Game Design + Aty Scholder + Eric Timmerman

t, ColinLankshear, Michele Knobel, GameDesign + uame uutture ChrisBiqum, -Generaland Michael Peters Editors Vol.1B EDITED BY Aty Scholder+ EricTimmerman PETERLANG PETERLANG . NewYork Washington,D.C./Baltimore Bern New York . Washington,D.C./Baltimore ' Bern . Frankfurtam Main Berlin Brussels Vienna Oxford Frankfurtam Main. Berlin. Brussels'Vienna' Oxford NJ9 (U m IU I J F of o t ft z Game Over. End of Story. Digitalgames may be the nextmajor storytelling form, following media like n theater,the novel,opera, radio, cinema, and television. But the intersection of narrativeand interactivityremains an openquestion. Module 3 examines how gamesare expandingnotions of narrative,and how stofiellingis u informingthis newestof technologies. l.U Keywords: i nteractivity and narrative multipleauthorship cultures of storpelling and leisure u, flat and dimensional characters the erotics of gaming algorithmic narratives managing multiplayer games evolutionaryvs. revolutionarygames Sonic, @ Sega Corporation r5E Re:Play:Came Design+ Game Cuiture Module 3: Games as Nanative Chris Crawford matically.God is the watchmaker,but the watch runs by itself.Now, the Interactivitv and Narrotive firct point of viewruns afoul of free will. lf god commondsour everythought, PerhapsI confoment someunrest here-but with on ossertion,not a ques' then how con we acceptrcsponsihility for our octions?God made us do it! tion. I noted in your eorlydefinitions ofthe topic, Eric,a referenceto the Thesecond point of view doesn'tcompletely resolvethe question, but it at dfficulty of reconcilinginteractivity with narrative. Thisis a commonly held leastallows us to atgue that free will lies hidden somewherein the laws of beliefond one thot I reject.Thebasis ofthisfolsehood isthe beliefthot ony physics.This analogy is o lot closerto our problem than you might at first purposeful oction on the port of the user is likely to interfere with the pre- think, becauseinteractivity really depends on the user moking choices, planned plot. What if our user decides,as Luke Skywalker,not to go afier which in turn requiresthe exerciseof-free will! ln other words,the creator the missingdroid ond goof around ot home instead?Whot if Macbeth of an interactive storyworld is the omnipotent god of thot rtory world, exer- decidesthat his wife is o nogging shrew and bumps her of instead of the cising completecontrol over its development.lf, in your role as sucha god, king? There went your bestJaid plot. The error here lies in identifying one you insiston controlling everylittle event,on treating your useras o puppet porticular plot with narrative in general. Yes,if Macbeth bumps of Lady dancing under your strings,then, yes,there won't be any interactivity-and Mocbeth, then the result isn't Shakespeare'sMacbeth-but doesthat meon you'll be overwhelmedwith myilad triviol detoilsto decide.lf, on the other that it's ruined? Thereare countlessvoriations on the bosic story line that hand, you step back a level of abstractionand ueate the dromqtic "laws of remain true to the overolltheme. This does not mesn thot we must permit physics"that control your dramatic univerce,then you can aford to grant dramotically destructivebehqvior on the part of the user.Giving him choic' your userssome free will ond at the same time not be swampedwith all esdoesn't require us to give him rtupid or boring choices.V/e can still con' thosepetty detoils. The costof this, of course,is that you must think about fine him to dromoticollyinteresting options, The generalsolution to the the problem at a higher levelofabstraction. Are you wiseenough to perceive problem is to move the storytellingup to o higher levelof obstraction. Does drama in suchobstract terms? onybodyhere believethat there really was o kid named Luke Skywalker McKenzieWark who lived a long time ago in o galary for, far away? Who cares about the Narrativehas a lot of differentrelations to indeterminacy.The gameof detailsof thot story?What's important in it ore the themesoJ a boyfocing chesshas a veryabstract narrative frame, and an almostinfinite range of manhood, relationshipswith father, and so on-ond those themesdon't "stories."Satjayit Ray's film TheChess Players proposes that the game is specifi any details. My fovorite analogy here is a referenceto two kindsof moreinteresting than the story.There is morepleasure in not knowingthe religious belief, Most religions expound the principle of on omnipotent outcomeof thegame thanthere is notknowing the narrativearc. lt seems god-but exoctly how does that omnipotence monifest itselJ? One to methat contemporary games are still too muchpart of a Christianworlo, approach assertsgod's direct and explicit control over everyevent in the uni' butmight be betterif conceivedin a paganone. The Creek world of "moral verse.The motion of everyatom, the poth of everyraindrop, the rufiing of luck"might offer a moreheterogeneous space and time for narrativeand everyfeather-these thingsall tqke ploce only ot the dired ond explicit com' action(about which, see Martha Nussbaum). mand of the deity. V/hot a busybodyhe must be! Whot a boring andfrenet' BernieYee ic existencehe must endure!The other opproachdeclares thot god rulesthe Weenfoy being told, being led, following the narrative.We trust the story- universe through the indirect application of certain univenol lows' Cod tellerto leadus throughan adventurethat will move us, knowing that the declares,"Let there be physics!"and everythingis thereafier handled auto- "freedom"in ourown livesinvariably leads to somemonotony from time RerPlay:Came + Design Game Culture Module 3: Games as Narmtive to time.What if we openedthat doorl Whatif we calledin sick,or tooka (howthis characterfeels about that characterand why),and personal rele- tripto Nepalinstead of the Hamptons?lf we did,things we mightnot feel vance(this is likethetimelwanted to killmydad). fhis lastpoint, personal ableto do,but cando, andwish we hadthe nerveto explore.l{ Macbethofls relevance,involves a specialkind ofconstruction that Rachel Strickland has hiswifey instead of betrayingthe king,it's no longerMacbeth, and embarks called "projectiveconstruction"-that is, a constructionthat projects on a newarc that maybe less "satisfling" than the traditional Macbeth arc aspectsofthe reader'slife and identityonto the representationand thereby we know.Of course,since we all know Macbeth,any explorationsof the influencesits meaning.In his booksTertual Poachers and ScienceFiclion potential prob- moralconflict and choicesfor Mr.and Mrs. Macbethwould Fans:\Vatching Star Trekand DoctorWho, Henry Jenkins articulates another ably be fascinating-if deftly handled. (lnteresting,then, that the levelof readerconstruction that exists in an activefandom. jenkins demon- fates/witcheshad known Macbeth's fate before he knewit, limitinghis own stratesthat the centralactivity of fandomis the appropriationof storyand interactivity!)Storytelling can be movedand shouldbe movedto a higher characterto constructnew meaningsthat are personallyrelevant to the levelof abstraction,but thereremains some spirit in that processthat we, reader.Hence arise fanzines, slash fiction and video, and role-playing play as organizingcreatures, want to be ableto seeas "narrative."Abstraction amongchildren ("1'll be DarthVader, you be Austin Powers"). Another thing loosensthe audience'shold on that narrativestructure relegating it from that Henryenlightened me about is that much fan-basednarrative con- the knowable(for example,the three-actstructure) to the more uncertain structionis intertextual.In fact,there are wholefan culturesdevoted to (faith?).The very concept of a Cod is a faith in a narrativestructure. lf reli- seekingout connectionsbetween seemingly. unrelated fictive worlds (for gioncan serye as an opiate,then it's to reassureus allthere is somedivine example,"LA Law" and "StarTrek: The Next Ceneration"as connected planthat will takecare of the meek.But what of thosewho seethe universe throughcharacters that are played in bothseries by the same actor). A third as an anomaly,with no divineplan) They still seek to imposean orderon levelof projectiveconstruction happens in interactivegames that arestory- it, a narrative.Perhaps for thesethere is stilla sensethat there is no Heisen- likeor thatcan be used as story material. When a playerstands in first-person bergUncertainty principle acting on us,that somehowthere are rules that relationto a characteror agent,the relationshipbetween them moves defineourexistence. The exercise of freewillain't easy in reallife, and in a beyondempathy toward identity.In otherwords, projective construction gamingsystem pitted againstnarrative, ain't easyneither. Which is why comesto thefront and heavily influences the player's choices. A remarkable interactivityplays havoc on the conceptof the narrative-whowants, to par- thingabout projective construction is that it requiresvery liftle in theway of aphraseDostoyevsky, to havefreedom when we'd ratherhave a loafofbread high-resolutionor "intelligent"structures. After a decadeofquesting after givento us,and told whatto do) That'san acceptablesolution for mostof the Al-basedanswers to the questionof creatinginteractive narrative, I did us, isn't it) Pitythe interactivenarrative designer. two experimentsthat demonstratedto me that I was barkingup the wrong BrendaLaurel tree.The first was a VRexoeriment called Placeholder that substituteda ricn I feelobliged to offerthe standardreader response theory first; namely, that all narrative(even what we call"linear") is interactivein the

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