Monday, June 24, 2013

"Blade Runner" - Video Game, Narrative or Both?

Blade Runner is a movie based on Philip K. Dick´s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. It is a science fiction novel that was made into a movie by Ridley Scott.
Furthermore, there is a video game based on the narrative, but can it be still referred to as a narrative then? It may be another kind of narrative that is newly written every time it is played. Moreover, the narrative is interrupted by mouse clicks on topics that have to be chosen when "a menu pops up." ( Egenfeldt-Nielsen 169) When the character of the play wants to talk to another character, the player has to click on a button that says "SMALLTALK" in order to make the android do so. It is arguable if it is still a narrative considering the interruptions that can only be overcome by the player clicking on commands (170). Still, Egenfeldt-Nielsen claims that in order to play Blade Runner "one has to pay attention to the story, as one would not know what to do next at almost every turn (170)." I doubt that video games are can be considered narratives, because narratives are generally fluent and not interrupted by commands that have to be given first in order to proceed.


Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Simon. “Narrative”. Understanding Video Games: The Essential Introduction. New York: Routledge. 2008, 169-195. Print. 

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