O OM I N S P I R AT I O N teachwire.net