FIRSTPHE?SSN
GameDesign storys path is likely to make for a less as satisfyingstory; restricting a player's Narrative freedom of action is likely to make for a lesssatisfying game. (Costikyan 2000, Architecture 44-s3) HenryJenkins Computergames are not narratives.... Rather the narrative tends to be isolated The relationshipbetween games and story remainsa lrom or evenwork against the computer- divisivequestion among game fans,designers, and game-nessof the game.(Juul f gg8)z scholarsalike. At a recentacademic Games Studies conference,for example,a blood feud threatenedto Outsideacademic theory peopleare erupt betweent}e self-proclaimedludologists, who usuallyexcellent at making distinctions wanted to seethe focusshift onto the mechanicsof betweennarrative, drama and games.If I game play,and the narratologists, who were interested throw a ball at you I don't expect you to in studyinggames alongside other storytellingmedia.r drop it and wait until it starts telling Considersome recent statements made on this issue, stories.(Eskelinen 2001)
Interacti'rityis almostthe oppositeof I find myself responding to this perspectivewith mjxed narrative;narrative flows under the feelings.On the one hand,I understandwhat these directionof the author,while interactivity writers are arguing against - various attempts to map dependson the playerfor motive power. traditional narrative structures ("hypertext," "lnteractive (Adams1999) Cinema,""nonlinear narrative") onto games at the expenseofan attention to their specificityas an Thereis a &rect, immediateconflict emergingmode of entertainment.You say"narrative" betweenthe demandsof a story and the to the averagegamer and what they are apt to imagine demandsof a game.Divergence from a is somethingon the order of a choose-your,own
Responseby Jon McKenzie not so much its make up but its "mix,up." The model of creativityoften associatedwith digital For practical,conceptual, and institutional reasons, mediais not that of originality and uniquenessbut any formation of a field of "ludology"may inevitably recombination and multiplicity, a model hardwired to involve arguing for that field's uniquenessand the computer'suncanny ability to copyand combine originality,its clear-cutdistinction from other fields: 'games images,sounds, texts, and other materialsfrom an thus, arenot narratives,not films, not plays, endlessarray ofsources. Indeed, in different though etc."Yet I'm willing to gamble that if a formal discipline relatedways, both &gital media and poststructuralist of ludology ever doesemerge, it will sooner or later theory teachus that it is impossibleto createand study discoverwhat other disciplineshave learned: the new without drawing at times on forms and &scoveriesare triggered by the oddest (and oldest)of processestaken from what is already around us. From sources. this perspective,no genre,work, or field is uniqueand As Henry Jenkinssuggests, games are indeednot self-contained:each is a specificyet fuzzy combination narratives,not films,not plays- but theyre alsonot- of other things that are tJremselvesdiverse and not-narratives,not-not-films, not-not-plays. Games nonunique.In short, what makessomething "unique" is share traits with other forms of cultural production, GameTheories 'Jenkins McKenzieEskelinen IV.Game Theories .lrr'r' .i"c l.:;iia,: l,'.:,::,,,.,,l';:::; :;,;i''*t " adventurebook, a form noted for its lifelessnessand an intrinsic or defining feature of dance.Similarly, mechanicalexposition rather than entJ-rralling many of my own favorite games- Tetis, BIix,Snood - entertainment,thematic sophistication,or character are simple graphic gamesthat do not lend themselves complexiry.And game industry executivesare perhaps very well to narrative exposition.3To understand such justly skepticalthat they havemuch to learn from the games,we needother terms and conceptsbeyond resolutelyunpopular (and often overtly antipopular) narrative, including interface designand expressive aestheticspromoted by hypertexttheorists. The movementfor starters.The last thing we want to do is application of film theory to gamescan seemhea',y- to reign in the creativeexperimentation that needsto handed and literal-minded, often failing to recognize occurin the earlieryears of a medium'sdevelopment. the profound differencesbetween the two me&a. Yet, at the sametime, there is a tremendousamount that 2.Many gamesdo have narrative aspirations. game designersand critics could learn through making Minimally, they want to tap the emotional residueof meaningfulcomparisons with other storytellingmedia. previousnarrative experiences. Often, they dependon One getsrid of narrativeas a frameworkfor thinking our familiarity with the roles and goalsof genre about gamesonly at ones own risk. In this short piece,I entertainmentto orient us to the action,and in many hope to offer a middle-groundposition between the cases,game designerswant to createa seriesof ludologistsand the narratologists,one that respectsthe narrative experiencesfor the player.Given those particularity of this emergingmedium - examining narrativeaspirations, it seemsreasonable to suggest gamesless as storiesthan as spacesripe with narrative that someunderstanding of how gamesrelate to possibility. narrativeis necessarybefore we understandtle aestheticsof game design or the nature of Let'sstart at somepoints wherewe might all agree: contemporary gameculture.
1. Not all gamestell stories.Games may be an abstract, 3. Narrativeanalysis need not be prescriptive,even if expressive,and experientialform, closerto music or some narratologists - Janet Murray is the most oft- modern dancet}ran to cinema.Some ballets (Tfte citedexample - do seemto be advocatingfor games Nutcrackerfor example)tell stories,but storytelling isn't to pursueparticular narrative forms. There is not one
although reducing them to any one of these comesat a ludologist might have offered a responsetitled certain cost. Jenkins rightly contends that game "Narrative Architecture as Game Design."Johan designersshould thereforeseek to expandthe forms Huizinga, after all, analyzedlaw, war, poetry, and and processesfrom which to draw rather t}'ranreduce philosophy'as"play, and acrossd.rverse cultural them. He is alsoright to point out that some traditions storytellinghas complexagonistic Iudologistsare themselvesmuch too quick to reduce &mensions. narrative to overly simplistic models (e.g.,strictly linear Another middle ground for ludology might be structures).Most importantiy,his explorationof "experiencedesign," a notion and practicethat runs in spatially oriented narrative forms prorridesprovocative different ways from Brenda Laurel to Donald Norman approachesto contemporary game design.At the same to Eric Zimmerman. Experiencedesign refers to the time, however,Jenkins's stated goal to offer a "middle generationand shapingof actions,emotions, and ground"between ludologists and narratologists thoughts. How one operatesa kitchen appliance,takes in remainsslanted toward the narratologicalend of a sophisticatedscience exhibition, or becomesenmeshed things. This is indicated in his essay'stitle, "Game in a role-plapng game - or for that matter shopsin a Design as Narrative Architecture."A more pla14u1 store,reads a novel,or visits a polling booth - all this GameDesign as NarrativeArchitecture FIRSTPERSON HenryJenkins future of games.The goal should be to foster 5. If some gamestell stories,they are unlikely to tell diversificationofgenres, aesthetics, and audiences,to t-hemin the sameways t-hatother media tell stories. open gamersto the broadestpossible range of Storiesare not empty content tlat canbe ported from experiences.The past few yearshave been ones of one media pipeline to another. One would be hard- enormouscreative experimentation and innovation pressed,for example,to translate the internal dialogue within the gamesindustry, as might be representedby of Proust'sRemembrance of ThingsPast into a a list of some of the groundbreaking titles. TheSims, compelling cinematic experience,and the tight control BlackandWhite, Majestic, Shenmue: each represents over viewer experiencethat Hitchcock achievesin his profoundly different conceptsof what makesfor suspensefilms would be directly antithetical to the compellinggame play. A discussionof the narrative aestheticsof good game design.We must, therefore,be potentials of gamesneed not imply a privileging of attentive to the particularity of gamesas a medium, storytelling over all the other possiblet}ings gamescan specificallywhat distinguishesthem from other do, evenif we might suggestthat if game designersare narrative traditions. Yet, in order to do so requires going to tell stories,they should tell them well. In order precisecomparisons - not the mapping of old models to do that, game designers,who are most often onto gamesbut a testing of those models against schooledin computerscience or graphicdesign, need to existing gamesto determine what featuresthey share be retooled in the basicvocabulary of narrative theory. with other media and how they differ. Much of the writing in the ludologist tradition rs 4. The experienceof playing gamescan never be simply unduly polemical:they are so busy trying to pull game reducedto the experienceof a story. Many other factors designersout of their "cinemaenry or define a field that havelittle or nothing to do with storytelling per se where no hypertext theorist dares to venture that they contribute to the development of great gamesand we are prematurely dismissingthe use value of narrative need to significantly broaden our critical vocabulary for for understanding their desiredobject of study. For my talking about gamesto deal more fully with those other money,a seriesof conceptuaiblind spotsprevent them topics.Here, the ludologistsinsistence that game from developinga full understanding of the interplay scholarsfocus more attention on the mechanicsof between narrative and games. game play seemstotally in order. First, the discussionoperates with too narrow a can be approachedin terms of experiencedesign. How FromMarkku Eskelinen's 0nline Response are interactionsorganized and solicited?How doesone For somereason Henry Jenkinsdoesn't define the event flow into another?How doesthe overall contestedconcepts (narratives, stories, and games)so experience"hang together"?Although Laurel t}eor2es central to his argumentation.That's certainly an experiencedesign using the model of fuistotelian effective way of building a middle ground (or a t-heater(arguing that it has been shapingau&ences' periphery),but perhapsnot the most convincingone. experiencefor centuries),there are in practicean almost unlimited set of performative models to draw upon: Jenkinsalso misrepresents a &spute (on the sports,rituals, sagas,popular entertainments,novels, usefulnessof narratology), important parts of which he jokes,and so on. seemsto be unawareof It has its roots both in Espen Perhapswhat's really at stake in ludology is less the Aarseth'sCybertext (which dealsextensively with the right modeland more a senseof tone and attitude - a relationship between stories and games,showing willingness to mix it up, to entertain many possibilities, elementary differencesin communicative structures of to play with lots of different models. narratives and adventuregames) and Gonzalo Frasca's introduction of ludologyto computer game stu&es.A GameTheories > Jenkins McKenzieEsketinen IV.Game Theories ,:r irjl i|-r PlarCe ;:;;"",",.-::il,ffi i;l*-'- model of narrative,one preoccupiedwith the rules and SpatiatStories and conventionsof classicalhnear storytelling at the EnvironmentaI Storytelting expenseof considerationof other kinds of narratives, Gamedesigners don't simply tell stories;they design not only the modernistand postmodernist worlds and sculptspaces. It is no accident,for example, experimentationthat inspiredthe hlpertext theorists, that game design documents have historically been but also popular traditions that emphasizespatial more interested in issuesof levei design than on exploration over causalevent chains or which seekto plotting or charactermotivation. A prehistoryof video balancethe competing demandsof narrative and and computer gamesmight take us through t}e spectacle.a evolution of paper mazesor board games,both Second,the &scussionoperates with too Limitedan preoccupiedwith the design of spaces,even where they understan&ng of narration, focusing more on the also provided some narrative context. Monopoly, for activities and aspirations of the storyteller and too example,may tell a narrative about how fortunes are little on the processof narrativecomprehension.s won and lost; the individual Chancecards may provide Third, the discussiondeals only with the question of some story pretext for our gaining or losing a certain whether whole gamestell storiesand not whether number of places;but ultimately, what we remember is narrativeelements might enter gamesat a more the experienceof moving around the board and landing localizedlevel. Finally,the discussionassumes tJrat on someone'sreal estate.Performance theorists have narratives must be self-containedrather than describedrole-playing games (RPGs) as a mode of understandinggames as servingsome specific collaborativestorytelling, but the Dungeon Masters functions within a new transme&a storytelling activities start with designingthe space- the environment. Rethinking eachof these issuesmight dungeon - where the players'quest will take place. lead us to a new understanding of the relationship Even many of the early text-basedgames, such as Zork, between gamesand stories.Specifically, I want to whlch could have told a wide array of different kinds of introducean important third term into this discussion stories,centered around enabling playersto move - spatiality - and argue for an understanding of through narratively compelling spaces:"You are facing game designersless as storytellers and more as the north sideof a white house.There is no door here, narrative architects. and all of t}re windows are boarded up. To the north a
discussionof the presenttopic, which ignoresthese JenkinsResponds 'Are works,cannot hope to breaknew ground.A few factsof I feel a bit like Travis Bickle when I ask Eskelinen, cultural history wouldn't hurt either: as the oldest you talking to me?" For starters,I don't considermyself astragals(forerunners of dice) date back to prehistory, to be a narratologist at all. I'm not so sure'gamesfit within a much older tra&tion of spatialstories." http://wwuetectronicbookreview. com/th read/fi rstperson/eskeli nenr1 http://www. e [ectro nicb o o kreview. co m/th read/fi rstperson/jen ki nsr2 GameDesignas NarrativeArchitecture FIRSTPHRSON HenryJenkins
facilitatesdifferent kinds of narrative experiences. As such,games fit within a much older tradition of spatialstories, which haveoften taken the form of hero'sodysseys, quest myths, or travel narratives.TThe best works of J.R.R.Tolkien, Jules Verne, Homer, L. Frank Baum, or Jack London fall loosely within this tradition, as does,for example,the sequenceinWar and Peacethat describesPierre's aimless wanderings across the battlefield at Borodino. Often, such works exist on the outer borders of literature. They are much loved by readers,to be sure,and passeddown from one generation to another,but they rarely figure in the canon of great literary works. How often, for example, has sciencefiction beencriticized for being preoccupied 70.7.Civilizotion 3. (Atari) witl-r world-making at t}re expenseof character narrow path winds tlrough tie trees."The early psychologyor plot development? Nintendo gameshave simple narrative hooks - rescue Thesewriters seemconstandy to be pushing against PrincessToadstool - but what gamersfound the limits of what canbe accomplishedin a printed text astonishing when they first played them were tleir and thus their works fare badly against aesthetic complex and imaginative graphic realms,which were so standardsdefined around classicallyconstructed much more sophisticatedthan the simplegrids that novels.In many cases,the characters- our guides Pongor Pac-Manhad offered us a decadeearlier. through these richly developedworlds - are stripped When we refer to such influential early works as down to the barebones, description displaces ShigeruMiyamoto's Super Mario Bros.as "scrollgames," exposition,and plots fragmentinto a seriesof episodes we situate them alongsidea much older tradition of and encounters.When gamedesigners draw story spatial storytelling: many Japanesescroll paintings map, elementsfrom existing film or literary genres,tley are for example,the passingof the seasonsonto an most apt to tap those genres- fantasy,adventure, unfolding space.When you adapt a film into a game,the sciencefiction, horror, war - which are most invested processgpically involvestranslating eventsin the 6lm in world-makingand spatialstorytelling. Games, in into environmentswitlin the game.When gamer turn, may more firlly realizethe spatiality of these magazineswant to describethe experienceof gameplay, stories,giving a much more immersiveand compelling they are more likely to reproducemaps of the game representation of their narrative worlds. Anyone who world than to recount their narratives.6Before we can doubts that Tolstoy might have achievedhis true calling talk about game narratives,then, we need to talk about as a game designershould rereadthe final segment of game spaces.Across a seriesof essays,I havemade the War and Peacewhere he works through how a seriesof casethat game consolesshould be regardedas machines a-lternativechoices might have reversedthe outcome of for generatingcompelling spaces, that their virtual Napoleon'sRussian campaign. The passageis dead playspaceshave helped to compensatefor tle declining weight in the context of a novel,yet it outlines ideas placeof tle traditional baclcyardin contemporary boy that couldbe easilycommunicated in god-gamessuch culture,and that t}re core narratives behind many games as thosein the Civilizahonseries (figure 10.1). center around the struggle to explore,map, and master Don Carson,who worked asa SeniorShow Designer contestedspaces (Fuller and Jenkins1994; Jenkins for Walt Disney Imagineering,has argued that game 1998).Here, I want to broadenthat discussionfurther designerscan learn a great deal by studying techniques to considerin what ways the structuring of game space of "environmentalstorytelling," which Disneyemploys GameTheories > Jenkins McKenzieEskelinen IV. GameTheories ;,1i... t. ,r1",-**r,.,or.r , l:i :;rr :,t*r,t: L jeLi.?fr-ridi"i.ir*i
in designingamusement park attractions.Carson explains,
The story elementis infusedinto the physical spacea guest walks or rides through. It is the physicalspace that does much of the work of conveyingthe story tlre designers aretrytngto tell....fumed only with their own knowledgeof the world, and those visions collectedfrom moviesand books,the audienceis ripe to be droppedinto your adventure.The trick is to piay on thosememories and expectations to heighten the thrill of venturing into your createduniverse. (Carson2000)
The amusementpark attraction doesn'tso much reproducetle story of a literary work, suchas TheWind in the Willows,as it evokesits atmosphere;the original 'a story provides set of rules that will guide the design and project team to a common goal"and that will help givestructure and meaningto the visitors experience. Ifl for example,the attraction centersaround pirates, Carsonwrites, "every texture you use,every sound you play,every turn in the road should reinforce the concept of pirates,"while any contradictory element 10.2.American McGee's Alice (Rogue Entertainment, Etectronic Arts) may shatter the senseof immersioninto this narrative EvocativeSpaces universe.The samemight be saidfor a gamesuch as Sea The most compellingamusement park attractionsbuild Dogs,which, no Iesstlan Piratesof the Caibbean, upon stories or genre tra&tions alreadywell-known to dependson its ability to map our preexisting pirate visitors, allowing them to enter physica-llyinto spaces fantasies.The most significant differenceis that they have visited many times before in their fantasies. amusementpark designerscount on visitors keeping Theseattractions may either remediatea preexisting their hands and arms in the car at all times and t}us story (Backto the Future)or draw upon a broadly shared havea greater control in shaping our total experience, genretradition (Disney'sHaunted Mansion).Such whereasgame designershave to developworlds where works do not so much tell self-containedstories as we can touch, grab,and fling things about at wiil. draw upon our previously existing narrative Environmental storytelling createsthe preconditions competencies.They can paint their worlds in fairly for an immersive narrative experiencein at least one of broad outlines and count on the visitor /player to do the four ways:spatial stories can evokepre-existing rest. Something similar might be said of many games. narrative associations;they can provide a staging For example,American McGee's Alice* is an original ground where narrative eventsare enacted;they may interpretation of Lewis Carroll'sAlice inWonderland embed narrative information within their mise-en- (figure 10.2).Alice hasbeen pushed into madnessafter scene;or they provide resourcesfor emergentnarratives. yearsof living with uncertainty about whether her GameDesign as Narrative Architecture FIRSTPERSON HenryJenkins
Wonderlandexperiences were realor hallucinations; EnactingStories now, shes comeback into this world and is looking for Most often,when we &scussgames as stories,we are blood.McGees wonderland is not a whimsical referringto gamesthat either enableplayers to perform dreamscapebut a dark nightmarerealm. McGee can or witness narrative events- for example,to grab a safely assumethat playersstart t|e game wit} a pretty light-saber and dispatch Darth Maul in aStar Wars well-developedmental map of the spaces,characters, game.Narrative enters suchgames on two levels- rn and situations associatedwith Carrolls fictional terms of broadly defined goalsor conflicts and on the universe and that they wilJ read his distorted and often levelof localizedincidenrs. monstrous imagesagainst the background of mental Many game critics assumethat all stories must be imagesformed from previous encounterswith classicallyconstructed with eachelement tightly storybookillustrations and Disneymovies. McGee integrated into the overallplot trajectory Costikyan 'a rewrites Alice'sstory in large part by redesigningAlice's (2000) writes, for example,that story is a controlled sPaces. experience;the author consciouslycrafts it, choosing fuguing againstgames as stories,Jesper Juul certain events precisely,in a certain order, to createa suggeststhat, "you clearly can't deduct the story of Star story with maximum impact."s Wars from Star Wars the game,"whereas a film version Adams (1999) daims,"a good story hangstogether of a novel will give you at least the broad outlines of tlre tlre way a good jigsawpuzzle hangs together.When you plot (Juul 1998). This is a pretty old-fashionedmodel pick it up, every pieceis locked tightly in placenext to of the processof adaptation.Increasingly, we inhabit a its neighbors." world of transmediastorytelling, one that dependsless Spatialstories, on the other hand,are often on eachindividua-l work being self-sufficient than on &smissedas episodic- that is,each episode (or set eachwork contributing to a larger narrative economy. piece) can becomecompelling on its own terms The Star Wars gamemay not simply retell the story of without contributing significantly to the plot Star Wars.but it doesn'thave to in order to enrich or development,and often t}e episodescould be reordered expand our experienceof the Star Wars saga. wit}out significantlyimpacting our experienceas a We already know the story before we evenbuy the whole.There may be broad movementsor seriesof game and would be frustrated if all it offered us was a stageswithin the story as Troy Dunniway suggests regurgitationofthe original film experience.Rather, when he draws parallelsbetween the stagesin the the Star Wars gameexists in dialoguewith the films, Hero'sjourney (as outlined by Joseph Campbell) and conveyingnew narrativeexperiences through its the levelsof a ciassicadventure game,but within each creativemanipulation of environmental details.One stage,the sequencingof actionsmay be quite loose. can imagine gamestaking their placewithin alarger Spatialstories are not badly constructedstories; rather, narrative system with story information they are stories that respond to alternative aesthetic communicatedthrough books,film, television,comics, principles, privileging spatial exploration over plot and otler medja,each doing what it doesbest, each a development.Spatial stories are held togetherby relatively autonomous experience,but the richest broadly defined goalsand conflicts and pushed forward understandingof the story world coming to tlose who by the charactersmovement across the map.Their follow the narrative acrossthe various channels.In resolution often hinges on the player reachinghis or such a system,what gamesdo best will almost certainly her final destination,though, as Mary Fullernotes, not centeraround their ability to give concreteshape to our all travel narratives end successfullyor resolvethe memories and imaginings of the story'world, creating narrativeenigmas that set them into motion. Once an immersive environment we can wander through and again,we are back to principles of "environmental interact with, storytelling." The organization of the plot becomesa matter of designingthe geographyof imaginary worlds, GameTheories > Jenkins McKenzieEsketinen j'.iu[ iic Pearce IV. GameTheories :;;;:,*."::;:il,u;,li'*"'" so that obstaclesthwart and affordancesfacilitate the Gamecritics often note that the player'sparticipation protagonists forward movement towards resolution. posesa potential t}reat to the narrativeconstruction, Over the past severaldecades, game designershave whereasthe hard rails of the plotting can overly becomemore and more adeptat setting and varyrng constrain the "freedom,power, and self-expression" the rhythm of game play through featuresof the game associatedwith interactivity (Adams 1999). The space. tensionbetween performance (or gameplay) and Narrative can a-lsoenter gameson the level of exposition (or story) is far from unique to games.The localizedincident, or what I am callingmicronarratives. pleasuresof popularculture often centeron spectacular We might understand how micronarratives work by performancenumbers and self-containedset pieces.It thinking about the OdessaSteps sequence in Sergei makesno senseto describemusical numbers or gag Eisenstein'sB attle ship Potemkin. First, recognize that, sequencesor action scenesas disruptionsof the film's whatever its serious moral tone, the scenebasically plots: the reasonwe go to seea kung fu movie is to see dealswith the samekind of material as most games- JackieChan show his stuff.eYet, few films consist the stepsare a contestedspace with one group (the simply of such moments, typically falling back on some peasants)trying to advanceup and another (the broad narrative exposition to createa framework Cossacks)moving down. within which localizedactions become meaningfirl.10 Eisensteinintensifies our emotiona-lengagement We might describemusicals, action films, or slapstick with this large-scaleconflict through a seriesof short comediesas havingaccordion-like structures. Certain narrative units. The woman with the baby carriageis plot points are fixed, whereasother moments can be perhapsthe best known of those micronarratives.Each expandedor contracted in responseto audience of theseunits builds upon stock charactersor feedbackwithout serious consequencesto the overall situations drawn from t}e repertoire of melodrama. plot. The introduction needsto establishthe character's None of them last more than a few seconds,thouqh goalsor explainthe basicconflict; the conclusionneeds Eisensteinproiongs them (and intensifiestheir to show the successfulcompletion of thosegoals or the emotiona,limpact) through cross-cuttingbetween final defeat of the antagonist. In commediadell'arte, for multiple incidents.Eisenstein used the term "attraction" example,the masksdefine tle relationshipsbetween to describesuch emotionally packed elementsin his the charactersand give us some senseof their goalsand work; contemporary game designersmight call them desires.r1 "memorablemoments." Just as somememorable The masksset limits on the action,even though tlre momentsin gamesdepend on sensations(the senseof performance as a whoie is createdthrough speedin a racinggame) or perceptions(the sudden improvisation. The actors have masteredthe possible expanseof slcyin a snowboarding game) as well as moves,or lazzi,associated with eachcharacter, much as narrative hooks, Eisensteinused the word "attractions" a gameplayer has masteredthe combinationof buttons broadly to describeany element within a work that that must be pushed to enablecertain character producesa profound emotionalimpact, and theorized actions.No author prescribeswhat the actorsdo once that the themes of the work could be communicated they get on t}re stage,but the shapeof the story acrossand through these discreteelements. Even games emergesfrom this basicvocabulary of possibleactions that do not createlarge-scale plot trajectories may well and from the broad parametersset by this theatrical dependon thesemicronarratives to shapethe player's tra&tion. Someof the lazzi cancontribute to the plot emotiona-lexperience. Micronarratives may be cut, development,but many of them aresimple restagings scenes,but they don't haveto be.One can imaginea of the basicoppositions (the knavetricks the masteror simple sequenceof preprogrammed actions through getsbeaten). which an opposing player respondsto your successfiJ Theseperformance or spectacle-centeredgenres touchdown in a football same as a micronarrative. often display a pleasurein process- in the GameDesign as NarrativeArchitecture FIRSTPERSShI HenryJenkins
experiencesalong the road - that can overwhelm any whether the bad guyslurk behind the next door,you strong senseof goalor resolution, while expositioncan will find out soon enough - perhapsby being biown be experiencedas an unwelcomeinterruption to t}re and having Sway to start the game over.The heavy- pleasureof performance.Game designers strugglewitll handedexposition that opensmany gamesserves a this samebalancing act - trying to determine how usefulfunction in orienting spectatorsto the core much plot will createa compelling framework and how premisesso that they are lesslil
EmergentNarratives The Simsrepresents a fourtl model of how narrative possibfities might get mapped onto game space(figure 10.3).Emergent narratives are not prestructured or preprogrammed,taking shapethrough the game play, yet they are not as unstructured, chaotic,and frustrating as life itself. Gameworlds, ultimately, are not real worlds, even those as denselydeveloped as Shenmueoras geographicallyexpansive as Everquest. Will Wright frequently describesThe Simsas a sandbox or dollhousegame, suggesting that it should be understood as a kind of autloring environment within which playerscan define their own goals and write their own stories.Yet, unlike Microsoft Word, the game doesn't open on a blank screen.Most players come away from spending time with The Simswith some degreeof narrative satisfaction.Wright has createda worid ripe with narrative possibilities,where each design decisionhas been made with an eye towards increasingthe prospectsof interpersonalromance or conflict. The ability to design our own "skins" encourages players to createcharacters who are emotionally significant to them, to rehearsetheir own relationships with friends, family, or coworkers or to map characters from other fictional universes onto The Sims.A glance 10.3 TheSims. (Maxis. Etectronic Arts) at the various scrapbooksplayers have posted on the web suggeststhat they havebeen quick to take advantageofits relativelyopen-ended structure. Yet, structurebut rather dependson scramblingthe pieces let'snot underestimatethe designers'contributions. of a Linearstory and allowing us to reconstruct the plot The charactershave a will of their own, not always through our acts of detection, speculation,exploration, submitting easilyto the players control, as when a and decryption.Not surprisingly,most embedded depressedprotagonist refuses to seekemployment, narratives,at present,take the form of detectiveor preferring to spendhour upon hour soaking in their conspiracystories, since these genres help to motivate bath or moping on the front porch. the playersactive examination of cluesand exploration Charactersare given desires,urges, and needs,which of spacesand provide a rationale for our efforts to can come into conflict with eachother, and thus reconstructthe narrativeofpast events.Yet. as the produce dramatically compelling encounters.Characters precedingexamples suggest. melo&ama provides respond emotionally to events in their enrrironment,as another - and as yet largely unexplored - model for when charactersmourn the lossof a loved one.Our how an embeddedstory might work, as we read letters choiceshave consequences, as when we spendall of our and diaries,snoop around in bedroom drawersand money and havenothing left to buy them food. The closets,in searchof secretsthat might shed light on the gibberish languageand flashing symbols allow us to relationshipsbetween characters. map our own meaningsonto tJreconversations, yet the GameTheories 'Jenkins McKenzieEskelinen IV.Game Theories i:::,. ill"l"1'j*-.-,.,u.," Zimnierman Crawford.Iuul
tone of voice and body languagecan powerfully express memory trace"(Lyrrch 1960, 119). Game designers specificemotional states,which encourageus to would do well to study Lynch'sbook, especiallyas they understand those interactions within familiar plor move into t}le production of game platforms which situations.The designershave made choices about support player-generatednarratives. what kinds of actions are and are not possiblein this In eachofthese cases,choices about the designand world, such as aliowing for same-sexkisses, but limiting organization of game spaceshave narratological the degreeof explicit sexualactivity that can occur. consequences.In the caseof evokednarratives, spatial (Goodprogrammers may be ableto get aroundsuch designcan either enhanceour senseof immersion restrictions, but most playersprobably work within the within a familiar world or communicate a fresh limitations of t}re system as given.) perspectiveon that story through the altering of Janet Murray's Hamlet on the Holodecl 5. "In its richestform, storytelling- narrat'ive- meansthe Developer,September 2000. reade/ssurrender to the author.The author takes the readerby the Crafton.Donald (1995). "Pie and Chase:Gag. Spectacle and Narrative handand leadshim into the wortdof his imagination.The reader in Sl.apstickComedy." In ClassicalHollywood Comedy, edited by has a roteto pLay,but it's a fairly passiveroLe: to pay attention, to KristjneBrunovska Karnick and HenryJenkins. New York: understand,perhaps to think... but not to act" (Adams1999). Rout[edge/AmericanFitm Institute. 6. As I have noted elsewhere,these mapstake a distinctiveform - Crawford,Chris (1982). TheArt of ComputerGame Design. not objectiveor abstracttop-down views but compositesof