[Music]
hi my name is Noel in a video game about
zombies changed my life now I know that
sounds a little bit crazy so let me back
up give you a little bit of context and
hopefully it’ll make just a little bit
more sense so the first thing that you
need to know about me is that I love
stories they’re what I’m most passionate
about they’re sort of the lens through
which I view the world this all began
with a love of classic literature in
eighth grade and then evolved into a
love of storytelling in all forms film
television plays most recently tabletop
role-playing games you get the idea and
so the plan was to go to college and
study English go to graduate school
studying British literature writing a
dissertation on Jane Austen and then
getting a job as a writer and editor
that part I wasn’t quite sure but I knew
it had to do with stories and so as
English majors – I came here to Furman
and took an introduction to introduction
to Shakespeare course here last spring
and one of the plays that we were
reading in that course was King Lear
which is arguably one of Shakespeare’s
greatest works now remember one day so
specifically we were reading act 5 scene
3 which is the final scene of the play
and for those of you who aren’t familiar
in the scene the King’s favorite
daughter Cordelia has died and holding
her dead body in his arms he gives one
of the most powerful and heartbreaking
speeches in all of the literary canon
and well I usually live for the kind of
stimulating academic conversations that
we have in these college-level English
courses I found myself having trouble
paying attention that day see my mind
kept going back to a video game that I
had played only a few weeks earlier The
Last of Us released by naughty Dog
Studios in 2013 and see this game kept
coming up in my mind because in the
opening scene that you’re playing as a
man named Joel trying to get his
daughter Sarah to safety in the midst of
a zombie outbreak and amongst all the
chaos she is shot and dies in his arms
and in that moment I was in shock
because these two scenes could not have
been written
in more different contexts with 400
years of time and technology between
them and yet they were able to achieve
an identical narrative and emotional
moment right because in a video game
where you’re spending a lot of time
killing zombies that’s not what it’s
about
that’s the context the framework at the
heart of this game it’s a beautiful
father-daughter relationship that
explores some incredibly complex moral
themes because I’ve read a lot of books
and seen a lot of movies and TV and
plays but no story I have ever
experienced has had such a strong
emotional impact on me and I truly
believe that it’s because it was told as
a video game because that day I realized
that games can be just as interesting
and complex and tragic and heartbreaking
and uplifting and beautiful as any other
storytelling medium that day I realized
that video games are the future of
storytelling so what is it about games
that makes them unique right well let’s
look at the history of storytelling in
general going back a few thousand years
to oral storytelling where people would
just sit around and talk to each other
right and so while the mechanisms by
which we receive these stories has
changed significantly over the years
going from page to stage to screen the
way that we perceive and understand
these stories has stayed mostly the same
because with traditional storytelling
media we are passive observers we are
confined to the reception of information
but not with games see with a video game
we are in the epicenter of the action we
are making decisions on who this
character is where they’re going what
they’re saying how they’re interacting
with the world around them and that is
incredibly immersive think about it if
you’ve ever played a game or know
someone that has when your character
dies you don’t say oh no my character
died right you say I died why is that
we’re so immersed in what’s going on
that it can almost feel that way right
one of my very favorite fictional
characters from tequila Mockingbird
Atticus Finch once said you never really
understand a person until you consider
things from his point
you until you climb into his skin and
walk around in it and I think that’s
exactly what video games are designed to
have us do right so to better understand
how games can tell stories through game
play let’s look at a graph of classic
storytelling right so you’ll see this in
any introductory English course so we
have the introduction which was the
exposition telling you what’s going on
setting it up the inciting incident
that’s gonna kick off all of the action
the rising action where things are
getting more intense the stakes are
raising right and that all comes to a
point at the climax so what we can
actually do is look at how a lot of game
levels are actually designed now you’ll
notice that this graph is almost the
exact same shape so what it is is we
have the introduction where we’re
introducing the world to the player
getting them used to how to play it and
what were what are called the game
mechanics right then we have the
inciting incident which would be the
first puzzle the first enemy encounter
that sort of thing then we have the
rising difficulty so what we’re gonna do
is start iterating on those game
mechanics that we’ve introduced to the
player challenging them in new ways and
this all comes to a head at the boss
fight which you can kind of think of as
a final exam of a level or a game right
so we’re gonna challenge you on
everything you’ve learned throughout the
course of this game and that ultimately
is what’s so engaging about games for us
because it’s sort of human nature that
we like to be challenged and we like to
overcome those challenges right we love
that feeling of triumph and that’s what
games give us so going back to how we
can use stories this way some of the
most emotionally impactful moments for
me in the last of us or when the stakes
were rising things were getting more
intense right and at the same time in
the gameplay they’re pulling resources
away from me they’re making me feel
uncomfortable and challenging me in a
new way that I had an experience in the
game before and what’s that what that is
designed to do is to have us experience
all of the most the emotions that these
characters are feeling in the exact same
way all of the anger the fear the
frustration the panic I was feeling that
too and when you hit those moments of
tragedy and loss or joy and elation you
feel that all the more because you
aren’t just watching these characters
you want
cheering for them from the sidelines you
are in the middle of it you were
struggling and overcoming right
alongside them and you feel like you
earned that right so as much as I love
to talk about the Last of Us and trust
me I really really do it is by no means
the only story in a video game
that has been done really well all of
the games on the screen and dozens more
have iterated on stories through games
in their own unique way I think that’s
really beautiful a few of my personal
favorites Bioshock which is actually a
critique of Ayn Rand’s philosophical
ideas of Objectivism told through a
first-person shooter
we have 1979 revolution which is an
autobiographical story of an Iranian
journalist and his experiences during
the Iranian civil war we have that
dragon cancer one of my very favorites a
story of a family and their two-year-old
son who’s diagnosed with a brain tumor
and his fight with a dragon called
cancer him video games can handle these
incredibly complex and mature themes
right but that is not necessarily an
industry standard 25 year industry
veteran Evan Skolnick wrote a book
called videogame storytelling in which
he compared most video game narratives
to have about the same quality as a
direct to disc movie a direct to disc
movie we can do so much better than that
I think games have so much potential to
be incredibly powerful that’s going
widely untapped now before I move
forward too much it is really important
to note that when I talk about games as
a storytelling medium that’s just a
niche of this medium so what most games
are still doing is focusing on creating
an engaging gameplay experience for the
player and that’s perfectly reasonable
that’s what’s unique about this medium
is the gameplay the interactivity and I
think what’s so beautiful about this
medium is that the types of experience
that the developers can present to a
player is infinite it can be just about
gameplay just about story and everything
in between and I don’t think that’s to
be discounted and the games that are
focused on telling stories they still
have a little bit to go and I think
that’s because story is not given a huge
priority in too
so is really important to know going
into this that games take a lot of time
and money and effort and manpower to
make so what they’re gonna start doing
is they’re gonna start building the
environments the game levels and making
it work
technically first right because that’s
what takes a really long time then
partway through they’re gonna hand that
off to writers and say okay make a story
now well we can get good stories that
way but great ones I don’t know that
would be like going to film a movie and
you have all your filming locations and
your sets picked out and then you give
it to a screenwriter and say okay make a
story it doesn’t really work that way
and that’s why I think the Last of Us
has been so successful in what they’ve
aimed to do because the creators of this
game have been so outright in the fact
that every single decision that they
make and development is about the story
creative director and writer Neil
druckmann said in an interview they had
all kinds of ideas for enemy types and
crazy power-ups things that would have
made the game more quote/unquote fun
right but they ended up scrapping all of
that because it would have compromised
the integrity of the story that they
were trying to tell this design
philosophy is so rare in the industry
but I think it’s a really important one
now it would be kind of unfair for me to
stand up here and say okay everyone just
make all your games about story all the
time as much as I want to say that
because there are so many people that
are involved in the development process
right and they all want their say and it
takes all those people to make a great
game but what I do want to stand up here
and do start a conversation and say we
have so much power here to evoke empathy
and people in new ways to show them
worldviews that they never could have
considered otherwise right so let’s
start thinking about taking small steps
because it’s not gonna be an overnight
thing but how can we infuse story into
every pixel that is on that screen right
and games are still so new as a medium
film has been around for over a hundred
years whereas games have only been
around for about 30 as we know them
right and we need to start taking steps
to catching up
artistically because technologically
we’re kind of far behind but what’s so
exciting about this for people like me
who want to be writers is this is the
Wild West and we get to be the pioneers
right we get to find new ways to think
about games that we never could have
considered before so as you can imagine
my plans have changed quite a bit I’ve
added a computer science major along
with the English I’m now doing
everything I can to hopefully be able to
attend graduate school for game design
and be a part of making these stories
come to life in a new way because
something like the last of us it means
everything to me it’s helped me discover
who I am not only as an artist but as a
person it’s helped me find a new drive
and a passion and a purpose I never knew
I had and if I can create something that
means to someone else just a fraction
just a fraction of what this game means
to me then I’ll have achieved everything
I could ever want and after all of that
is said and done I would love to be able
to come back to a school like this and
teach a course that is identical to that
of a film or a literature course but
instead of teaching books or movies or
studying games because I strongly
believe that within my lifetime video
games will have the same cultural and
artistic relevance as a Shakespeare play
so if this is something that sounds
interesting to you I would encourage you
to do some research because this topic
doesn’t even scratch the surface and
check back and maybe 20-30 years and
maybe you could take that course thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
hi my name is Noel in a video game about
zombies changed my life now I know that
sounds a little bit crazy so let me back
up give you a little bit of context and
hopefully it’ll make just a little bit
more sense so the first thing that you
need to know about me is that I love
stories they’re what I’m most passionate
about they’re sort of the lens through
which I view the world this all began
with a love of classic literature in
eighth grade and then evolved into a
love of storytelling in all forms film
television plays most recently tabletop
role-playing games you get the idea and
so the plan was to go to college and
study English go to graduate school
studying British literature writing a
dissertation on Jane Austen and then
getting a job as a writer and editor
that part I wasn’t quite sure but I knew
it had to do with stories and so as
English majors – I came here to Furman
and took an introduction to introduction
to Shakespeare course here last spring
and one of the plays that we were
reading in that course was King Lear
which is arguably one of Shakespeare’s
greatest works now remember one day so
specifically we were reading act 5 scene
3 which is the final scene of the play
and for those of you who aren’t familiar
in the scene the King’s favorite
daughter Cordelia has died and holding
her dead body in his arms he gives one
of the most powerful and heartbreaking
speeches in all of the literary canon
and well I usually live for the kind of
stimulating academic conversations that
we have in these college-level English
courses I found myself having trouble
paying attention that day see my mind
kept going back to a video game that I
had played only a few weeks earlier The
Last of Us released by naughty Dog
Studios in 2013 and see this game kept
coming up in my mind because in the
opening scene that you’re playing as a
man named Joel trying to get his
daughter Sarah to safety in the midst of
a zombie outbreak and amongst all the
chaos she is shot and dies in his arms
and in that moment I was in shock
because these two scenes could not have
been written
in more different contexts with 400
years of time and technology between
them and yet they were able to achieve
an identical narrative and emotional
moment right because in a video game
where you’re spending a lot of time
killing zombies that’s not what it’s
about
that’s the context the framework at the
heart of this game it’s a beautiful
father-daughter relationship that
explores some incredibly complex moral
themes because I’ve read a lot of books
and seen a lot of movies and TV and
plays but no story I have ever
experienced has had such a strong
emotional impact on me and I truly
believe that it’s because it was told as
a video game because that day I realized
that games can be just as interesting
and complex and tragic and heartbreaking
and uplifting and beautiful as any other
storytelling medium that day I realized
that video games are the future of
storytelling so what is it about games
that makes them unique right well let’s
look at the history of storytelling in
general going back a few thousand years
to oral storytelling where people would
just sit around and talk to each other
right and so while the mechanisms by
which we receive these stories has
changed significantly over the years
going from page to stage to screen the
way that we perceive and understand
these stories has stayed mostly the same
because with traditional storytelling
media we are passive observers we are
confined to the reception of information
but not with games see with a video game
we are in the epicenter of the action we
are making decisions on who this
character is where they’re going what
they’re saying how they’re interacting
with the world around them and that is
incredibly immersive think about it if
you’ve ever played a game or know
someone that has when your character
dies you don’t say oh no my character
died right you say I died why is that
we’re so immersed in what’s going on
that it can almost feel that way right
one of my very favorite fictional
characters from tequila Mockingbird
Atticus Finch once said you never really
understand a person until you consider
things from his point
you until you climb into his skin and
walk around in it and I think that’s
exactly what video games are designed to
have us do right so to better understand
how games can tell stories through game
play let’s look at a graph of classic
storytelling right so you’ll see this in
any introductory English course so we
have the introduction which was the
exposition telling you what’s going on
setting it up the inciting incident
that’s gonna kick off all of the action
the rising action where things are
getting more intense the stakes are
raising right and that all comes to a
point at the climax so what we can
actually do is look at how a lot of game
levels are actually designed now you’ll
notice that this graph is almost the
exact same shape so what it is is we
have the introduction where we’re
introducing the world to the player
getting them used to how to play it and
what were what are called the game
mechanics right then we have the
inciting incident which would be the
first puzzle the first enemy encounter
that sort of thing then we have the
rising difficulty so what we’re gonna do
is start iterating on those game
mechanics that we’ve introduced to the
player challenging them in new ways and
this all comes to a head at the boss
fight which you can kind of think of as
a final exam of a level or a game right
so we’re gonna challenge you on
everything you’ve learned throughout the
course of this game and that ultimately
is what’s so engaging about games for us
because it’s sort of human nature that
we like to be challenged and we like to
overcome those challenges right we love
that feeling of triumph and that’s what
games give us so going back to how we
can use stories this way some of the
most emotionally impactful moments for
me in the last of us or when the stakes
were rising things were getting more
intense right and at the same time in
the gameplay they’re pulling resources
away from me they’re making me feel
uncomfortable and challenging me in a
new way that I had an experience in the
game before and what’s that what that is
designed to do is to have us experience
all of the most the emotions that these
characters are feeling in the exact same
way all of the anger the fear the
frustration the panic I was feeling that
too and when you hit those moments of
tragedy and loss or joy and elation you
feel that all the more because you
aren’t just watching these characters
you want
cheering for them from the sidelines you
are in the middle of it you were
struggling and overcoming right
alongside them and you feel like you
earned that right so as much as I love
to talk about the Last of Us and trust
me I really really do it is by no means
the only story in a video game
that has been done really well all of
the games on the screen and dozens more
have iterated on stories through games
in their own unique way I think that’s
really beautiful a few of my personal
favorites Bioshock which is actually a
critique of Ayn Rand’s philosophical
ideas of Objectivism told through a
first-person shooter
we have 1979 revolution which is an
autobiographical story of an Iranian
journalist and his experiences during
the Iranian civil war we have that
dragon cancer one of my very favorites a
story of a family and their two-year-old
son who’s diagnosed with a brain tumor
and his fight with a dragon called
cancer him video games can handle these
incredibly complex and mature themes
right but that is not necessarily an
industry standard 25 year industry
veteran Evan Skolnick wrote a book
called videogame storytelling in which
he compared most video game narratives
to have about the same quality as a
direct to disc movie a direct to disc
movie we can do so much better than that
I think games have so much potential to
be incredibly powerful that’s going
widely untapped now before I move
forward too much it is really important
to note that when I talk about games as
a storytelling medium that’s just a
niche of this medium so what most games
are still doing is focusing on creating
an engaging gameplay experience for the
player and that’s perfectly reasonable
that’s what’s unique about this medium
is the gameplay the interactivity and I
think what’s so beautiful about this
medium is that the types of experience
that the developers can present to a
player is infinite it can be just about
gameplay just about story and everything
in between and I don’t think that’s to
be discounted and the games that are
focused on telling stories they still
have a little bit to go and I think
that’s because story is not given a huge
priority in too
so is really important to know going
into this that games take a lot of time
and money and effort and manpower to
make so what they’re gonna start doing
is they’re gonna start building the
environments the game levels and making
it work
technically first right because that’s
what takes a really long time then
partway through they’re gonna hand that
off to writers and say okay make a story
now well we can get good stories that
way but great ones I don’t know that
would be like going to film a movie and
you have all your filming locations and
your sets picked out and then you give
it to a screenwriter and say okay make a
story it doesn’t really work that way
and that’s why I think the Last of Us
has been so successful in what they’ve
aimed to do because the creators of this
game have been so outright in the fact
that every single decision that they
make and development is about the story
creative director and writer Neil
druckmann said in an interview they had
all kinds of ideas for enemy types and
crazy power-ups things that would have
made the game more quote/unquote fun
right but they ended up scrapping all of
that because it would have compromised
the integrity of the story that they
were trying to tell this design
philosophy is so rare in the industry
but I think it’s a really important one
now it would be kind of unfair for me to
stand up here and say okay everyone just
make all your games about story all the
time as much as I want to say that
because there are so many people that
are involved in the development process
right and they all want their say and it
takes all those people to make a great
game but what I do want to stand up here
and do start a conversation and say we
have so much power here to evoke empathy
and people in new ways to show them
worldviews that they never could have
considered otherwise right so let’s
start thinking about taking small steps
because it’s not gonna be an overnight
thing but how can we infuse story into
every pixel that is on that screen right
and games are still so new as a medium
film has been around for over a hundred
years whereas games have only been
around for about 30 as we know them
right and we need to start taking steps
to catching up
artistically because technologically
we’re kind of far behind but what’s so
exciting about this for people like me
who want to be writers is this is the
Wild West and we get to be the pioneers
right we get to find new ways to think
about games that we never could have
considered before so as you can imagine
my plans have changed quite a bit I’ve
added a computer science major along
with the English I’m now doing
everything I can to hopefully be able to
attend graduate school for game design
and be a part of making these stories
come to life in a new way because
something like the last of us it means
everything to me it’s helped me discover
who I am not only as an artist but as a
person it’s helped me find a new drive
and a passion and a purpose I never knew
I had and if I can create something that
means to someone else just a fraction
just a fraction of what this game means
to me then I’ll have achieved everything
I could ever want and after all of that
is said and done I would love to be able
to come back to a school like this and
teach a course that is identical to that
of a film or a literature course but
instead of teaching books or movies or
studying games because I strongly
believe that within my lifetime video
games will have the same cultural and
artistic relevance as a Shakespeare play
so if this is something that sounds
interesting to you I would encourage you
to do some research because this topic
doesn’t even scratch the surface and
check back and maybe 20-30 years and
maybe you could take that course thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
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