Effects of Narrative Structure and Salient Decision Points in Role Playing Games

This research-in-progress paper reports an experimental study that investigates two research problems: first, how does narrative structure impact the experience of role-playing games (RPGs)? And second, what are the effects of salient decision points on players’ perceptions of narrative structure and game play? Can players perceive branching narrative without salient decision points? Previous research literature was reviewed, two hypotheses were developed based on prior research, and an experiment was designed to test these two hypotheses. The findings will likely shed light on the development of narrative and feedback structures in RPGs and other allied fields, such as digital media, virtual reality, and human-computer interaction

Undercurrents – A Computer-Based Gameplay Tool to Support Tabletop Roleplaying

This paper introduces Undercurrents, a computer-based gameplay tool for providing additional communication and media streams during tabletop roleplaying sessions. Based upon a client-server architecture, the system is intended to unobtrusively support secret communication, timing of audio and visual presentations to game events, and real-time documentation of the game session. Potential end users have been involved in the development and the paper provides details on the full design process

Interactive Narratives: The Future of Storytelling

[Abstract] The way we tell stories is in a constant flux of change and evolution, which results in the innovation of narrative and the roles of reader and author. Lately, this innovation has led towards the ascendance of interactive narratives. Thus, this end-of-degree project aims to examine interactive narratives and their relevance in our present and future. Furthermore, my goal is to provide new information and academic research on the topic, to facilitate discussion and bring attention to a narrative form often overlooked for its recentness. Through the analysis of different media with a core interactive element, such as videogames, virtual reality, fanfiction or boardgames, I will illustrate the journey from the first examples of interactive storytelling to the latest. This study will show how authors and readers have adapted to the appeal of interactive stories, and how these stories interconnected the roles of the two. Interactivity, agency, and immersion theories will help illustrate this new reality.Traballo fin de grao (UDC.FIL). Inglés: estudios lingüísticos y literarios. Curso 2019/202

Impactful Interactivity within Video Games

Despite half a centennial of existence and enticing artistic qualities, conclusive evidence does not exist as to if video games are beneficial to learning or costly. Exploring the notion of benefit versus cost, it is important to identify the value of video games when leveraged as tools for learning as traditional educational methodologies are not infallible. The video game project Alone demonstrates video games can generate psychological responses; therefore, one must conclude learning has occurred. Alone encompasses the following: meaningful interactivity within video games (regarding narrative and gameplay), video games as educational tools, video game development (including design), and potential emotional and psychological effects associated with their use. Through researching viewpoints from multiple disciplines, the potential for video games to impact players in significant ways is analyzed. As new educational mediums become available, they should be embraced if they can benefit learning. Video games having unique potential to other artistic mediums and learning methods is asserted

Using emergent narrative

Narrativity in videogames is a complex subject. Most titles prefer delivering traditional narratives that resemble ones from films and books while other titles provide some choice to the player and have distinct endings. Yet, most of them fail at providing dynamic narratives. Unlike other media, in video games the player can interact with the world and the characters in real time. This theoretically provides a system that should be able to accept the player’s input and use it to build a coherent and interesting narrative. Is it possible to build a game with these ideals? and if it is possible, what is the current state of the technology? The main task will be researching, reading and organizing papers. Understanding what the researchers are saying will provide enough knowledge to create a solid work. Case studies will also be done to increase the comprehension of the subject. The final result offers theoretical knowledge about Interactive and Emergent narrative and their procedures as well as in Game Design. At the end there is a “Decalogue” with the most important insights of the work

Pivoting the player:a methodological toolkit for player character research in offline role-playing games

This thesis introduces an innovative method for the analysis of the player character (PC) in offline computer role-playing games (cRPGs). It derives from the assumption that the character constitutes the focal point of the game, around which all the other elements revolve. This underlying observation became the foundation of the Pivot Player Character Model, the framework illustrating the experience of gameplay as perceived through the PC’s eyes. Although VG characters have been scrutinised from many different perspectives, a uniform methodology has not been formed yet. This study aims to fill that methodological void by systematising the hitherto research and providing a method replicable across the cRPG genre. The proposed methodology builds upon the research of characters performed in video games, fiction, film, and drama. It has been largely inspired by Anne Ubersfeld’s semiological dramatic character research implemented in Reading Theatre I (1999). The developed theoretical model is applied to three selected cRPGs, which form an accurate methodological sample: The Witcher (CD Projekt RED 2007), Fallout 3 (Bethesda Game Studios 2008), and Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (Troika Games 2004). The choice of the game genre has been incited by the degree of attention it draws to the player character’s persona. No other genre features such a complex character development system as a computer role-playing game. <br/

Incremental Storytelling and Calypsis: A Hypertext Fiction a Critical Introduction

This critical introduction to Calypsis: A Hypertext Fiction argues that university creative writing programs should make full use of the institutional space, time, and resources available to them by introducing students to different types of writing projects and engage students in critical discussions about creative production, activities that they are unlikely to find outside the university\u27s walls. These activities includes experimenting with digital tools, creating multimedia compositions, and producing collaborative work, as well as situating creative writing as an embodied act within specific historical, political, and material conditions. Herein I forward my theory of incremental storytelling, which is informed by both creative writing pedagogy and gaming theory, as one strategy for achieving these goals. Using this methodology, students learn the craft of fiction writing in smaller, discrete bits that, in aggregate, create something much greater than their constituent parts. This progressive approach puts students in immediate contact with each others\u27 writing throughout the entire creative process and opens space for critical discussions about the fictional characters and the shared world they create. I go on to describe a course I designed using incremental storytelling entitled Gaming, World Building, and Narrative, where students used a wiki and a Google map to collaboratively create a sprawling post-apocalyptic world that they then explored via a tabletop role-playing game. Students responded enthusiastically to the course, as shown in their responses to a survey asking them to reflect on this experimental method. I then connect the theory of incremental storytelling and narratives derived from role-playing games to my creative dissertation, Calypsis: A Hypertext Fiction, and how it might serve as inspiration for others to experiment with creating a collaboratively built world

Interaction in video game dialogue : Exploring the effects of ludic context on fictional dialogue

Tutkielman aiheena on vuorovaikutus videopelien hahmodialogissa. Vuorovaikutusta käsitellään kahdesta kulmasta: 1) fiktiivisten hahmojen välisen sosiaalisen vuorovaikutuksen ja 2) pelin ja pelaajan välisen pelillisen vuorovaikutuksen kautta. Tutkielmassa pyritään selvittämään näiden kahden vuorovaikutuksen lajin keskinäisiä vaikutuksia kahden erilaisen videopelin hahmodialogissa: vaikuttaako pelillisen vuorovaikutuksen esiintyminen fiktiivisen dialogin sosiaaliseen vuorovaikutukseen ‒ siihen, kuinka hahmot keskenään puhuvat. Tutkielman aineistona käytetään videopelien Dragon Age: Inquisition (DA:I) ja Final Fantasy XII (FFXII) hahmodialogeja, joista on valittu edustava otos. Peleistä ensiksi mainittu edustaa aktiivista dialogia, jossa pelaaja päättää keskustelun kulusta, kun taas jälkimmäinen ilmentää passiivista dialogia, johon pelaaja ei voi vaikuttaa. Tutkielman hypoteesi on, että DA:I:n aktiivinen dialogi sisältää enemmän pelillistä vuorovaikutusta, ja että pelillinen vuorovaikutus lisää sosiaalisen vuorovaikutuksen terävyyttä ohjaistaessaan pelaajaa. Menetelmänä käytetään lähilukua ja luokittelua, joiden tehtävänä on systemaattisesti löytää hahmodialogista sosiaalisen ja pelillisen vuorovaikutuksen ilmentymiä. Sosiaalisen vuorovaikutuksen luokittelussa käytetään Searlen (1976) puheaktiteoriaa (speech act theory) ja pelillisen vuorovaikutuksen luokittelussa Järvisen (2008) peliretoriikan (game rhetoric) teoriaa. Tutkielman tulokset osoittavat, että DA:I:n aktiivinen dialogi sisältää selvästi enemmän pelillistä vuorovaikutusta kuin FFXII:n passiivinen dialogi, kuten voitiin olettaa. Tästä huolimatta sosiaalinen vuorovaikutus on molemmissa peleissä erittäin samankaltaista, mikä näyttäisi osoittavan, että pelillisen vuorovaikutuksen voimakas esiintyminen ei merkittävästi vaikuta videopelien hahmodialogin sosiaalisen vuorovaikutuksen muotoon. Yksi selitys tälle samankaltaisuudelle on pyrkimys fiktiivisen dialogin uskottavuuteen: pelillisyyttä ei välttämättä tuoda erityisen suorasti esille dialogissa siksi, että se vesittäisi liikaa dialogin luonnollisuutta. Koska tutkielman aineistona käytetään vain kahta videopeliä, ei tuloksista voida vielä vetää varsinaisia johtopäätöksiä koskien videopelejä yleisellä tasolla. Kuitenkin tulokset ovat varsin selvät tämän tutkimusaineiston kohdalla, joten on täysin mahdollista, että kyseessä on myös laajempi trendi. Pelien tutkimus on vielä nuori tutkimuksen ala, joten lisää työtä tarvitaan paljon