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Table of content Introduction .................................................................. 3 What is narrative and how many types of narratives can be found in video games ......... 3
Game Comparision .................................................. 4 How does interactivity impact storytelling in video games? .......................................................... 6 What is the future of video games ..................... 6 Conclusion .................................................................... 7 Bibliography ................................................................... 9
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Introduction
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owadays interactive media is becoming the main communication and entertainment thanks to the fast innovation in computer technologies. Interactive media can be found in multimedia, websites, blogs, films and last but not least video games. While speech has always been the main form of storytelling, nowadays narrative is presented to us through digital media, such as television and video games. Video games have undeniably gained the most recognition and popularity of these groups and have been the most successful application of interactive narrative. Video games are temporal medium, where players go through the gameplay to the completion, while in the meantime, the game narrative unfolds and understand over time. In this essay, we will analyse video games as storytelling, what is the role of the narrative in video games, what are the types of narratives, we will compare the old to the new video games to see how the narrative has evolved over the years, we will look how does interactivity impact storytelling in video games and also what the future may hold for this type of video games. To do this we will research and discuss the interactive nature of game storytelling.
What is narrative and how many types of narratives can be found in video gamess
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efore we begin with the discussion of what is narrative and how many types of narrative can be found in video games, it is important to understand that not every video game has narrative, or the main focus is narrative. For example, sports games or simulations game, those games have no story or any context behind them. They are mainly created for fun and entertainment. Rocket League for example is a sport game that provides no storyline, nor a plan to guide them through their experience. Instead, the player is free to learn and understand how the game works and how to play it efficiently, relying only on his understanding of a football sport and techniques of similar previous video games, rather than any interaction with the game itself. Since the most important and significant element of the narrative is missing, it cannot be said that Rocket League has a narrative. This is an example of what is NOT a narrative in video games. The first thing we are going to discuss regarding narrative in video games is that there are three parts of narratives, the first one is the structure such as the progression of the game, the second part is the game design structure also known as string of pearls, this is when the story is told visually, by adding images, graphics in a fashion way and the third one is called ‘Branching’ where players have ‘control’ of the story. The first thing that we are going to discuss is the first part which is the structure as progression in video as interactive narratives. The first part is referring to the structure, referring to the story’s progression, the various parts, and subsections, and how they are related to form a narrative, plot, and the portrayal: how the game communicates and shows the story. Linear is one of the main types of narratives found in video games. The main definition of linear is ‘progressing from one stage to another in a single series of steps’, and this is exactly the case. When the story progresses from one event to another in a straight line, without any interruptions, or any deviations is called linear narrative. The linear plot in games provides players with no contact and interaction with the story. Players have no options and choices that can affect the story or change it in any way, therefore players are unable to dictate how the story unfolds. This means that the game can only be completed one way – the way that was written by. The second part of narrative structure that we are going to discuss is
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referred to the game design. This is where the story is told in a linear fashion, but the story can be interrupted by the player sometimes. The reason why this structure is so unique to video games is because the interactivity required for the freedom of the player cannot be found in any other mediums. This type of structure is typically seen in role-playing games. With that being said there is another structure in video games where the story is fully branching, this means that the players play a major role in how the plot, the characters and the story develops and what is the ending of the story. In fully story-based games, this is the structure usually used. It is important to note that the fully branching structure is found before video games, in the form of interactive books. These types of books give the reader choices at the end of each chapter, each choice is sending the reader to a different chapter, which allows the reader to create their own story. The graphics below will show you a summary of all the three structures in video games.
There are also other ways that narrative can be shown to the player in game, such as short cinematic, dialogue, text and the storytelling through the environment and the world. Most video games use different combinations of these narratives to communicate the story elements to the player.
Game comparision
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f we compare the games from 40 years ago to the nowadays games, we can see the evolution of narratives in video games. Let’s compare Nintendo’s Donkey Kong and Life is strange. Nintendo’s Donkey Kong is considered to be the first game that actually had a story that players could see unfold on the screen. The game was released in 1981 and it was directed by Shigeru Miyamoto. According to an article about Donkey Kong’s history, ‘Miyamoto wanted to make sure the whole story, simple though it was, could be told on screen in a way that could be instantly
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grasped by players. But what exactly is Donkey Kong? Donkey Kong is a 2D platformer, where the player’s character must follow his pet (a monkey), as the monkey has escaped with the player’s girlfriend. Shigeru Miyamoto had a different perspective how to communicate with the player then the rest of the industry at that time. At the beginning of the game, the game uses cutscenes as well as short animations and text to convey the story. What we understand is that the role of the plot is like a motivation to the player, giving them a goal to achieve, which makes the player to want play and progress. As previously discussed, the structure is linear, because the player completes a sequence of levels, however there is no gameplay branching choices, and no player options that lead to story branching. Keeping in mind that this game is from about 40 years ago, we will now look to compare it with ‘Life is strange’. ‘Life is strange’ is an episodic adventure video game developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix, where parts of the story are released periodically in ‘chapters’. ‘Life is strange’ has a full branching narrative, because the player’s choices affect the story, and it is ending. From the viewpoint of Max Caulfield, which is the main character who finds out that has an ability to rewind time, the player watches the action unfold before them. Via multiple choice actions and dialogue, the player makes decisions, and all these decisions impact characters and events in the future. This game is completely story-based, which means that the game is trying to tell a story, while the player is controlling how the story will develop and how will end with his decisions and choices’. Comparing these two games, we can see how different they are from one another. First let’s talk about the structure of progression. Nintendo’s Donkey Kong is using a linear structure, while Life is strange is using branching narrative, which means that in the early games’ players are not allowed to interact with the game and its story, no matter how they progress through the game it will never change, it will always stay the same, because players are not given any choices or any decisions to control, change or interact with the story. Players have no control of how the story will develop, or how will end. On the other hand, modern games encourage player interaction, by giving them different choices and decisions that allow players to make their own story. Not only the structure has improved, but also the narrative role also changed. For instance, Nintendo’s Donkey Kong, here we can see that the story existed to provide context to the game and to give players a goal to achieve and a reason to play. While nowadays games are being made with a story in mind before the existing of the actual game, which means that the narrative and the gameplay become equal importance in the game. In a blog post regarding the development of the narrative, the developer Naughty Dog’s games, Chris Bowring writes that “In Uncharted, the story was merely there to logically funnel you from one segment of gameplay to the next. However, in The Last of Us, the story and gameplay is one cohesive whole.” Even though Chris Bowring is talking about ‘Last of us’ which is another story-based video game similar to ‘Life is strange’, we can agree with the context. Video games are becoming more and more advanced and complex, which allows the game narratives to evolve the same way. The computational ability of early games was very limited to small games such as 2D Games that could not accommodate the complexity required for such narratives to exist. Nowadays games have a massive budget that allows developers to invest in complex and detailed narratives. Early games have embedded narratives, which means that the narrative content that exists is pre-generated. At the end what we can say is narrative in video games has evolved and became more complex and more detailed moving from embedded to emergent, from stories used to show games to games used to tell stories.
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How does interactivity impact storytelling in video games?
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veryone knows that in order to play any kind of video game, player must interact with the game and this is possible through a human device interface, usually a controller, a mouse, or a keyboard. Any gameplay can work only through the player’s interaction, but this is based on a set of rules provided by the specific game. We are talking about this simple and obvious facts because interactivity impacts not only the gameplay, but how the narrative in the video games works and how it tells its story. Craig Lindley explains that in order to progress through the game’s events, “one must learn and then execute a gameplay gestalt. Experiencing the game as a narrative often means constructing a narrative gestalt that unifies the experiences of the game into a cohesive narrative structure.’’. From Lindley we can understand that in order a narrative to exist in a game, there must be a way that the player can interact with it. So here goes the question how exactly does interactivity impact storytelling in video games? One answer to this question that is repeated again and again throughout history is that by interacting with the characters in the game, the player becomes part of the narrative. In such game’s players as we discussed previously players control any movements and actions of the main character and how the story is progressing, which means that players are effectively becoming a co-author of the story. This type of interactivity makes it possible stories to be told from the player’s point of view rather than that of the main character. Let’s look at this experiment by the Department of Journalism and Communication - Research at Hanover University sought to understand players’ identification with video game characters. They conducted the research in an interesting way. They got half of their participants to play a game for some time, while the other half could only watch, without playing. What they found from this questionnaire is that ‘people playing the game and thus having the possibility to act efficiently within the character role identify with the game protagonist to a much larger extent than people do who could not interact with the game.’ This research clearly shows us that games allow players to connect more with the character of the player because of the interaction with the game. While in films we can only watch the characters moving around the world, video games give us the control and ability of moving the character and seeing through the character’s eyes. Video games as interactive narratives give us a full world of possibilities for different kind of narratives and new storytelling structures. When starting a new story-based game, what we may notice is that we are not sure what is the story of the game or how the story will develop. We can only see some unclear scenes that offer nothing but unclear exposition, which in the beginning makes no sense to us. At the beginning of the game, we as a player are given clues on where to go, but why to go there is still remaining unclear. However, this is the mysterious and the beauty of the storytelling, the player’s choices that impact the ending of the story and each outcome. There is a reason for every short cinematic, text, etc, but the player usually has to find it themselves.
What is the future of video games?
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hroughout this essay, we have discussed a lot of things from the types of narratives to how does interactivity impact storytelling in video games and now we will look even further. To think about the future of story-based video games is something interesting. We can say that is the same as thinking of our own future, in the sense that we can never really predict what may happen and what may not.
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The future may hold ideas, technology, and concept that no one can imagine at this time or It may seem impossible imagining it now. We only can speculate and discuss what the future may be for video games as interactive narratives. However, looking at the current trends and asking the professionals, we can give some suggestions of the question ‘What the future may hold for this type of video games.’ In an interview with The Guardian, Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox at Microsoft, clarified the Xbox’s future, especially what they could offer that would attract more and more people to the Xbox brand. Phil Spencer talked about subscription games “Subscription services might spur new story-based games coming to market because there’s a new business model to help support their monetization.” What we can understand is that this subscription services, such Netflix, allows us so much content to be produced and consumed and all of this by paying a subscription. Applying the exact same structure, but to a video games streaming services would be possible the same to happen with storytelling in video games, which means that more content could be produced and consumed, which on the other hand will allow more stories to be told and experienced. In San Francisco in 2015, video games writers were interviewed regarding narrative in video games and what they think of the video games as interactive narratives will be. Jenova Chen, who is a creative director at Thatgamecompany, also mentioned story streaming. “Maybe everybody is going to have different versions of a story in future games, and somebody’s going to have a very amazing version that we’re all going to want to watch. That could come from dreams, maybe.’’ Chen also mentioned more interactivity between the player and the game. “Video games are still in the era of silent movie. The equivalent of sound and words is the ability of AI to understand what we are saying. Imagine that you are playing a game, not only pressing buttons but actually talking to the game itself.” This for example is, in Life is Strange, instead of controlling Max and making decisions and choices based on multiple choice, you as the player are Max, can make any decision you want when faced with a choice. Which makes us think that the future of video games as interactive narratives would be even more interactive and probably would break down the biggest barriers between the player and the game: the screen, and interface. That being said the future of video games as interactive narrative will certainly involve Virtual Reality (VR). VR refers to a computer-generated simulation, which allows users to experience as if they were in the fictional world themselves, through headsets with two screens, each for one eye and a stereo for sound. VR is still a new medium, like the early games we have discussed, but there is no doubt that it’s a future of the video games.
Conclusion
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n conclusion, we have discussed and analyse the video games as storytelling, the evolution of the video games, we have discussed what types of video games are not narrative and the reason they are not narrative, also we learned how video games evolved and the different type of structure, when comparing Nintendo’s Donkey Kong, a game 40 years ago with a nowadays game ‘Life is strange’. We can say that video games have evolved so much throughout the years, from using a linear structure embedded narrative to branching structures with emergent narratives. Video games now allow players to take control of the game, by making decisions and giving them choices with consequences that affect the end of the story. We also have talked about how does interactivity impact storytelling in video games and take a look at the experiment by the Department of Journalism and Communication, and lastly, we have a look of what the future may hold for video games as interactive narratives, we have seen that story-based games may become even more popular and may contain a subscription for more content, such as Netflix. Video games as interactive narratives have evolved so much in the last 40 years so
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that even those who introduced the first video game could not imagine how far we have gone.
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Bibliography Adams E (2014) ‘’Fundamentals of game design’’, Pearson Education Inc. 3rd edition Bogost I (2007). Persuasive Games: The Expressive Power of Videogames. MIT Press, 2010 Fulton H, Huisman R, Murphet J, Dunn A (2005). ‘’Narrative and Media’’New York: Cambridge University Press. 1st edition Hefner, Dorothee & Klimmt, Christoph & Vorderer, Peter. (2007). Identification with the Player Character as Determinant of Video Game Enjoyment. Entertainment Computing - ICEC 2007. 4740. 39-48. 10.1007/978-3-540-74873-1_6. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220851282_Identification_with_the_ Player_Character_as_Determinant_of_Video_Game_Enjoyment. Accessed date: 01/01/2021 Kent S (2001). ‘’ The Ultimate History of Video Game’’ 1st ed. Roseville: Three Rivers Press. Lindley C “The Gameplay Gestalt, Narrative, and Interactive Storytelling” Available at: http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/05164.54179.pdf. Accessed date: 01/01/2021 Lebowitz J, Klug C (2011) ‘’ Interactive Storytelling for Video Games: A Playercantered Approach to Creating Memorable Characters and Stories’’ Porter H (2008). ‘’The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative’’ Cambridge University Press. 1st edition Ryan M (2001). “Beyond Myth and Metaphor”, Game Studies, vol. 1, no. 1. Available at: http://gamestudies.org/0101/ryan/ Accessed date: 01/01/2021 Roth C, Vorderer P, Kimmt C (2009). “The Motivational Appeal of Interactive Storytelling” Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/220920151_The_ Motivational_Appeal_of_Interactive_Storytelling_Towards_a_Dimensional_Model_ of_the_User_Experience Accessed date: 01/01/2021 Spencer P (2017). ‘’Xbox chief envisions a Netflix model for narrative games’’ Available at: https://www.engadget.com/2017-04-28-xbox-one-phil-spencersubscription-gaming.html Accessed date: 01/01/2021 Skolnick E. (2014). ‘’Video Game Storytelling: What Every Developer Needs to Know about Narrative Techniques’’. Random House USA Inc University of Amsterdam (2010). “Narrative in Games”. Available at: http://www. few.vu.nl/~vbr240/onderwijs/pim/Narrative%20in%20Games.pdf Accessed date: 01/01/2021 University of Toronto Press (2009) ‘’ Narratology Introduction to the Theory of Narrative’’ University of Toronto Press. 2nd edition. Available at: https://www. academia.edu/28730312/Narratology_Introduction_to_the_Theory_of_Narrative_ Second_Edition_UNIVERSITY_OF_TORONTO_PRESS Accessed date: 01/01/2021
Graphics bibliography Milne Courtney (no date). Video Game Narrative: The Different Types and Howto Start Writing. Available at: https://pinnguaq.com/learn/video-game-narrative Accessed date: 29/12/2020
Games bibliography Donkey Kong. [Arcade]. Nintendo, 1981. Life is Strange. [Windows]. Square Enix, 2015.
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