Seamus Sullivan provided many general tips for storytellers.  He centered many of his examples on videogames, but it was clear that his tips could also be used in any other storytelling medium including movies, books, and speeches.  Sullivan gave us tips on how to develop characters, how to facilitate dialogue, and how to create worlds that highlight the characters’ background and history.  By using these tips (found in another blog post), players will have a much higher chance of remembering and relating to the main character, such as Master Chief or Sonic, in the videogame.

I wonder what Sullivan would say about casual videogames.  Sullivan highlighted many of his examples from ‘hardcore’ videogames (Ex. videogames that take long sittings and many hours to beat), but only cited one ‘casual’ videogame, Tetris.  I can see why casual videogames would have a much harder time telling a dramatic story, but even Sullivan said that Tetris could employ some kind of drama.  Actually, I believe Sullivan even said that any videogame has some level of drama to it.  Would his tips still apply to these casual videogames?  Casual videogames have a very limited time to immerse players; can casual videogame storytellers really emotionally pull players in that quickly?

I know that Sullivan had an emphasis on how cut scenes could tell so much about a character in a small amount of time, yet many casual videogames don’t employ this idea.  As casual gamers, do we not look for a story when we play our casual games?  Is an implied story (a story that players are just thrown into) just better for casual games?