ВИДЕОИГРИТЕ ПОМЕЃУ ПРИКАЗНАТА И ИГРИВОСТА
VIDEO GAMES BETWEEN STORY AND THE PLAYFULNESS

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I will discuss video games in the context of their narrative qualities and storytelling potential. Due to the technological possibilities of digital technologies, video games are characterized by emphasized representational qualities and narrativity. In that sense, there is a duality/conflict between their narrativity and playful qualities. That opens up a series of dilemmas at the methodological and structural level, which I will analyze in the first half of the text. I will refer to the two antagonistic points towards the study of video games, the so-called: narrativist and ludological point of view. These two points differ in where they put the focus: on the playfulness (ludologists) or on the representativeness and narativity (narrativists) of video games. In this text, I want to show that Video games have their own narrativity that differs from the linear narrativity in classic narrative media such as literature or film. I will do that through the analysis of the video game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (The Witcher 3 – Wild Hunt), which will be the second part of my paper. I will show how this game from the genre of RPG (Role Play Game) allows the player character role play(s) and great freedom on an individual level to explore the narrative space and the story. The story is actually the space of the game where the text is realized. The player, exploring the world, discovers the story. The Witcher 3 is an example of a successful compromise between the freedom of the player in terms of space time and interaction and the narrative control (structure) needed for the development of the story.

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