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This essay is about the use of narrative in video games, and the discussion surrounding it. For years ludologists (game researchers) and narratologists (narrativity researchers) have been arguing about how to analyze narrativity in games. While ludologists have chosen to see games as a product by itself, and therefore something to be analyzed separately, narratologists instead see games as a narrative medium alongside film, theater and books. This essay starts by taking a look at the arguments from both sides, and then introduces three questions regarding narrative in games, and how this phenomenon has changed over the past 13 years. To answer these questions, five case studies are carried out, analyzing games with the help of a new framework built on narrative theory. The essay’s conclusion then reveals how the development of game narrativity has progressed, and what this could mean for the future of narrative games

Ludonarrativity and player agency

When it comes to interactivity, detective plots in video games encounter an interesting barrier: the game must guide the player to a predetermined solution, since the narrative can’t continue without some sort of conclusion, but limit the player’s access to information to keep them in suspense. This study analyzes the intersection of story, setting, and gameplay: how do games use the reconstruction of a crime as a functioning, player-controlled narrative? How does the science fiction setting allow designers to use more interactive gameplay techniques? This study focuses on the analysis of narrative and gameplay techniques in Trauma Team (2010) and Detroit: Become Human (2018), specifically how the crossover of genres impacts a player’s ability to control the narrative rather than follow the typical linear problem-solving process of crime games. Using literary theory, flowcharts, and coding techniques as a basis for analysis, this paper examines a way to map narrative theory to gameplay techniques in crime games. Overall, analyzing these narrative nudging techniques will help designers better understand how to combine narratology and interactive story-building to design games that make players feel more in control of reconstructing narratives. Keywords: crime fiction, detective games, narratology, problem solving, puzzle, science fiction, storytelling, video gamesThesis (M.A.)Department of JournalismLiterature review -- Methods -- Case analysis of Trauma team -- Case analysis of Detroit : become human

Heavy Hero or Digital Dummy? Multimodal Player–Avatar Relations in Final Fantasy 7

This article analyses the player-avatar relation in Final Fantasy 7, drawing on multimodality theory to analyse textual structures both in the game and in the discourse of player-interviews and fan writing. It argues that the avatar is a two-part structure, partly designed in conventional narrative terms as a protagonist of popular narrative, and partly as a vehicle for interactive game-play. The former structure is replete with the traditions and designs of Japanese popular narrative, oral formulaic narrative and contemporary superhero narratives; and is presented to the player as an offer act – a declarative narrative statement. The latter is a construct of evolving attributes and economies characteristic of roleplaying games; and is presented to the player as a demand act – a rule-based command. Though these two functions separate out in the grammar of player and fan discourse, it is their integration which provides the pleasure of gameplay and narrative engagement

Beyond the Author: Collaborative Authorship in Video Games

Since their popularization in the early 1980s, video games have often been overlooked in the realm of art and critical theory as a pop-culture phenomenon. The medium still struggles to assert itself as a legitimate artform worthy of critical study. This is best embodied by the film critic Roger Ebert's remark that "video games can never be art" - a remark which spurred serious debate both for and against the notion. Though widespread acceptance of the artful potential of video games is still far from reality, a critical theory and study of the medium has begun to spring up in some academic and analytical circles, dubbed 'Game Studies.' Researchers and critical thinkers in this field apply some of the same analytical theories used for literature and film to video games, seeking out the deeper meanings and cultural significance of the works examined and placing them alongside established artworks in other fields. This thesis explores how video games as an artform are challenging traditional notions of authorship. Through the interactivity that is at the core of gameplay, and through technological and developmental innovations as game makers explore the narrative potentials inherent in the medium, the player is taking a more and more active role in the narrative, becoming a collaborator rather than a passive observer as in cinema and literature. Many games are built around systems in which player actions and choices can dramatically alter narrative outcomes (e.g. Mass Effect, Until Dawn). Others are designed such that the real narrative is only discovered when the player defies the initially perceived narrative (e.g. The Stanley Parable). Still others are built around the idea of the game as an experience, with the narrative only implied (e.g. Journey). Discussing elements of game design and narrative structure and bringing in philosophical notions of authorship and art, this thesis explores how all of this is working and why it is so appealing to players. The interactive medium of video games places the audience – the reader, the player, the consumer – in a unique position, challenging traditional notions of authorship and blurring the lines between author/creator and audience/player. Through this examination of the nature of narrative in video games, we may learn more about the potentials of narrative that cannot be expressed through more traditional artforms.No embargoAcademic Major: Englis

About Authoring: Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons as a Semiotic, Narrative, and Rhetorical Text

I began my research with personal experience playing video games and a formal education in English studies. My interest and my education intersected to form a simple question: what tools does an education in English studies offer to someone trying to understand video games as texts? To answer that question, I brought scholarship from three English sub-fields—semiotics, narrative theory, and rhetorical study—into discussion with computer gaming scholarship. My research demonstrated three primary findings: 1) video games can considered as texts that communicate via visual, aural, and interactive (often tactile) modes; 2) video games are narrative and offer players varying degrees of authorship over narrative elements; and 3) video games are rhetorically designed, even down to inscribing meaning in the control schemes that players use to engage with the game. I brought those research findings to a thorough analysis of Brothers, a critically acclaimed video game released in 2013. The resulting analysis finds Brothers to be a carefully composed text, one which offers players control over narrative satellites (minor, connective events) but not kernels (essential plot events), and conveys its central theme and narrative (one of growing companionship) through an unconventional control scheme. My research demonstrates the values of applying the theoretical frameworks of English studies to the analysis of video games and bringing the new texts to the broad field of English studies.No embargoAcademic Major: Englis

Gamification of Violence in Analog (Tabletop) Thematic Games: Splices, Wrinkles, and Translation Gaps

Modern tabletop (analog) games are riding a wave of popularity being a part of "resisting the digital” trend. First of all, imaginary worlds of media franchises become represented in tabletop games with their specific ways of creating interactive narrative and gaming algorithms. Secondly, tabletop games address complicated issues and concepts of today’s world. The authors aim to examine specific ways of representing violence in tabletop games, with plots already employed by pieces of different types of media. The authors believe that the hybrid nature of modern tabletop (analog) games involves a hybrid methodology, including phenomenology, hermeneutics, procedural rhetoric, the ideas of R.Kayua, M.Wolf, L.Manovich. The concept of violence is analyzed with reference to V. Podoroga, А. Usmanova, S. Zizek, V. Benjamin. The result of the study is a comprehensive description of the representation of violence in board-themed games. The authors argue that violence is represented in tabletop games at several levels and in different forms: narrative violence, visual violence, symbolic violence, etc. The study indirectly confirms the non-autonomy of the game process, the dependence of the game narrative on the experience of acquaintance with the "imaginary world.” Keywords: media theory, game studiеs, boardgames, tabletop games, violenc

Gender Games: A Content Analysis Of Gender Portrayals In Modern, Narrative Video Games

Video games are a multi-billion dollar industry; 67% of households in the United States have at least one game player. The considerable reach of this medium makes it crucial to assess the messages that audiences are taking away concerning gender in these games. In this content analysis, I investigate the representation of binary gender in the narratives of modern video games from the perspective of cultivation theory. Ten popular games from 2007 through 2013 are selected for this investigation. The characteristics of each game’s main character are evaluated in the context of the narrative to uncover emergent trends, tropes, and themes over the course of gameplay. Men outnumber women in protagonist roles, and women serve as catalysts for the central conflicts throughout the narrative. Gaming narratives also tend to embody the male power fantasy trope, with both male and female protagonists becoming masculinized through the story’s progression

A Musical Journey: Music as Gameplay, Meaning and Narrative in Digital Games

This essay presents a detailed analysis of the music and its relations to gameplay, meaning and narrative in the interactive digital game Journey. Taking as its foundation multiple thorough playthroughs of the game, observation and questioning of test subjects has been conducted for greater perspective and objectivity. Combining theories from hermeneutic musicology, narrative ludology and aesthetic theory, it provides a new perspective on music in digital games. Intended as a musicologically inclined complement to the existing studies of digital game music, it applies Jean-Jacques Nattiez’s musical semiology and Nicholas Cook’s model for analysing musical multimedia to digital games. As a development of the visually-inclined studies of digital game theory and ludology, it expounds upon the works of Graeme Kirkpatrick and Henry Jenkins to take into account sound and music. With a focus on play, meaning and narrative, it is argued that music is integral to players’ experience. It is also suggested that this type of study is highly determined by its subject matter, and that a different approach of analysis might be needed for another game. Further research to corroborate the finds is suggested, as well as a general widening of the fields of game music studies and narrative musicology