Week
2 - Reading
Salen
and Zimmerman Games as
Narrative Play
J. Hillis Miller
outlines a handful of components that constitute a narrative: “There
must be, first of all, an initial situation, a sequence leading to a
change or reversal of that situation, and a revelation made possible
by the reversal of the situation. Second, there must be some use of
personification whereby character is created out of signs – for
example, the words on the page in a written narrative, the modulated
sounds in the air in an oral narrative. However important plot may
be, without personification there can be no storytelling… Third,
there must be some patterning or repetition of key elements.”
Give one example of a
game or film that conforms to this definition of narrative.
Dragon
Age Inquisition conforms to this definition of narrative, as the sky
more or less explodes, creating an enormous rift that disrupts life
as it was in Thedas. Personification appears in the form of the
player's character, who is fully customizeable and serves as an
avatar/vessel for the player and all the decisions that they make in
the game. The key elements in the story appear as snags and quests
along the way which are related to the breach in some shape or form.
The player must recruit followers, close rifts, and fetch things for
NPCs in order to get closer and closer to the goal of closing the
breach for good.
S&Z refer to
types of narrative in videogames, embedded
and emergent. Define
each of these and give at least one example of each from videogames.
Embedded
narrative is a pre-generated story that is interactively told and
exists before the player's interaction – the example in the reading
suggests Jak and Daxter as two characters who are saving the world.
This is crafted interactive story. Emergent Narrative is the
experience when the game is played – again referring to Jak and
Daxter with their story forming and changing through the player
playng the game. This is improvised play experience.
In what ways do games
combine embedded and
emergent narratives?
Games
link the embedded and emergent narratives togeter – the embedded
gives the player motivation to move forward in the game and gives
meaning to any actions that they take, while the emergent provides
the challenges and thrills that make the game feel fulfilling and
advance the story.
How do goals,
conflicts, and core
mechanics make gameplay meaningful?
The
Goal helps the player to judge how far they are in the game and
understand the significance of their actions within a narrative
context. It describes the nature of player interaction with the
narrative context and thus makes the interaction meaningful.
Conflict
creates an obstacle for the player to overcome, giving opportunity
for narrative events and aids in the player's satisfaction of
reaching the goal. It is an element that works against the player's
success and tries ultimately to lead to the player's failure.
Core
mechanics create patterns of repeated behavior and frame the moment
to moment activity of the player. It forces the player to pay
attention to the game and to understand and learn what their limits
within it are and teaches what they can and cannot do to reach the
goal. The player engages with the core mechanics to make meaningful
choices and explore their possibilities.
In what ways does a
“game space” contribute to context, time and causality?
The
design of a game space creates events in these concepts of context,
time and casualty. Design changes depending on the type of game, but
it helps the player to interpret just how they can go about playing
the game and offers many possibilities and choices in how they can
succeed. The game space contains the embedded narrative qualities to
help shape the story and help the player understand and achieve the
goal.
How do “game
descriptors” contribute to a game’s narrative? What are some
examples of game descriptors? Are they always effective?
The
game descriptors help to identify objects in the game, giving meaning
to what might otherwise be (particularly in early games?) abstract
shapes on the screen. The narrative descriptor frames the elements
inside and outside of the game as objects that communicate the story.
These descriptors could be all the objects you see on screen – the
player character, identified by the one moving when you touch the
controller buttons, scenery, identified by the familiar shapes of
walls and rocks etc, enemies, identified by shapes that may be
differntly colored to your character sprite, and create a reaction in
the form of blood/flashing colors/sounds when they touch you. They
may start out as ineffective, but to one conditioned to video games,
signs of what approaching figures or shapes are can be more easily
identified based on previous games and previously understood 'rules'
from them. The game descriptor helps to contextualize objects within
the game so that even new players can begin to understand what shapes
do which things, and which objects to attack or avoid.
///
Week
2 – Video Questions
Do
you agree with me that The
Walking Dead by
Telltale Games doesn’t really offer the player meaningful choice?
Does it really matter if it does or doesn’t?
I
can't take a stand on agreeing or disagreeing about meaningful choice
as I'd have to experience the game for myself, but as someone who
doesn't set replaying games very high on their list of priorities I
feel like it doesn't truly matter whether the game's choices are
meaningful. In my opinion, once you know what's going to happen in
the story, the experience of replaying it is ruined – you already
know what's going to happen and while you might be curious to see
what kinds of other choices you can make in the same scenarios, the
overall experience of the game will feel diminished as the main plot
points of the story driven narrative will not change and thus you can
already expect to know what twists and turns the story is going to
take.
How
does The Walking Dead
incorporate minimal interactivity to make the player feel like they
are driving the story forward?
The
dialogue options that your character is given are often under a time
limit, making the player feel like they must make a snap decision in
order to avoid consequences. The same is true for the game's quick
time events when faced with a character's reflex actions or during
fight scenes – if the buttons on screen aren't pressed quickly or
for long enough, consequences also occur. The game plays on the
player's desire to avoid death or harm coming to the character they
have played thus far with and continue the progression of the story.
How
could The Walking
Dead have
incorporated more player freedom, and how might this have impacted
the telling of the story?
As
the video mentioned, the player is only in control of certain
'scenes' that occur between cutscenes and dialogue/quicktime events.
They do not have the freedom to explore an open world or to make
choices beyond the the ones presented in the dialogue options. The
video mentions that Clem leaves her gun out in the open and the
player is not allowed to retrieve it for the sake of the story, even
though the player knows that it is a terrible decision to put the gun
down for even a moment. With more freedom, it would be much harder
to keep the narrative on track, as the player would be exploring and
getting into encounters that they weren't supposed to. The
consequence could be similar to those in Bethesda games – where the
player is free to do whatever they like at the expense of never
progressing or completing the main story, or being left to do
whatever they liked once the central 'backbone' plot is complete.
What
is the tension between “me the player” and the intended actions
of “characters” in a game like The
Walking Dead?
Sometimes
– particularly when the player has experienced the sequence of the
game already – the player will want to take actions that the
characters within the game would not think of/cannot do due to
programming. The player might find the character's current goal or
motives unnecessary or would want to do things differently, or the
character's actions might create a sort of frustrating tenseness in
the player, due to knowing the trope that the character's actions
will ultimately cause.
The
game Until Dawn
is an interactive horror film where choices determine who survives.
How does the player’s prior knowledge of horror tropes influence
their choices?
Many
people who have played this game say that it relies heavily on Horror
tropes, and that if you know how those work, its very easy to avoid
danger/disaster and make it through the game with most of, if not all
of the characters surviving. There are 'rules' to a horror film, and
characters can all fit into horror stereotypes, many of which suggest
that they will die before the end of the game. However, Until Dawn
also gives you the option to circumvent what is otherwise predestined
within a horror film, as every single playable character can survive.
Do
you think that choice
makes an interactive narrative more dramatic? Are the limited
choices in games like Until
Dawn and The
Walking Dead enough
to make these choices meaningful?
The
idea of choice, even if it does turn out to be a superficial one can
definitely have meaningful impact on the player, as it helps to
engage them more with the story and make them feel that the choices
that they made had a certain weight or impact on how things turned
out. I feel like an interactive game could definitely be considered
more dramatic – on one hand the player could make force drama by
purposely insighting fights and discord among the characters or
making the characters enter situations that anyone with common sense
would avoid. On the other, they may choose to avoid dramatic
situations by 'playing it safe' – but no doubt the video game
accomodates for that and can potentially throw in even more
surprising twists and turns at the player in order to constantly keep
them on their toes.
In
what ways might an interactive narrative lack the qualities of
“traditional narratives,” such as twists, tropes, symbolism etc…
What do interactive narratives offer instead?
The
interactive aspect of a narrative means that the set in stone, solid
backbone of a traditional narrative is missing due to the free will
and choices that the player exerts over it. The story can turn to
unexpected places the symbolism and hints are reduced in order to
create a deeper sense of mystery and involvement. As the Gamer
Maker's toolkit has suggested, however, the interactive narrative can
offer the player to direct and form a plot based on their own whims
and ideas. It allows the player's imagination to run wild, to create
a game out of the game itself by pulling the strings and avoiding or
travelling into the common tropes that one expects. It also offers a
more immersive experience, as the player feels as though their
choices have a direct impact on the story at hand.
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