Play me a Story: Player Action as Narrative Articulation

Seminar Lecture at the METU, Informatics Institute
Ankara, October 31, 2011

 Narrative Situation:
 the broader rules and conventions that shape the
way in which games (game narratives) are
consumed.
 This is not really part of the narrative itself, but
rather the circumstances and cultural codes that
allow the game narrative to be perceived and
consumed as such.

 Storytelling (or Narration):
 the various techniques and methods through which
the events and story persons to which they belong to
are presented to the player.
 [Examples from Diablo:
▪ Exposure of information through entering dialogues with the
people in town;
▪ gothic iconography and low gamma to foster mood and to
communicate genre,
▪ isometric view,
▪ player's in-game presence visually divided into avatar and
cursor etc]

 Story persons (or Actants):
 the fictional beings who carry out the actions
which articulate as events.
 Often they'll signify something larger than
their partiular presence and connect to a "will".
 Back to the Diablo example:
▪ All monsters in the game are actants or story persons.
▪ But ultimately they articulate under a narrative
"force" that we can identify as "Diablo".
▪ This is the "will" that aims to break the "will" of the story
person that we act as in the game world.

 Events (or Functions):
 all actions that are carried out to initiate, continue and
terminate a logically connected sequence
 an example from Diablo:
▪ zombie is on attack --> kill zombie --> collect gold.

 The Events layer implies that characters in a
story are in a constant process of decision-
making.
 Chosing the 'wrong' option could mean "end of story".

 Historically, the video game has been a form of
narrative that through input allowed players
to influence how a row of Events will turn out.

 This is the archetype of video game interactivity and
it remains until today fundamental to any game.

 Influencing the events layer has been the dominant
mode of interaction for many decades
 Examples: Spacewar!, Pong, Asteroids, Space
Invaders, Centipede, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Zaxxon

 Over time we saw game designers explore the possibilities
of the other layers of narrative.
 Players could modify or remove existing characters, create
characters from scratch, change their looks, traits and
behaviors.
 Other games allowed us to change the environment, to
add, modify or remove objects, to modify terrain etc.
 Examples: Civilization, Sim City, Diablo, The
Sims, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Railroad Tycoon, X-Com
Apocalypse, Football Manager

 Most modern games have added to these two
layers the modification of the layer of Narration:
 We can now modify the camera angle or behavior,
 switch between POVs,
 chose the music and gamma (ambience)
 alter the frequency of in-game commentary,
 switch on or off replays
 etc

 Pro Evolution Soccer, Need for Speed, Medal of
Honor are just a few examples that come in mind.

 We distinguished already between the
four interdependent layers that form a
narrative.

 The first two of these layers, Events and
Actants, provide the content of the narrative.

The other two layers, Narration and
Narrative Situation are regarded as the form
of the narrative.

 Narrative Situation addresses the broadest
parameters.

 We usually deal with aspects of the narrative
situation when we specify overall gameplay options or
when we decide on a certain game mode:
 Preferring a Capture the Flag mode over a Deathmatch
mode
 These are about specifying the broadest lines of the
narrative content and its narration.

 Before we start to play a session of Rise of Nations or Civilization, we are
allowed to specify
 the settings in the game (whether we'd like to play on a single continent or
over a number of islands, which time frame we prefer etc),
 the number of existents (how many rival nations there will be, what the
population limits will be etc)
 and their aspects (whether special abilities are allowed or not etc),
 the winning conditions (under what condition the conflict will be regarded as
solved) etc.
 Moreover we can specify sight & sound settings and change key assignments.

All these operations are carried out on the narrative situation layer. Our
choices will have an impact on narration and the content that will be
narrated.

 Narration is the audio-visual and tactile presentation of the
fictional game universe, its existents (including the player's
presence), and the events that take place in it (including the
narration of and "feedback" on the player's actions and
decisions).
 A game that allows us to modify the ways in which
sight, sound and other types of information are presented to us
can be regarded as being open to manipulation on the narration
layer.
 Examples would be Need for Speed, in which we can switch
between first-person and third-person perspective, or Counter-
Strike, in which we can modify the angle of our perspective by
moving the cursor.

 Statements are medium-dependent, that is, every medium has its
unique possibilities and limitations in expression.
 Narration consists of Statements which may be mediated and
unmediated, that is, they may be expressed through the voice of a
narrator or not.
 In many games we will find a mix of unmediated and mediated
statements.
 In cases in which the statements are mediated, they are voiced by
or hint at a narrator whose speech addresses a narratee.

 A lot of games seem to be narrated eclusively through unmediated
statements, that is, they make minimal or no use of a narrator.
 Instead of a verbal account of things, they go for a "simulation of
events". Indeed, most "formal" games (like for example Tetris) are of this kind.

 The text adventure genre on the other hand, can be given as an
example in which mediated narration is preferred.
 In such games, the presence of a narrator and a narrattee is often very easy to
detect.
 The narrator would simply say things like "You [the narrattee] stand in front of
a closed door.«

 But we should always be prepared to find a mix of mediated and
unmediated statements: In a game that went with unmediated
statements for a long time, you suddenly may come accross a mediated
statement (and vice versa).

 Football Manager is a good example of how complex it can become in regard to the presence of
narrators.
 This game uses mediated statements throughout the communication that takes place on the message
boards.
 Here, one of the narrators uses statements like "Your assistant informs you that..." whereas our assistant
might have spoken directly to us.
 Another narrator uses the register of sports news portals. Yet another narrator is the match commentator
that accompanies with his comments the simulated events that take place during a match.

 Games that allow us to turn off tutorials are often examples for at least one narrator in the story
being eliminated.
 We must distinguish between pure narrators and character-narrators.
 Some narrators may not be involved into the events that take place, but they may be still all-knowing
about them, while others may be actively involved into the ongoing events, but yet possess limited
information on the situation.
 An example for the latter would be Max Payne, in which the protagonist is the narrator of the mystery that
he tries to solve.

 When a narrator is involved, his statements are always directed towards a narrattee, that
is, someone whom the speech is addressing.
 The narrattee isn't necessarily the player, but may be some other character in the game world.

 Actants are the characters and the settings that play a
central role in the maintenance of the plot.

 Actants possess a degree of functionality in making
the plot progress.
 Central to this are the actions they carry out, and how
central these actions are in deciding the outcome of the
narrated sequence of events.

 A good example for the degree of importance to the plot is how we
perceive our encounter with ordinary enemies and with bosses.
 Ordinary enemies are often just some "loot bags" to us, we often use words
like "cannon fodder" when we speak of them and by doing so, we address
their degree of importance to the plot.
 On the other hand, the encounter with a boss is perceived as a milestone in
the progress that we make.
▪ We consider this as a core event which also reveals that the boss type of actants have a
degree of importance to the plot.

 Oviously, the actant with the highest degree of importance to the plot is
our own actant.
 The same counts for settings. In Rise of Nations for example, some
environmental elements and existents may have no big importance to
the plot, whereas resource areas are central to it.

 Aspect is in regard to the identity and qualities of the
actants, such as their moods and traits.
 These may be detailed or shallow, depending on the game
we play.
 Also the type of narration sets a limit on how much we
know about the aspect of actants.
 For example in large parts of Duke Nukem we have not much
knowledge about the physical appearance of Duke due to the
first-person perspective that the narration is visually build
around (until we come accross a mirror!).

 Sometimes the aspect of actants may only become only
visible through their actions.
 For example in Tetris, the player is an actant that becomes
visible through his decisions in regard to how he moves and
places blocks; whereas the "antagonist" becomes visible
through his choices in regard to which block to send next.

 "It" challenges us by sending the blocks faster and faster, often
denying us the block that we are in need of to clean the level.

 All these reveal aspect to a certain degree.

 A lot of games provide us with a lot of information about the
aspects of actants.
 In Football Manager for example, you may find information about
the identities of managers and footballers, and the statements
they release in the press tell us about their moods and traits.
 Some will always apologize when you fine them for unproper conduct
whereas others will be very rejective and immediately demand to be
put on the transfer list.

 Actually, the FM Editor provides a database that allows us to
overwrite the aspect side of actants:
 You may change a soccer players identity, his mood (level of
aggression), and his traits (likes to the chip the ball, or likes to play it
around the keeper etc.) and all these will have an impact on how
events will play out.

 In terms of openness of the actants layer, The Sims is a
remarkable example:
 The detailed character creation process in the game is first and
foremost about creating characters that are important to the
plot.
 But then, it is also about defining the details of their aspect. We
have great freedom in shaping the identity and qualities of
characters and settings.
 And we can simply put an end to their importance to the plot by
removing families and homes from the neighborhood.
 Besides, the many expansion packs of the Sims series add a
great number of settings and characters, and new options to
alter their aspects.

 Events typically include the actions and happenings in the
story.
 Whether an event is an action or a happening depends on
agency, that is, the answer who carries out the action, and who
is subject to it.

 On the other hand, necessity marks how central an event
is to the plot.
 An event that can be skipped or ommitted without making the
narrative as whole collapse, is a sattelite, whereas an event that
opens a gap in the logic and chronology when removed from
the narrative, is a kernel.

 Actions are the things done by actants.
 Happenings on the other hand are those things that happen to
characters.
 The difference lies in agency. It must be understood that often one
actants's action equals to a happening for the actant subject to that
action.
 For example in a multiplayer FPS, an action is when I shoot at
someone, whereas for the player that is my target, the same thing is a
happening.
 In most single player games, players deal with the actions
part, whereas the AI cares for the happenings.
 In Sim City for example, the actions are centered around the players
decisions in regard to how to build the city, whereas the majority of
other events comes in form of happenings:
Traffic, smog, riots, disasters, crime rates, advisors speaking to us etc.

 Events are categorized based on the level of necessity they
possess.
 Some events are core to the story, that is, if we'd leave them
out, the experience feels incomplete, as if it were truncated.
 We call these Kernels
▪ The narrative simply wouldn't be able to maintain itself without that event.
▪ Certain quests or cutscenes are kernels, because when we skip them, we may
not be able to obtain a key that is necessary to unlock another level, or we may
miss an important information that may be later on necessary to solve the
conflict.

 Sattelites, on the other hand, are complementary, but not
necessary.
 For example we can skip quite a lot of quests or cutscenes because
the events they contain are sattelites, not kernels.
 The narrative can live without them.

 An interface will enable the articulation of narrative elements that belong to the
various narrative layers
 We can speak of three types of narrative articulation that take place as we use
the game interface:
 Chrono-logical articulation:
▪ this is the articulation of Events through initiating, manipulating and terminating sequences of actions.
Moving a group of soldiers through a desert by clicking on the interface is an example for this.

 Audio-visual articulation: the player's interferences on the audio-visual continuum that is in
progress.
▪ Clicking on a mini-map to view different areas of the game world is an example for this.
▪ This type of articulation works on the Narration layer since it modifies the way events are presented to
us.
▪
 Actantial articulation: gradually unvealing and altering a ‘paradigm of traits’ (=character)
through the use of affordances and the making of choice.
▪ Every choice we make, and every gameplay option we use will add up to shape and define a story
character with specific abilities, skills and personality.
▪ This is connected to Actant layer.

 As each three types of articulation take place as a result of player
interference, the game narrative, which is the combined structure of
Events, Actants and Narration, comes to life.

 First of all, and obviously, in this game, the player is the spectator
of the ongoing "telecast".
 He interpretes the cast events (including his own actions) and the
information that is presented to him in order to form hypotheses that
will be verified or falsified throughout the process.
 The hypotheses he forms are in regard to many different things:
▪ Some of them are about what his affordances are and how he can make use of
them.
▪ Some others are about his goals, the obstacles inbetween, and the course of
action he can take to overcome these obstacles in order to reach his goal.

 Also quite obvious, the player is an actant in the game world, that
is, he is someone who initiates, carries further, and terminates
actual game events.
 Examples are plenty, from laying tracks, to building stations, to buying
trains, to investing in stock.

 What seems to be a bit more hidden is his role as
telecaster.
 While we would consider them simply as gameplay, many
actions do not result in change of the events themselves, but in
their audio-visual presentation, that is, the casting of the actual
events.
 One of the typical operations he can carry out in that regard is
switching between cameras, just like someone who’s sitting at
the switching table during a live broadcast.

 The player is both, director and switcher: he decides what
should be brought under focus, and he orders these
images on the screen by himself.
 The scroll function, the zoom buttons and the cam angle
modifiers all aid the player in this role.
 But he can also blend in info screens and other graphic displays.

 It must be said that giving the player this role is a safe
way of editing, because the player decides by himself
when to switch to a different angle, scale or
viewpoint.
 Giving the control to the player, avoids confusion that
can come from AI-controlled switching.
 Since it is the player who focuses on whatever he
wants, the risk to slow down gameplay by calling in
images that the player is not interested in viewing at that
particular moment, is minimal.
 The result is some sort of continuity editing done by the
player himself.

 In the upper half of the diagram we see the basic
relation between video game medium, game
discourse and player (the yellow rectangle).

 Central to the process is the relation between the
open text (the game) and the implied reader (player).
The video game medium frames this relationship.

 I define interaction as the mutual influencing between
the open work and the implied reader over a medium.

 The orange and purple shapes at the lower part of the
diagram show the relation between narrative (style
and content), artefact (software) and author (game
developers).

 The narrative form of a video game is managed by the
game engine whereas the narrative content of a video
game is stored as data.
 Data contains information on game events and existents.
 The game engine deals with how this information is
assembled, articulated and presented via the medium.

Thank you very much…
http://altugi.wordpress.com
İsigan (dot) altug (at) gmail (dot) com
Twitter: altugi

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