I enjoyed Henry Jenkins's analysis of the crossroads of game mechanics and storytelling. I found the segment of the article where Jenkins cited Don Carson, former Disney Imagineer, who explained how game developers could learn a lot from “environmental storytelling”.  And how the environment creates immersion through the four examples of: evocative spaces, enacted stories, embedded narratives, and emergent narratives. The “Evocative Spaces” section particularly resonated where the author provides some examples of famous films-to-amusement park attractions where the story relies on previously existing narratives and not on self-contained stories. This subsection resonated with me not only for game development but escape rooms, haunted houses, interactive museum exhibits, and immersive live theater events. Jenkins's analysis inspired me to plan for a balance between game functionalty and storytelling.

I found Celia Pearce’s 2004 article held up pretty well nearly 20 years later. I appreciated that the author highlighted this relatively new (at the time) media to be different from other media such as early comparisons to cinema.  Having read Henry Jenkin’s article also in this assignment I enjoyed the comment “that the most significant evolutionary leap in the film craft occurred when people started writing about it.” I liked how Pearce emphasized that games were different from other media because of their focus on playing the game itself. I found that this simple statement was the heart of the article. I also found the section on “cut scenes” and “cinematics” to be accurate.  These breaks from the game disrupted the flow of the entertainment similar to a commercial break cut into a theatrical movie airing on television.  I also enjoyed the author’s comparison of the plot of Shakespeare's Macbeth to explain the narrative of chess. The take away for me from this article was when planning game design to balance out “Game designers are much less interested in telling a story than in creating a compelling framework for play”.