This week we discussed dramatic elements in games. Typically I always thought of plot and elements such as jumpscares as adding drama to games. While reading this chapter and discussing dramatic elements in class I learned that this is not always the case and that there are many other elements that could lead to the dramatics of a game. In the class playthrough of Virginia, it became very obvious to me that not only the inclusion of certain things lead to the drama of the game, but also the exclusion of certain elements. In Virginia there is no dialogue and, as pointed out in class, there is a lack of other characters similar to ours, female and POC. These exclusions lead to the game being very suspenseful and mysterious. It was a very interesting take on the dramatics in games.

We used more traditional dramatic elements during an in-class activity on Tuesday. We were assigned to bring in cards to class and make stories using them. My group was able to make a very thoroughly fleshed out story due in part to our cards having characters and plot elements in them. We took the characters on our cards and fit them into plot narratives we were familiar with. It was very interesting to hear the stories of other groups that worked with cards such as Uno cards or standard playing cards. Their plots were not as thorough as ours but they were able to make characters out of a basically blank slate.

“Working with Dramatic Elements .” Game Design Workshop: a Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, by Tracy Fullerton, CRC Press, 2019, pp. 97–127.