Don't Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story

Don't Take It Personally, Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story is a visual novel/ video game developed by indie developer Christine Love. It follows the lives of six teenagers going to a high school, and their trials and tribulations. It was actually really good, aside from some nonsensical stuff at the end. Don't take my word for it, though; it's free download for Mac, PC, and Linux, at this link (http://scoutshonour.com/donttakeitpersonallybabeitjustaintyourstory/)

It only takes three hours or so to beat, so play it. I promise you, it's worth your time. But you know, some sexual situations. No nudity or anything, but some pretty... intense sexual talks. But it doesn't feel forced in there- it feels like something teenagers might say. Not all the lines do, but they seem to fit.

Okay, so you didn't play it. Wow, thanks a lot. Kinda stings. Anyway, I'll continue, mostly spoiler free.

I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss video games as a medium, just a little, and this game is certainly one that helps illustrates my main point; that at some time in the future, whether it be 200 or 2000 years from now, most media will be some form of video game.

Right now, I've gotta say, video games are pretty awesome. The tech behind some of them is amazing- apparently, Assassin's Creed III can have up to 2000 people on screen at once. That's fantastic!

But I know a lot of my readers don't really care for video games. Like a lot of mediums at the start, not everybody enjoys them. Some people claim not to be good at them, others claim motion sickness, and yet others just say they don't like them.

But video games are invading people's lives. Angry Birds appears to have surpassed the Bible in sales, and Draw Something is a newcomer that's already made a helluva lot of money, especially for a title that has a complete free version. These games have introduced gaming to hundreds of millions of people- through their cell phone, nonetheless.

Don't Take It Personally is only sort of a video game. You don't get to control where your character moves, all of what they say, where they go, who they talk to, or anything like that. You do occasionally make choices during the game, but sometimes- annoyingly- your character just makes them for you. But hey, this isn't my story. Babe.

The exciting part is that I don't know whether to call it a book or a video game. It's interactive, which most books are not. But you spend most of your time reading, not characteristic of video games. This merging of two mediums is what I see coming together in the future.

Books and movies can't really meld well. You won't see a movie that's entirely or mostly text, or a novel with moving pictures. The closest you'll get is an adaptation from one medium to another, but you wouldn't call the Hunger Games movie a book- it's still a movie.

You can, however, blend movies and video games. See Heavy Rain. Although it was controlled (mostly) like other games, it was definitely a movie-vibing game. Cinematic is definitely one of the biggest words to describe it.

I'd like a future where there are fuzzy lines between mediums. This won't ever get rid of any medium entirely; No one's going to play an interactive version of Great Expectations. But this does open the door for a lot of new possibilities, for games, movies, TV shows, music, and yes, even books.

I'd love to see where it takes us.

Thanks for reading and considering,
- J. Valett