Storyplaying: Agency and Narrative in Video Games

197 Pages·2013·0.71 MB·English

by  Sebastian Domsch

Sebastian Domsch
Storyplaying
Narrating Futures
Edited by
Christoph Bode
Volume 4
Sebastian Domsch
Storyplaying
Agency and Narrative in Video Games
ISBN 978-3-11-027216-1
e-ISBN 978-3-11-027245-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2013 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Typesetting: PTP-Berlin Protago-TEX-Production GmbH, Berlin
Printing: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
♾ Printed on acid-free paper
Printed in Germany
www.degruyter.com
Content
1 Introduction: What is Storyplaying? | 1
1.1 Preliminaries: Medial Forms | 6
1.2 Preliminaries: Exclusions | 10
2 Video Games and Narrative | 13
2.1 Gameplay and Narrative | 13
2.1.1 Gameplay and Game Mechanics: The Rules of the Game | 14
2.1.2 Semanticization and Fictionalization: Towards Gameworlds | 18
2.2 Narrative Forms | 31
2.2.1 Passive Forms | 31
2.2.1.1 Exposition | 32
2.2.1.2 Cut scenes | 32
2.2.1.3 Loading Screen | 34
2.2.2 Actively Nodal Forms | 34
2.2.2.1 Player Actions | 35
2.2.2.2 Quick Time Event | 35
2.2.2.3 Dialogue tree | 38
2.2.2.4 Event trigger | 41
2.2.3 Dynamic Forms | 43
2.2.3.1 Non-player Character | 43
2.2.3.2 Timed Events/Intradiegetic Clock | 46
2.2.4 Digression: Architecture and Protocols | 48
3 Non-Unilinear Gameplay in Video Games | 53
3.1 Levels of Observation | 53
3.2 Non-Unilinear Existents | 61
3.3 Non-Unilinear Objectives | 68
4 Non-Unilinear Narrative in Video Games | 75
4.1 Non-Unilinearity in Quest-Based Narrative | 81
4.2 Non-Unilinear Narrative Outside of Quests | 93
4.2.1 Character | 94
4.2.2 Spatial Narrative | 98
5 Choice and Narrative in Video Games | 112
5.1 The Anatomy of a Player Choice | 112
5.2 Choice and Meaning | 123
VI       Content
5.3 Choice, Information, and Narration in Video Games | 128
5.4 Choice and Consequence in Video Games | 137
6 Narrative’s Contrast Agent: Moral Choices | 148
6.1 Valorisation Rules | 150
6.2 Valorising Morality | 155
6.3 Ethics and Rules | 163
7 The Future of Storyplaying | 169
7.1 Media-Economic Aspects | 170
7.2 Media-Technological Aspects | 171
7.3 Artistic Potential of the Medium | 177
Works Cited | 181
Index | 188
1 Introduction: What is Storyplaying?
T his study is to be understood as part of a larger research into a specific type of
narrative that is termed future narrative (FN). The general features of this type of
narrative are discussed extensively in Christoph Bode’s F uture Narratives: Theory,
Poetics, and Media-Historical Moment. Since his is the foundational theoretical
work, I will quote at some length from his definition of FNs:
‘ Narrating Futures’ is about a new, hitherto unidentified kind of narrative. The fact of its
discovery is exciting in itself, but no less exciting is the key feature this new kind of narra-
tive displays: it does not only thematise openness, indeterminacy, virtuality, and the idea
that every ‘now’ contains a multitude of possible continuations. No, it goes beyond this by
actually s taging the fact that the future is a space of yet unrealised potentiality – and by
allowing the reader/player to enter situations that fork into different branches and to actu-
ally e xperience that ‘what happens next’ may well depend upon us, upon our decisions, our
actions, our values and motivations.
I t might therefore be said that these narratives p reserve and contain what can be regarded
as defining features of future time, namely that it is yet undecided, open, and multiple, and
that it has not yet crystallised into actuality. It is by virtue of their capability to do exactly
this – to preserve the future a s future  – that these narratives are here called ‘Future Narra-
tives’.
Bode goes on to define what distinguishes FNs structurally from others, which
are also called ‘past narratives’, and which are organized around events:
Future Narratives do not operate with ‘events’ as their minimal units. Rather, their minimal
unit is at least one situation that allows for more than one continuation. We call this a
‘nodal situation’, or a ‘node’, for short. (1.1)
The node is the defining feature of FNs. Consequently any narrative that contains
at least one node can be called a FN . But in how far can a situation be described
as nodal, and a nodal s ituation be described as narrative? Well, as the definition
says, a situation is nodal if it allows for more than one continuation, which means
that the two continuations that are both possible from one point have to be d iffer-
ent from each other. The state after the n ode can only be one or the other, not both
at the same time, they are mutually exclusive. And yet, from the nodal s ituation,
each of these mutually exclusive states is possible to be actualised. Whereas all
narratives can talk about potentiality, openness or indeterminacy, these aspects
are actually p resent in a nodal situation , they are staged by the structure of the
narrative.
2       Introduction: What is Storyplaying?
A nd how is such a situation related to narrative? Precisely through what the
‘mutually exclusive’ refers to: the state of a s toryworld. Nodal situations are part
of a narrative experience by the user. Nodes are a feature that can be a dded to
any kind of narrative. In order not to exclude any of the manifestations of FNs,
the definition of narrative used here is a rather encompassing one that is strongly
influenced by cognitive narratology. Narrative is here being understood as any-
thing that is conducive to the user’s mental linking of (at least) two events and the
creation of a storyworld . Such a definition overcomes the shortcomings of essen-
tialist attempts at pinpointing what a narrative ‘is’, in the sense of distinguishing
concrete features in an artefact, be it a text, an image, or any other sign. It is less
about what a narrative is , and more about what can be a narrative to a recipient.
So nodes in a FN are part of a structure that lends itself to being regarded as
a narrative by its user. The user is invited to mentally link at least two events and
thereby start the creation of a narrative and a s toryworld in which the events take
place. And in addition to that, the node provides a situation in which at least two
different changes to this s toryworld are possible. This definition is highly abstract
and therefore neutral on a number of aspects that can and will influence the way
that FNs are created, presented, and experienced. Chief among those aspects is
the medium used. In addition to the general investigation that also looks into
the historical background of concepts of openness and indeterminacy, the larger
project of analysing FNs also contains a number of studies that look at the occur-
rence and forms of FNs in different media.
T his study will focus on FNs as they appear in gameplay in general and video
games in particular. The existence of nodes turns any narrative into a game of
sorts between the creator and the user, it heightens the ludic quality of the narra-
tive by either directly granting the user agency (as in a Choose-Your-Own-Adven-
ture [ CYOA ] book or a combinatorial book like B.S. Johnson’s The Unfortunates ) or
at least by forcing the user to make differential evaluations of multiple continu-
ations (as in sequentially arranged multiple endings – here the reader needs to
position herself evaluatively, and choose which ending to prioritise). But many of
those FNs use medial forms of PNs (a book, a movie) as their structural starting
point and ‘gamify’ them through the inclusion of nodes. The following analysis
will concentrate instead on those FNs that take a game structure as their starting
point, and make this structure readable as a narrative.
I t is the guiding assumption of this study that some games, and especially
many video games, are also FNs. Therefore, it will mainly attempt to show two
things: how video games can be experienced by their players as narrative, and
how this narrative, through its connection to gameplay (which necessarily intro-
duces nodes), can enable the openness that is a precondition for their inclusion
into the category of FNs. There will be a more in-depth discussion of this point,
Introduction: What is Storyplaying?       3
but for introductory purposes, it should be said that this study has a very specific
focus within the range of things that can and should be said about video games.
This focus is on the perception of the play experience as having meaning in a fic-
tional s toryworld. Such a perception, it will be argued, is not necessary for games,
but it is well possible and productive. ¹ This focus will therefore exclude attempts
to explain what video games (or any games) ‘are’, just as it will not posit what
narrative ‘is’. Some things are played as games, and some things are read as nar-
rative, and sometimes, a thing is both. The latter is what is called s toryplaying .
What most clearly distinguishes video games from other medial realizations
of FNs is the range of a gency that they allow their readers. This is why we will refer
to the user of a video game in the following as a player, even though this player
in many cases will also have to be understood as a reader of fictional meaning, a
reader of signs and implied or explicit narratives. But it is a core feature of video
games that the player almost never (and never completely) ² stops to be an agent,
and is therefore ‘playing’ the story to a much larger extent than in any other
medium.
T he basic definition of a nodal s ituation is also neutral on the question of
whether the user is allowed to influence which of the continuations is going to
be realised. Such an empowerment of the user to the status of active agent is
indeed not necessary for a situation to be counted as nodal. The F N might make
the choice for the user, like a croupier spinning the Roulette wheel (or a h ypertext
that automatically selects one of several links without any input by the user); or
it might present all of the continuations, as in the case of sequentially presented
multiple endings (for example T he French Lieutenant’s Woman in print or Run
Lola Run in movie form). But nodal situations that do involve choice form a very
important sub-group, and they are highly prominent in video games. A major
focus will therefore be on a close analysis of player choices and their relation to
the game’s narrative perception.
The appeal of games lies in their promise of agency , in the promise of an
openness that is dependent on the player and her choices. All games are therefore
necessarily non-unilinear, since true agency implies choice, and choice implies
differing outcomes. Many games of the category that Jesper Juul has called ‘emer-
gent’ offer a staggering degree of openness or game complexity, one that is impos-
sible to achieve in other media like print or motion pictures. So are video games
by default the ‘best’ FNs, allowing for the highest degree of openness? The best
1 For investigations into the nature of games and play, cf. Huizinga, Caillois , and Sutton-Smith.
2 Though there might be situations in a video game where the player has no a gency (like load-
ing screens or non-interactive video sequences), a game that consists entirely of such situations
would not be considered a game.