Traditional
Story Telling
Traditional story telling methods are
things like myths, legends, fables and fairy tales. These are all stories
spread by word of mouth. Hieroglyphs and cave paintings are also traditional
but only really because they are old although they are recorded.
Recorded story telling started back in
ancient times with cave paintings and Hieroglyphs. Cave paintings were a ways
for a caveman to tell a story about something he has done such as killed a huge
beast or win a battle. Hieroglyphs were images carved or painted onto walls to
tell the story of an Egyptian royal. These story telling methods are different
to the legends and myths of the Grecian and Roman times because they were
recorded for future generations to see rather than stories being told through
generations and being exaggerated even more every time they’re told.
Myths are completely false stories; the
main characters in myths are usually gods or supernatural heroes who will have
never existed. The story will have been exaggerated to make them more
interesting to listen to. Legends on the other hand are based on a real person
but the story about them and the core elements of the story will have been
changed through exaggeration or being lost in translation. Hercules is a
legend, the story of a demi-god is probably all a load of lies but a man
probably did exist called Hercules and he probably did fight some big animals
but not to the exaggerated size of how the story tells them to be.
A
fable is a story told using animals as characters who carry out human like
actions. The
story
element of fables are normally simplistic although each will contain a moral to
take
from
them. Normally told by adults to teach children the basics of right and wrong and
to educate them on how they should live a good life. The fable of the Hare and
the tortoise for example showed that the Hare may have been faster than the
tortoise but because he rushed and got cocky the tortoise came through in the
end and won the race which teaches a few morals, 'Slow and steady wins the
race' being the main one that people take from it but personally what I take
from that story is that hard work and dedication pays off and you can work hard
for anything that you might want.
Traditional fairy tales by the Brothers
Grimm were gruesome stories told of horrible creatures and magical things that
are all trying to kill and eat little boys and girls but as they became more
commercialised by Disney Fairy Tales have become inspirational stories for
children to tell them that they can do whatever they believe they can do If
they believe in themselves and what they're trying to do. The story of
Cinderella for example, the poor girl with the wicked family marries the prince
in the end. She got what she wanted despite her setbacks.
Contemporary
Story Telling
Contemporary story telling methods are
things like Radio, TV and Books. Things that have developed to make the same
story widely accessible to more than one person.
Books, those things made of paper which
really revolutionised story telling because it allowed all the fables, fairy
tales, myths and legends to be written down and recorded so they didn't get
exaggerated and changed any more. With books though came a new way of telling
stories. Non-linear story telling where you could make decisions while reading
to change the path you go along to reach the end of the story.
Radio was the first form of technology
which was used to broadcast live storytelling. The war of the worlds broadcast
is the most iconic story ever told on the radio. The broadcaster said that
aliens had come down from the sky and started killing people which sent people
into a state of panic. This is because nobody had ever heard a story on the
radio before, only the news so when this was told everybody went crazy. The war
of the worlds was later developed into a film.
Television is another contemporary story
telling medium. TV allows directors to read stories and show their depiction of
what they've read to other people. Films and live TV broadcasts have really
changed the way stories are told today, on TV you can watch movies which tell
stories which are separated into genre's and even on TV you have a lot of
different channels dedicated to showing different shows. Soaps, dramas, action,
adventure, romance, comedy. All of these story types which are all shown on a
screen to many people. They all see the exact same thing as each other.
Stories
in Games
Stories in games are told in multiple ways
though, sometimes the story is told based around the environment and world that
you set your characters in. Other times the stories are told around the
characters and in the case of some games like Mario and Sonic the entire story
is just one big McGuffin. If your world is set in the 1920's and your character
is a futuristic space robot then that just won't make sense on its own although
If you include a time machine in the story and maybe a McGuffin of 'An evil
villain took you're girlfriend back in time with his minions' then it would
make sense. Anti gravity battles could happen anywhere with the help of an anti
gravity grenade or anything like that.
Game stories are pretty much split into two
separate ways of telling stories and the kind of story you want to tell depends
on the genre of game you're trying to create. For example in a shooter like
call of duty or gears of war you're not going to want to make decisions or
change the path of a character. You just want to blast through everything and
be the hero. In a game like fallout though, a role playing game (RPG), you're
going to want to change how the story plays out depending on the actions you
make and the decisions you make. The enticing aspect of an RPG is that you can
role play and live in a surreal world changing it as you make decisions within
the game.
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