Video Games and Their Genres

          Probably the most important factor that goes into a gamer's decision to buy a video game. As with films, video games come in many different genres; however, unlike films, video games also have a "gameplay" genre as well. In my personal opinion, I find that many players, including myself, find the gameplay genre more important than if it's a fantasy or sci-fi story(just look at how successful the Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchise are despite being in a different setting but also both RPGs). Not only does gameplay attract different audiences, they also can be used to tell the narrative, a feature of video games that is completely exclusive to the medium.

          The game Brothers belongs to the adventure and controller genre. The game uses the controller genre to show how the brothers need each other, and the controls become a key to the video games narrative at the end. Jade Empire however, is almost the complete opposite of Brothers. Jade Empire falls into both the fantasy and RPG genres. The narrative in the RPG genre is pretty much decided by the player. The more that the player in Jade Empire puts into it, the more narrative he will get out of it. The full narrative is only shown to those who want to know it best. 

Establishing the Story in Brothers

          As mentioned in my previous blog, one of the things that makes this game stand out its use of visual storytelling. From the get go we are given the main conflict in the story, death. While it is simple and may not be as complex as games like Lords of Shadows, I found it to be most effective. A story that has more going on in it isn't automatically better than one that has less.

          Brothers also does a much better job at establishing characters, a fundamental part in establishing a story. A story is must involve growth in the characters, because without it they can't overcome the obstacles in the main plot(or if they do so without growth, the story will come off as uninteresting). Other the course of the game, the two main characters in Brothers grow and learn with each other(as well as without each other) in their journey because it's what they need to do to reach their goal. In LOS however, most of the characters seem stagnant and don't grow to be well rounded characters, making the story in the game seem uninteresting. However, while the protagonist, Gabriel, does grow, it comes off as unrealistic("I can't beat Satan, so I'll become Dracula") which makes the audience find disbelief in the overall story.