How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
1
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect
the Interactivity of Video Games?
Joe Neeves
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
2
Abstract
This report examines the role of narratives in interactive experiences, beginning with
an analysis of the compelling nature of narratives themselves. Through combining a
traditional definition of narratives (Aristotle, 335BC) and a modern distinction between a
game’s context, story, and narrative, (Juul, 2001; 2002) it examines how the principles of
ludology and narratology, (Frasca, 2003) reflect both the immense possibilities for
narrative-based interactive experiences, and the inherent flaws with combining linear
stories with diverging gameplay and interactivity. Focusing on the issue of player agency, it
also examines narratives in relation to emergent gameplay (Holland 1997), extending this
to the exogenous narratives often seen from YouTube gaming content creators, forming
their own emergent and meaningful gameplay that is centred on a video game world, but
existing outside of it.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
3
Contents
Table of Illustrations …………………………………………………………………………………………………… p.03
Imagination ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… p.04
Early Game Structures ………………………………………………………………………………………………… p.05
Interactivity & A Sense of Agency ……………………………………………………………………………… p.08
Emergence & Experimentation…………………………………………………………………………………… p.17
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… p.21
Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… p.22
Table of Illustrations
Figure 1: Namco (1980) Pac-Man
Figure 2: Spierling, Ulrike (2005) Interactive Digital Storytelling: Towards a Hybrid
Conceptual Approach. p.8. Available from: <http://www.digra.org/wp-
content/uploads/digital-library/06278.24521.pdf> [Accessed 12th September 2015]
Figure 3: Salen, Katie and Zimmerman, Eric (2004) Rules of Play: Game Design
Fundamentals. Cambridge Mass/London England: MIT Press.
Figure 4: Dontnod Entertainment (2015) Life is Strange
Figure 5: Sega (2005) Shadow the Hedgehog
Figure 6: Rockstar Games (2011) L.A. Noire
Figure 7: Telltale Games (2012) The Walking Dead
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
4
Imagination
The human race's enjoyment of stories is a constant in our past; going back farther
than we can record, people have created narratives in imaginary worlds to share with their
children, their friends, and almost anyone who would listen. This desire to create and share
fictional universes is so influential that in 1795, renowned poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge
not only described the ability to imagine as a “divinely-appointed attribute,” (Wolf, 2012)
but that to “develop the powers of the Creator” (Coleridge, 1795) was also our “proper
employment” (Coleridge, 1795) that is to say; our duty as human beings.
Wolf, interpreting the work of psychologists John Tooby and Leda Cosmides,
proposed a more scientific reasoning behind our desire to imagine; that of evolution. They
argue that to be able to imagine situations without acting upon them holds “great value
for humans both in survival and reproduction,” (Wolf, 2012) and that humans have
“evolved special cognitive systems that enable us to participate in these fictional worlds.”
(Wolf, 2012) This evolutionary involvement with the ability to imagine would certainly
explain our fascination with the fictional – our imagination is embedded firmly in our
instinct.
It is not surprising then, that this instinct would give birth to the multitude of media
that we now consume nigh-constantly. The fictional creations of others permeate every
aspect of our daily lives; whether it be television, films, or books. Our desire for more
worlds to experience led to overlaps in these media – books become television shows,
television shows become films, and films become books, so hungry are we to dive into
another's imagination. From this hunger, emerged narrative video games – a new aspect of
game design, in a media which offered an intensity of interactivity which surpassed even
the Jackson and Livingstone Fighting Fantasy adventure books of the 1980s. Certainly,
video games would be a fantastic platform for new narratives to immerse ourselves in.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
5
Early Game Structures
Traditionally, games didn't feature explicit narratives – board games such as
Monopoly, though originally created to demonstrate the pitfalls of private monopolies,
evolved into an experience where the context of real-estate competition is treated as
secondary to the physical playing of the game. Juul explains that this trend continued into
early video games as well, citing Taito's 1977 game Space Invaders, in which “a prehistory
is suggested … An invasion presupposes a situation before the invasion. It is clear from the
science fiction we know that these aliens are evil and should be chased away.” (Juul, 2001)
Thus, the stage is set for the game to begin.
But in Space Invaders, just as in Monopoly, the context of the game is entirely
irrelevant to the playing; “If we play Space Invaders, we find that we cannot actually restore
the initial state; we cannot win since every wave of aliens is followed by another.” (Juul,
2001) The narrative is entirely static, and regardless of the outcome of the game, it will
remain static forever more. In this way, it could be seen that the contexts of such games
are too insufficient to be classified as narratives at all. In Poetics, Aristotle wrote that not
only does a narrative require a beginning, middle and end, but also that “an end … is that
which itself naturally follows some other thing, either by necessity, or as a rule, but has
nothing following it.” (Aristotle, 335BC)
Space Invaders has a beginning; that of the start of the invasion; and arguably a
middle; the experience of playing the game. Yet as Juul describes, there is no end; the
invasion cannot be defeated, the player doomed to endlessly repeat the process until they
are finally defeated. Whilst this solemn expression of futility is certainly thought-provoking,
it comes from a lack of finality programmed into the game, rather than an intentional
abstraction of the game’s context. This trend carries through a large number of early
games – in the original version of Namco's 1980 game Pac-Man, should the player be able
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
6
to complete the first 255 levels, instead of ending, the game instead malfunctions, creating
an impossible 256th level, ending the game through the inability to complete it.
Arsenault argues that Aristotle's definition is insufficient now, describing how “the
term 'narrative' has acquired a number of distinctive definitions … becoming an
increasingly engrossing and complex word.” (Arsenault, 2005) This is particularly true given
that it wasn't made with respect to video games, or even digital media of any kind. His
tenets, however, still apply so rigorously to other forms of narrative-driven media that it
would seem exclusionary to not subject games to the same narrative expectations we hold
of other art forms. In the case of Space Invaders and Pac-Man, it is difficult to consider
what little context they provide as a narrative. The interaction allowed is minimal at best,
and the games instead rely on what Holland would term emergence; a phenomenon he
likens to ant colonies or the global economy, where “the behaviour of the whole is much
more complex than the behaviour of its parts.” (Holland, 1997) In other words, simple rules
beget complex situations. The rules of Space Invaders and Pac-Man create effortless
interaction with the game's systems, but not with their narrative – or lack thereof.
The key difference that must be addressed is that of interacting with a game, and
interacting with a game's narrative. More traditional emergence-based games gave way to
a more modern style of progression-based game, as Juul describes: “Progression games
Figure 1: Level 256 of Pac-Man becomes impossible to complete.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
7
are historically new, beginning with the adventure game.” (Juul, 2002) The first games
developed were little more than new versions of old, physical games. Atari's 1972 release
PONG – what most would consider the first commercially successful video game – was
simply electronic table tennis. It is only in more recent decades that developers have made
games centred on a narrative – some more literally that others, in the case of Bioshock,
whose entire world began from Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged. These games, among
others, make use of what Juul describes as “progression structures”; (Juul, 2002) systems –
often presented in the form of a small quest – which move the player along a storyline
when certain criteria are met. This evolution from emergence-based games to games with
narrative elements continued, with even more recent games becoming entirely narrative-
based, such as The Chinese Room's Dear Esther, or the variety of choice-driven narratives
from Telltale Games. From this evolution, a new type of experience can be derived from
video games – the same intellectual stimulation that we feel from reading a book, or
watching a film.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
8
Interactivity & A Sense of Agency
A common criticism of narrative-heavy games is the lack of interactivity they
provide. Dear Esther was critically acclaimed for its atmosphere and artistic direction, but
many questioned its status as a game. Games journalist Tadhg Kelly wrote: “a game is not
defined simply by the ability to walk, but to cause meaningful change within it.” (Kelly,
2012) He argues that a game must give the player a sense of agency, or be one-
dimensional and shallow.
Whilst agency is certainly a key factor in determining one's enjoyment of a game,
Murray explains why games must explore the different aspects of gaming, and experiment
with what makes the media great; “the key to [developing film making] was seizing on the
unique physical properties of film … By aggressively exploring and exploiting these
physical properties, filmmakers changed a mere recording technology into an expressive
medium.” (Murray, 1998) Though Dear Esther didn't make use of the interactivity that
games make possible, it still provided a new experience; similar to a film or audio book, yet
with a unique exploratory aspect that could only occur within a game. Even in The Chinese
Room's second game, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, the game had a “nihilistic, languishing,
pervasive horror,” (Ellison, 2013) despite being “mainly a linear sightseeing tour.” (Croshaw,
2013)
Murray explains how this is possible; “Procedural environments are appealing to us
not just because they exhibit rule-generated behaviour but because we can induce the
behaviour. They are responsive to our input.” (Murray, 1998) By simply allowing the player
to input commands, there is interaction, even if said interaction is only skin-deep. This
argument stands in stark contrast to Costikyan's, however, who argues that “Interaction
has no game value in itself. Interaction must have a purpose.” (Costikyan, 2000) A Machine
for Pigs provided little more interaction than Dear Esther did before it; the linear path was
spotted with the occasional puzzle or scare, but at no point could you change the course
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
9
of the game. It is entirely static; the puzzles have only a single solution, and until it is
reached, the game is halted. By Costikyan's words, the interaction is meaningless – success
or failure means nothing within the context of the game. The player either succeeds and
continues, or doesn't, and the game is over for them.
The conflict of opinions between Murray and Costikyan only scratches the surface of
an ongoing debate between narratologists and ludologists. Frasca summarises their points
of view thusly; narratologists focus on the role of “external observers [who concern
themselves with] what has happened,” (Frasca, 2003) whilst ludologists deal with “involved
players [who focus on] what is going to happen.” (Frasca, 2003) It is the differences in how
the subject is approached that this debate stems from, highlighting an important
difference between how the two schools of thought approach games as as form of
entertainment. Arsenault cites the 2002 title Splinter Cell when discussing these directions:
“The game relies on the importation of elements external to its system (in this case, a
player’s expertise at aiming, and his knowledge of the room layout and of the guards’
positions) rather than the manipulation of its internal elements.” In Splinter Cell, the lack of
in-game progression manufactures a scenario where success depends on the real-world
skills of the player. The game is always consistent, and the entertainment is provided
through real-world perseverance and the acquiring of new skills, much as a non-digital
hobby, such as painting, does. If mechanical interaction can create this kind of
entertainment, then surely the same can be said for the enjoyment of immersion in a
narrative of a book or film.
When it comes to agency, Spierling discusses Crawford and Stern's argument that
“an artwork is “really interactive” only if it not merely “talks” to the audience, but also
“listens” and then “thinks” over suitable reactions.” (Spierling, 2005) In her diagram, she
explains how the point at which the player is allowed to interact determines how much the
main character is controlled by the game, and conversely, how much autonomy the player
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
10
can exhibit whilst playing.
At the lowest level of agency, the player only has control over their 'Cursor
Feedback' - the most basic of interaction with the game's surface systems. Manipulating
the user-interface, walking, and character customisation all fall under the umbrella of
cursor feedback. In general, this kind of interaction with the game offers significant control
over the places you walk to and the way you look. These are – within the realm of
narrative-driven games – entirely inconsequential.
This problem demonstrates the lack of fluidity within digital game structures. Wolf
describes how “Worlds, unlike stories, need not rely on narrative structures, though stories
are always dependent on the worlds in which they take place.” (Wolf, 2012) In this way, it is
easy to see why narrative games are often so restricting. They provide an experience in
games whose interactivity cannot be rivalled in literature or cinema. Juul argues, however,
that in order for a narrative to be considered as such, it “must be retellable in other media.”
(Juul, 2002) Though moving a narrative from a game to a more static medium would
certainly remove the interactivity the game allows for, the story itself – or at least one
instance of the story, in the case of choice-based games such as Life is Strange – would
easily make for an enjoyable viewing experience. This transition from game to book or film,
Figure 2: Levels of agency and it's effect on the control and autonomy of the game.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
11
is harder to accomplish in the opposite direction.
As Juul describes, “there is no such thing as a continuously interactive story.” (Juul,
2001) There will always be limitations to the experience; there will always come a point
where the player has to be restrained. Narrative games are games of progression, not of
emergence, and so “everything that happens in a branching narrative is explicitly pre-
determined.” (Juul, 2002) At the edge of the game world, there will inevitably be an
impassable barrier. In a conversation, there is always a limited selection of responses.
Costikyan argues that in “try[ing] to make a game more like a story by imposing arbitrary
decision points, you make it less like a game.” (Costikyan, 2000) By forcing the gameplay
through funnels, it constricts the amount of autonomy the player has, thereby limiting their
interaction with both the game's systems and its narrative.
This is as much a technological restriction as it is a developmental one – as
Arsenault describes; “it is impossible for a game designer to write and implement a
storyline with enough branching narratives to suit every possible unfolding of a player’s
experience.” (Arsenault, 2005) Unlike a real-life role-playing game such as Dungeons and
Dragons, in video games, there are no Dungeon Masters that can use their imagination to
improvise a suitable response to anything the players say or do. Video games are not
infinite worlds in and of themselves, and so at some point, when telling a story, the game
must set the player back on the course the story requires them to be on. Until technology
evolves to develop games that can “listen and then think over suitable reactions,”
(Spierling, 2005) true interaction cannot take place.
Compounding this effect is the way in which the player interacts with the
game itself, regardless of the existence or non-existence of a narrative. In order for a player
to feel connected to a playable character, they must be able to act entirely as they wish.
Often, this is achieved through a first-person camera, and a silent or quiet protagonist. In a
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
12
2003 study, Brand and Knight discovered that, of the games studied, “only 41% of the lead
characters spoke and only 10% spoke frequently,” (Brand & Knight, 2003) leaving 59% of
protagonists studied completely silent, so as to not contradict the player's role play of the
character. Despite this, the limitations of a forced narrative often eventually separate the
protagonist and the player, usually when the story continues in a direction that the player
could have avoided, if the game allowed for it.
New technologies also suffer from this issue; in the teaser for Abductions: The Hum
– a virtual reality game which sees your baby kidnapped by aliens – you see a mother,
rushing to her baby's room because of a bright light and loud noise. Her voice is distressed
and her breathing ragged, but the player, unable to open the door, simply stands back, as
the mother continues to shout. Instead of trying to force the door open, the player stands
still, creating a disconnect between the character and the player. Arsenault describes this
type of disconnect in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, in which, after effortlessly
dealing with half of the boss' health, he “then had to watch a confusing cut-scene in which
[his] allies were saying things like 'Unnnh….he’s too strong…..' 'Don’t… give up…we can…do
it…'“ (Arsenault, 2005) He summarises the issue by arguing that “an emergent game-play
system can not be used with a pre-written storyline without resulting in a “system shock”,
or discrepancy, between the two.” (Arsenault, 2005)
This is not to say that games cannot provide any meaningful interaction or
emergent gameplay whilst also featuring a narrative. Though true, unlimited interaction
might be impossible, current technology can create an illusion of interaction instead. Salen
and Zimmerman explain the concept of interactive narratives in video games as the ability
to both follow the story and shape the narrative you experience. If you can choose which
parts of the story you experience and which you avoid, you have enormous power over the
game's narrative, even if the choices you're given and their outcomes are all pre-
determined.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
13
Murrey discusses how Joseph Weizenbaum's 1966 conversation simulator, ELIZA,
was so persuasive and coherent that even those “who knew very well that they were
conversing with a machine soon forgot that fact, just as theatregoers, in the grip of
suspended disbelief, soon forget that the action they are witnessing is not 'real'.” (Murray,
1998) Of course, in 1966 few people had a concrete grasp on the power of the computer,
and so it was much easier to fool the user into forgetting what they were talking to. The
concept of suspended disbelief, however, very much still has a place in video games,
particularly choice-driven narrative experiences such as the aforementioned Life is Strange,
or the many title from Telltale Games.
Figure 3: Diagram showing multiple paths through a single narrative.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
14
This kind of interaction, though not emergent, does sit highly on Spierling's 'Level of
Agency' diagram – second only to God Games, where every aspect of the game world is
editable. These games bear the most resemblance to Jackson and Livingstone’s Fighting
Fantasy game books in their style – they are almost entirely narrative driven, where the
main interaction with the game comes from frequent dialogue options, or a choice of
paths. The choices the player makes determine how the story plays out, and which
characters are amiable towards them.
Figure 4: Life is Strange is driven almost entirely
by the player's choices during conversations.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
15
In Shadow the Hedgehog, the player's route through the level and their play style
determines which level they progress to next. In order to achieve a specific ending, the
player must play a certain way. This aspect of the game was freely visible to the player at
any point – the choice also being displayed at the start and end of every level. In recent
releases, narrative-driven games have increasingly made use of an easily approachable
choice-tree system; a system which not only grants the player clear control over the course
of the narrative, but also gives immediate and obvious feedback on how the player's
choice might affect the events to come. The reactions of suspects in L.A. Noire's highly
expressive, almost caricatured faces made up a large portion of the game's experience, and
though more subtle than Telltale Games' signature “[character] will remember that” pop-
ups, carried the same implications of agency.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
16
These games are built entirely on the illusion of player agency – none of the
gameplay is emergent. Juul argues that “The progression structure is in many ways less
interesting than emergence” (Juul, 2002); to him, much of the gameplay is meaningless. In
terms of real-world impact, Juul is correct – the choices of an individual player in a single
game has no meaning outside of the game world. Costikyan describes this meaning as
endogenous; “A game’s structure creates its own meanings. The meaning grows out of the
structure; it is caused by the structure; it is endogenous to the structure.” (Costikyan, 1994)
This type of endogenous meaning is featured in all forms of media. If a character
dies in a television program, that death only has relevance inside the magic circle of
suspended disbelief. That actor went home at the end of the day, and continued their life.
But to viewers, the death of that character will likely mean the end of their appearance in
the show. The enjoyment gained from their actions comes to an end, and by the simple
fact that their albeit fictional existence created entertainment, it is, in itself, meaningful.
In this way, the distinction between true agency and the illusion of agency is not as
serious an issue for narrative experiences as could be expected. Provided the player is
immersed enough to suspend their disbelief of the game's fictional world, illusions of
agency carry the same narratological power as true agency. So long as the player's agency
Figure 6: L.A. Noire used motion capture technology to get realistically moving faces,
though they were often exaggerated.
Figure 7: In The Walking Dead, characters often remember choices the player makes.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
17
– or their belief in it – remains, the player exists in a state of unquestioning immersion,
where their knowledge of the game as fictional is replaced by their enjoyment of the
experience.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
18
Emergence & Experimentation
Emergence is a concept which is difficult to achieve in narrative-central experiences.
Juul describes emergence as “somewhere between a designer completely specifying what
can happen, and leaving everything to the user,” (Juul, 2001) which makes it difficult to
generate consistently. In gameplay-central experiences, emergence is much easier to
implement, so long as the game provides a platform for the unexpected to occur. Salen
and Zimmerman describe how The Sims creates a “pre-generated, embedded narrative
frame” (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004) which “contextualizes all of the emergent events that
happen during play.” (Salen & Zimmerman, 2004) This type of emergence mimics the
emergence of traditional board games, where the game itself almost becomes secondary
to the interaction between the other players. Except in video games, the other player is the
computer.
In many ways, ELIZA was one of the original forms of emergence that attempted to
evolve beyond that seen in board games. Through a combination of procedural
generation, as well as ELIZA's limited form of artificial intelligence, Wizenbaum created a
system which combined the roles of the game's systems and the other players. As
technology evolved further, games began to be able to react with more precision and
coherence than any computer before could. Through the interaction between the player
and the game, alongside modern technology and online culture, a whole new level of
interactivity was born – that seen in YouTube gaming content creators and in blogs such as
Burkinshaw's Alice and Kev. Costikyan critiques this style of game, arguing that “SimCity is,
in a way, no game at all, a mere software toy.” (Costikyan, 1994) He explains that despite
these games having no win-state, or explicit goals to be achieved, they are “susceptible to
so many goal-directed behaviours,” (Costikyan, 1994) that they are still enjoyable. Juul
describes these games as experiences which “spawn narratives that a player can use to tell
others of what went on in a game session.” (Juul, 2001) The narrative framework laid out by
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
19
games such as The Sims or Cities: Skylines allows for exogenous narratives to be formed –
a spontaneous interaction which exists outside of the game world, between the player and
their spectators, but is still inherently entwined with the game's systems.
These narratives play out like interactive fan fiction; Burkinshaw describes that in
making Alice and Kev, “a surprising amount of the interesting things … were generated by
just letting go and watching the Sims’ free will and personality traits take over.”
(Burkinshaw, 2009) This suggests that the exogenous narratives these games prompt aren't
entirely exogenous. The story reacts and can be influenced by the game's systems;
mimicking the relationship between a Dungeon Master and a player in a game of
Dungeons and Dragons. Through games which provide a narrative framework, the player
can compensate for the game's inability to improvise by taking the majority of the
narrative away from the computer.
This kind of exogenous emergence isn't solely limited to sandbox-style games, or
games which are lacking story. Toby Fox's Undertale addressed the transient nature of an
individual's interactions with a game's narrative. The player has the ability to 'reset' the
world, as they do in many games, by either restarting the game entirely, or going back to a
previous save file. But the game addresses it – at the end of one route, a character talks
about how, should they wish to, the player could reset the whole world, and that nobody
would remember it. They could go back and change something they did wrong, in an
attempt to get the perfect result they wanted.
Juul argues that “narratives are basically interpretative, whereas games are formal”,
(Juul, 2001) but in Undertale, the game is interpretive as well. The game can be enjoyed as
a single experience, telling the story of a child that falls into a ravine and tries to find their
way home. But the game is much denser than a single play through will reveal, verging on
the size and complexity of transmedia franchises, which “can often be difficult to see in
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
20
their totality.” (Wolf, 2009) Just as other games come complete with maps, books, or other
paraphernalia, Undertale hides its secrets in its game files, and through community
collaboration and theory crafting, fans have been able to unravel the mysteries the game
sets up.
On top of this, the existence of the game after the player is finished with it is also
interpretive. As Lees describes, despite being able to choose the type of person the
character is, “the only choice you really have in Undertale is the choice to start this loop
over … otherwise this thing just exists infinitely.” (Lees, 2015) The uncertainty that the game
creates about the state of the world led to a fascinating real-world narrative that hasn't
been seen before with such force – players don't want to experience the game again after
they have their ending. They actively refuse to play the game again, regardless of how
much they enjoyed it, because they don't want to invalidate the narrative that they created
in their most recent save file.
This kind of real-world consequence isn't unique to Undertale. Games, along with
films, books, and all other types of media, have titles which approach real-world topics in
an attempt to start discussion. As Alexander describes, “Games are often one of the best
places to play with ecosystems, rules, and cause and effect,” (Alexander, 2014) and so are
great platforms to use exogenous narratives to provoke discussion. Tim Wicksteed, the
creator of Big Pharma – a game about developing and producing drugs – described how
“you'll likely start to have increasingly unsettling thoughts such as ‘I won't bother removing
that side-effect as it'll make me less money’.” (Rad, 2015) The questionable decisions the
player has to make are entirely emergent though, and despite the game being designed to
put the player under financial pressure to help the player reach that conclusion, the way
they approach it, and the meaning they take away from it, is entirely up to them.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
21
Unlike books and films, this kind of emergent meaning is something which can only
exist in games. The issues that Big Pharma present aren't issues which are unknown to
huge swathes of people – but until the game pushes the player to the point where they
choose to take a morally questionable action, it's difficult to understand the issue. By
experiencing the lead-up to the situation that caused the decision first-hand, the player
understands the issue much more intimately than if they had read a book, or watched a
programme about it.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
22
Conclusion
Just as emergence-based games originated from traditional board games thanks to
technological advances, so too did narrative-centric games evolve from classic video
games. The inclusion of narratives in video games poses serious problems for the
interactivity of said games, not least of all the current limitations on artificial intelligence.
By limiting the player to a linear, or only slightly branching narrative, the game restricts
the possibilities for unique and unexpected moments to occur. Whilst current technology
does not allow for a game to truly react and innovate a response for every stimuli, through
a combination of player agency and branching narratives, games can certainly allow for
interaction with both their mechanics and their narratives in ways other media cannot. This
interaction allows for games to influence a person's opinions and preconceptions about a
topic on a much more personal level, creating not only a more finely tuned experience for
each player, but also allowing these games to make a significant change to the awareness
of issues it presents. As the genre evolves, new methods of creating and fostering both
endogenous and exogenous narratives will certainly appear, and through continued
experimentation and celebration of that which pushes technology to its limits, new
gameplay experiences will emerge to further satisfy the demand for interactive fictional
experiences in new and exciting ways.
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
23
Bibliography
Aristotle (355BC) Poetics. Translated from Greek by M. Heath, 1991. New Ed edition.
London: Penguin Classics
Arsenault, Dominic (2005) When Game Design & Narratives Unite. Digra. Available from
<http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/abstract-of-dynamic-range-when-
game-design-and-narratives-unite/> [Accessed 17th October 2015]
Bogost, Ian (2015) Video Games are Better Without Characters. Bogost.com. Available
from: <http://bogost.com/writing/video-games-are-better-without-characters/>
[Accessed 19th November 2015]
Bone, Stacey (2014) How Have Fairy and Folk Tales Been Used In Video Games? Available
from: <https://net.nua.ac.uk/wiki/_media/library:bone_stacey_1100706_rr_1_.pdf>
[Accessed 18th June 2015]
Brand, J. and Knight, S. (2003) The Diverse Worlds of Computer Games: A Content
Analysis of Spaces, Populations, Styles and Narratives. Digra. Available from
<http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/the-diverse-worlds-of-computer-
games-a-content-analysis-of-spaces-populations-styles-and-narratives/> [Accessed
17th October 2015]
Burkinshaw, Robin (2009) Alice and Kev. Wordpress. Available from:
<https://aliceandkev.wordpress.com/> [Accessed 20th December 2015]
Costikyan, Greg (1994) I Have no Words and I Must Design. Digra. Available from:
<http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/05164.51146.pdf>
[Accessed 14th December 2015]
Costikyan, Greg (2000) RE:PLAY: Game Design + Game Culture. Online conference.
Croshaw, Ben (2013) Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. Zero Punctuation. Available from:
<http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/8158-Amnesia-A-
Machine-For-Pigs> [Accessed 16th September 2015].
Ellison, Cara (2013) The Horror of Sequels – The Chinese Room on Amnesia: A Machine for
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
24
Pigs. The Guardian. Available from
<http://www.theguardian.com/technology/gamesblog/2013/oct/15/horror-amnesia-
a-machine-for-pigs-chinese-room> [Accessed 16th September 2015].
Ernest Adams (2013) The Designer's Notebook: Three Problems for Interactive Storytellers, Resolved.
Gamasutra. Available from:
<http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/189364/the_designers_notebook_three_.php>
[Accessed 1st Janurary 2016]
Frasca, Gonzalo (2003) Ludologists love stories, too: notes from a debate that never took
place. Ludology.org. Available from:
<http://www.ludology.org/articles/Frasca_LevelUp2003.pdf> [Accessed 19th October
2015]
Frasca, Gonzalo (2003) Simulation versus Narrative. The Video Game Theory Reader. New
York and London: Routledge.
Hamilton, Kirk (2014) A Heart-Monitoring Horror Game That Gets Tougher As You Get
Scared. Kotaku. Available from: <http://kotaku.com/a-horror-game-that-gets-
tougher-as-you-get-scared-hoo- 1517631289> [Accessed 16th August 2015]
Holland, John H. (1997) Emergence. Philosophica, Issue 59, p.11-40. Available from:
<http://logica.ugent.be/philosophica/fulltexts/59-2.pdf> [Accessed 19th October
2015]
Jackson, Steve (1983) The Citadel of Chaos. Fighting Fantasy. Icon Books.
Juul, Jesper (2001) Games Telling stories? Gamestudies.org. Available from:
<http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/juul-gts/> [Accessed 18th October 2015]
Juul, Jesper (2002) The Open and the Closed: Games of Emergence and Games of
Progression. Jesperjuul.net. Available from
<http://www.jesperjuul.net/text/openandtheclosed.html> [Accessed 17th October
2015]
Kelly, Tadhg (2012) What Dear Esther Is Not. What Games Are. Available from:
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
25
<http://www.whatgamesare.com/2012/02/what-dear-esther-is-not.html> [Accessed
16th November 2015].
Lees, Matt (2015) Undertale: It's Bloody Brilliant. Cool Ghosts. Available from:
<http://coolghosts.net/cool-stuff/2015/10/29/undertale-its-bloody-brilliant>
[Accessed 30th October 2015]
Leigh Alexander (2014) New Social Issue Games Tackle Education, Big Pharma.
Gamasutra. Available from:
<http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/228463/New_social_issue_games_tackle_edu
cation_big_pharma.php> [Accessed 19th November 2015]
Murray, Janet (1998) Hamlet on the Holodeck. Cambridge MA: MIT Press.
Rad, Chloi (2015) How Big Pharma speaks with its systems. Gamasutra. Available from:
<http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/254670/How_Big_Pharma_speaks_with_its_sy
stems.php> [Accessed 19th November 2015]
Rand, Ayn (1957) Atlas Shrugged. London: Penguin Classics.
Salen, Katie and Zimmerman, Eric (2004) Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals.
Cambridge Mass/London England: MIT Press.
Spierling, Ulrike (2005) Interactive Digital Storytelling: Towards a Hybrid Conceptual
Approach. Available from: <http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-
library/06278.24521.pdf> [Accessed 12th September 2015]
Stenros, Jaakko and Montola, Markus (2011) The Making of Nordic Larp: Documenting a
Tradition of Ephemeral Co-Creative Play. Digra. Available from:
<http://www.digra.org/wp-content/uploads/digital-library/11301.57224.pdf>
[Accessed 30th September 2015]
VideoGameTourism (2013) "Games are architectures for an emotional experience" - An
Interview with Dan Pinchbeck. Available from:
<http://videogametourism.at/content/games-are-architectures-emotional-
experience-interview-danpinchbeck> [Accessed 16th September 2015]
How Does the Use of Narrative Affect the Interactivity of Video Games? Joe Neeves
26
Wolf, Mark J.P. (2012) Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation.
New York: Routledge
Videography
Bain, John (2013) BioShock Infinite - Final Conclusions. Available from:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hAPfxD3u4k> [Accessed 16th September
2015].
Totwise Studios (2015) The Hum: Abductions Trailer. Available from:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFIz_ZhZ4Cw> [Accessed 12th October 2015]
Ludography
Bethesda Game Studios (2015) Fallout 4
Chinese Room, The (2012) Dear Esther
Chinese Room, The (2013) A Machine for Pigs
Dontnod Entertainment (2015) Life is Strange
Fox, Toby (2015) Undertale
Irrational Games (2007) Bioshock
Irrational Games (2013) Bioshock: Infinite
Namco (1980) Pac-Man
Positech Games (2015) Big Pharma
Rockstar Games (2011) L.A. Noire
Sega (2005) Shadow the Hedgehog
Supermassive Games (2015) Until Dawn
Telltale Games (2012) The Walking Dead