Aerothorn on 7/2/2009 at 23:52

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So, long story short, a friend and I are devising an independent study on Narrative and Video Games (this is a course that a professor sponsors and that we largely teach ourselves, with regular meetings with the professor to guide us).

I've thrown together a rough sort of syllabus, but am still looking to modify it, get more readings, etc (we have 14 textbooks on the way, so it's less about finding things to read and more about finding the best stuff available.

If any of you have suggestions on how to improve this course, it would be much appreciated. Thanks! Syllabus follows.


Topic Question: Why use a video game to tell a story instead of using other visual mediums (film, television, graphic novels)?

In each unit, we will examine whether or not specific narrative mechanisms make a narrative unique to its medium.

Specific questions addressed in each unit:
1. What other media, if any, use this narrative mechanism?
2. How does the active player participation affect the narrative mechanism?
3. What is the outcome of this mechanism on both the story and its reception by the player?

Work Produced: In each unit, there will be one large paper (of negotiable size) and a series of shorter papers. Each student will choose which sub-unit in a given unit they want to do their “large paper” on; they will do smaller papers (2-3 pp) on the other sub-units.

As far as readings go, we have not select all of them and are still searching for appropriate readings for many of the units (we are still going through various books and browsing for online articles). Of the fifteen potential texts, we have three and eight more are on their way via the library system. Dylan will post this syllabus to a site full of game academics and get feedback for good readings and syllabus modifications, so this is only the rough draft.

We are also still working on the specific schedule for the completion of each unit and sub-unit – unit length will vary based on the amount of material (games and readings) that need to be consumed to complete it.


Unit One: Delivery of Narrative
Traditional forms of videogame narrative (cut scenes, dialog trees, overheard conversations, text, meta media)
Game: Deus Ex

Games have numerous ways to communicate a story to the player. They can use cutscenes (like a film), text (like a book), or any number of game specific devices (in-game interactive scripted sequences).

Playing through the game, attempt to identify all the ways the game communicates narrative information to the player. Why does it use a given means for a given piece of information? Why use a cutscene for one conversation and have another be in-game? What are the strengths of a given mode of delivery? What are the limitations?

Emergent Gameplay
Game: Deus Ex

Wikipedia describes Emergent Gameplay as “creative use of a video game in ways unexpected by the game designers's original intent. It commonly appears as complex behaviors that emerge from the interaction of simple game mechanisms.” Deus Ex is a famous example of a game that features emergent gameplay. For instance, a player may use objects in the environment to build a structure that allows them to scale a wall that they otherwise would have had to go around. How does emergent gameplay impact the narrative – both the established narrative and the player-created one?

Readings: Sunglasses at Night (an emergent-gameplay focused guide to Deus Ex), other (will get recommendations from emergent gameplay experts Dylan knows)


Player Designed Narrative
Games in which the player’s actions have an immediate and direct affect on the direction of the story are uncommon, but do exist. These games highlight the difference between this medium and others. Looking at samplings of Interactive Fiction and Art Games, we will examine how this difference changes the way the player perceives the narrative.

Textbook Readings: Non-Linear vs. Linear (pp 167-72) and Chapter 14: Modular Storytelling (295-321)

Other readings: Stories From the Sandbox by Neil Sorens ((www.gamasutra.com))

Games: The Majesty of Colors (and possibly other art games, like I Wish I were the Moon), A piece of IF (possibly Emily Short's Floatpoint), Façade

Unit Two: Player Perspective

1st Person Perspectives: Three Types of Player Immersion

Games: Myst, Portal, a strategy game (Darwinia or Starcraft)

We have indentified three primary forms of first-person perspective. In the first (exemplified by Myst), the character is presumably the player themselves, with nothing to break this perception. In the second (exemplified by Portal), the game is completely in first-person without cutscenes, and the player character never speaks (giving the impression that it is the player themselves), but the player can see the character in reflective surfaces, giving specifics to who the character is. In the third, the player character is omniscient and is not really a character in the story at all – this is the case with most real-time strategy games.

What is different about first-person in the video game medium is that the story appears to become a story of the Self. In a novel “I” statements are inherently distanced, since readers assume that they are being told a story and the “I” is assumed to be the author/narrator, while in a film, though audiences may be placed in an engaging, 1st person perspective, there is no interaction available and so the experience maintains a level of disconnect. However, when the element of interaction is incorporated, the story transforms into something that the player is *doing*, an event in their life, and takes on aspects of a story of the Self.

3rd Person Perspectives: Three Types of Player-Character Interaction
Player characters (PCs) in games can be placed on a scale measuring how much control the player has over the actions and story of the character. At one extreme, the PC is entirely created by the player, with the player giving the character a name, deciding all their actions, and giving them an identity through dialog choices; the developers only provide a launching-off point (usually an explanation of how the character came to be where they are at the beginning of the game) and the frames (what dialog options they can choose, etc). At the other extreme, the character is entirely pre-determined by the writer, with the player only being able to control their actions outside of the story (in combat, walking around environments). Some characters fall in between these two extremes, with the character having a set background and characteristics, but with significant leeway for the player to modify the specifics of their actions.

Games: Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (Player-created character), Max Payne or The Longest Journey (pre-established character), Deus Ex or Planescape: Torment (mix)

Textbook Readings: Chapter 3: Respecting Characters (the bulk of which focuses on the Player Character) (pp 37-61), Chapter 4: Character Roles (61-70), Perspective (pp 116-119)

Unit Questions: How does the perspective affect the way the narrative is told? How do different perspectives change the way the player relates to the player character? Will they take different actions, or be more empathetic towards the character and their situations?


Unit Three: The Power Struggle Between Narrative and Gameplay
Doing the Twist: Plot Twists Affecting Gameplay
Every medium contains narratives with "twists." In passive mediums, the twist may evoke an emotional response in the consumer and keep their attention, but the consumer cannot REACT to the twist. In interactive media, a twist or new revelation can change the player's actions.

Games: Spider & Web (Interactive Fiction)

Narrative as Linking Device
Games, due to their core element of interactivity are comprised mainly as a series of actions. However one may argue that between primary actions one must see a connection, otherwise two goals in one game could be considered to be two separate games, similar (or possibly different) in their nature. Narrative then comes into play as a means for motivation initial action as well as a means of advancing further action by linking them together as a series of related events that form part of a larger whole.

Observe the narrative/gameplay interaction. How do they touch? In what ways does narrative stand by itself in a story and in what ways is it utilized to advance players from one ‘action’ to another? Would a game play the same or different if the narrative element were removed and the game were simply a series of action?

Readings: Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture by Alexander R. Galloway

Games: Hitman 2: Stealth Assassin, something else?


Absence of Narrative or Gameplay
Many games feature narratives that are mere excuses for the gameplay – the gameplay and game design comes first, and a narrative is provided as a means of coherently stringing together the gameplay. Likewise, in some games, the gameplay is merely an excuse to give the player a sense of control or affect the pacing of the plot.

Games: Katamari Damacy, The Longest Journey


Suspension of disbelief.
Games will often sacrifice "realism" for the sake of good gameplay. Games usually avoid addressing politics and other charged real-world issues. Finally, games are the only medium to be essentially devoid of sex. What impact do these decisions have on the player’s experience, particularly the suspension of disbelief?

Games: Any of the ones we’ve already played (they all do it to a degree).

Textbook Readings: Chapter 8,"Respecting Story" (pp. 175-199)

demagogue on 8/2/2009 at 00:55

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I'm not sure what exactly you might be expecting us to contribute ... but I have a lot of ideas on this topic.

There are a few more topics you might look at, if not their own category, mixed in with the other topics ...
- how time and space is created & used, which has to share a game and a story in the same space/time. Not just level design, but also things like AI and readable placement ... For level design, you want the location to fit in with how it's supposed to be functioning in the story (rich boss's place should be lush), but it also has to house the gameplay. On object placement ... You want AI to tell story to the player, but still act as obstacles; readables give story, but also give gameplay directions; where they are tells some story in-itself.
- modus operandi-plot relationship -- how what your motivation is structures how the story emerges. I like an IF example like Varicella, where your motivation to sieze power structures the gameplay mechanics of the basic interactions you have towards NPCs (decieving them, taking advantage of them, trying to kill them) and the world (avoiding the deceptions, traps of others, etc.)
- MO-gameplay mechanic relationship -- how advancing your motivation is actually operationalized in mechanic terms. Good entry into this discussion is any game that use some "official" talking head, like your commanding officer, radio'ing in orders to you ... too many games to count! They have to know what you need to do, while still being an outsider to it, but it's such a fine line, it often looks like the very core of your motivation is connected to the inner-workings of the enemy itself, or even of forces of nature. There's also lots of variation, e.g., how strictly/literally you follow the orders, how "official" they are to your MO, military games use CO's, but Deus Ex and System Shock 2 use NPCs trying to help you out (DX gave you lots of flexibility to disobey the talking head and let them deal with it).
- player-PC relationship. Some IF really explore this, e.g., cases where you can't trust the PC or the narrator might be hiding the full truth. Another good entry to discussion is the difference in the relationship between 1stPerson vs. 3rdPerson. 1P pushes towards you roleplaying the PC, getting in its head; 3P towards directing the semi-independent PC like an NPC puppet on strings. Think about cases where sounds are heard "in the PC's head".
- in the gameplay-narrative tension you can look at the role of the GUI in helping/hurting each side. The less HUD, the more the gameplay mechanics are "in" the world itself, and maybe the more opportunity the gameplay has to be part of the storytelling.

I like the way Emilie Short's (http://emshort.wordpress.com/reading-if/) site breaks down various topics in terms of example IF games that demonstrate the topic. (I've been looking for a site that did that for all types of games, not just IF.)

The best example in a game that I thought really threaded the needle of gameplay and storytelling well was the IF Anchorhead. When I would tell my friends the story, it emerges like a novel ... But when you're playing it, the story (feels like it) comes out in the gameplay itself; it's not just reading the story along the way; the story is built into the way your MO/mechanics are structured in the gameplay itself. It's easier to give examples than speak about it abstractly ... for example, progress is made when you do plot-key things, e.g., requesting the key geneological info in the city office in a way that lets the spooky part emerge in the action of doing that itself, not just having the spooky part spelled out for you as part of the incidental narration.

Since I recently finished Anachronox, I still have a lot of ideas it brought up in my head. It was master of cut-scene storytelling, and you could use it for that section. (If you don't already know, there a video of all the cut-scenes knit together to get an idea.)
But also a lot of information was given out by tons of NPCs, each with their own more/less contribution to various sub-plots, but also a lot of gameplay was buried in their conversations too. Probably most of the game was NPC-clicking. Another feature about it was how self-conscious it was of the player/game-world boundary. NPCs would recognize that they're just repeating the same dialog over and over, or recognize that you keep "poking" them. The mouse-arrow was an identifiable PC in the game that flew around in real-space (at one point, you even see the mouse-arrow of an NPC also flying around clicking things). It was all humorous, but it gave its own fodder for thought.

demagogue on 8/2/2009 at 01:16

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On the other end of the spectrum are "interactive novels", like Japanese romance (bishoujo) games, where you basically click through a pre-written story with drawn characters on screen "reacting" in kind. Periodically there'll be a CG slideshow for the "action". And usually there are some dialog-tree nodes where you are prompted to pick a response, which pushes the story down one fork or another.

If you had to pick one that is well known for its "story", I'd say Kana ~ Little Sister, since it's such a sob-story and has dialog paths that pretty significantly play-out your decisions towards much different endings ... the good endings being very happy, the bad endings being very sad. (And because it's been officially translated into English.)

Even with the narrative-tree, you wouldn't really call it "gameplay" in the normal sense ... It makes sense why your decisions tend towards one ending or another, even satisfyingly so sometimes in retrospect ... but even then more like a watching a book play out. There's usually so much arbitrariness that you're very rarely making a rational game-decision to actually work with the game. You're just making a gut decision and seeing how the story plays out. And even when you are working with the game with your responses, it's usually so obvious/transparent you still wouldn't call it "playing". (Every so often they'll work in an actual puzzle, but usually one that's impossible to fail ... and the game will usually lead you straight through to the answer eventually, but that's really not what the audience buys them for.)

Aerothorn on 8/2/2009 at 03:19

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Wow - already lots of great suggestions.

Dethtoll: You're right about bloodlines being a bit superfluous - frankly, I wasn't sure how many times the prof would let us re-use Deus Ex. The thing is, for that unit, we will not have time to play all games to completion, and Bloodlines gives you a fairly good sense of developing your character within the first few hours. So does System Shock 2, yes - but it lacks dialog, one of the common ways of personalizing a character.

As far as Narrative as Linking Device, yeah, MGS3 and Half-Life would both be good choices. I'm a huge MGS fan but my fellow student hasn't played those games (if he had, and we had a PS3, MGS4 would probably play a prominent role in the course). Still, you're right that MGS3 can be played stand-alone.

The Doom v. Doom 3 idea is excellent, and I'll likely work that into the course (though this may be one of the cases where have to play segments of them instead of finishing the whole game, for time purposes).

Demagogue: A lot of good ideas. I considered using Anachronox, and may still.

Emily Short's IF list is indeed incredible. In fact, part of me wanted to make this course entirely IF, but I didn't because A. my co-student wanted to do more mainstream games, and B. as interesting as IF is, it's somewhat of a different beast from visual video games, and given that those are so much more prominent in our culture I figure I'd stick mostly to those.

Still, I'm gonna try to get through as much of her list as possible.

Tonamel on 8/2/2009 at 05:01

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Comments in bold




[edit] Shakey, you'd be best friends with Raph Koster. While you're right that there is an untapped storytelling technique unique to gaming, I don't think it's the rules system itself that does it. I think it's player choice. The system you design can influence and guide player choice, the fascinating thing about a game like Civ is that the further you progress, the more completely the game world reflects your choices as a player, which can be very fulfilling.

[edit edit] Oh, and if we're throwing around our game design credentials, I just got my master's degree :p