1. Narratives in
Contemporary Games
Dr. Christian Bokhove
Southampton 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.

2. Contents
• Background and rationale
• Frameworks and narrative elements
• Exploring different games and their narrative elements
• Creating a narrative: text adventures

3. 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?

4. 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…

5. http://bokhove.net/2014/12/30/my-five-best-games-for-2014/

6. Example of interactive fiction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtG6yw2IrlI

7. In fashion
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/australia-culture-blog/2014/feb/21/writing-video-games-can-narrative-
be-as-important-as-gameplay

8. 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

9. Games and Narrative: a continuum..
InteractivityStorytelling
source

10. 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

11. Previous attempts
source

12. Recent successful attempts
source

13. 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.pdf
source

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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)

18. Instructional text

19. Cutscenes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-cxtS51n8k(Music!)

20. Interface elements

21. 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

22. Narrative through mechanics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQJA5YjvHDU(Moral choices)
Great channel:
Extra Credits

23. 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)

24. Techniques for narrative delivery
• Interactive narratives
• Back stories
• Cut scenes (incl. interactive)
• Structures

25. • Emotions

26. 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

27. TASK
http://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

28. Embedded Narratives
Barry 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 cut
scene and on-screen text;
10. short game prompts (mission hints or pointers) presented as an integral part of
gameplay;
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

29. Embedded Narratives: analysis (1)
Narrative Structures in Computer and Video Games: Part 1: Context, Definitiona and initial findings -Barry Ip

30. Embedded Narratives: analysis (2)
Narrative Structures in Computer and Video Games: Part 1: Context, Definitiona and initial findings -Barry Ip

31. 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

32. The Amnesia problem
http://www.giantbomb.com/amnesia/92-286/games/

33. “Emotional rollercoaster”
http://www.musik-therapie.at/PederHill/Structure&Plot.htm

34. Pacing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LScL4CWe5E

35. 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.)

36. http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/gbrading/lists/a-brief-history-of-adventure-games/28894/

37. 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

38. 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

39. Lucasarts
• SCUMM
• Maniac Mansion
• Day of the Tentacle
• Secret of Monkey Island
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySmLlHTV5rU

40. The Elder Scrolls
• Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim
• Lore
• Music
• Last version online:
big challenge balancing
multiplayer and narrative
gameplay

41. L.A. Noire
• Film Noir
(another top game in
this genre: Max Payne 1 + 2,
3 is good but not so much
Film Noir any more)
• Detective work
• Facial features
• Narrative and investigation
central (recent: Velvet Sunset,
but
http://www.giantbomb.com/la-noire/3030-21500/

42. The Witcher
• Medieval fantasy
• Part Three coming up
(I would hope it is
sort of the next Skyrim
that never came)

43. Fallout (3)
• Clearly interface from Oblivion
• Post-nuclear theme
• Many games with these elements
• (Sometimes with zombies)

44. Mass Effect 1-3
• My favourite game series
(certainly in space, though
Dead 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)

45. Bioshock
• 1, 2 and Infinite
• Under water & in skye
• Lots of historical similarities
• Movies of discussions
story plot

46. Completely different: Ingress
• Niantic
• Strange powers
• ‘Aliens’
https://www.ingress.com/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss-Z-QjFUio

48. Zelda

49. Breaking free from traditional
• Dear Esther
• http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/10/27/1250832/-Narrative-in-video-
games#
• Originally Academic project
• Mixed reception: story
v interaction
• Kentucky Route Zero
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlGdbziSwEY

50. The Stanley Parable
• Wreden
• Break normal narratives

51. Last of us
• Only PS4
• Post-apocalyptic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkLPKd-Vs8g

52. 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

53. Moral choices (Walking Dead series 2 example)

54. 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

55. 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

56. Thank You