narratives in contemporary games
TRANSCRIPT
Narratives in Contemporary Games
Dr. Christian BokhoveSouthampton Education School
University of Southampton@cbokhove
Disclaimer: I’ve tried to make sure all the content is referenced and accounted for. If you feel there is content that should not be there pleas elet me know.
Contents
• Background and rationale• Frameworks and narrative elements• Exploring different games and their narrative elements• Creating a narrative: text adventures
This is me
• Educational researcher• Maths education academic• Use of technology
• Game enthusiast: shamelessly talk about my love for games• In perspective
• Week 2 on narratives• Location based games and narratives: know Ingress?
The role of narratives
• Contemporary discussions• Gamification!
• Point• Leaderboards• Badges
• Surely there is more to games than that• Looking back shortly at the games in 2014 I liked…
http://bokhove.net/2014/12/30/my-five-best-games-for-2014/
Example of interactive fiction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtG6yw2IrlI
In fashion
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/australia-culture-blog/2014/feb/21/writing-video-games-can-narrative-be-as-important-as-gameplay
Frameworks (a lot of different entry points)• Setting, character, challenge• Ludonarrative: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludonarrative• Clash game and narrative:
http://www.jesperjuul.net/text/clash_between_game_and_narrative.html
• Very nice blog on narrative: http://hitboxteam.com/designing-game-narrative
• http://www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/article/narrativity-computer-games • This
Games and Narrative: a continuum..
InteractivityStorytelling
source
Or two opposing aspects?There's a conflict between interactivity and storytelling: Most people imagine there's a spectrum between conventional written stories on one side and total interactivity on the other. But I believe that what you really have are two safe havens separated by a pit of hell that can absorb endless amounts of time, skill, and resources.
-Walter Freitag, game designer.
... the fundamental qualities that make a good game have remained unchanged and elusive. Consumers still flock to buy original, addictive, and fun games, leaving many flashy products with million-dollar budgets languishing in the $9.99 bin. These costly failures demonstrate that the consumer does not desire a cinematic experience, but rather a quality gaming experience.
-Sid Meier, game designer.
“Where gameplay is all about interactivity, narrative is about predestination. There is a pervasive feeling in the game design community that narrative and interactivity are antithetical.”
- Mateas and Stern, “Interaction and Narrative”
http://www.jesperjuul.net/text/clash_between_game_and_narrative.html
Recent successful attempts
source
Theory: Ludology vs. Narratologism
• Narratologist / Narrativist• scholar who uses “narrative and literary theory as the foundation upon which
to build a theory of interactive media.” –M. Mateas
• Ludology • most often defined as the study of game structure (or gameplay) as opposed
to the study of games as narratives or games as a visual medium.” –Game-research.com
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~michaelm/publications/CMU-CS-02-206.pdfsource
Plot vs. Narrative
• Plot and narrative are often used interchangeably, but they don't necessarily operate as such.
• Plot refers to the pattern of events in a narrative; the sequence of events: the causal chain of “what happened and why.”
• Princess was kidnapped.-> Hero finds out. -> Hero must rescue the princess by completing these tasks. -> If hero completes task, princess is saved.
• Narrative is the larger narrated story. This can exist without a plot or as a larger system in which plot exists.
• Narrative does not necessarily require a causal chain. Could be a history of events or sequence, technically the level progression in Tetris could be a narrative.
http://www.slideserve.com/julius/games-and-narrative source
Winter: Games tell stories
• A game’s narrative is the aspects of a game that contributes to it telling a story
• Questions concerning whether games are narratives, or whether narrative provides just one way to look at games are still actively debated.
• Narrative is also used to describe the story itself
• Computer games stretch the notion of narrative• The interactivity of computer games, like the interactivity of hypertext, pushes hard
against existing theories of linear narrative• No longer just one privileged story being told; many possible ways to experience a
non-linear narrative (computer game, hypertext fiction)http://classes.soe.ucsc.edu/cmps080k/Winter07/lectures/narrative.pdf source
Embedded vs Emergent Narratives• Embedded narrative
• Pre-generated narrative content that exists prior to a player’s interaction with the game
• Cut scenes, back story• Are often used to provide the fictional background for the game,
motivation for actions in the game, and development of story arc
• Emergent narrative• Arises from the player’s interaction with the gameworld, designed
levels, rule structure• Moment-by-moment play in the game creates this emergent narrative• Varies from play session to play session, depending on user’s actions
• Game design involves employing and balancing the use of these two elements source
Narrative descriptors• A narrative descriptor is an element of a game that
communicates aspects of its story to the player• Broad concept, which encompasses most visual elements
of a game and its surrounding context
• Instructional text• Cut scenes (I would also add music)• Interface elements (joystick, buttons, controller, and how they’re
used)• Visual elements comprising the field of view of the player• Narrative through mechanics (moral choices)
Instructional text
Cutscenes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-cxtS51n8k(Music!)
Interface elements
Visual elements
‣ So do the visual elements of the game places you in space ‣ Wrap-around space also contributes to this feeling ‣ UFO ties into cultural understandings
Narrative through mechanics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQJA5YjvHDU(Moral choices)
Great channel: Extra Credits
Ip, B. (2011). Narrative Structures in Computer and Video Games: Part 1: Context, Definitions, and Initial Findings . Games and Culture, 6, 103-134.
There is a second part:
Ip, B. (2011), ‘Narrative structures in computer and video games. Part 2: Emotions, structures, and archetypes’, Games and Culture, 6 (3), SAGE, 203-244. (DOI: 10.1177/1555412010364984)
Techniques for narrative delivery
• Interactive narratives• Back stories• Cut scenes (incl. interactive)• Structures
• Emotions
Established narrative structures• The Hero’s Journey
• 12 key stages
• Classical three-act (Aristotle)• Begin, middle, end (denouement)
http://www.cod.edu/people/faculty/pruter/film/threeact.htm
• Archplot, miniplot, antiplot• Kernels, satellites
TASKhttp://padlet.com/cbokhove/gamenarratives• In pairs• Explain to your neighbour what your favourite game is and what
techniques for narrative delivery made an impression on you.• Add the game and these descriptors to the padlet
Embedded NarrativesBarry Ip: Narrative interventions
1. narrative presented as passive game screen;2. narrative presented as on-screen text;3. narrative presented as cut scene;4. narrative presented as cut scene combined with on-screen text;5. narrative presented as combination of gameplay, cut scene, and on-screen text;6. narrative presented as combination of gameplay, sound, and textual cues;7. short game prompts (mission hints or pointers) presented as on-screen text;8. short game prompts (mission hints or pointers) presented as a cut scene;9. short game prompts (mission hints or pointers) presented simultaneously as cutscene and on-screen text;10. short game prompts (mission hints or pointers) presented as an integral part ofgameplay;11. short game prompts (mission hints or pointers) presented as gameplay, sound,and textual cues;12. credit roll and/or ending sequence.
Narrative Structures in Computer and Video Games: Part 1: Context, Definition and initial findings -Barry Ip
Embedded Narratives: analysis (1)
Narrative Structures in Computer and Video Games: Part 1: Context, Definitiona and initial findings -Barry Ip
Embedded Narratives: analysis (2)
Narrative Structures in Computer and Video Games: Part 1: Context, Definitiona and initial findings -Barry Ip
Story Graphs
Narrative Structures in Computer and Video Games: Part 1: Context, Definition and initial findings -Barry Ip
This shows that research on this becomes dated
very quickly
The Amnesia problem
http://www.giantbomb.com/amnesia/92-286/games/
“Emotional rollercoaster”
http://www.musik-therapie.at/PederHill/Structure&Plot.htm
Pacing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LScL4CWe5E
Now for my history of narratives in
gaming(while making this I realized there is far too much choice.
Also, I can never do justice to all these games in a few buzz words.Finally, I think I do not reveal anything ‘secret’ but maybe spoilers.)
http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/gbrading/lists/a-brief-history-of-adventure-games/28894/
Zork I
• Chronologically played this one after a lot of the other games• "It is pitch black, you are likely to be eaten by a grue."• Frotz on tablet
Sierra games
• First game: Leisure Suit Larry in The Land of the Lounge Lizards• King’s Quest series• Police Quest series
• Film Noir elements• Later: LA noire
• Space Quest series
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCgFYW1--JI
Lucasarts
• SCUMM• Maniac Mansion• Day of the Tentacle• Secret of Monkey Island
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySmLlHTV5rU
The Elder Scrolls
• Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim
• Lore• Music• Last version online:
big challenge balancingmultiplayer and narrativegameplay
L.A. Noire
• Film Noir(another top game in this genre: Max Payne 1 + 2,3 is good but not so muchFilm Noir any more)
• Detective work• Facial features• Narrative and investigation
central (recent: Velvet Sunset, but
http://www.giantbomb.com/la-noire/3030-21500/
The Witcher
• Medieval fantasy• Part Three coming up
(I would hope it is sort of the next Skyrim that never came)
Fallout (3)
• Clearly interface from Oblivion• Post-nuclear theme• Many games with these elements• (Sometimes with zombies)
Mass Effect 1-3
• My favourite game series(certainly in space, thoughDead Space excellent as well)
• Space adventures• Different modes (action, story, RPG)• Moral decisions influence game progression• Lots of anger about ending
(which shows the series was immersive, imo)
Bioshock
• 1, 2 and Infinite• Under water & in skye• Lots of historical similarities• Movies of discussions
story plot
Completely different: Ingress
• Niantic• Strange powers• ‘Aliens’
https://www.ingress.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss-Z-QjFUio
Zelda
Breaking free from traditional
• Dear Esther• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/27/1250832/-Narrative-in-video-ga
mes#
• Originally Academic project• Mixed reception: story
v interaction
• Kentucky Route Zero
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlGdbziSwEY
The Stanley Parable
• Wreden• Break normal narratives
Last of us
• Only PS4• Post-apocalyptic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkLPKd-Vs8g
Telltale
• The Walking Dead• Post-apocalyptic, zombies
• Game of Thrones• The Wolf Among Us• Tales from the Borderlands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swYQEGmPm0k
Moral choices (Walking Dead series 2 example)
Contemporary challenges
• And I could have done Mafia 1 and 2, Watch Dogs, Assassin’s Creed
• A lot of principles stayed the same• Although graphics, audio etc. have vastly
improved
• Multiplayer and narrative• Some use co-op for this e.g. Watch Dogs
• How do you supply a good narrative and still integrate multiplayer
Now you are going to make a narrative• Would be a bit too involved to add graphics etc.• Text adventure makers: just as expressive for narratives• Adrift• QUEST: http://textadventures.co.uk/ (also has version of Zork!)
• Platform independent (browser version)
• TASK• Explore the site and register• Try out the tutorial and make a simple adventure
http://docs.textadventures.co.uk/quest/tutorial/ • Pay particular attention to the NARRATIVE
Thank You