What Games Are
• Games are pre-historical
• Animals did not wait forhumans
• Cross-species Aesthetics
• Many game
definitions...here’s mine:
– Games are facilitators that
structure player behavior,
and whose main purpose is
enjoyment.
Games aremanydifferentthings-we should nottreat them asone medium
Are all games stories?• If so, what is the story in Tetris?
• What is a story?– A series of events (based on things,
characters, places)
– arranged (retold) in a sequence by some-
one for someone) as a chain of signs
• Games can be used to tell
stories only by limiting the
gameplay and/or the
gameworld
• But what kind of stories?
How is game meaning produced?
• The two levels (Aarseth 1997:40):– code level and expression level, or;
– dynamic model vs semiotic form
• Same mechanics, different semiotics:
Tamagotchi: Deep Emotions at Play
• Tamagotchi's Name? GABBY Age? 11 Gender? GIRL
•
• I AM SO SORRY FOR WHAT I DONE. I AM NOT FEELING GOOD BECAUSE I CRYED TO MUCH
BECAUSE YOU DIED. I AM SO MAD AT MY SELF. I WENT TO SCHOOL THINKING YOU WERE PAUSED
AT HOME BUT YOU WEREN'T. [...]. I WILL ALWAYS RERMEBER YOU AND RERMEBER THE TIME
WHEN I HAD YOUR SOUND OFF AND I STILL HEARD YOU IT WAS SCARY BUT I FELT SO CLOSE TO
YOU. HAVE A GREAT TIME IN TAMA HEAVEN AND RERMEBER I WILL ALWAYS RERMEBER YOU IN A
DIFFERENT WAY FROM EVERYONE ESLE THAT I LOVE CLOSE...
• But Tamagotchi is not a story, it is a simulation
• Simulation: a dynamic model, with many possible outcomes
• Story (top-down) and Simulation (bottom up) are opposites
Games vs Storytelling
Can games tell stories?
If so, what kind of stories?
Or are games merely similar to
stories, just like life itself?
Will games and stories merge, or are
they two independent forms?Case in point: MYST (1993)
by Rand and Robyn Miller
Conceptual problems - what is a narrative?
• Several isolated approaches: technical/utopian (“Hamlet on theHolodeck”), critical/theoretical, and pragmatic/industrial
• Three different senses of “narrative:” (from Juul ‘05)
1. Story as a structured sequence of events (film, novel)
2. Story as a topographical setting (e.g. a painting, labyrinth, building)
3. Story as the way we see the world (pan-narrativism)
• The “games-are-stories” position often confuses two levels:
– the content level: events and existents, found in games, stories (and paintings
etc) and in the real world: Setting, Characters, Actions
– the structural level: narrative is different from simulation is different from reality
(and from dreams, religious truths, mirror images, etc)
The Elevator Test
• If your definition of “story” includes
elevators (and meals, shopping etc.),
• Then it is probably too broad.
Counter-evidence?
• Many games with “narrative” content: Half-Life, Max
Payne, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc etc.
• Recipe: take a well-known IP ...eh, story
• Choose a well-known game structure (fps, rts, adventure)
• Create game levels, sprinkle video clips
• Hey, presto: you have a (not very original) game!
The (Theory) Solution: Quest games
• Ragnhild Tronstad (2001-via Austin):
– stories are constative/after-the-fact, games(quests) are performative
– quests become stories after they are solved,hence the misunderstanding
• Story-games are really quest-games
• Proof: there are no other forms of “narrative”games (e.g. Anna Karenina, GhostWorld)
• Games don’t tell non-quest stories well: they lack
Artificial Intelligence. (intelligent responses from
characters to “creative” player input)
• – solve AI, then we’ll talk
Thief III (2004)
Quest games:
• Two definitions:
A game with a concrete and
attainable goal, which supercedes
performance or the accumulation of
points. Such goals can be nested
(hierarchic), concurrent, or serial, or
a combination of the above.
A game where
you have to move
A ! B
The unicursal labyrinth: Half-Life 2
The quest-game world structure
Landscape/level design (topology) is the other side of the quest-coin:
Serial quests have a “corridor landscape” (Half-life, Halo)
Q
QQ Q
Q
Q
Q
Q Q Q
Q Q Q
Q
Q Q Q
Nested quests have a semi-open
(hub-shaped) landscape:
(KOTOR)
Concurrent quests have an open
landscape (Morrowind, EverQuest)
Unicursal
corridor: Q Q Q Q
Story-telling vs Franchising
What is the function of stories in games?
What story elements can be translated?
And who is this guy??? !
PSP Launch title
Graphic novel
Action Figure
Movie
T-shirts, Hats,
Belt Buckles,
Jewelry
Anime
Already making money pre-launch
– Death Jr
How to make games from films
• What do producers look for in a film-to-game
adaptation?
– “Iconic” characters
– Interesting universe
– “High concept” " gameplay mechanic
• Story/script aspects are secondary and often
gets low priority
• Only certain types of films need apply
• E.g. Ghostworld: great graphic novel,
great film, but ...game??
• Still very hard to succeed
Interestingfailures
• Many examples (ET?)
• Enter The Matrix
• Made money, but...
• –Most returned game ever
• To protect their property/brand, WB afterwards considered
punishing poor-performing game developers by increasing
their royalty for the game licenses that get poor reviews
• Enter The Matrix co-produced with Matrix films
• Tried to expand the universe of the movies
Pirates of the Caribbean (Disneyland 1973)
Crossmedia storytelling?
• If so, why doesn’t the story translate?
• “the 128 pages of the first comic series get
told in four minutes of cut-scenes in the
game, and the 16+ hours of action in the
game get condensed to 2 pages in the
comic!” – Chris Charla, Death, Jr. game producer
Universe, Not Story
• John Cawelti (1976): Two layers of (popular) fiction:
1. Cultural conventions: setting, background,
character types (examples: The Warcraft universe, The
Wild West, Medieval China)
2. Underlying structure: a series of events: (Girl meets boy,
girl meets parents, boy meets ex-boyfriend, etc)
• Characters + Universe ! Storytelling, but
prerequisites to it (and to things like games and T-shirts)
Conclusions
• It’s all about the money and the “property”
• Branding, Pre-awareness, Risk-aversion
• Storytelling is less important than
Character- and World-building (= IP), and
much harder to transfer
• Quest-games are the most storylike
