F.V. Cipolla-Ficarra et al. (Eds.): HCITOCH 2011, LNCS 7546, pp. 124–132, 2012. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012

Reviews on the Narrative Status of Video Games

Mauricio Pérez Jiménez

University of La Laguna, Spain mperjim@ull.es

Abstract. We analyse the narrative possibilities of video games in relation to those elements that conform them and distinguish them from other media. The main aim of this essay has been to tackle all the theoretical concepts related to videogame narrative structures that come into play when approaching the existent problems around their narrative possibilities as well as the models that they can adopt.

Keywords: Videogame, Narrative, Diegesis, Plot.

1 Features of Videogames

Before analysing the narrative possibilities of video games it is necessary to present a series of basic principles which in spite of being a bit theoretical are yet essential to understand the features of video games in a broader dimension. However we should not forget about the fact that video games share a lot of elements with other media such as the world of audio-visual media (cinema, video…), literature, comic books and so on.

If we want to have a broad definition of what video games are then we should take into account Gonzalo Frasca [1] points at the term from a general perspective as “any forms of computer-based entertainment software, either textual or image-based, using any electronic platform such as personal computers or consoles and involving one or multiple players in a physical or networked environment.” This definition basically enumerates the conforming elements of the videogame system even though it says nothing about the fundamental mechanics of it, that is about those aspects related to the activity that the user undertakes and which give us the possibility of distinguishing the videogame system from other cultural products. In turn, it is important to complement this definition with that of Jesper Juul [2] who defines videogames as an activity that is carried out over the basics of some formally defined norms and which are evaluated by the efforts of players, adding that when a game is being played, the outside world is automatically ignored.

Videogames have a whole range of different particularities but according to videogames designer Chris Crawford [3], all computer games have four main characteristics:

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1. Representation: A game is a tightly closed system that represents a subgroup within reality.

2. Interaction: A game identifies the player and has a reaction to his/her presence.

3. Conflict: A game involves a conflict that can take place either between several players or between the goals of players and those elements that restrain players from achieving those goals.

4. Safety: The player is safe from the events that take place in the game. Among these four characteristics, interactivity is the most outstanding one since it is the most distinctive if compared to other media.

The first particularity that needs to be pointed out in order to analyse and understand videogames is its nature as an interactive medium. Thanks to this nature we establish some sense of dynamics where signal sequence changes as the user interacts with content. Moreover, contrary to other interactive media, this interaction is a comprehensive part of the meaning of work. Without an interactive process the work will not be understood. Interactive capacity requires the presence of a series of elements which are present throughout the whole videogame: graphs, interface, player activity and algorithms.

• Graphs are those represented and designed visual aspects that constitute the

virtual environment where the game develops. It is where user interaction is displayed through the user interpretation of what is seen on the screen. In other words, it is the visual reference that allows the diegesis to develop.

• Interface is the encountering point between the user and the videogame. Thanks

to the interface information is exchanged by means of visual messages in the form of icons, menus and so on that offer the user the different options. Those options come in the help of sound or tactile messages or with physical control devices (remote controls, keyboard, etc.) This is a place for an exchange between the information that comes in – inputs that the user introduces, and the information that comes out – the responses of the system to the player inputs.

• Player activity refers to the player´ s actions, that is, the core aspect of all

videogames. The player carries out an ergodic (Term proposed by Espen J. Aarseth in his book Cybertext - Perspectives on Ergodic Literature) and extranoematic reading when receiving messages during game occurrence. This means that they need to make a considerably big effort not only under a mind perspective but also under a physical perspective where there is an overt physical response. The player´ s actions are basically about introducing data through the user interface and this can occur in two different contexts: the diegetic activity – what the player´ s avatar does as a consequence of his/her activity, and the extradiegetic activity – physical activity of the player to achieve a specific result.

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• Algorithm or code contains a group of procedures that control the game action. It is responsible for the representation, responses, and rules that form the game. According to Mark J.P. Wolf and Bernand Perron: “Representation is the interpretation of graphs, sounds and movements of the game and the situation of the diegetic world, if any”.

The union of those elements can turn into a continuous and coherent game experience.

The responses include the actions and reactions that the algorithm produces as a result of the situations and data that change within the game. This includes the control of game acts and the characters that do not play as well as the actions that are displayed on the player´s avatar screen - an action that is influenced by the player´ s input.

The rules are the limits that are imposed upon activities and game representations which determine and regulate the responses and movements of the game. Even the most abstract or open videogames operate through a set of rules even though those rules may simply consist of limits so as to what the player can or can not do within the game framework. The vast majority of games operate under a pattern of unpredictability or accident even though any “true” accident is impossible to be measured up in a computer. Accident prevents the game from being exactly the same every new time and therefore it keeps up player´ s intrigue and motivation so that at the end the game is interesting due to the new events and the time and order in which they are presented. Despite interactivity the user usually decides what happens in the game. Normally actions and decisions are installed in the system causing a specific effect and triggering a series of responses in the form of problems that the player has to be figuring out continuously. However we should not forget that this is a limited system. It is not a medium that produces an infinitive number of situations, the player will have to be subordinated to the game rules as well as to their technological limits and to the designer´ s limits [4].

2 Time and Space in Video Games

Time in videogames is always active, contrary to traditional media where it is manipulated through several narrative resources (as the ellipsis of removing certain times of the representation so that only those fragments are used considerably more significant to the story, slow motion, acceleration, flash-back or back to past time, flash-forward or anticipation of future etc..) with the ultimate aim of telling something that has normally happened. The code of videogames remains active all the time waiting for the user´ s input or for a programmed reaction produced by its lack of activity. This causes a chain-reaction where different problems may disturb the player. There are several forms of time, some of which are inherited from traditional media. There is a represented time, inherent to the happening of events and to the narrative of videogames. There is also an operative time that deals with different issues such as computer process issues, the pause for player´ s rest, saving the game, or the inter-levels among other issues. There is also a discursive time where the story

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is told. But the most controversial one is the audience time. In the most traditional media, the audience knows that the narrated event is something that happens in the past because they are conscious of a fixed end. However, in videogames, time is developed in the present as the player interacts in real time. This way, the game is built on the time story, parallel to the narrative and reading time. Time story is about “now” not only in the sense of the audience being a witness of events but also in that events take place in the present and what comes next has not yet been decided. There is an inherent conflict between the moment of interaction and the past of narration. Narration and interaction occur at the same time [5].

Videogames use the screen to present their content and this is an element shared with other traditional media, but the main difference here is that the videogame screen is an access door to a diegetic world where the player surfs and interacts. The space that is then represented requires of an exploration beyond the surface of a flat screen. The player gets familiarized with the electronic world, knows some of its limitations and begins to sense a feeling of freedom. This particularity underlines the importance of space in videogames design. Designers not only have to imagine in order to create a space for the story, characters and player but also they have to come up with the internal rules whereby spaced is regulated [6].

Wolf [7] points at the factors that make videogames space different with respect to traditional media:

1. Space in videogames is normally programmed and generated. 2. In the space of a videogame its structures and forms can be redesigned in a

way cinema and television cannot. 3. Thanks to the interactive component of videogames, the player can decide

which space should appear first and which point of view it should look at.

This last aspect gains a relevant importance since the point of view is a potential element for the enjoyment of the game. The player has a representation of space similar to what he or she would see through his/her own eyes or through the eyes of a third person, and thus allowing us to understand the game in many ways.

2.1 Immersion

Immersion is a metaphorical term coined on the idea of jumping into the sea or into a swimming pool so this favours the idea of being surrounded by a completely different reality. It is a concept that explains the sensation or feeling of being in touch with another reality or world. In the case of videogames, it refers to the mental state of a player when he or she enters the diegetic world in which an avatar gets by. It is the player´ s projection through his/her virtual presence in the game. The player´ s state of mind is understood in how he or she is trapped within the plot of the story – diegetic level, and in how he or she is involved and which strategy he or she is managing – non-diegetic world.

Diving together with game mode and supported by the graphic and narrative elements are the essential sources to support a videogame experience. The following three ideas are necessary to experience a truly diving sensation within a virtual setting [8]:

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1. User´s expectations over the game should coincide with established conventions.

2. User´ s actions should produce a deep impact upon the virtual setting. 3. Virtual setting conventions should be consistent even if they do not match

with those of reality. The conventions that are created within the videogame setting sometimes need the support of the narrative so that they are coherent enough for the user to believe. Those conventions that lack sense break with the idea of diving and the effect is that the player becomes conscious of the physical reality and thus he or she is out of the fiction of the game. The first person mode promotes the diving effect. However it is important also to activate emotions with the ultimate goal of making the player feel an important part of the game. Visual elements also play such a crucial role in this process. They establish how a virtual world illusion is set. The visual impact that all elements might cause in this process sets the way in which the player gets by in this world and so it tells us how immersed the player has been in the process. These aspects point to the reactive capacity of the system to attend the needs of the player within the virtual setting. In other words, the virtual presence should bear the ability to influence the setting where it is located. The player should notice his/her own presence precisely because his/her actions have the power to alter that “reality”. This leads to the concept of simulation. For some authors [9], the concept of simulation is an alternative way to narrative representation. Simulation is about creating a model through a different system able to maintain some of the actions of the original system. The key concept here is “behaviour”. Simulation is not just about maintaining some videogame features – as it normally occurs in audio-visual media- but also is about including an action model. This model reacts to certain stimuli such as incoming data, pressing keys, joystick movements, etc. according to a series of conditions. A real sensation is also important and that is about being accurate with the way the virtual setting represents objects, events an people. This accuracy should be consistent with the whole set of internal rules that constitute the action of the artificial world, isolated from those of the physical world.

3 The Problem of Narration in Video Games

The relationship between narration and videogames constitutes a controversial debate among scholars. There are some commonly shared assumptions among those who deny the narrative ability of videogames and those who defend it. To confront this problem from a constructive point of view it is important to analyse the concept of narration and set it within the videogame context so as to establish its integration possibilities.

For Bordwell and Thompson [10], a narration is a chain of events that functions through a cause-effect pattern that takes place in time and space. Normally a narration begins with a situation where a series of changes occur according to a cause-effect pattern and where finally a new situation leads to the end of the narration. It is

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important to distinguish between story and argument-also named “discourse”- so as to understand narrative form.

A story is the whole set of all events in a narration, including those that we wee and hear and those that are the consequence of the viewer´ s reaction. That is the place for diegesis, a concept we resorted to previously and which refers to all that makes up the action of the story.

Argument has to do with all that is visible and audible including those aspects that are not part of the story, for instance, the closing credits or soundtrack that are introduced from the outside into a film .These are non-diegetic. In a simple way we can state that a story is about a series of both seen and deduced events and a narration is the very act of transmitting that story into an audience.

However, we should also take into account on the one hand all facts that are explicitly presented to an audience, that is the plot, and on the other hand the story itself. This is important because in order to constitute a comprehensible narration, plot should include a sufficient quantity of information so that the audience perceives the presence of a chain of events and their links between them. That is to say, the narrator´ s aim is to transmit enough plot so that we can build a story. Only when we identify facts and link them by the elements of cause, effect, time and space do we understand narration.

The problem of introducing narration in a videogame relies on the interactivity so that as game interactivity increases narration becomes more problematic. Jool claims that the weight of narration comes from casual logics and from the “inevitability” that joins a sequence of past events. In this way although the story has a place in the future, it will still be written in the past as if it had already occurred. However videogames are characterized by the influence of the player in the events that take place in real time. The player can only interact with the game in present time. In many games it is very difficult to notice a temporary distance between the time story-the moment where the story develops-, the narrative story-the time where the narrator retells it-and the reading time-when the reader senses it-. There is neither an element nor resource that allows a temporary distance between the story, the narrative and the reading time, in fact the player´ s ability to directly influence the represented events makes it clear that the latter cannot be developed neither in the past nor the future otherwise the player would not be able to influence them. This element relates videogame narrative more with an oral narrative than with a literary one. In fact there are authors that point at its similarity to drama and how an event is developed before the audience´ s eyes instead of a mere event that is narrated to a reader.

Other controversial issues are those of continuity and chronology. Sequential tales events occur following a fixed sequence of non-contingent actions, however videogames lack that inevitability. When a character dies as a consequence of player´s actions it is not interpreted as a fatal end. This helps making narrative structure unstable. In a videogame a character can die at the wrong moment and put an end to the story too soon so these possibilities of changing the result weaken the “emotional resonance of events”.

The interactive nature of video games sets limits to the chronology of events. Although in other narrative media it is not difficult to establish a non-chronological succession, in videogames it is a source of difficulties. The playing character is questioned when the actions carried out by the player in a different time make

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impossible actions in the present. In this way as interactivity increases, narration becomes more problematic. That is precisely why we resort to the help of scenes (the scene or sequence of scenes is a small linear video clip without interactive capability frequently used in the introductions and transitions between game levels) to follow the videogame plot.

4 Classification of Models for the Narrative Structure of Video Games

It is common to see that a great amount of several videogames present several narrative models. Videogames theory [11] proposes four basic narrative structure models: String of pearls, branching narrative, amusement park and building blocks models.

4.1 String of Pearls Model

It has been the most used one. It is the cheapest way to allow the transference of the lineal narrative to a non-lineal scheme or setting without having to lose control over the plot result. The lineal story is hidden behind an illusion of interactivity. Normally players are given different freedom patterns but their ability to trigger progression within narration is under the rigid control established by game designers. It is a narrative strategy exploited to allow the greatest control of designers over the plot and in this way maximize the impact of the story. We can visualize this model observing how each point of the main plot coincides with the initial part of a pearl. The player stays in the widest part in the centre. Inside this section, the player is free to activate different types of events in any order under a non-lineal pattern. However because the player continues moving forward through the pearl, both the pearl and the player´ s possibilities diminish and get reduced so that at the end the player has no other option than going to the connexion chain of this pearl with the next one. In other words, a division of narration is established and this appears in the form of games inside games such as levels or missions. They will vary according to the nature of the game the player progressively goes through until the end. An example is the game “Doom II” (1994).

4.2 Branching Narrative Model

This model was invented in order to achieve a major overlapping effect between games and narration, providing the player with a more active role in how narration develops. In this model linearity is overcome and a branched story structure is designed in many directions. This structure may have different forms and the player is often unaware of having faced a choice. Normally it has a tree structure and occasionally branches may join together at a specific moment during the course of the game and in the most complex cases a possibility network is designed. This model implies a large development since it requires formalization of all alternative existing arguments with the convenient scenery materials. An example is the game “Wing Commander IV” (1995).

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4.3 Amusement Park Model

This model basically allows a player to have direct access to several narrative lines where the game world is explored and new places are found. Here freedom to explore the game space and choose places for the activities is taken into account. Whereas the branching narrative model is developed as times goes by, in the amusement park model narrative complexity comes from spatial display. The games that are contained within this model make emphasis upon the player´s choices and then the narrative is created somehow out of his/her choices. It is a model related to role games because the emphasis relies on the development of individual characters according to the interaction possibilities that that great world offers. An example is Neverwinter Nights 2.

4.4 Building Blocks Model

The narrative in this model is based upon the idea of the process that the player undergoes so as to create a story in his/her mind. Instead of applying a narration to activate player ´s experience, this model resorts to a piece system that allows the player to join any strips of a story together to form a complete story. There is always some type of implicit tale. Generally speaking and contrary to previous models where game designers made all the important decisions over the story and where player´s decisions were minor and non-relevant, in the building blocks model designers have come up with a setting and characters that are yet not fully defined as the course of the story continues. Instead it is the player the one who makes the important decisions in the story. Games here are designed under a modular criterion where the player takes part to set and place the elements freely. An example is “The Sims” (2000).

5 Conclusion

The game is a system of signs capable of setting up an open narrative discourse that is developed according to some set boundaries. The nature of the discourse has to do with the decisions of the player or players, hence the importance that the authors give to the elements designed to stimulate and develop the diegetic world. Graphics, game mode, interface and reactive ability are elements that are capable of creating immersion in different degrees and levels. However it is interactivity the one that introduces distorting elements in the narrative structure, this last one understood in a traditional way. Hence, contrary to other narrative modes, the story in the videogame is built with less contribution of the plot and it disappears through various narrative strategies.

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