Academic study usually involves the pursuit of knowledge pertaining to a general field - language, art, mathematics, or science. Within these fields, a number of professions and interesting things find a home. Computer and video games, however, have a little bit of trouble fitting in, as they tend to use aspects of all of these fields of scholarship. They use mathematics, they use science, and they use a great deal of art and language skills to convey their narrative.

This subject has been the key focus of a recently completed PhD by the (now) Dr. Souvik Mukherjee who has studied the relationship of computer games and books, and the inherent cultural value of the video game. The paper he presented for his PhD discusses the complexity of non-linear narratives that are present in games, along with the "complex mesh" of possible story lines that can eventuate due to the actions of the player.

Mukherjee's research argues that computer games are more than a cultural spectacle and have true value, with it possible to study video games in the same way as one can study novels and films.

Read full article by Steven Perdikis

I reckon Mirror's Edge could easily translate into a movie

Story is like the no1. important thing for me in game, can't get into games with bad storylines and unfortunately most of what i've played lately has very generic game stories, really annoying tbh, any recommended games for someone looking for story above all else?

Some video games might, some don't. I'd say that an overwhelming number of video games don't have the depth of a good novel. I come across far more good books than what I do video games.

Fallout1/2/3/t, NWN's/BG's... + thousands more... All of these games have great storys...
All which are based on how you character play out...

Stuffed if I would read a book over any of them:D

Not to mention some of the great puzzle ones such as Myst

any good stories that aren't RPG's

most game stories are horrid

Braid *drools*

definitely showing this to my english teacher

and ace attorney ftw!

if its written down somewhere and has "STORY" at the top of the page then yes it is as legitimate as a novel- just look at Mass Effect as it had a spinoff novel about it, it was a novel- Also there have been many games adapted to novels too, Warcraft and Starcraft and the Tex Murphy series are some that come to mind and were quite good at staying true to the actual games.

Man, I stopped reading novels ages ago, after school, and now you're telling me my video games are just as wholesome? BOLLOCKS! What am I going to do next, snort lines of coke off

there's lots of novels that don't have the depth of a good novel.

a poop-ton more books get written a year than video games are made. There's bound to be more good books because there's more books all up.

I think if you're posting here you're more in the gamer world than the book world. So you're probably hearing a lot more about new games than new books. The amount of horrible, horrible books that get released is insane, you just don't hear about them as you would a new good or bad game.

Personally, I think that it's pretty much pie in the sky comparisons - books are nothing like video games are nothing like movies. They are different mediums for providing entertainment. You might as well try to compare a book and a painting... and yes, I know people have done so - I still don't buy it, it's hyper-intellectualism.

Don't get me wrong, I do see "cultural value" in video games and am certainly willing to denote it as a form of art (in much the same way as literature or film can be deemed art) albeit falling square in the pop-art box, but many gaming genres really only qualify as lowest common denominator stuff. He's referring to complex storylines - something you won't find in your classic first person shooter that is entirely focussed on gratuitous violence for thrill-seekers.

There are very few computer games worthy of in-depth study IMO, as one might study a piece of literature or a classic film that is. Truth be told, I can't think of one that merits more than a cursory analysis, certainly not any of the titles he nominates (Max Payne, Fallout 3, the original Wolfenstein, Half Life 2 and BioShock).