Charlie Roberts
IMG Year 2 Portfolio

There are a number of different approaches I could take when researching the history of writing. Some of which will be more effective than others, meaning it would be wise if I try and find / research areas that will be beneficial to me when carrying out the next project.

1. How am I going to research this?
I feel as though the very first area I should look into, in terms of history, would be the first video game(s) to make use of a story.
I feel as a good area for this would be text adventure games as I feel that these were some of the first games to actually make use of a story element. I believe this would be an effective piece of research as it will give me a better understanding of how stories were first used within games.

Another area that I feel I should research would be current examples of how stories are made use of within games. I feel as though this still counts as history research as I can use it to compare the stories of modern games to much older games. This would help me understand the type of story I will need to create, and also see the different ways stories have and can be made use of.

I feel as one of the most important areas I will need to research will be the different areas of video game writing as throughout the years video game stories have developed and include different depths of story. (E.g. Script, concepts, character biographies / backgrounds)

Since I am researching the history of writing, another large research area will be to research into actual authors and books. Because of this I plan to look into different influential authors and their writing (most likely their most influential piece) from different years, to allow me to understand what an effective story is like (This section links with influences?). However the problem with this is that this will involve a large amount of reading which will take a lot of time.

2. Where am I going to look first?
By searching up the release dates of games online, I will be able to find the date they were released. Additionally, I will also be able tow watch YouTube videos for the games I am unable to play myself.

3. Where else could I look?
From my times of looking for books in the college library I know that there are various books that cover how effective story writing can be used for / within video games. These books show examples of previous games that have been created, meaning I should have a better understanding of how stories have been implemented into previous titles.

4. Who could I speak to in order to find out more?
The people who would be the easiest to contact would be my teachers. I feel as this would be effective as I feel though they would have a better understanding of writing a whole, meaning that they could point me in the right direction for improvement. Additionally, I believe that at least one of my teacher has a writing degree, meaning if I have any questions about writing itself there's someone I could ask who knows about the area.

This most likely won't count towards my history of writing research, but I could try and contact the narrative team of League of Legends (Riot Games, 2013). However, since it is a whole team, I should probably try to contact the lead narrative designer. If I was successful in reaching out to the team I could ask if their approach to narrative design has changed throughout the years, and also ask the about different areas that they research when creating narratives. This could be carried out in a number of ways. One way would be via email, but I feel as though the most effective way would be a post on the official forums / website.
(Once again, links to influences research..?)