It's All About Story...

  I am a gamer. I think I may need to start going to AA for gaming, gamers anonymous, do they have that? It's a problem, I particularly have a love for RPGs, but adventure gaming as a whole is for me. Many, many, years ago, when computers had green screens with neon green type blinking fancifully across the monitor, I would sit in my father's offices, wherever we were posted, and play Zork I: The Underground Empire. I would describe this game as the godfather of adventure games. Each time I see, "West of House. You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door. There is a mailbox here," I am flooded with memories, imagination, and the urge to play. If you are interested, there are plenty of emulators out there, look it up and give it a try. As time moved on, I got into 3/4 perspective role playing games, which simply means the gameplay takes place looking down on a map as you navigate your player, and/or party, through the story and en...

I always tell my students that there are no new stories, simply various perspectives on a handful of premises. Most of them gasp, think I am nuts, and wonder why, then, should they bother studying our craft. Their doubt is usually assuaged when I bring up Star Wars, The Matrix, Harry Potter, and now Dune. (I did used to mention the 1984 Dune, but no one remembers that one much). I will end the presentation asking which one of them will have the next great take on the messiah story? It really gets the discussion going. At some point the question comes up, "how much can you borrow from another story?" My answer is nothing, it needs to be your own, but there are varying legal precedents for how much one can have similarities with another entity considering my earlier comment about their being nothing new really. Which brings me to two TV series I have recently watched. ITV's "Shetland" (available on Amazon Prime's Britbox) and BBC One's "Wallander,...