This week’s Digital Humanities topic focused on video game narratives. As someone who does not typically play video games, I had not realized how powerful they can be as interactive storytelling tools or how many different kinds of games exist beyond action games.
I especially enjoyed exploring two educational games: The Oregon Trail and When Rivers Were Trails. From Coltrain and Ramsay’s “Can Video Games Be Humanities Scholarship?”, I realized that video games have a lot of potential for the humanities. Coltrain and Ramsay argue that games can function as a type of humanistic scholarship because they simulate historical experiences and allow players to embody a past era. Their example of Never Alone, a game created with the Iñupiat people of Alaska, demonstrates how video games can share traditional stories and community knowledge in an immersive way.
Examining the Oregon Trail game in particular raises interesting questions about narrative and historical representation. While the game teaches players about the challenges of a historic westward journey, it presents this history from the perspective of white settlers. In this way, it largely omits the Native American realities of westward expansion. Perhaps this is why exploring When Rivers Were Trails felt so compelling. It reframed the traditional Oregon Trail narrative by centering a Native American perspective. Rather than erasing Indigenous peoples, it brought the impact of colonization to the forefront and gave players the chance to experience history through Native voices. Playing these two games side by side highlighted how narrative shapes our understanding of history, and how important it is to ask whose stories are being told.
Creating my own Twine was an eye-opening experience in game design. I chose to adapt the Grimm fairytale The Robber Bridegroom. Quickly, I realized how challenging it is to build an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure story. I started by mapping out the story on paper first to determine how each choice would branch off, and then I tried to weave all these pieces back together in one ending. Switching between planning and testing the game forced me to think as both a player and a designer. And even though this experience ended up being more puzzle-like than I had expected, it was an interesting, creative challenge.