Narrative, action, and Learning: The stories of myst

Abstract

One of James Gee’s (2003) most powerful arguments for learning in video games is the “situated meaning principle," or the claim that “the meanings of signs … are situated in embodied experience” (p. 58). Elaborating on Gee’s analysis, I argue that video games make virtual experiences feel embodied or real to players through their narrative shape. Video games narrate an imagined world in which the purposive actions of players characters have consequences, and it is in relation to this story that learning becomes situated. Narrative thus provides a contextual framework through which actions come to have meaning. This sense of embodied meaning is created not only by the player’s growing understanding of the game’s unfolding story lines, but also by the developing narrative of game play generated by her own dramatic engagement with the game itself.