Slides (with speaker-notes) presenting the paper at the 11th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2018, Dublin, Ireland, December 5–8, 2018. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-04028-4_5 In book: Interactive Storytelling

1. RE-TELLINGS
THE FOURTH LAYER OF NARRATIVE AS AN INSTRUMENT OF CRITIQUE
ICIDS, December 6 2018
Mirjam Palosaari Eladhari of Södertörn University and Otter Play
welcome - happy to see everyone - glad to be here
i will talk about …
Senior Lecturer at Södertörn University and Independent Game Designer and Artist, Label: Otter Play
Background in literary studies and working as a game programmer (2000) motivated me to start researching interactive narrative in games.
PhD (comp.sci.) on character driven
story construction in games,
and doing synthetic characters
Last 10 years: more game design work

2. OVERVIEW
➤ Proposal: Re-tellings as an instrument of critique
➤ An example: “The Story of being homeless in Sims 3”
➤ Situating re-tellings as a text layer in story construction
➤ Ways forward

3. UNIQUE TRAVERSALS
.
Each traversal of a story stemming from an interactive narrative system (INS) is unique. Re-tellings -everyday life when we tell each other about the experiences.
As games and INS move towards more complexity with the increased use of procedural computational methods

4. RETELLINGS
[…] methods for both world building and story generation, re-tellings of game experiences are becoming increasingly important for those who experience them. The
more unique experiences an INS affords, the more notes there are to compare in re-tellings - and this activity becomes an enjoyable activity in its own right.

5. PROPOSALThe occurrence of interactors’ re-tellings of
diverse forms of interactive narratives are
indicators of successful designs
since they indicate that the
underlying experiences were
important enough to re-tell them.
Interactors - Murray’s term (1997) for players/readers etc
If a player or user finds a game experience or an interactive story interesting enough to tell someone else about, it means that it is was somehow memorable, and
important enough to tell someone else about. I propose that if re-tellings emerge in the wake of a game or INS these re-tellings can be seen as indicators that the games
or INS are successful designs, perhaps even artifacts with a degree of artistic originality and quality.
(Interactors - Murray’s term (1997) for players/readers etc)

6. SUGGESTION
Analyses of corpuses of re-
tellings can be used as
instruments for critique of
interactive narrative systems.
Types of re-tellings span from the simple act of talking about a game in daily conversation to more elaborate efforts, such as the blog series about the Sim characters
Alice and Kev cite{BurkinshawAlice3}.
Another type of re-tellings are players' narrations about their avatars lives and experiences, e.g. tellings of their fictive alternate lives in the worlds that we inhabit in
games. Some re-tellings become original work of their own in the genre of fan fiction - a large body of emerging work that merits its own field of study
cite{Hellekson2014TheReader}. Twitch streams
…Let me show you an example.

7. ALICE AND KEV
a story about two homeless characters in Sims 3, played and written about by Robin Burkinshaw.
http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com
Example
Alice and Kev is a story about two homeless characters in Sims 3, played and written about by Robin Burkinshaw.
Authorial stance:
Burkinshaw writes about what happens as he plays the game, each interpretation he makes in the text is based on an event.
http://aliceandkev.wordpress.com

8. “SELFLESSNESS”
Alice gets to work late, but not too late.
When her shift at the supermarket ends that evening, she has 100
hard-earned simoleons, but she is as exhausted as it is possible to
be. She wobbles slightly after walking out the door, and only just
manages to stop herself from losing consciousness there and then.
But she doesn’t want to rest now. She’s just come up with a new
wish. It’s a wish that would be easily fulfilled, but the idea scares
and horrifies me. I don’t want to grant it to her.
But it’s her life, and her choice. I reluctantly let her do it.
She takes all of the money she has just earned, places it into an
envelope, writes the name of a charity on the front, and puts it into
a mailbox.
(read it out aloud)

9. Authorial stance:
Burkinshaw writes about what happens as he plays the game, each interpretation he makes in the
text is based on an event. Stance in playing: allowing Alice to act according to her character.
Authorial stance:
Burkinshaw writes about what happens as he plays the game, each interpretation he makes in the text is based on an event.
My favorite chapter is “Selflessness”. The character Alice has after many hardships finally managed to get her first salary. Only to give it away… It’s almost painful to
read, knowing how much she needs that little money herself. Burkinshaw expresses in the text how his role as author/player becomes dramatic by the need to
make a choice – he doesn’t really want Alice to give the money away, but lets her anyway, letting her act according to her character.

10. COMMENTARY
Another interpretation by the user Danuab:
“It doesn’t mean anything. Alice has likely internalised her father’s distaste and abuse and developed a negative self-
concept. She isn’t giving money away because she’s altruistic, she’s giving it away because she doesn’t think she’s worth it.”
About how real Alice
feels as a character,
and how beautiful her
gift of charity is.
It is also interesting is to read the comments on the chapter, where the first comments are about how real Alice feels as a character, and how beautiful her gift of charity
is. Then comes another interpretation by the user Danuab:
“It doesn’t mean anything. Alice has likely internalised her father’s distaste and abuse and developed a negative self-concept. She isn’t giving money away because she’s
altruistic, she’s giving it away because she doesn’t think she’s worth it.”
Not only have we a game that can not only generate emergent story construction that is seen by players as meaningful enough to narrate to others, we also have critical
comments and interpretations of the narrative and the characters.
Postulate
I propose that The Sims 3 can be seen as a highly successful INS in terms of artistic quality and originality.
So I give a critique… now:

11. WHY 4TH?

12. LENSES
It has to be noted that any model that is constructed in order to understand a complex reality better is constructed in order to understand them in a certain way.
By constructing a model, we apply a lens in order to understand a slice of reality better, and to be able to discuss complex constructs using the same language.

13. Greimas1966
Chatman 1978
Genette 1983
Aarseth 1997
Murray1997
Ryan 2006
Budniakiewicz 1992
Cavazza 2008
Jenkins 2003
Wardrip Fruin 2009
Koenitz 2015
it can be said that there is an overall consensus of dividing narratives into layers, quite often three of them
Koenitz's model adopts a lens of gaining deeper understanding when analyzing an textit{existing} work of INS. The Story Construction model cite{Eladhari2009} has a
different focus, the lens being more adapted to discussing the textit{creation} of INS and constructing potential stories within them.

14. LENSES
Janet Murrays keynote yesterday

15. LENSES
Multiple taxonomies are possible for Interactive Digital Narratives - Kaleidoscopic View

16. Offer as a complement, not as a universal
I have previously described these three layers as - at the lowest layer, a code, or architectural layer, making up the existence of a world where stories can take
place. This first layer spans many genres - from table top games, text-based interactive fiction, single player story driven games to larger game worlds with thousands of
simultaneous players. This base architectural layer is the foundation for adding actants with driving forces, making up the deep structure of the potential stories. A
second layer is often seen as the narrated content provided by game designers and game writers, while the third layer is the narrative discourse - eg. the unique, session-
specific played sequence of events. There are many models, using different terminology to describe these three layers, among them Koenitz
cite{Koenitz2015TowardsNarrative} who uses the terminology of protostory for the systemic architectural layer, process for the performative instantiation by players/
interactors, and product, a played instantiated story.
It is because of this general division in three layers that I propose to call the retelling of experiences in games and INS the fourth layer.

17. Narrative
Discourse
Story
Code
Text* layers
in Story
Construction
*Where “text” in Lotman’s
tradition is considered a
coherent set of signs that
transmits some kind of
informative message.
(where the message the
symbols convey is the
interesting part rather than
its physical form or the
medium in which it is
represented.)
In literary theory, a text is any object that can be "read", whether this object is a work of literature, a street sign, an arrangement of buildings on a city block, or styles of
clothing. It is a coherent set of signs that transmits some kind of informative message.[1] This set of symbols is considered in terms of the informative message's
content, rather than in terms of its physical form or the medium in which it is represented.
Starting from the bottom, because in our context one layer of text is dependent on the other - eg there would be no discourse layer if there was no code and story layer,
My reason for showing all this: possibility to trace sets of signs from 4th layer “down-wards”.
Lotman:
Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman (Russian: Ю́ рий Миха́ йлович Ло́ тман, Estonian: Juri Lotman; 28 February 1922 – 28 October 1993) was a prominent literary scholar,
semiotician, and cultural historian, who worked at the University of Tartu. He was a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. He was the founder of the Tartu–
Moscow Semiotic School.

18. Code
Layer
Engines, frameworks - creating conditions for deep
structure and world building
Engines constituting the world to be built
Engine
physics
system
graphics
rendering
system
dialog
system
media
storage
communication layer
INS system
Etc
Examples:
Unity, Renderware,
Inform7. Twine
…see yesterday’s
A Framework for Classifying and
Describing Authoring Tools for
Interactive Digital Narrative, Yotam
Shibolet, Noam Knoller, and Hartmut
Koenitz
The great Ao (hindu world 1876)

19. Frameworks
INS system
Code
Layer
The framework(s) governing affordances of the entities
in the world
The glue between scripting and engine(s)
Abstract model of a world and system.
Examples:
Genre specific programming
or frameworks: RPG, RTS,
FPS etc.
Story structures; comedies,
strategies, murder mysteries
etc.
Framework(s)

20. Frameworks
INS system
Code
Layer
Detailed programming of objects specific to the game or INS.
Scripting

21. Scripting
Framework(s)
Engine(s)
Code
Layer
Engines, framework, and scripting together manifest the
geographic structure as well as the conditions for the deep
structure of the story and its construction.

22. Scripting
Framework(s)
Engine(s)
Code
Layer
Engines, framework, and scripting together manifest the
geographic structure as well as the conditions for the deep
structure of the story and its construction.
A foundational layer:
It could also be a tarot deck and a human card reader
picking different spreads
The human and the deck as the engine. Ref wizard of oz testing when one is the “engine” and another is the “manual”

23. Story Elements
The specific setup of
expressive agents and
story elements that are to
be instantiated.
Goals, Driving Forces
Wills, motives,
aspirations, and goals of
the expressive agents.
Conditions
Causal
dependencies
governing relations
between specific
agents and objects
Story (Construction) Layer
The deep structure consisting of the individual expressive agents and the story elements.

24. Hence the creation of the overall story or back story.
At the discourse layer, story elements, conditions, driving forces and goals
manifest the overall story and possible side stories.
Starting from the bottom, because in our context one layer of text is dependent on the other - eg there would be no discourse layer if there was no code and story layer,

25. Discourse Layer - The continuum of play.
The current dynamic states, experienced events, movements, and actions of the
expressive agents that result in sequences of events: the actual story, or discourse.
Individual Story
Discourse
The past of the expressive
agent, a chronological
sequence of the actions
performed and the events
experienced. This is the
actual story of a specific
expressive agent.
State
The state of the expressive agent
in the moment of interaction,
defined by the construction of the
class the agent is instantiated
from, and from the agent’s
individual story discourse.
The continuum of play. Expressive agents - humans, PCs, NPCs alike
The current dynamic states, experienced events, movements, and actions of the expressive agents that result in sequences of events: the actual story, or discourse.

26. Narrative Layer - Tellings and re-tellings.
The narratives told about the actions and events in the game world or INS. The
narratives are told both in-world and out-of-world.
Recorded system output
Product in the form of narrative discourse, recorded
instantiated output from a system.
Simultaneous retellings. Ex: Streaming game play via Twitch or YouTube Gaming.
Narratives with artistic or authorial intent. Avatar narratives, re-tellings of simulations
Narratives with artistic or authorial
intent. Avatar narratives, re-tellings
of simulations (ex. Alice and Kev),
fan-fiction.
Chronicles and Reporting.
Ex: guild scribes telling about
marriages or funerals in VGWs,
or reporters commissioned by
game companies.
Communicative re-tellings. Ex: “You won’t believe what happened in the raid. We …”
Communicative re-
tellings. Ex: “You won’t
believe what happened
in the raid. We …”
The most immediate is the recorded system output - logs, diaries etc
Then simultaneous retellings
Communicative retellings
Chronicles and reporting
Narratives with artistic intent

27. Re-tellings
“You won’t believe what happened
in yesterdays raid!”
The now of the playing
- the unique traversals
Authoring the back story, designing
the game
Making the game/INS
Constructing game engines
and authoring tools
Acts of creation
In story construction - the act of creating the text layers

28. Readers and Players
Readers, Players, Game Masters,
Authors, designers
Researchers and developers
Creators
The roles the creators have

29. Played Narrative Potential
* * *
* * *
*
* *
Designed Narrative Potential
*
***
**
*
*
*
Designed and played narrative potential

30. Played Narrative Potential
* * *
* * *
*
* *
Designed Narrative Potential
*
***
**
*
*
* Co Creation
The fleeting field of co-creation - adding own meaning to the systems

31. RE-TELLINGS AS A 4TH LAYER
The less colourful version that can be found in the paper in the proceedings

32. RE-TELLINGS AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR CRITIQUE
I proposed that The Sims 3 can be seen as a highly successful INS in terms of artistic quality and originality.
Conversely, I postulate that re-tellings of experiences from INS can be considered a fourth layer of narrative, and that these are indicators suggesting that the INS in
question is 'well-made’ or 'good’ and had significant impact on the player. This means that a game or an INS - at its base level - has provided an experience that is
significant or meaningful enough that it is worth telling someone else about.
Re-tellings can be collected and analyzed in order to gain an increased understanding of what aspects of INSes are particularly well received.

33. WAYS FORWARD? MINE WHAT?
Many studies on challenge - frustration
And Fear and arousal
BUT - what about mixed feelings? Inspiration? Liminal experiences? (Epiphanies)

34. WAYS FORWARD: COLLECTING THE CORPORA. MINING?
How do we find the corpuses to analyse? …i just found the blog. And knew the rule-set of sims3 - gave me pleasure to read about Alice and Kev
Examples: Klastrup’s Death Stories Project. (2006)
Analysis of twitch streams (FDG 2018)

35. WAYS FORWARD: COLLECTING THE CORPORA. MINING?
Epiphanies from earlier today

36. WAYS FORWARD: LENSES FOR CRITIQUE
Mine what? From whom?
Risk: Bluntness, and becoming blind
to that which cannot be “mined”.
Lenses and instruments for critique of INS - we need them
Quant - risk of blunt instrument and blind instrument
We need instruments for critique of INSes

37. THE HIGHER EDUCATION PARADOX
Learn to become a researcher
-> to become a teacher
I didn’t choose!
SUMMARY
A Proposal: The occurrence of interactors’ re-
tellings of diverse forms of interactive narratives
are indicators of successful designs since they
indicate that the underlying experiences were
important enough to re-tell them.
A Suggestion: Analyses of corpuses of re-tellings
can be used as instruments for critique of
interactive narrative systems.
A Lens: Retellings as a 4th layer in a model for
understanding story construction in interactive
narrative.
mirjam.palosaari.eladhari@sh.se