Story-playing. Ludologist approach in video game narrative

pleasure is the pleasure of the voyeur. Safe, but impotent. . . . The cybertext puts the would‐be reader at risk: the risk of rejection.. . . The tensions at work in a cybertext, while not incompatible

with those of narrative desire, are also something more: a struggle not merely for interpretive

insight but also for narrative control: “I want this text to tell my story; the story that could not be without me.” (Aarseth, 1997)

“The cybertext reader is a player, a gambler; the cybertext is a game-world or world-game; it is

possible to explore, get lost, and discover secret paths in these texts, not metaphorically, but

through the topological structures of the textual machinery.” (Aarseth, 1997)

The reader of video games becomes an active participant powerful to control the narrative. Thus,

narratives in video games are influenced by the agential work of the player. Game scholar, Janet Murray

(1997) argues that the transformation of the digital texts is assigned to the player through the freedom

of action and interaction that is given to him.

In conclusion, while the narrative is traditionally defined in a linear way based on Aristotle’s (1995),

three-act structure, with a beginning, a middle, and an end, narrative in video games is considered as

hypertext is based on the creation of a frame for players action, which offers them motivation to

continue playing or it’s developed through the same actions carried out by the player.

Story-playing. Ludologist approach in video game narrative.

Since narrative in video games is strongly related to the gameplay and dictated by player’s agency, it’s important to explore games not only as narrative mediums but most importantly considering their

lugological aspect, which defines them since the origin.

The ludological aspects of video games go under game studies on Ludology, which were coined by Espen

Aarseth (2007) as a discipline focused on the study of gameplay. According to ludologists a game is

primarily a competitive activity, goal-oriented, and conducted under certain rules. Furthermore, Gonzalo

Frasca, a game designer, and academic researcher introduced a similar understanding of the term

ludology in 1999, derived from "ludus," the Latin word for "game," to refer to games and play activities.

Ludology views gamesas a form of play that has nothing to do with the narrative, fictional content in

games, or games as a visual medium.

Initially, ludologistsignore totally narrative analyses, thereby rejecting the existence of a link between

narrative and gameplay, and instead focused on a formal analysis of the game and its mechanics. The

same Aarseth (2004, 52) considered gameplay and interactivity as a key component in video games, 91

ignoring narrative, space, and visual representation aspects or considering them as secondary. Other

scholars (Kelly 2011; Juul 1998) sustained that stories and games contradict each other. Eskelinen (2001)

went further claiming that games shouldn’t have a narrative at all, as the narrative is a necessary element in games, since it does not constitute their essence. Similarly, Mateas and Stern in “Interaction and Narrative” (2004) defined ludology as the result of gameplay and interactivity, in contrast to the

narrative which is understood as something related to a predefined path. Their approaches were

oriented towards gameplay as the essence of video games.

The legitimization of narration in video game studies was first sustained by other scholars of game

studies including Jesper Juul (1998), having a more comprehensive approach. Juul, who is often

considered a ludologist, questioning the notion of narrative in games, suggested that the computer

game is not a narrative medium but is primarily a rule-based medium. Nevertheless, it incorporates

narrative elements. (Juul, 1998). This means that the Ludological approach can be open to narrative and

does not essentially contradict it. Secondly, ignoring the games as a visual medium, the pure ludological

approach neglects the role of the spatial environment in the video games as a visual narrator and as a

space for interactivity. Thirdly, this approach is based primarily on establishing rules and defining what a

player can or cannot do and predicting the consequences of his actions in the game world.

To summarize, ludological scholars believe that the primary goal of video games players is to obtain pleasure from action/ interaction which permit them to continue the game and face the challenges it

offers. This is not directly related to video game narrative and is not a representational feature of video

games. A similar believe has also James Newman who definedin his book “The Myth of the Ergodic

Videogame: Some Thoughts on Player-Character Relationships in Videogames” pleasure related to the

action of players:

p.2). “the pleasures of a video game are not principally visual, but rather kinesthetic” (Newman 2002,

Frasca (2003) also pointed out the fact that video games have different characteristics compared to

traditional media (novels and movies) as they are primarily based on simulation. So, narration, when is

part of the game can be easily manipulated and influenced by the player or the mechanics of the

gameplay. In this regard, Frasca suggested that the ludological approach in game studies

“focus[es] on the understanding of game structure and elements—particularly [their] rules—as

well as creating typologies and models for explaining the mechanics of the games” (Frasca 2003, p. 222).