Welcome to Down the Wall, a personal blog I plan to focus on storytelling in video and computer games. Not that there isn’t room for the odd review or news commentary, but the topic of choice here is the narrative behind the game.

Posts on this blog are organized into three categories: Analysis, News and Reviews. Analysis articles look at general trends in games or the industry, News posts comment on what’s in the news, and Reviews are self-explanatory.

One thing I want to push for is more professional, in-depth, well-researched and meaningful writing than an average blog. This, and my unfortunately limited time, means posts will be spaced out, but also (I hope) worth the time it takes to read them.

I started this blog because I’m an avid gamer as well as a student looking at a career in journalism, and because I wanted to take a closer look at a topic I’m interested in. I think that games are on their way to taking their seat at the table of artistic media, and one of the main signs of this status is a shift towards greater levels of storytelling.

Many games have had moving and well-wrought stories which are more than just an excuse for the action, but recent technology (graphics and spoken dialog especially) has breathed real life into these stories, allowing new levels of expression.

This is a timely and important topic I hope to explore in greater detail in the near future. And, thanks to recent comments by film critic Roger Ebert, it looks like I have a good opportunity.

Notes

The about page has more information about myself and my goals for this blog.