The document discusses key concepts for analyzing and describing video game genres, including narrative, plot, character, and story elements. It provides different methods for categorizing genres, such as using game lineages (chronological lists of influential titles in a genre), taxonomies (diagrams of relationships between genres), and identifying common design elements. The document also discusses applying literary theory concepts like poetics, hermeneutics, and aesthetics to understand how games can be interpreted as texts and elicit emotional responses from players.

3. Story A collection of related events Plot An ordering of events – applies causality to the story Narrative How the story is communicated to the audience (‘Story’ and ‘narrative’ can also used as a catch-all terms – umbrella terms to describe all narrative constructions and elements)

7. Narrative Plot Character Setting Theme Story

23. Games as Text

41. Aesthetics of the Game

42. Aesthetics of the Game

43. Murray, J.H. (1997) Hamlet on the Holodeck , New York: Free Press