Exploring the experiences of gamers playing as multiple first-person video game protagonists in Halo 3: ODST’s single-player narrative

Richard Alexander Meyers Bachelor of Arts

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts (Research)

School of Creative Practice Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology

2018 Keywords

First-Person Shooter (FPS), Halo 3: ODST, Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), ludus, paidia, phenomenology, video games.

i Abstract

This thesis explores the experiences of gamers playing as multiple first-person video game protagonists in Halo 3: ODST, with a view to formulating an understanding of player experience for the benefit of video game theorists and industry developers. A significant number of contemporary console-based video games are coming to be characterised by multiple playable characters within a game’s narrative. The experience of playing as more than one video game character in a single narrative has been identified as an under-explored area in the academic literature to date. An empirical research study was conducted to explore the experiences of a small group of gamers playing through Halo 3: ODST’s single-player narrative. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used as a methodology particularly suited to exploring a new or unexplored area of research and one which provides a nuanced understanding of a small number of people experiencing a phenomenon such as, in this case, playing a video game. Data were gathered from three participants through experience journals and subsequently through two semi- structured interviews. The findings in relation to participants’ experiences of Halo 3: ODST’s narrative were able to be categorised into three interrelated narrative elements: visual imagery and world-building, sound and music, and character. Within these categories there were a number of convergent and divergent themes that provided a contextualised understanding of the multi-character experience. The findings also provided an understanding of the roles of paidia and ludus – two long-standing theoretical constructs – in the gameplay. This research may serve to benefit video game developers and contribute to an understanding of the player experience from the perspective of gamers themselves.

ii Table of Contents

Keywords...... i Abstract...... ii Table of Contents...... iii Glossary of Terms...... vi Statement of Original Authorship...... viii Acknowledgements...... ix Chapter One: Introduction...... 1 1.1 Rationale for the Study...... 1 1.2 Methodology...... 2 1.3 Thesis Overview...... 3 Chapter Two: Video Game Narrative...... 4 2.1 The Field of Video Game Research...... 4 2.1.1 Video game research into narrative and character...... 4 2.1.2 The roles of narrative and character in video games...... 6 2.1.3 The evolution of video games...... 7 2.1.4 Narratology and Ludology...... 8 2.1.5 The roles of paidia and ludus in video games...... 9 2.2 Video Game Narrative Elements...... 11 2.2.1 Visual imagery and world-building...... 12 2.2.2 Music and sound...... 12 2.2.3 Character...... 13 2.3 Defining Contemporary FPS Games...... 13 2.4 The Entertainment Value of FPS Games...... 14 2.4.1 Engagement...... 15 2.4.2 Immersion...... 15 2.4.3 Identification...... 16 2.4.4 Enjoyment...... 17 2.5 Research Context...... 18 2.5.1 Gameplay and cinematics...... 18 2.5.2 Halo, a transmedia franchise...... 19 2.5.3 Halo 3: ODST...... 19 Chapter Three: Halo 3: ODST...... 20 3.1 Narrative Evolved...... 20 3.2 Halo 3: ODST’s Narrative Context...... 21 3.3 Creating A Different Halo...... 22 3.3.1 Visual imagery and world-building...... 24 3.3.2 Sound and Music...... 25 3.3.3 Character...... 26 3.4 Paidia and Ludus in Halo 3: ODST...... 27 3.5 Research Questions...... 28 Chapter Four: Methodology...... 29 4.1 The Approach to Inquiry...... 29

iii 4.2 Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA)...... 30 4.3 The Use of IPA in Video Game Research...... 31 4.4 The Selection of Participants...... 31 4.5 Ethical Considerations...... 34 4.6 Quality and Validity...... 35 4.7 Data Collection...... 36 4.7.1 The experience journal...... 36 4.7.2 The interview questions...... 37 4.7.3 Data preparation...... 38 4.8 The Hermeneutic Process...... 38 Chapter Five: The Single-player Narrative Experience...... 41 5.1 Essence of the Experience...... 41 5.1.1 An immersive noir narrative...... 42 5.1.2 Non-linear episodic narrative style...... 43 5.1.3 Multiple playable characters...... 43 5.2 The Player Experience of Visual Imagery and World-building...... 44 5.2.1 The desire for discovery and exploration...... 45 5.2.2 The highs and lows of navigation...... 46 5.2.3 Nostalgia through intertextuality...... 47 5.2.4 Analepsis...... 48 5.2.5 Player suggestions for improvement...... 49 5.3 The Player Experience of Sound and Music...... 50 5.3.1 Silenced weapons and the implication of stealth...... 51 5.3.2 Atmosphere and all that jazz...... 52 5.3.3 Audio-logs and embedded narrative...... 53 5.3.4 Player suggestions for improvement...... 54 5.4 The Player Experience of Character...... 55 5.4.1 The Rookie and the self...... 55 5.4.2 Edward Buck a.k.a. Nathan Fillion...... 57 5.4.3 No-one likes the Captain...... 58 5.4.4 Player suggestions for improvement...... 59 5.5 Discussion...... 59 5.5.1 Visual imagery and world-building...... 60 5.5.2 Sound and music...... 61 5.5.3 Character...... 62 Chapter Six: The Gameplay Experience and the Roles of Paidia and Ludus.....65 6.1 The Player Experience of Gameplay...... 65 6.1.1 Narrative immersion through movie moments...... 65 6.1.2 Different character, same armour...... 67 6.1.3 Walk, shoot, clue, repeat...... 68 6.2 The Roles of Paidia and Ludus...... 69 6.2.1 Paidia in the streets...... 70 6.2.2 Ludus in the flashbacks...... 72 6.2.3 Too much ludus in my paidia...... 72 6.3 Discussion...... 73 6.3.1 The Experience of gameplay...... 73 6.3.2 Paidia...... 75 6.3.3 Ludus...... 76 6.3.4 Paidia and ludus...... 76

iv Chapter Seven: Summary and Conclusions...... 78 7.1 An Overview of the Findings...... 78 7.1.1 Essence of the experience...... 78 7.1.2 The experience of Halo 3: ODST’s narrative...... 79 7.1.3 The experience of Halo 3: ODST’s gameplay...... 81 7.1.4 Participant’s personal suggestions for improvement...... 82 7.1.5 The strengths and limitations of the study...... 83 7.2 Implications for Video Game Design...... 84 7.2.1 The only difference between premise and story is the dose...... 84 7.2.2 He doesn’t talk much...... 85 7.3 Recommendations for Further Research...... 85 7.3.1 Phenomenological analysis of video game narratives...... 86 7.3.2 Multiple playable protagonists...... 86 7.3.3 Paidia and ludus in one game...... 86 7.4 Conclusions...... 87 Appendices...... 89 Appendix A: Ethics Approval Certificate...... 89 Appendix B: Participant Information Sheet...... 90 Appendix C: Participant Consent Form...... 93 Appendix D: Experience Journal Email Items...... 94 Appendix E: Interview 1 Questions...... 95 Appendix F: Interview 2 Questions...... 96 References...... 97

v Glossary of Terms

Video Game Studies Terms  Analepsis: a narrative flashback.  Cinematics or cut-scenes: short sections of scripted narrative, frequently taking control of the character away from the video game player to provide specific direction to the story in a ‘movie-like’ scene.  DLC: downloadable content; additions to a video game that can be downloaded to a console.  FPS: First-Person Shooter; a game genre in which the player views the game- world from the perspective of an in-game character.  Gameplay: the way in which a player interacts with the game-world.  Game-world: the fictional environment or setting for the narrative.  Intertextuality: a narrative device where a narrative relates to other narratives.  Ludology: the study of video games.  Ludus: a Latin word which means ‘game’ or ‘training’.  MMO: Massively Multiplayer Online; a game genre that involves interactions with an online community of players from around the world through the use of the Internet.  MMORPG: Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game; a combination of the MMO and RPG game genres.  Narratology: the study of narrative.  Paidia: an Ancient Greek word which means ‘play’ or ‘to educate’.  RPG: Role Playing Game; a game genre that involves players increasing their character’s skills and customising their character’s appearance while they overcome increasingly difficult challenges.  Transmedia franchise: a narrative series that is available across multiple media such as books, television and video games.  Video game console: a technological platform specifically designed for video games, such as an Xbox or a Playstation.

vi Halo 3: ODST Terms  Banshee: a single-occupant Covenant air-assault vehicle named after the screeching noise it creates.  Covenant: a militarised conglomerate of several different races of aliens, united under the search for artefacts important to their religion and who seek to eradicate humanity from the galaxy.  ODST: Orbital Drop Shock Trooper; a soldier in the Halo game-world who drops into battle from above the atmosphere of a planet. Clad in black pressure sealed armour, with a distinct silver visor, they represent humanity’s special operations unit.  ONI: Office of Naval Intelligence; head of humanity’s military operations; known for being secretive, ruthless and unethical.  Pelican drop ship: a human air-assault vehicle designed for transporting infantry.  VISR: Visual Intelligence System Reconnaissance; a visual system for ODST’s which uses different colors to identify various features of the game- world environment, such as weapons, friend status, enemy status and important objects.

Methodological Terms  Essence: the essential constituent of human experience of a phenomenon.  Hermeneutics: the theory of interpretation.  Idiography: an approach to knowledge concerned with the particular, as distinct from generalisations.  IPA: Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis; a research methodology concerned with the detailed investigation of human experience of a phenomenon.  Superordinate theme: an overarching theme embracing various themes within the experiences of a phenomenon.

vii Statement of Original Authorship

QUT Verified Signature

viii Acknowledgements

I wish to express my appreciation and gratitude to my principal supervisor, Dr Peter Schembri, for his ongoing guidance and assistance throughout the production of this thesis. He has been an excellent source of knowledge in my video game research and subsequently has been able to provide me with a wealth of information in support of my study. I also appreciate the contributions of my associate supervisors, Dr Sean Maher and Associate Professor Daniel Johnson for assisting my conceptualisation and construction of the thesis during its initial stages. I would also like to thank the three participants of the study, experienced gamers, who willingly gave their time and provided the detailed narratives which significantly contributed to the success of the research. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents, Chris and Rebecca Meyers, for their ongoing encouragement and support during the two years of this research project.

ix Chapter One Introduction

This thesis documents a research study conducted to explore the experiences of gamers playing as multiple first-person video game protagonists. The findings of this research contribute to the field of knowledge known as ‘game studies’, in particular video game narrative, and may serve to inform industry development of narratives and characters in first-person shooter (FPS) console video games. This chapter provides a rationale for the study, a brief description of the methodology employed to conduct the research, and a structural overview of the thesis, including a description of how the findings are presented and discussed in the chapters that follow.

1.1 Rationale for the Study As video games have evolved, compelling characters and engaging narratives have come to the forefront of game design and marketing. A notable conclusion of a recent survey by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA, 2015) is that the most influential selling point of a video game is an interesting story or premise. Additionally, literature in the field of video game research suggests that the immersive experience of a video game’s narrative is created through the use of narrative elements such as visual imagery and world building, music and sound, and character. Previous studies by Cohen (2001), Hefner, Klimmt and Vorderer (2007) and Shaw (2013) have notably analysed the function of a protagonist in narrative- based games in terms of identification, whereby a player projects themselves onto a character. This thesis takes an in-depth, qualitative approach to an exploration of the experiences of a small number of video game players by analysing and interpreting reports of their interactions with a video game’s narrative and characters. The research concerns the use of dedicated video game platforms, that is, video game consoles. At the forefront of the video game console industry are FPS games, often containing military and science-fiction imagery and themes. This research explores the experiences of gamers playing through the single-player narrative of a console- based FPS game within the context of a new phenomenon occurring more frequently in contemporary video games, that of multiple playable characters.

1 Phenomenological methodologies are frequently used to inductively explore the experiences of new phenomena. Video game studies employing phenomenological methodologies have often been conducted into the experiences of gamers playing online multi-player video games. An example of this is Jacob Rusczek’s (2015) PhD dissertation on players’ experiences of Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs) which focused on the concepts of immersion and addiction. Another example is Joseph Alexander’s (2015) PhD dissertation which is one of the only studies identified by the researcher that investigated narrative-based video game engagement and immersion from a phenomenological perspective. However, there is little other research into the experience of video game narrative. Shaw (2013), in his review of video game research, highlights the scarcity of qualitative studies into the experience of narrative in video games, a sentiment subsequently echoed by both Rusczek and Alexander. This thesis builds on such previous qualitative and experience-based academic research by investigating a particularly under-explored area of video game experience: the phenomenon of playing as multiple protagonists in a video game narrative. Interaction with this phenomenon may give rise to a diverse range of experiences, “allowing for a narrative complexity not possible where there is a single player-character” (Tavinor, 2015, p. 271). The thesis documents what appears to be the first research of its kind related to multiple playable protagonists within a video game’s single-player narrative. This study used a specific video game as a stimulus to the experience of participants and to provide a definable phenomenon for investigation: Halo 3: ODST’s single-player narrative. This game exemplifies popular narrative-based FPS games and incorporates five protagonists that the single player must embody before the completion of the game’s narrative. Given the impact of narrative and character development on video game marketability, research into player experiences with playable video game characters is of both academic and commercial interest in terms of a need to understand the experience of gamers from the perspective of gamers themselves.

1.2 Methodology In direct response to the need to understand the experiences of a phenomenon, a phenomenological methodology was employed as a qualitative and idiographic

2 approach to explore such experiences in-depth. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) is a methodology, frequently used in psychology, that has demonstrated its value in understanding how people experience a phenomenon. IPA is concerned with developing an in-depth understanding through a description and interpretation of the experiences of a small number of participants. As such, this thesis builds on Alexander’s (2015) research, which also used IPA to similarly explore the video game narrative experience, albeit more generally.

1.3 Thesis Overview The thesis proceeds from this introduction to a review of the related video game literature in Chapter Two and Chapter Three. Chapter Two investigates literature related to the experience of various video game genres and the importance of narrative and character in shaping the video game experience. The review focusses specifically on the experience of first-person narrative-based video games, as one of the most dominant and commercially successful video game genres. Chapter Three continues the review by providing details of the Halo franchise and outlines the narrative context of Halo 3: ODST to inform a comprehensive understanding of participants’ experiences presented in the findings. The methodology employed in the study is outlined in Chapter Four, including topics such as the approach to inquiry, the use of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a methodology for exploring player experiences of a video game, the selection of participants, ethical considerations, the quality and validity of the study and the means by which data were collected and analysed. The findings and discussion of the research are presented in Chapter Five and Chapter Six, supported in each case by narrative extracts from participant accounts of their individual experiences of the game. Chapter Five is primarily concerned with the narrative experience, while Chapter Six is concerned with the gameplay experience. Finally, Chapter Seven provides an overview of the findings, the implications for video game design, and recommendations for further research. The chapter concludes with an outline of the ways in which the study contributes to an understanding of the experience of gamers playing as multiple first-person video game protagonists.

3 Chapter Two Video Game Narrative

The previous chapter introduced the thesis as a research study to explore the experiences of gamers playing as multiple first-person video game protagonists. This chapter commences a review of the literature related to video game genres and the importance of narrative and character in shaping a player’s experience of a video game. The review is principally concerned with the experience of first-person narrative-based video games, as a prominent video game genre in terms of marketing and popularity. The dearth of research related to the phenomenological analysis of the experience of video game narrative is an identifiable gap in the research field within which this study positions itself.

2.1 The Field of Video Game Research Research concerning video games has been described as an “interdisciplinary field … [that] has coalesced in recent times” (Tavinor, 2009, p. 15) to become the field known as game studies. This thesis is set within the context of an “undeniable boom and growing public popularity” (Kempton, 2015, p. 1) of video games, the development of which is now a multi-billion dollar industry. The following subsections discuss the previous research that has been conducted into narrative and character in video games and serves as a precursor to an understanding of the video game narrative experience.

2.1.1 Video game research into narrative and character Narrative and story have become central components of most contemporary video games. As recently as 2017, Lemmens stated that “narrative as a notion is still being explored within the context of video games” (p. 17). However, in a seminal work by Henry Jenkins (2004), he stated that “the relationship between games and story remains a divisive question among game fans, designers, and scholars alike” (p. 118). It can be seen that this divisiveness referred to by Jenkins in 2004 is still apparent in studies conducted over thirteen years later, and a phenomenological approach may offer nuanced insights into the experiences of individual gamers when engaging with video game narratives and their associated characters. The particular

4 phenomenological approach utilised in this study is a method of investigation often overlooked by video game narrative researchers and game design theorists. Concomitant with the advancements in video game technology has been the development of academic studies investigating four particular qualities of player experience, those being engagement, immersion, identification and enjoyment (Forest, 2011; Kempton, 2015). Kempton (2015) investigates player-to-character connectivity and immersion, Shaw (2013) explores identification, and Alexander (2015) focuses on de-constructing narrative engagement and enjoyment. Alexander’s (2015) study, in particular, uses phenomenology as a methodology to explore player experience of narrative and character and, as such, has paved the way for this investigation of the narrative-based video game experience. He briefly discusses the progression of console-based video game narratives from their simple origins to games concerning morality, decision-making and character relationships. His research has been informed by the work of Przybylski, Rigby and Ryan (2010), who reviewed the premise that console-based video games have enabled players to vicariously experience an existence within the contextual narrative world of the game, the game-world. Many video game researchers have used the term ‘player-character’, a concept occurring in an increasing number of contemporary academic studies, to mean a hybridisation of a video game player and the character that they inhabit (Aarseth, 2013; Arsenault, 2013, Forest, 2011). This term is often used in conjunction with role-playing games (RPGs) where a player frequently has the ability to customise their character’s appearance and skills (Tavinor, 2009). Przybylski et al. (2010) surmise that, in this way, console-based video games provide, through a virtual protagonist, “highly immersive experiences, allowing the player to experience a strong sense of presence in the game world” (p. 161), with the concept of immersion being one of the four identified qualities of the video game experience. This immersion is exemplified in first-person gameplay, in which the player not only controls the character on screen, but inhabits their perspective. It can be seen that the experience of a narrative-based video game is determined to a large extent by such a character, who is utilised as a narrative conduit to invite the player into the game’s story. According to a 2015 United States survey by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), a video game’s narrative and characters are the most influential

5 selling points when marketing games to players. This is particularly relevant to first- person gameplay. FPS games are reported to comprise almost a third of the top- selling video games of 2015 in the United States (ESA, 2015). When Alexander (2015) and Przybylski et al. (2010) discuss gameplay, they indicate that first-person shooter (FPS) gameplay provides a high level of immersion, described by researchers as a character-driven cinematic experience through the virtual perspective of the “game-body” (Crick, 2011, p. 267). Alexander (2015) states that video games offer a unique point of view for research, where engagement with other narrative-based media – such as books, movies and television – “is done from a third-party perspective” (p. 3). He strongly supports the need for further research into console- based video game narratives and characters.

2.1.2 The roles of narrative and character in video games Van Looy, Courtois, De Vocht and De Marez (2012) argue that, despite the wealth of studies related to the four qualities of video game narrative and character experience – engagement, immersion, identification, and enjoyment – the academic research has lacked a “common conceptual framework, operationalization, and toolset for measuring” (p. 198). Shaw (2013) states that “the interactivity of games, often assumed to produce a strong feeling of identification, may in fact replace the process of identification” (p. 357). In reviewing contemporary research into video game narrative and characters, Shaw (2013) comments that such studies come from one of two perspectives: either games with a high degree of narrative development, or alternately games which allow the character to be developed by the player through visual customisation and decision-making within the game (Shaw, 2013). He highlights that this separation of video game narrative studies and video game character studies has both shaped and limited the knowledge and understanding available in the field of video game research (Shaw, 2013). Both Shaw (2013) and Van Looy et al. (2012) suggest a need for further research into the process and experience of identification with not only a video game’s narrative, but also its characters. These researchers consistently highlight the need for further studies in this area because of the increased role of both narrative and character in the evolution of video games.

6 2.1.3 The evolution of video games Since their initial development in the 1970s, commercial video games have evolved from inviting players to make simple decisions to complete a basic task, to inviting players to make morally charged decisions within a complex narrative. Not only have the objectives and tasks become more complex, but so too have video game graphics and sound design. Alexander’s (2015) dissertation briefly explores how video games function through set interactive rules as the way in which numerous and increasingly difficult objectives are presented to players as a game progresses. Frasca (2003) believes that this basic system of delivering challenges to a player is evident within all video games. The earliest video games, such as Space Invaders (Taito Corporation, 1978) and Asteroids (Atari Incorporated, 1979), contain this system of challenges, also known as “game mechanics” (Alexander, 2015). These games provide a minimal game-world or developed character and no narrative other than to prevent a moving target from reaching a particular location. Later games, including Donkey Kong (Nintendo Research and Development 1, 1981) and Crash Bandicoot (Naughty Dog Incorporated, 1996), mark some of the first console games. They include a loosely defined character and minimal narrative context, but still contain a linear narrative journey from one location, point A, to another, point B. However, in the range of more recent console games, such as Bioshock (2K Games, 2005) and Mass Effect (Bio Ware, 2007), point B is a goal that not only represents the end of the level but also requires players to make difficult, narrative-altering decisions in order to progress. It has been stated by Frasca (2003) that such decisions offer greater narrative complexity by adding the consideration of cause and effect to the simple puzzle-solving structure at the core of all video games. In the early 2000s, the popularity of the Internet gave rise to online gaming, particularly massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs). The majority of experience-based video game studies focus on these MMORPGs (Chappell, Eatough, Davies, & Griffiths, 2006; Hussain & Griffiths, 2009; Rusczek, 2015; Skouveroe & Krangnes, 2011; Van Looy et al., 2012). These studies give detailed insight into the multi-player experience, one which involves little to no narrative or character development. However, Shaw (2013) emphasises that player identification with narrative characters, “is rarely examined in a qualitative, audience focussed way” (p. 349). To date, Alexander (2015) remains one of few published researchers to study video game narrative from a qualitative phenomenological

7 perspective. Within this evolution of video games, two prominent approaches have emerged in connection with video game narrative analysis: narratology and ludology.

2.1.4 Narratology and Ludology There appears to be numerous approaches adopted by researchers when studying video game narrative. Many researchers in this field, such as Perron (2013) and Lankoski (2011) have discussed the relationship between player and game by examining the phenomenology of such experiences. To investigate the psychology of gamers, Lankoski (2011) utilises a theory of embodiment, where player’s become and inhabit their character. The work of Isbister (2016) is grounded in cognitive science and, in a similar way to the work of Lankoski (2011), draws conclusions based on a psychological explanation. Additionally, Lemmens (2017) refers to Aarseth’s (2013) theory that traditional literary approaches to narrative structure are not applicable when exploring non-linear texts such as video games. The outcome of this research is that there is a wealth of relevant theories and approaches to the study of video game narrative. However, two of the most prominent approaches, narratology and ludology, have come to divide the academic work in games research and design. As narratives and characters began to emerge as prominent features of the video game experience, researchers and theorists alike have debated as to which approach was more appropriate to analyse video game narratives (Perron, 2013). Narratology and ludology have polarised the debate, where narratology is concerned with the structure, purpose, or symbolism used within a narrative, and ludology is concerned with the study of gameplay and game mechanics (Perron, 2013). In a conference paper, Brand and Knight (2005) write that they envisage “some games, particularly compared with other media, would have a mid-point between narrative and non-narrative structures. We propose there exists a structure ‘pseudo-narrative’ and in which games tend to employ a building blocks narrative model with a high level of emergent narrative architecture” (p. 5). It is clear that games do employ many non-narrative components such as the underlying code and rule-sets that enable a game to function. However, it is apparent, according to Gregersen (2013), that “many video games do use narrative strategies, but these depend heavily upon the interplay between game and player as information is distributed over time” (p. 422). The relationship between narrative and game appears to depend on how the game is

8 experienced by the player (Arsenault, 2013). This strong relationship is caused by narratives becoming more deeply rooted not only in the context of the game-world but in the gameplay itself. With reference to the ongoing debate between narratology and ludology, Arsenault (2013) argues that some video game analysts endeavour to “categorize video games as a kind of interactive narrative; others view interactivity and narrative as mutually exclusive, if they align narrative with [the concept of being] fixed and predetermined” (p. 180). In fact, Aarseth (2013) believes that there is no better way to understand the relationship between video games and their narratives than through narratology. He states that the narratology versus ludology debate is a “falsely constructed conflict” (p. 187) and is not present in ludologist literature. However, Newman’s (2013) point of view would seem to conflict with Aarseth’s (2013), in that he believes a narratological approach could be problematic as narratology relies on the text “as a static entity from which meaning can be deduced” (Newman, 2013, p. 93). Newman (2013) alternatively suggests that ludology is able to make sense of a video game’s text because it is influenced and enacted by the intervention of the player. Herman (1999) alternatively proposes an evolved concept referred to as post- classical narratology, which he believes can be used in any analysis of “narratively organised discourse, literary, historiographical, conversational, filmic, or other” (p. 27). However, this is a concept that was developed at a time when narratives did not yet play a dominant role in video games as is also the case for the debate between narratology and ludology. Within ludology, there exists another polarity, in this case two prominent theoretical constructs that represent two different styles of gameplay in a video game: paidia and ludus.

2.1.5 The roles of paidia and ludus in video games The evolution of the Internet allowed for games such as Halo to provide players with access to dedicated Internet servers for a world-wide, competitive multi- player option. Rusczek (2015), in his PhD dissertation concluded that online video games such as World of Warcraft, or WoW (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004), significantly contributed to a revolution in video games. WoW’s (2004) point of difference from previous video games across all genres was that it offered gamers the ability to visually customise their in-game character, or avatar, and subsequently

9 interact with other players’ avatars. It also offered the ability for players to form teams and clans with other avatars across the world, through the Internet, so as to accomplish non-linear and non-narrative-based tasks (Rusczek, 2015). WoW (2004) has no end goal, but rather creates a new method of playing games described by Rusczek (2015) as “grinding” (p. 16), a phenomenon that occurs in most MMORPGs. This style of gameplay involves players progressing through the game, slaying adversaries, hunting treasure, or completing quests, resulting in the players attaining a higher rank for their avatar, increasing their strength and upgrading their equipment, in order to slay stronger adversaries, find greater treasure and complete more challenging quests (Rusczek, 2015). Frasca (2003) analyses this style of gameplay, often in connection with MMORPGs, where players pursue various in- game goals for rewards for their in-game avatar, involving little to no narrative context. His in-depth commentary on the emergent role of video game narrative provided the foundations for scholars, such as Alexander (2015), Crick (2011) and Hefner et al. (2007), to further expand the field of video game research into player experience. Both Frasca (2003) and Jensen (2013) believe that grinding is steeped in the concept of paidia, one of two long-standing styles of the simulated experience offered by games. Paidia is an Aristotelian concept, translated from Ancient Greek to mean play or to educate. An excellent example of paidia is Minecraft, in that, as argued by Newman (2013), it encourages players to explore and discover in a game- world without narrative context. The counterpart to paidia is ludus (Frasca, 2003), roughly translated from Latin to mean game or training. Frasca (2003) describes ludus games in which rules are set to restrict the player, sometimes in a simple form such as Chess, as those which ask a player to achieve a goal by performing a task. The end goal in contemporary video games such as Halo is usually narrative-based where, at the end of a level, a non-interactive cinematic presentation will be triggered to progress the narrative. Frasca (2003) refers to Caillois (2001) in outlining the difference between these two theoretical constructs. In paidia games there are multiple outcomes based on the player’s interaction with the game-world, while in ludus games, the only two outcomes are winning and losing. Caillois (2001) has stated that “their continuous opposition arises from the fact that a concerted enterprise, in which various expendable resources are well utilized, has nothing in common with purely disordered movement for the sake of paroxysm” (p. 53). That

10 “disordered movement for the sake of paroxysm” – or outburst of activity as an emotional response to the disorder, as found in WoW – is what differentiates such paidic games from more ludic games, where a “concerted enterprise” is present and the player is working towards a goal. Frasca (2003) states that end goals in ludus games commonly include: “saving the world, rescuing a princess or destroying the alien menace” (p. 230). The Halo series can be equated to a contemporary ludus game, in that it is carefully structured and the developers have specifically designed the way in which the game- world is experienced by the player, so that it involves a predetermined goal. The concepts of paidia and ludus can be seen as highly influential in the development of games of all types, from Space Invaders (Taito Corporation, 1978) to Halo (Bungie Studios, 2001). This is done by incorporating both narrative elements, such as character or game-world context, and non-narrative elements, such as the rules and instructions that allow a player to operate in the game-world. It is evident that a plethora of video game studies deal with – rather than specifically explore in depth – narrative and character, such as the work of Jenkins (2004), Forest (2011), Lankoski (2011), Shaw (2013), Kempton (2015) and Lemmens (2017). There are also multiple video game studies adopting qualitative, empirical and exploratory methodologies such as can be found in the works of Chappell et al. (2006), Skouveroe and Krangnes (2011) and Rusczek (2015). However, Alexander (2015) remains the only academic found to have adopted a methodology to specifically explore video game narrative and character in depth and in detail from the perspective of gamers.

2.2 Video Game Narrative Elements Klimmt, Hefner, Vorderer, Roth and Blake (2010) state that the ability to effectively deliver an interactive narrative is one of the most important factors in the success of a video game. The immersive experience of playing such video games can be seen as a multi-faceted experience (Vorderer, 2000). This experience has been described by many researchers in the field of video game interaction in terms of such facets as: aesthetics (Dixon, 2009), emotions (Kempton, 2015), media (Klimmt et al., 2010), flow (Nacke, Grimshaw, & Lindley (2010); Nacke and Lindley, 2010; Qin, Rau and Salvendy, 2009), and narrative (Qin et al., 2009).

11 It can therefore be seen, as Nacke and Lindley (2010) observe, that “player experience research is evolving … to be a fundamental concept in an expanding field of work with a strong empirical research focus” (p. 2). Researchers such as Grimshaw (2008), Kempton (2015), and Nacke and Lindley (2010), variously believe that three principal elements influence and shape the core of a player’s experience of a video game’s narrative: visual imagery and world-building, music and sound, and character.

2.2.1 Visual imagery and world-building Video game creators using narrative to drive gameplay forward are increasingly aware of cinematic production techniques associated with the creation of visual imagery through cinematography and mise-en-scene (Crick, 2011). These cinematic production techniques are used by game designers to enhance narrative development in a game – usually through the use of cut-scenes. In doing so, this not only facilitates the use of visualisation techniques of framing and composition in scenes of a video game; they also provide a context for how the narrative itself is framed. While there has been a significant expansion of video game research and video game theory highlighting why and how video game developers are telling and visualising their stories and narratives, there appears to be a notable gap in the research literature related to player reception and reactions to such cinematically-driven narratives. Kempton’s (2015) research highlighted the reliability on visual representations in video games, most specifically in terms of realism and identifiable characters. Crick (2011) has stated that it is a game’s imagery that is the primary means by which a player experiences a narrative game-world. It can be seen that the virtual environment of the game is experienced through images, described by Grimshaw (2008) as two-dimensional representations of three-dimentionality. It is clear from this that visual imagery, especially the way in which a player views themselves in the game-world, is one of the principal elements in the narrative experience of FPS games.

2.2.2 Music and sound Grimshaw (2008) claims that sound functions in the virtual world as much as it does in the real world, providing “volume and dimensionality” (p. 2) to a game’s narrative. He suggests that sound is a primary component of suspending disbelief

12 when engaging a player in a narrative, and that sound, though unrelated to the real world of the player, bridges the gap between the player’s mind and the virtual events taking place in front of the player (Grimshaw, 2008). The audio in console games is often categorised into three areas: music, voice, and sound effects. These three areas form the sound design within video games which Grimshaw (2008) argues is of utmost importance in creating immersion in the game-world, thereby enhancing the narrative experience.

2.2.3 Character As identified in the academic literature, character is another principal element of the narrative experience. Player identification with fully developed fictional characters has been a major focus of both academic researchers and game developers. Nacke and Lindley (2010) state that FPS players are capable of experiencing full identification with a character through the protagonist’s eyes and the associated virtual-body. Van Looy et al. (2012) believe that character identification within a narrative is at the forefront of marketability, a belief which has subsequently been confirmed by ESA’s (2015) survey. Cohen (2001) believes that a player’s identification with a character principally occurs through empathy, with character being one of the principal elements of the narrative experience of FPS games.

2.3 Defining Contemporary FPS Games As contemporary console games increase in narrative and visual complexity, the current categorisation of video games simply uses acronyms to describe the style of gameplay, such as MMO (Massively Multi-player Online), RPG (Role-Playing Game), RTS (Real-Time Strategy), and FPS. Johnson, Wyeth and Sweetser’s (2013) article observes that game genres have become difficult to define over time as they are often hybridised genres, as is the case with genres in other media. Stanton (2015) argues that the FPS genre “is currently the most commercially popular genre in the world” (p. 139). According to ESA’s 2015 industry survey, shooting games comprised 21.7% of all digital game unit sales in the United States as of 2014. That survey also revealed that, of the top twenty games sold in 2014, six of them were FPS games (ESA, 2015), all of which include military science-fiction themes. Crick (2011) describes some earlier pre-console games that offer a first-person perspective

13 “organised around a body-centric gaze” (p. 262) as being responsible for the burgeoning of engagement associated with video games. He states that, despite their slow pace and simple graphics, the “early digital attempts to mimic the perspective of human vision” (Crick, 2011, p. 262) through a screen are the precursors to contemporary console-based FPS games and created the foundations for video games such as Halo: Combat Evolved (Bungie Studios, 2001) and Call of Duty (Activision Publishing Inc., 2003). As video game consoles began to enter the mainstream market, so too did FPS games, adapting cinematic styles similar to that of other entertainment media (Alexander, 2015).

2.4 The Entertainment Value of FPS Games Video games and the “worlds in which events occur and in which characters might act” (Tavinor, 2009, p. 38) are experienced in a way that differentiates them from cinema. Besides video games being an interactive medium, the fictional narratives within these games are prominent topics of study but have “hardly ever prompted a discussion of the fictional nature of video games” (Tavinor, 2009, p. 38). For instance, in a movie, the observer is aware to some degree that each character is being portrayed by an actor. Tavinor (2009) uses Darth Vader from the Star Wars films as an example, where because of the “complication of being represented through the visual medium of film”, it can be seen that “Darth Vader does not exist” (p. 44). He suggests that, in a video game, which creates a character that may have an actor for the motion-capture or a recognisable voice actor, the character’s visual manifestation on the screen facilitates an environment of believability and identification more so than could be found in a film (Tavinor, 2009). Perron (2013), on the other hand, states that because “the video game is, as much as cinema, a synthesis of previous spatial and temporal art forms, there are many conventions at play that are not specific to the gaming activity” (p. 80). As suggested by Rusczek’s (2015) dissertation on the immersive qualities of video games, FPS games have been recognised by commentators as having a high degree of engagement due to their entertainment value. Various academics such as Alexander (2015), Klimmt, Hefner and Vorderer (2009), Klimmt et al. (2010), Majewski (2003), and Vorderer (2000), suggest that the potential for player engagement is a major factor in the experience of video games and their associated

14 entertainment value, positively influencing a player’s decision to subsequently purchase a similar game. Researchers have argued that the entertainment value of video games is influenced by multiple qualities of the experience of a video game’s narrative, such as engagement (Crick, 2011; Qin et al., 2009), immersion (Grimshaw, 2008; Kempton, 2015; Przybylski et al., 2010), identification (Bonk, 2014; Cohen, 2001; Hefner et al., 2007, Klimmt et al., 2009; Nacke & Lindley, 2010; Van Looy et al., 2012), and enjoyment (Alexander, 2015; Klimmt et al., 2010). These four qualities explored in the following subsections are considered to be decisive factors in determining a video game’s entertainment value.

2.4.1 Engagement Through the subjective view point of the player and their interventions, FPS gameplay has been described by Crick (2011) as producing “high levels of dramatic tension and engagement” (p. 262). Crick (2011) appears to agree with Qin et al. (2009), who argue that a player is engaged because of their ability to “manipulate the environment” (p. 113) providing a “cognitive belief in what is experienced in the virtual context as physical reality” (p. 113). Qin et al. (2009) further argue that engagement is, in fact, closely related to immersion, which involves a player’s investment of “time, effort and attention” (p. 113). Crick (2011) and Qin et al. (2009) both appear to believe engagement to be the first step towards player immersion. Qin et al. (2009) identifies empathy – understanding and sharing the feelings of other entities – as leading engagement forward to a “stage of immersion” (p. 113). Conversely, a lack of this empathetic component has the potential to inhibit engagement, which, according to Qin et al. (2009), would create a barrier to providing a player with “total immersion” (p. 113) – the consequence of an even higher level of engagement.

2.4.2 Immersion Kempton (2015) highlights how video games are uniquely immersive by comparison with other storytelling media –such as film, television and books – and recognition of this has “contributed to the development of multiple conceptualizations of the idea of immersion” (Kempton, 2015, p. 8). Przybylski et al. (2010) believe that immersion “reflects an illusion of non-mediation between the player and the gaming context” (p.

15 161), embedding the player within a virtual game-world and the narrative occurring around them. Csikszentmihalyi (1975) states that the concept of flow as a focused mental state is closely related to immersion. He first identified this psychological concept in 1975 and described this mental state as one in which a person is focused and fully perceptive of their capacity for achieving their current objective. The immersive nature of video game narratives contributes to the complexity of these narratives. This is compounded by the vast array of video game narrative styles and formats across the range of popular, contemporary commercial video game titles. For example, games such as Halo (Bungie Studios, 2001) convey their narratives through non-interactive cut-scenes. Some games, such as Bioshock (2K Games, 2005), convey their narrative through first-person, semi-interactive, but still mostly passive sequences. Other games such as Mass Effect (Bioware, 2007) tell stories with multiple pathways that utilise interactive decision-making. Many video games provide passive narrative exposition communicated to the player during gameplay, usually from an in-game character. While there are other approaches to storytelling and narrative design present in contemporary video games, the use of non-interactive cut-scenes – where a scripted, pre-rendered sequence is utilised to introduce or conclude a level – has been identified as one of the most common narrative techniques across a wide range of contemporary video games (Aarseth, 2013). Grimshaw (2008) believes that high levels of immersion in video games would not be possible without an audio component, one of the three principal elements that form the narrative experience, as discussed above in section 2.2. It is contended by Grimshaw (2008) that the sound created by both the character within the game-world, and by the game-world itself – including music – enhances the effect of immersion, creating the “perceptual realism” (p. 2) of a game. He suggests that this is also linked to what he describes as “imaginative immersion” (Grimshaw, 2008, p. 3), afforded to a player through the use of sound. It can be seen that the audio component of video games can assist a player in their identification with a character or characters.

2.4.3 Identification The psychological theory of identification in narrative is a Freudian concept which Cohen (2001) argues causes a player to experience an apparent “loss of self-

16 awareness” (p. 251). Cohen (2001) further states that identification occurs when a player interactively engages with information that is then “processed from the character’s perspective and is transformed into empathic emotions” (p. 251). Van Looy et al. (2012) suggest that identification is “an elusive concept” (p. 200) that separates video games from other forms of narrative media at a fundamental level. Identification often occurs “without reflective awareness of players during their attempt to resolve the game tasks” (Klimmt et al., 2010, p. 326) and is similarly argued by Cohen (2001), Hefner et al. (2007), and Van Looy et al. (2012) to be a subconscious phenomenon. It is suggested by Hefner et al. (2007) that identification can only occur “under certain conditions” (p. 40), such as an interactive environment. Gameplay and interactivity are believed by Hefner et al. (2007) to be important components in identification with a video game character, while Cohen (2001) argues that identification occurs when a player “adopts the characters’ goals, comprehends plot events in reference to these goals, and experiences the feelings that result from the interaction of these goals and the events that take place” (p. 251). Identification has been described by Klimmt et al. (2010) as being directly linked to player enjoyment in that embodying a character or completing a narrative objective in a video game can be seen to shape a player’s “self-concept” (p. 335).

2.4.4 Enjoyment According to Alexander (2015), creating enjoyment in a video game occurs in the early stages of the game’s development. He describes the process of creating enjoyment through both engaging gameplay and an immersive story as a “balancing act” (p. 33) for video game designers. Klimmt et al. (2009) believe this difficult process is due to the experience of enjoyment being closely connected to a player’s “motivation to play” (p. 367) within a game-world, which Alexander (2015) suggests is developed to cater to the differing needs of the players. Klimmt et al. (2010) believe that enjoyment not only originates from fun gameplay, but also from the player’s existence within a video game’s narrative. Hefner et al. (2007) make a similar argument to Klimmt et al. (2010) that the illusion of personifying a character within the narrative context of the game-world is “an essential element of game enjoyment” (Hefner et al., 2007, p. 40).

17 In terms of player enjoyment, the visceral experience of playing a video game is often delivered to a player within the context of a story, where they “see and hear everything from the point of view of the character” (Majewski, 2003, p. 31) “just as they do in the real world” (Qin et al., 2009, p. 113). Majewski (2003) believes that the ability to personify a character is notably exemplified through FPS gameplay which in turn is frequently set within a narrative context through non-interactive cinematic cut-scenes, thus providing a level of identification that is an engaging, immersive, and enjoyable entertainment experience.

2.5 Research Context Contemporary console games, most notably FPS games, such as the Halo series, offer an immersive narrative experience to a player through two components, identified by both Frasca (2003) and Nacke and Lindley (2010) as gameplay and cinematics. Gameplay refers to the actions of a player-character and is described by Hefner et al. (2007) as a player manipulating their in-game character within the environment around them. Frasca (2003) describes cinematics, or cut-scenes, as ways in which a game primarily represents the events within a narrative. These cinematics are short visual segments of story, displayed to the player in a passive scripted sequence, functioning to introduce a section of gameplay, or to signify that the player has completed what Klimmt et al. (2010) have described as the narrative task of that gameplay.

2.5.1 Gameplay and cinematics Tavinor (2009) describes the role of the player-character as ‘fictive’ in the sense that “the character is the method via which the player has an effect on the fictional world of the game and so is the player’s fictional proxy in the game world” (p. 74). Yet control of that character is sometimes taken away from the player in cut-scenes, which according to Newman (2013), “has become a key part of the language of the video game player and designer” (p. 91). Newman (2013) describes cut-scenes as “primarily narrative episodes concerned with exposition and causation” (p. 96) and are an effective way to deliver important points in a game’s narrative to the player. In addition to the unique perspective offered to players in FPS gameplay, the narrative context of the cinematics adds what Nacke and Lindley (2010) describe as “consequence and meaning” (p. 2) to the actions of a player within the virtual game-

18 world. Klimmt et al. (2010) argue that identification with a character through first- person gameplay progresses the stage of engagement to immersion, and that this identification is enhanced by the cinematics to create an enjoyable narrative experience. Some game franchises, such as the Halo franchise, have expanded beyond the realm of console-based entertainment to incorporate other media, such as books, comics and television series.

2.5.2 Halo, a transmedia franchise The Halo series is one of the most popular FPS series to date. Halo: Combat Evolved (Bungie Studios, 2001) launched the Microsoft corporation into the world of video games, alongside their console, the Xbox (Majewski, 2003). Simultaneously, the prequel novel, Halo: The Fall of Reach (Nylund, 2001) was released in the same year as the first game. Such series expansion has been termed by Bonk (2014) to be a “transmedia franchise” (p. 65), where elements such as visual imagery or sound may not be present, but where the element of character is presented across multiple media.

2.5.3 Halo 3: ODST The Halo series, through expansion to a transmedia franchise, appears to fully embrace the three principal elements of video game narrative: visual imagery and world-building, music and sound, and character. Halo 3: ODST is the first Halo title to bring major change to these elements. It is Halo 3: ODST’s use of five playable protagonists within the one narrative that separates it not only from the rest of the series but from other FPS games. This research focusses on this use of multiple playable protagonists and adopts Halo 3: ODST as an exemplary narrative-based FPS video game. The next chapter continues the review of the literature, focussing more specifically on Halo 3: ODST’s place in both Halo’s meta-narrative and the franchise, and provides a rationale for the use of Halo 3: ODST in the empirical component of this research.

19 Chapter Three Halo 3: ODST

The previous chapter reviewed the literature relating to the importance of narrative and character in shaping the gamer experience of contemporary FPS console games. Video game narrative was identified as being experienced by a player through a number of elements: visual imagery and world-building, music and sound, and character. Halo 3: ODST was identified as an exemplary narrative-based FPS video game. The previous chapter also highlighted the theoretical significance of the twin Aristotelian concepts of paidia and ludus in shaping the video game experience. This chapter continues the review by providing further details of the Halo franchise to contextualise an outline of Halo 3: ODST’s narrative to inform a more comprehensive understanding of the experience of playing as multiple characters. It is the experience of this phenomenon that constitutes the empirical component of this study. At the end of this chapter, the primary and secondary research questions are identified.

3.1 Narrative Evolved FPS games, as a genre, made their first appearance on video game consoles with the release of Halo: Combat Evolved (Bungie Studios, 2001) and the Xbox (Bonk, 2014). In discussing the history of the Halo series, Bonk (2014) suggests that Microsoft’s foray into console-based FPS games was successful because of Halo’s integration of FPS gameplay with a number of factors: the use of a hand-held console controller, an engaging narrative and the use of the Internet to connect players across the world. As such, the Halo series grew into one of the largest grossing video game franchises in the world (Bonk, 2014). Up until 2015, the game and related merchandise had generated over 4.6 billion US dollars in worldwide sales (Microsoft Xbox Wire, 2015). Majewski (2003) attributes the success of popular video game narratives such as Halo to a particular narrative structure: “The oldest and most often used structure in narrative ... is the restorative three- or four-act structure. This structure divides the overall plot into multiple acts, describing the different stages of the so-called Hero’s Journey” (p. 55). Bonk (2014) suggests that Halo: Combat Evolved delivered exactly

20 what the title implies, a new way to play FPS games, branching out to become a transmedia franchise, expanding the narrative through other means such as novels, comics and television. The success of Halo’s other media suggests that fans of the series take a great interest in the franchise’s narrative component (Harvey, 2015). Hefner et al. (2007), in their investigation of game narrative, observe that FPS players are offered “altered self perception” (p. 39), placing them into the virtual shoes of the protagonist. They indicate that this can induce a new reality for the player, in which they perceive themselves, in an FPS game, “as more courageous, heroic and powerful during identification with a soldier” (Hefner et al., 2007, p. 39). Such features of the FPS genre are greatly exemplified in the Halo series.

3.2 Halo 3: ODST’s Narrative Context Halo 3: ODST is a military science-fiction FPS, set within the transmedia universe of the Halo franchise. The game presents a multi-character narrative within the single- player experience and, as such, represents an appropriate focus for the empirical component of the research. Although Halo 3:ODST is the fourth instalment in the Halo series, it occupies a position in the narrative between the second and third games. Taking place five hundred years in the future, the game is set within the context of a 27 year long war with an alien alliance known as the Covenant. In the introductory cinematic, the player is introduced to an ensemble of characters, a team of highly trained soldiers in a fictional special forces division referred to as Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs). Halfway through this cinematic, the player, through the first person perspective, embodies an ODST known as the Rookie, the game’s only non-speaking character – the silent protagonist. This team drops into the Earth’s atmosphere in their single-occupant pods, where an unexpected explosion knocks them all off-course. Six hours later, the Rookie wakes up in his pod alone at night in the enemy occupied African mega-city, New Mombasa. At this point in the game, it is up to the player, as the Rookie, to explore the city looking to find his missing team members. Along the way, the player may stumble upon some of the city’s secrets, hidden by the developers as a bonus to encourage exploration. Such secrets include: a hidden Covenant slave race known as Engineers, messages on walls that allude to both previous and future games by the developers, and audio logs of a young woman, Sadie, whose story takes place as the

21 Covenant began their attack on New Mombasa. These audio-logs are initiated by finding ringing phones and terminals in 30 different locations around the city. The game also encourages the player to discover what happened to the rest of the team by finding various clues, which are the driving force behind the narrative. Finding these clues initiates flashback sequences in which, through the use of cut-scenes, the player is shown various points in the narrative after the drop occurred. Each level – sometimes referred to as a flashback mission – in Halo 3: ODST is an isolated portion of narrative. These portions sequentially fill in the gaps between the drop and the Rookie’s awakening later that night. During each of these flashbacks, the perspective shifts from the Rookie to another member of the team for a short sequence of linear gameplay. Upon completion of each flashback mission, the player returns to the Rookie’s perspective to continue exploring the vast city for more clues. Once all the clues have been found, the Rookie is led by audio and visual cues from New Mombasa’s artificial intelligence (AI) to meet up with the rest of the squad, which ends the game.

3.3 Creating A Different Halo With Halo 3: ODST, Halo’s creators stepped away from narratives in which the universe is in jeopardy to be saved only by the franchise’s staple hero – the lone, quiet and indestructible protagonist known as Master Chief (Havstad, 2011) – to deliver a more character-driven story (Bungie, 2009a). However, the game’s voiceless and undeveloped protagonist, the Rookie, has been described by Fliger (2011) in the book Halo and Philosophy as “a lackluster replacement to the towering figure of the former protagonist” (p. 168). In fact, Fliger (2011) further states: “The decision by Bungie, then, to make him the central protagonist for Halo 3: ODST is a remarkable one” (p. 168). Academic researchers including Alexander (2015), Klimmt et al. (2009) and Shaw (2013) stress the pre-eminent significance of character development in contemporary video games, in particular FPS games, because the genre requires playable characters. As described in the previous chapter, character is one of the three principal elements that form the narrative experience of FPS games. In Halo 3: ODST, the player is put in the shoes of not one, but five protagonists (Bungie Studios, 2009b). The multi-character style of storytelling utilised in Halo 3: ODST impacts the narrative by fragmenting it into sections devoted to each character. This

22 style had only been employed in one other Halo title. Halo 2 (Bungie Studios, 2004) had players jumping between two characters, Master Chief and a high ranking member of the alien Covenant known as the Arbiter. Video game reviewer Chad Sapieha (2009) argues that both the narrative and imagery of the Halo series is often concerned with “exotic alien mythology and ongoing interstellar battles” (para. 2). However, Halo 3: ODST’s small character- driven story is restricted to a single setting, which Sapieha (2009) suggests “manages to tell the most engaging and personal tale of any title in the franchise” (para. 3). Halo 3: ODST’s largest “departure” from the rest of the series “lies within the flow of the narrative itself” (Forward Unto Dawn, 2010, p. 17), using exploration, clue- hunting and flashbacks as story telling devices. This strong emphasis on the story proved to be very popular, with the game selling 2.5 million units worldwide in the first two weeks (Microsoft Xbox Wire, 2015). Bungie Studios (2009c), in commencing development on the short game, stated: “We wanted to try something we’ve never done before, I think that means breaking the mould of what people expect from Halo”. Joseph Staten, the lead writer of the game, said that he “wanted to keep what was great; what people loved about the Halo experience: that 30 seconds of fun over and over again. We knew we had to preserve that, but at the same time give it an ODST spin” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). The creators at Bungie Studios made several minor changes to the series in Halo 3: ODST, such as changing the heads up display (HUD), which appears like the inside of an ODST helmet instead of that of Master Chief. Other changes to the series include the introduction of new weapons – a silenced sub-machine gun and silenced pistol – and a new night-vision enhancement to the HUD called VISR, which Staten believes are the “tools to get the job done” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). However, as stated above, one of the major changes was to the storytelling in the game. Their new style of presenting the narrative to the player was through “high action flash back scenes which we were banking on to be the core fun of the game” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). In the weeks leading up to Halo 3: ODST’s release, Bungie Studios uploaded several interviews with their creative team in which they discussed their rationale for the changes they had made. The subsections below categorise their statements and relevant changes to the game in relation to the three principal narrative elements that

23 have been identified and described in the previous chapter as forming the video game experience: visual imagery and world-building, music and sound, and character.

3.3.1 Visual imagery and world-building The city of New Mombasa offers a range of experiences to players, such as places to discover, enemies to fight, and the equipment needed to survive. Staten, the lead writer, claimed that he wanted to take a step further with the Superintendent AI, aiming to create not only a character with a presence, but one which was synonymous with the city hub itself. The developers stated that they wondered: “What if the phone’s rang, and ticket kiosk’s started spitting out tickets? … What if the city started trying to communicate with you?” (Bungie Studios, 2009b). The sound designer and composer, Martin O’Donnell, endeavoured to make the city “dark and rainy, to have that film noire feel” (Bungie Studios, 2009b), turning it into a place “we want people to explore” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). It is clear that the intended experience of the game by the developers was the exploration of a futuristic city, characterised by noir imagery and sound design. A critical aid to that exploration was attributed to the aforementioned VISR mode, which “has the advantage of showcasing the depths of our scenes; put on VISR mode and the whole environment reveals its secrets to you” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). However, the designers acknowledged that the “hardest part in moving from Halo 3 to ODST was just the difference in the play styles of the characters” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). In finding and creating that difference, the developers at Bungie noted that they asked themselves: “How can we add a long-term level of tension to the game?” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). That tension was created by bringing back the health pack system from Halo: Combat Evolved, a game in which the player had a shield that could recharge (Bungie Studios, 2009c). However, if their health had been damaged, it would remain damaged and beep at the player until healed by use of one of the packs scattered throughout the levels. Curtis Creamer, Bungie’s design producer, discussed the difficulties and challenges that the team faced when creating Halo 3: ODST and came to the conclusion that “since we didn’t want to be travelling all across the universe in this gigantic space-opera, we wanted to really focus on one place” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). He stated that, as a company, Bungie “wanted to really get a different kind of Halo look and feel from what we’ve seen before. How do we make the city of New

24 Mombasa kind of a character in the game?” (Bungie Studios, 2009b). They indicated that they were able to achieve this through the development of the Superintendent AI, a basic artificial intelligence designed to run the city, and who assists the characters with audio and visual prompts to keep the player going in the right direction, and at some times, to keep them from harm (Bungie Studios, 2009b).

3.3.2 Sound and Music Audio logs can be found throughout the city that tell the story of Sadie, a young woman who was trying to escape the besieged city the day before the game’s narrative commences. The story of Halo 3: ODST can be enjoyed and understood “without picking up any phones ringing in the city, or any other objects, but if you do, you’re transported a little bit further back in time to the day before, but to a whole different world” (Bungie Studios, 2009b). According to O’Donnell (Bungie Studios, 2009b), rain was an important part of the game’s essence, but it was too difficult to create in the game-world. Instead, the sound designers “had to change the surface of the ground to make the sound wet” (Bungie Studios, 2009b) to compensate. The noir imagery and complementary sound design appear to be representative of Bungie Studios’ specific intentions for how a player would experience Halo 3: ODST. O’Donnell described how he did not want to use any music reminiscent of the original trilogy, such as the trademark Gregorian chants frequently used in the series. He stated that Halo 3: ODST’s soundtrack “really deserved to have its own flavour from beginning to end” (Bungie Studios, 2009b). O’Donnell decided to use different instrumentation to create the tone for each level and for each character. For example, the soundtrack made use of a “solo saxophone and piano to change feeling from day to night” (Bungie Studios, 2009b). The Halo 3: ODST soundtrack won the Spike Video Game Award for best original score. As well as the use of specific instrumentation and environmental sounds, Bungie employed the voice acting work of several sci-fi television actors such as Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk and Adam Baldwin from Firefly (Bungie, 2009b). The star-studded cast was utilised to create a familiarity with the characters in the minds of the players where aspects of their sci-fi television personas carried across to the game.

25 3.3.3 Character The developers claimed that their biggest dilemma when creating a short narrative that involved multiple playable protagonists, was: “How do we take people out of one character and put them in another and not confuse people” (Bungie Studios, 2009b). The developers knew that they wanted players to “experience the story through the eyes of many different characters” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). Consequently, they created five main characters, four of which have voice actors, which Bungie suggests “not only grounds you in the character, but they can also give you some really useful tactical information about the battlefield” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). Bungie settled on the idea of five playable characters: Buck, Dutch, Mickey, Romeo, and the Rookie. The developers stated that they needed to find a way to make a smooth transition between these characters, questioning “what it would be like to suddenly be in the body of some other character who was just in the cinematic you just watched and then actually hear his voice coming out of your body” (Bungie Studios, 2009b). They created a technique that the studio called ‘signettes’, which Cowan describes as “the last shot of a flashback cinematic right before you take control … It’s a shot from first person. You can see your arms, you can see the weapons that you’re holding. The player doesn’t have control of the camera yet. The character is kind of easing him into that” (Bungie Studios, 2009b). Cowan discusses the importance of this technique in developing and creating a deep narrative context for the characters: “Without spending a lot of effort and personalising those characters, then it wouldn’t mean as much when you step into their boots” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). Each of the five character’s levels had its own mood, tailored to the particular character and to their personalities. For example, “you’re alone, you’re in the city, you’re trying to unravel a mystery. That’s feeling you have every time you’re the Rookie” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). The Rookie discovers the clues in the form of objects, such as another character’s helmet or weapon, which initiates the flashback, telling “the story of one guy, one object, one high action moment” (Bungie Studios, 2009c). Bungie, in inviting players to inhabit the perspective of the five main characters in the squad, “makes the game about what happens to that squad” (Bungie Studios, 2009b). Staten, believes that this degree of development and the utilisation

26 of multiple playable characters “creates a story that’s not just characters but gives them a relationship” (Bungie Studios, 2009b). From these comments by the creators, it can be seen that Halo 3: ODST represents an evolution in narrative design for the Halo franchise. This facilitates an environment wherein a player is given the opportunity not only to be entertained in an enjoyable experience, but to engage with the story, identify with the characters and immerse themselves in the game.

3.4 Paidia and Ludus in Halo 3: ODST As discussed in the previous chapter, the Halo series can be seen to incorporate ludic qualities in the sense that there are rules, the ability to win and a journey from the proverbial point A to point B. Ludic qualities are described by Frasca (2003) as being “coherent because the player’s goals are clear: you must do X in order to reach Y and therefore become a winner” (p. 230). However, Halo 3: ODST stands out among similar games with ludic qualities by incorporating paidic qualities. For example, the Rookie’s gameplay levels in the streets of New Mombasa, including the aforementioned secrets for the player to find in the city, are exploratory, and therefore predominantly paidic in nature. Paidic qualities are described by Caillois (2001) as being “active, tumultuous, exuberant, and spontaneous” (p. xi). Due to the complexity of contemporary video games and the consistent desire of players for more diverse gameplay, paidia and ludus can sometimes be found working together or independently within the one game (Jensen, 2013). Jensen (2013) suggests that “paidia inevitably transforms into ludus” (p. 69) and, as such, the flashback sequences – and indeed the Rookie’s final levels – appear to follow a ludic structure. The player is encouraged by the narrative to hastily reach the diegetic point B, being offered little or no opportunities for exploration. However, as has been observed by Jensen (2013), “ludus can also regress or transform back into paidia” (p. 69), a concept which is echoed in the player re-inhabiting the Rookie after each ludic mission. Caillois (2001), Frasca (2003) and Jensen (2013) argue that paidia and ludus can be found in all games. Jensen (2013) further suggests that there is a back and forth movement between the two concepts within video games which “occurs constantly – and often inconspicuously” (p. 69). The review of the literature presented in the previous chapter, Chapter Two, indicated a need to further understand the experiences of gamers. That review

27 together with the review of the literature regarding Halo 3: ODST, presented in this chapter, has led to the formulation of specific research questions as a basis for the empirical component of the study.

3.5 Research Questions This study is principally concerned with developing an understanding of how narrative and character impact and shape the experience of FPS console-based video games, with particular reference to the Halo franchise. Within this context, the novel experience of playing as multiple playable characters within one video game narrative has emerged as an under-explored area of research in the published literature. The experience of playing as multiple playable characters is exemplified in Halo 3: ODST, where five characters must be inhabited by the player to complete the narrative component of the game. As such, Halo 3: ODST is considered an appropriate research focus for the empirical component of this study. The concern of the research is with the individual experience of Halo 3: ODST’s narrative. It is the single-player story mode that is of relevance to the study, rather than the game’s other two modes of gameplay: the co-operative story mode and the game’s wave-based player-versus-enemy ‘firefight’ mode. Therefore, the primary research question is: How do gamers experience playing as multiple first- person video game protagonists in Halo 3: ODST’s single-player narrative? A second, theoretically derived, research question expands on the work of Jensen (2013) in examining the concepts of paidia and ludus within video games, in this case Halo 3: ODST, a video game which appears to include both concepts. Therefore, the secondary research question is: What are the roles of paidia and ludus in the player’s experience of the gameplay of Halo 3: ODST’s single-player narrative?

28 Chapter Four Methodology

The previous two chapters reviewed the literature related to narrative and character in shaping the gamer experience of contemporary FPS console games, with particular reference to games in the ongoing Halo franchise. Playing as multiple protagonists in Halo 3: ODST’s narrative was identified as being the particular phenomenon under investigation for the empirical component of the study. Chapter Three additionally identified the primary and secondary research questions. This chapter outlines the methodology that was employed including the approach to inquiry, the use of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a methodology for exploring player experiences of a video game, the selection of participants, ethical considerations, the quality and validity of the study and the means by which data were collected and analysed.

4.1 The Approach to Inquiry The phenomenon of playing as multiple protagonists within Halo 3: ODST’s single- player narrative is the basis for the empirical component of the study. The game requires playing as five protagonists to complete the game’s story-mode. Although the game’s story can be played by up to four people at once in a co-operative mode, this study will investigate players experiencing the game in ‘solo’ mode, that is, as a single player. This is to ensure an opportunity for the players to experience the narrative as the designers intended, as a single-player experience. The exploratory and experiential concerns of the research questions called for a qualitative approach to inquiry, where the quality or nature of participant experiences of a phenomenon is investigated. In describing a number of approaches to qualitative research, Creswell (2007) advocates phenomenology as a recognised strategy for researching the experience of a phenomenon. He states that it is the task of a phenomenologist to “focus on describing what all participants have in common as they experience a phenomenon … The basic purpose of phenomenology is to reduce individual experiences with a phenomenon to a description of the universal essence [of the experience]” (p.57). Adopting such a recognised methodology “enhances the rigour and sophistication of the research design … the researcher

29 identifies and defines the approach, cites studies that employ it, and follows the procedures outlined in the approach” (p. 45). Creswell (2007) states that phenomenological research is best suited to a type of problem “in which it is important to understand several individuals' common or shared experiences of a phenomenon ... in order to develop practices or policies, or to develop a deeper understanding about the features of the phenomenon” (Creswell, 2007, p. 60). This methodology has been shown to provide valuable insights into lived experience, that is, an experience that has been acquired first-hand by the person who lived through it. Such an approach is relevant to this study, where, “among all media, video games are excellent objects for phenomenological analysis” (Wolf, 2012, p. 483). Of the various phenomenological approaches, the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Jonathan Smith and colleagues (Reid, Flowers, & Larkin, 2005; Smith and Osborn, 2008; Smith, Flowers, & Larkin, 2009) provides a structured approach to analysis that has demonstrated its usefulness in exploring human experiences. IPA has been described as being “particularly suited to researching in ‘unexplored territory’, where a theoretical pretext may be lacking” (Reid et al., p. 23). As such, IPA has been chosen as being applicable to this exploration of the multi-character video game narrative experience, an under- explored area of research in the published literature.

4.2 Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) IPA was developed by Johnathan Smith and his colleagues (Reid et al., 2005; Smith & Osborn, 2008; Smith et al., 2009) and has subsequently become a popular means of phenomenological analysis. IPA is particularly relevant to this study as it enables a perspective of the video game experience from gamers themselves, which has been described as missing in previous research (Shaw, 2013). Smith et al. (2009) describe a commitment to the particular: “IPA is committed to understanding how particular experiential phenomena (an event, process or relationship) have been understood from the perspective of particular people, in a particular context” (p. 29). It is also stated by Smith et al. (2009) that IPA is concerned with a detailed examination of human experience, and “aims to conduct this examination in a way which as far as possible enables that experience to be expressed in its own terms rather than according to predefined category systems” (p. 32).

30 IPA has been described as being informed by concepts and debates from “three key areas of the philosophy of knowledge” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 11): phenomenology, described as “a philosophical approach to the study of experience” (p. 11); hermeneutics, described as “the theory of interpretation” (p. 21); and idiography, described as “concern with the particular” (p. 29). IPA can thus be seen as being a systematic interpretation and detailed examination of an individual’s experience of a phenomenon, here being the experience of gamers playing as multiple FPS protagonists. IPA was therefore considered a suitable methodology to employ in response to the research questions, with data collected directly from each of several participants using experience journals and interviews.

4.3 The Use of IPA in Video Game Research The use of IPA in several previous video game studies provides support for its use as a research methodology in this field. An IPA study by Chappell et al. (2006) discusses the experience of addiction in connection with Everquest, a Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG). Another IPA study by Skouveroe and Krangnes (2011) explores the experience of MMORPG’s, particularly in the area of online engagement with video games such as World of Warcraft. Rusczek (2015), in his PhD dissertation, uses IPA to investigate the area of engagement, utilising multiple MMORPG’s. These three video game studies lend credibility to the choice of IPA as a methodology to explore video game player experience. However, more specific support for the use of IPA in this study is provided by a PhD study by Joseph Alexander (2015) in which IPA is used to research the experience of narrative-based video games.

4.4 The Selection of Participants The selection of participants was a principal consideration in the design of the study. One of the philosophies underpinning IPA is idiography, which is “concerned with understanding particular phenomena in particular contexts” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 49). Idiographic research, such as IPA, is thus concerned with the particular, in contrast to ‘nomothetic’ research which is “concerned with making claims at the group or population level” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 29). In accordance with these idiographic concerns, IPA studies are based on a small number of participants, identified and selected for their perceived ability to offer the study a specific

31 experiential perspective on the phenomenon under investigation since, “they ‘represent’ a perspective, rather than a population” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 49). As such, the selection of participants can be described as ‘purposive’: “This means that samples are selected purposively (rather than through probability methods) because they can offer a research project insight into a particular experience” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 48). This study selected participants according to a number of purposive criteria, keeping in mind that: “IPA researchers need first of all to access rich and detailed personal accounts” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 40). One criterion was that participants should be active gamers with experience playing video games from the Halo franchise, so as to provide the rich data necessary for an effective IPA study. Another criterion was that participants should be English-speaking, so as to converse fluently with the English-speaking researcher. Additionally, participants should have the skills necessary to reflect on and articulate their personal experiences, in order to readily participate in the one-sided participant-led conversations during the data-gathering interviews that are characteristic of IPA (Smith et al., 2009). Another purposive consideration in participant selection was the number of people to be selected. As suggested by Hefferon and Gil-Rodriguez (2011), both prolific IPA researchers and academic supervisors: “The overarching theme that appears to emerge from [our work in IPA], is ... that ‘less is more’. Our advice to students and supervisors is to include fewer participants in the sample” (p. 758). The study additionally followed Smith et al.’s (2009) recommendation that, when setting up an IPA study at Master’s level, “our own practice is now to treat n = 3 as the default size” (p. 52). In addition to the above purposive considerations, the selection of participants for the study can also be described as adopting “convenience sampling” (Given, 2008, p. 124); a method whereby participants are contacted for selection because they are readily available. Such a method is frequently used in IPA, where it is often the case that: “potential participants are contacted via: referral, from various kinds of gatekeepers; opportunities, as a result of one's own contacts; or snowballing (which amounts to referral by participants)” (Smith et al., 2009, pp. 48–49). The participant selection process began by approaching acquaintances and work colleagues of the researcher. Potential participants needed to satisfy the purposive selection criteria outlined above and were then introduced to the study and offered the opportunity to participate. Due to convenience sampling constraints, the first three people meeting

32 the above criteria and agreeing to participate in the research were chosen. Pseudonyms were allocated to each participant to preserve their anonymity. The three participants in the study were: (1) Kevin, male, aged 22; (2) Trevor, male, aged 20 and (3) Sam, male, aged 20. All participants reported that they had extensive video game experience across multiple platforms and close familiarity with the Halo franchise. Sam was the only participant who reported having never played Halo 3: ODST prior to his participation in the study. These purposive and convenience considerations in the selection process resulted in a group of participants with common characteristics beyond the above selection criteria. Each was an Australian resident, male and aged in their early twenties. Such commonality can be regarded as desirable since it contributes to the homogeneity of the group, where “IPA studies are conducted on relatively small sample sizes, and the aim is to find a reasonably homogeneous sample” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 3). The sample was considered reasonably homogeneous in that each of the participants selected for the study was an Australian resident, English-speaking, an active gamer with experience playing video games from the Halo franchise, male, aged in their early twenties and with the skills necessary to reflect on and articulate their personal experiences. In keeping with the above considerations underpinning the selection of participants, no attempt was made to select participants on the basis of deliberately creating ethno-cultural, age or gender diversity within the participant group. Notably, while six men and women were approached to participate in the study, three potential participants – including two women who were approached – declined to participate because of their unavailability, which resulted in the study having three male participants. Many game researchers now appreciate that, in games research generally, women players may be under-represented and in the wider gaming community: “despite the broadening of video game audiences, ... some members of [this] gaming community continue to define ‘game culture’ as something specific and particularly masculine, heterosexual, and white” (Shaw, 2015, p. 6). IPA responds to such a need for diversity in representation through successive cumulative studies – each relating to a reasonably homogeneous sample – in which, “as more IPA is conducted, it will make sense for researchers to conduct studies where sampling is defined in relation to a previous study on the topic. And so it will be possible to gradually build a picture for larger populations” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 49). The

33 findings of IPA studies thus refer to particular groups of participants, where, “by making the groups as uniform as possible according to obvious social factors or other theoretical factors relevant to the study, one can then examine in detail psychological variability within the group, by analysing the [thematic] pattern of convergence and divergence which arises” (Smith et al., 2009, pp. 49–50).

4.5 Ethical Considerations The required ethical approval for the conduct of this study was obtained from Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) University Human Research Ethics Committee (Appendix A). According to chapter 2.1 of the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (National Health and Medical Research Council, 2007/2015), the research was classified as being ‘negligible risk’ where, “‘negligible risk research’ describes research in which there is no foreseeable risk of harm or discomfort; and any foreseeable risk is no more than inconvenience.” (p. 13). For this study, that inconvenience was the time taken for the completion of an experience journal and participation in interviews. QUT’s code of ethical conduct highlights that if a participant’s reaction to journal or interview questions exceeds discomfort then they are considered harms. In both the experience journal and the interviews, participants were only asked questions related to their experience of the video game, involving no anticipated risk of harmful reactions. In addition, steps were taken by the researcher to adhere to QUT’s ethical guidelines, ensuring the minimisation of any potential discomfort or inconvenience. This was done by organising the interviews in convenient locations for the participants, arriving on time and conducting the interviews in a timely manner. The research was thus deemed to be of negligible risk to participants. The benefits of this study were considered to outweigh any perceived risks. Participant involvement in the study was entirely voluntary with the only benefit to the participants being their contribution to the field of knowledge. Upon being approached to be involved in the research, participants were given a Participant Information Sheet (Appendix B) together with a Participant Consent Form (Appendix C) for completion and return to the researcher. The information sheet also provided contacts at QUT for any questions, queries or concerns they might have about the research before, during and after their participation.

34 4.6 Quality and Validity Issues regarding the quality of qualitative research were addressed by following the guidelines advocated by Smith et al. (2009) and Yardley (2000, 2008). In particular, the research was guided by four criteria developed by Yardley (2000) for good qualitative research: sensitivity to context, commitment and rigour, transparency and coherence, and impact and importance. These criteria, however, are open to interpretation: “In keeping with the philosophy of many QMs, [Qualitative Methodologies] these criteria are not in the form of rigid rules or prescriptions, but are themselves open to flexible interpretation” (Yardley, 2000, p. 219). Moreover, Yardley (2000) explains that the criteria should acknowledge the role of the approach to inquiry, and stresses that the way in which the criteria are met “will vary widely, depending upon the approach employed” (Yardley, 2000, p. 219). While quality and validity are seen by many phenomenological researchers such as Smith (2009) and Yardley (2000, 2009) as having great importance, the concept of reliability may be inappropriate: “Reliability and replicability may also be inappropriate criteria, if the purpose of the researcher is to offer just one of many possible interpretations of a phenomenon, or to study a situation which is in the process of changing, or a discourse which is itself inherently inconsistent” (Yardley, 2000, p. 218). The study also made use of the recommendation by Smith et al. (2009) that the quality and validity of IPA research is enhanced by presenting the findings in a way that is supported by narrative extracts. In terms of the interview quality, IPA aims to facilitate a dialogue of topics related to the literature, in which, the research question is “answered subsequently, through analysis” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 58). Smith et al. (2009) believe that the interview questions should be of a quality that encourages lengthy, open and expansive discussion and only upon being eased into the interview is the participant invited by the researcher to be more analytical. The content of an IPA interview cannot be assumed or predicted, and Smith et al. (2009) state that “good research interviewing requires us to accept, and indeed relish” (p. 65) that fact. It can be seen that the quality of IPA research stems from the spontaneity and unpredictability of the data collected. The validity of this study is principally demonstrated through the transparency of the evidence base, with the findings being presented in a way that is supported by relevant narrative extracts.

35 4.7 Data Collection IPA offers a number of ways in which data may be collected. Amongst the most common methods are the use of experience journals and semi-structured interviews wherein participants are able to recount their experiences (Smith et al., 2009). The participants in this study were anticipated, prior to the study, to be articulate and reflective adults, capable of maintaining a journal and describing their experiences. For this reason, both these data gathering methods were employed since they were both considered to be appropriate and effective. The two data collection methods, experience journals and interviews, are claimed by Smith et al. (2009) to provide access to deep understandings of a participant’s experience. However, they highlight that these understandings are “not held to be ‘the truth’ – but they are seen to be ‘meaning-full’ [sic]” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 66). Semi-structured interviews, if used effectively, “tend to produce rich and interesting data” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 66), arising from the rapport and empathy developed with the participants by engaging in an iterative discourse. Smith et al. (2009) suggest that people are often conservative with their personal experiential information, and state that this is due to “wide exposure to market research and to popular questionnaires in magazines” (p. 56). They argue, however, that experience journals and interviews could be the best means of accessing detailed and rich accounts of participant experience (Smith et al., 2009).

4.7.1 The experience journal An experience journal was employed in this study to be kept by participants during their play-through, as one of the two methods of data gathering. Participants were emailed a list of pre-prepared experience journal items (Appendix D) to record their experiences during and after each level of the game and to subsequently be emailed back to the researcher. Each item is open ended and specific to each level so as not to restrict in any way the response by the participant. Smith et al. (2009) explain that “IPA questions and answers are necessarily open” (p. 48) and that a participant’s response can often deviate from the topic of the original question. In response to each of the ten items, the three participants were requested to comment on their thoughts and feelings in relation to the visual environment of the game, the music and sounds during the game, the characters they played as and any other characters, the narrative arc of the game and any sense of achievement or

36 difficulty that they experienced. For example, Item 4 of the Experience Journal Email Items (Appendix D) requests participants to describe their experience of escaping a level called Uplift Nature Reserve, while playing as the character Dutch. This item thus asks participants to relay their experience of an individual level and the playable character featured in that level.

4.7.2 The interview questions Participants were given up to four weeks to complete the game in their own time, after which, the interviews were held. Two separate one hour audio-recorded interviews were conducted, in the form of one-sided conversations consistent with IPA recommendations. The first interview with each participant was conducted shortly after their completion of the game so that the experience was still relatively fresh in their memory, and the second took place some weeks later after each participant had time to reflect on their experiences. The intent of the Interview 1 Questions (Appendix E) was to explore the participant’s experience of playing as multiple first-person video game protagonists in Halo 3: ODST’s single-player narrative, therefore responding to the primary research question. It has been stated by Smith et al. (2009) that “in IPA, primary research questions, and the subsequent interview questions which may devolve from them, are not usually theory-driven” (p. 42). As such, the Interview One questions were not based on any theory and were fully concerned with the participant’s experience of the phenomenon under investigation. In terms of phrasing the questions, Smith et al. (2009) advocate choosing “formulations which are open (rather than closed), and which do not make too many assumptions about the participant’s experiences or concerns, or lead them towards particular answers” (p. 60). Smith et al. (2009) provide an illustration of suitable kinds of questions that would be suitable for an IPA research interview. The intent of these suggested questions is exploratory, with the concerns being: “Descriptive … Narrative … Structural … Contrast … Evaluative … Circular … Comparative” (Smith et. al., 2009, p. 60). For example, Question 4 from the Interview 1 Questions (Appendix E) is a contrasting question: Describe the high and low points of playing the game and the main differences between those experiences? The intent of the Interview 2 Questions (Appendix F) was to explore the roles and relevance of paidia and ludus to the experience of playing Halo 3: ODST. Smith

37 et al. (2009) stress the usefulness of having “a few more refined or theory-driven questions, but to treat these as 'secondary' – because they can only be answered at the more interpretative stage, and because, given the open nature of qualitative data collection, you can't be certain that you will [italics in original] be able to answer them” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 48). Similar to the questions in Interview One, the questions in Interview Two were open, allowing for freedom of response from the participant, while addressing either or both paidia and ludus as theoretical constructs. As stated in Chapter Three, the Rookie’s night-time levels, exploring New Mombasa, can be seen as paidic gameplay while the linear and action-packed gameplay of the flashback missions is notably ludic in nature. An example of a comparative question, Question 8, from the Interview 2 Questions (Appendix F) is: How would you feel if the game did not include any of the Rookie levels?

4.7.3 Data preparation Data from the experience journal emails was transferred verbatim into a word processed document for each participant, in accordance with the idiographic concerns of IPA. Data from each of the interviews were gathered using a Philips Voice Tracer LFH0615 digital recorder. The resultant .mp3 audio files from each interview were transferred to a password-protected computer for subsequent transcription and analysis. A verbatim transcription was produced by the researcher from repeated listening to the computer-based audio files and typed into a word processor. The verbatim text-based transcript was intended to be a full record of the interview: “IPA requires a semantic record of the interview” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 74). Each participant was allocated a pseudonym to provide and maintain anonymity and for identification within their experience journals, transcripts and for use within the thesis.

4.8 The Hermeneutic Process The data analysis procedure commenced with the production of computer-based text: conversion of the emailed experience journals and transcription of the audio- recorded interview. Subsequently a six-step hermeneutic analysis process, advocated by Smith et al. (2009), was applied to the text. The steps in this process enabled the development of themes and superordinate themes, contributing to the findings of the

38 study. During this process, the researcher deliberately set aside preconceptions which may have arisen as a result of previous personal observations and research. The data analysis process followed the particular steps advised by Smith et al. (2009). The first step involved the reading and re-reading of interview transcripts, “immersing oneself in some of the original data” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 82). Smith et al. (2009), also advises that “this part of the process is about slowing down our habitual propensity for ‘quick and dirty’ reduction and synopsis” (p. 82). The second step required the researcher to make notes and comments on particular areas of interest within the textual transcript. These comments were either descriptive, analysing the raw content; linguistic, exploring the participant’s use of language; or conceptual, engaging with the data on an interrogative level. A participant’s use of language can often highlight the nature of the relationship they have with the phenomenon, which Smith et al. (2009) suggest is worth noting. Conceptual annotation however, involves a shift in the researcher’s focus, “towards the participant’s overarching understanding of the matters that they are discussing” (p. 88). At this stage, it was helpful to employ strategies of de-contextualisation to focus on the meaning and words of the participant’s experience. Smith et al. (2009) believe that this can emphasise “the importance of context within the interview as a whole, thus helping one to see the interrelationships between one experience and another” (p. 90). The third step in the hermeneutic process introduces the ‘hermeneutic circle’ to the process of data analysis in which the researcher focuses back and forth from the text informing the themes to the themes informing the text. This circular “synergistic process of description and interpretation” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 92) stems from the researcher finding and identifying emergent themes across a single transcript or multiple transcripts. This has been described as a difficult task to manage according to Smith et al. (2009), involving a reduction in the amount of detail as the data changes, all the while maintaining complexity by means of finding patterns and connections in the data. While annotations from the second step are expected to be loose and open, “emergent themes should feel like they have captured and reflect an understanding” (p. 92). The fourth step in the analysis involves abstraction, in which the researcher looks at the connections between emergent themes in order to identify any narrative or contextual elements that may be present.

39 Once these connections have been identified, the researcher continues to develop superordinate themes. The fifth step is applicable to a study involving multiple cases, as applies to this study. The researcher moves to the next participant’s data and repeats the previous four steps in the hermeneutic process so as to adhere to IPA’s explicit concern with the particular and individuality. In keeping with IPA’s idiographic concerns, this step requires the researcher to bracket any themes, concepts or elements present in the previous case. The sixth and final step involves identifying any themes or patterns that span across all cases. This hermeneutic process enabled a comprehensive and detailed analysis of the data and the presentation of the findings of the study in the following chapters, Chapter Five and Chapter Six.

40 Chapter Five The Single-player Narrative Experience

The previous chapter outlined the use of IPA as a methodology for exploring the experiences of gamers playing Halo 3: ODST and the means by which data were collected and analysed. The findings and discussion of the research are presented across two chapters: this chapter and the following chapter, Chapter Six. An analysis of the participants’ experiences revealed a distinct bifurcation of themes related to two theoretical approaches to the study of video games: narratology and ludology. The literature review in Chapter Two highlights the debate between the appropriateness of these approaches, as narratology studies video games from a narrative perspective, while ludology studies video games from the perspective of the gameplay itself. Both approaches were utilised in this study, with the presentation of the findings in this chapter and the following chapter being informed by narratology and ludology respectively. This chapter presents the findings and discussion of the research in relation to both the essence of the participants’ experience and their experience of the single-player narrative. The findings and discussion of the research in relation to both the participants’ experience of gameplay and the roles of the associated theoretical constructs, paidia and ludus, are presented in the following chapter, Chapter Six. The findings across both of these chapters are supported by participant narrative, represented by italicised text.

5.1 Essence of the Experience IPA places an emphasis on the value of arriving at the essence of the experience of a phenomenon: “The set of invariant properties lying underneath the subjective perception of individual manifestations of that type of object” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 14). The essence of the participants’ experience of Halo 3: ODST was interpreted by the researcher as immersion in a noir narrative through associated gameplay and cinematics, explored in a non-linear, episodic narrative style through the perspective of multiple first-person protagonists. Participants reported that their experiences were enjoyable, engaging and immersive when identifying with the protagonists in this noir, episodic narrative. The essence of their experience was interpreted as having

41 three most notable facets: immersion in the noir narrative, the narrative style and the multiple playable characters through which the narrative was experienced.

5.1.1 An immersive noir narrative One of the notable facets identified within the experiences of participants related to the word ‘noir’, a term that was introduced independently by each of the three participants when reflecting on the game’s narrative. They used the term noir here to imply the film style, involving a mystery in a dark setting and indicated that this style contributed to creating an immersive experience. Each participant also used the term ‘detective’ to indicate that uncovering this mystery was another contributing factor to the immersive quality of their experience. The participant reports below indicated that the intentions of the video game’s designers had been fulfilled. Martin O’Donnell, the lead sound designer and composer of Halo 3: ODST, stated that the development team intended for the game to be “dark and rainy, to have that film noir feel” (Bungie Studios, 2009b). Both Sam and Trevor indicated a broad knowledge of film genre and video game design. For example, Sam described the narrative as: Very noir, very black and white, atmospheric, rainy. I was instinctively inclined to sneak past the enemies, just because of the immediate atmosphere that it puts you in. … You felt like an undercover operative trying to steer clear of enemies. Stay quiet. Stay hidden. Trevor indicated that the soundtrack was an important factor that contributed to his immersion in this noir, investigatory atmosphere: It’s kind of noir actually, because it’s like this detective thing of putting all the clues together, and every episode is quietly hopeful, … the missions are like episodic little bites of separate soundtrack. Trevor also implied that the city’s artificial intelligence (AI) was the central figure of this detective mystery and at the very core of this noir narrative: You have this AI, the Superintendent, and you’re like: ‘Who is the Superintendent? Who is this enigma?’ … All the threads on the board are kind of tying themselves nicely to that little central pin.

42 5.1.2 Non-linear episodic narrative style Another facet was identified within the essence of the experience of the participants: the non-linear, episodic style of the game’s narrative. They each indicated that this narrative style was a novel approach for game developers in general, but particularly for Bungie. Sam, for example, commented that: Its definitely not what you would expect from a Halo game or a shooter in general. It set my expectations pretty high for the rest of the game, to see what they would do with that atmosphere. When reflecting on this episodic narrative style, Kevin and Sam both used extra- diegetic references in their description of this experience. Kevin commented that, for him: Jumping back and forth between the characters helps to break up the gameplay so you aren’t just going from start to finish, and also because most of the events in the game happen in one day, … You get to play through that day multiple times in sort of a Tarantino-esque way. Each time you go back you progress the story a little bit more, which I liked. Sam drew a comparison between the multi-character, episodic style of the game and HBO’s Game of Thrones. He indicated that he enjoys this style of narrative and that it contributed to his immersion in Halo 3: ODST’s narrative: Let’s take Game of Thrones for example. There’s a vast amount of things going on, all at the same time, and the story tries to follow all of them and does a very good job of it. … Each individual story is engaging, but when they’re all together, it’s very much a world that you’re exploring.

5.1.3 Multiple playable characters The final facet of the essence of the participants’ experience concerned identification with the cast of characters. The participants each reported that having multiple characters made the game feel notably different from other FPS games, and that this was the primary feature that separated Halo 3: ODST from its predecessors. This was reflected in Trevor’s statement that:

43 There’s more happening, there’s more characters, there’s more story at the same time. And I think to take the multiple protagonists out of it, you would just have a normal Halo game. Each of the participants indicated that they engaged with some characters more than others, although Sam reported that this did not impact on his enjoyment of the narrative. His reflections indicated that his first experience with Halo 3: ODST conveyed the game’s defining characteristic as one in which playing as multiple first- person protagonists was at the heart of this immersive, noir, non-linear, episodic narrative: I think if the point of the multiple playable characters was to show this world, I think they did a good job. … I thought the multiple playable characters was cool. I think it made the game overall superior. I think it was definitely an improvement [over previous Halo games]. The categorisation of themes of the multifaceted essence of the participants experience presented in this section provides a basis for the findings presented in the following three sections related to each of the three narrative elements identified in the existing literature. These three elements comprise what the player sees, hears and interacts with in the game-world: visual imagery and world-building, sound and music, and character respectively. Consistent with the use of IPA as a methodology, it was the participants’ own experiences which formed the basis of the data analysis and these experiences now inform the structure of the presentation of the findings within each of these three narrative elements.

5.2 The Player Experience of Visual Imagery and World-building Within the experiences of each of the three participants, visual imagery and world- building was identified as a principal narrative element, depicting both the visual environment around the player-character, and the narrative world which provided the context of the game. Three superordinate themes were located within the reported experiences of the participants. Each of the participants expressed a sense of enjoyment when discovering the mysteries of the game, reflected on varying degrees of difficulty in navigating the dark game environment and indicated that their experience of the fictional game-world was often influenced by their experiences of previous Halo games. Participants also commented on the impact of the flashback

44 missions on their experience of the narrative and suggested ways in which their particular issues with the visual imagery and world-building might be resolved.

5.2.1 The desire for discovery and exploration Participants described the ways in which the game assisted players in navigating the game environment and how this had impacted on their experience. There were discordant reactions to the use of navigational aids. In general, participants reported that the navigational assistance provided by the game was either overly helpful or not helpful enough. The participants commented on the use of the heads-up-display (HUD), a display for presenting the game’s tactical information placed on the inside of the character’s visor, such as an ammunition counter or a motion tracker. The reactions and comments of the participants indicated a desire for discovery and for the game to allow them to problem-solve for themselves. Kevin stated that he had difficulties with reading the map and offered suggestions on how it could be improved. Despite these difficulties, he indicated that he enjoyed having to use the map to find his way around the city, and stated that: The main difference between this game and other games in the Halo series is that you’ve got a map. So the onus is on the player to figure out where you have to go and, even though it’s a linear story, you create potentially a non-linear pathway to get through that story. In having the map, it changes the way you play the game. Trevor expressed a dislike of the game’s heavy reliance on the HUD to navigate the vast network of streets in the city. He indicated that he would have preferred to deduce the directions and objectives for himself, without using the HUD, a notably consistent feature in Halo games that cannot be disabled: If you turned off the HUD, you should still be able to have all the information you need, which is a really good thing about the basic assault rifle: having the ammo counter on the gun rather than in the corner of your screen. Or just having really clearly signposted – like metaphorically signposted – environments where there are landmarks to orient yourself. … It was kind of rewarding to walk around more and be able to memorise the city, and just start to feel like this native New Mombassan and go: ‘Yeah, I know exactly where to go, turn off that HUD’.

45 5.2.2 The highs and lows of navigation In addition to participants’ descriptions of the ways in which the game assisted the player in navigating the game environment, they also described their experiences with the game environment itself. Halo 3: ODST signifies the first sandbox, or open- world environment, in the narrative gameplay of a Halo game. As such, participants were eager to comment on how this impacted on their experiences. They each reflected on the highs and lows of navigating the expansive game environment. In terms of points of reference in order to orient themselves, Kevin and Trevor remarked that although navigating the streets was an enjoyable experience, the environment did not have enough distinguishing features for them to navigate the world without heavy reliance on the HUD. For example, Kevin observed: A lot of modern games, and games in general, will have lighting cues [visual indicators] to tell you exactly where to go. So, beyond a shadow of a doubt you know where you’re going. It’ll be a green light, very visible, something you can easily find. Whereas in ODST, there are buildings that are open that you can go into that you don’t need to go into and it’s not even a hundred percent clear you can even go into that building. Trevor also described initial difficulty in understanding how to navigate the environment: I knew that I was back-tracking, but only later in the game, because I was running around like a dickhead for the first half like: ‘Help! There are no landmarks!’ Despite their overall enjoyment of the game environment, Trevor reported a particular difficulty in the first flashback mission of the game, stating: So, Tayari Plaza, at the very beginning, I missed a corridor where I was supposed to skirt around the Covenant and I just spent like four lives trying to fight my way straight through this bunch of people, and you’re supposed to go up to this passover [sic] bridge and then get down behind some of them, and that wasn’t very clear. Trevor expressed that this difficulty was a low point for him, and a product of “jarring level design”. He indicated that the game had already made him accustomed to relying on features that easily guided him through the game environment, and that

46 this inability to successfully navigate the city without aid detracted from his enjoyment of the game: It’s such a hard concrete environment and it felt like a spaceship on the surface of the planet. Everything is all template buildings, all cut and dry and you see the same thing here that you see on the other side of the map. So, only halfway through the game, I started being able to find stuff easily. The participants reported that despite their low points in navigating the game’s environment, they enjoyed the times when the game encouraged them to discover the secrets of the city using their own means and visual aids such as the VISR mode – a night vision enhancement which highlights objects, enemies and environments in different colours. Trevor reported: I loved switching on the night vision, you’ve got little yellow outlines around graphic assets. … Apart from helping you see everything better, it makes the environment pop. Also in favour of the VISR mode, Kevin indicated that this feature was a high point for him and that it was useful during combat scenarios: It’s a great way to locate enemies. First time I put it on as another squad member, it was during the day and I nearly blinded myself. I thought it was a good way to do it. It helps make the game a bit more tactical.

5.2.3 Nostalgia through intertextuality Each of the three participants reported that they immediately engaged with the narrative because the introductory cut-scene of the game had players witnessing an event from a previous game, Halo 2, but from a different perspective. This appeared to create a memory trigger for the participants which evoked a sense of nostalgia for Halo 2. The participants indicated that this intertextual moment had a notable impact on their experiences: it represented for them a nostalgic and significant event in the Halo meta-narrative. This is exemplified by Kevin’s statement: It’s interesting, it’s sometimes great to not play the hero of every story. You can focus on a smaller microcosm of a story. Especially with ODST because it sits parallel between the other Halo games [Halo 2 and Halo 3].

47 In the introductory cut-scene of the game, players are confronted with the eponymous ‘orbital drop’, falling through the atmosphere in a single occupant pod. This drop was described by the participants as being a thrilling opening to the story, triggering their memory of the event from their last experience with New Mombasa. Kevin expressed that he immediately felt deeply engaged with the visual depiction of the drop due to his fear of heights: “It was definitely an edge of the seat moment, because with the heights [sic]: I’m not a massive fan of the heights”. In the narrative, the mission goes awry; the Rookie emerges from his drop- pod after a six-hour concussion, and the player is presented with a large, night-time city-scape familiar to all players of Halo 2. The participants reflected on this sense of familiarity, indicating that it induced a sense of nostalgia related to their previous experiences in the fictional city of New Mombasa. Sam expressed the view that this environment, which becomes the setting for the Rookie’s missions, created an appealing visual and auditory atmosphere, in that: I found myself, whenever I was in the daytime missions, wanting everything to be played at night. I definitely enjoyed the game more when the lights were dimmed, when everything had that rainy, stormy atmosphere with that gorgeous piano playing in the background. Trevor reported that he was excited about the game’s ties to Halo 2, expressing that this made the world feel more expansive: ODST gives you the scenarios of a Halo game written into something where there is more happening than just Master Chief, ’cause Halo 3: ODST is happening at the same time as Halo 2. Right? Master Chief is just on a beach, over there, doing some other stuff … There’s more happening on this battlefield. And you’re like: ‘Oh, there he is, there he goes!’ Awesome, you know?

5.2.4 Analepsis Narrative flashbacks, also referred to as analepsis, occurred on six separate occasions in Halo 3: ODST’s linear narrative. These analepses form the daytime events of the game which are triggered by the Rookie finding the related clues during the evening. Each of the participants indicated that they felt engaged with the episodic narrative style, reflecting on the interesting connections between these two separate time frames. This is exemplified by Kevin’s statement that:

48 It was really interesting how they played out the events you see in the game. When you’re playing the Rookie, you’re seeing the events set at night which helps to contrast between those two squads as well … It’s a great way to develop the story, because you see these destroyed buildings and you go and play whatever member of the team caused that destruction. Trevor expressed appreciation for the back-and-forth narrative technique between the Rookie’s clue hunt and the analepsis sequences. He commented particularly on the non-linearity of the episodes and also the visual links between the day and the night missions, as exemplified by broken down tanks, dead bodies and destroyed environments. Despite this appreciation for the visual imagery, Trevor reported that there was a disconnection between himself and the Rookie character, in that he, as the player, could see the events in the analepsis sequences that the Rookie could not, because he was inhabiting the characters who experienced the events in these sequences: All that the Rookie knows is what’s on the security cameras; the surveillance footage. … So he just sees Buck and an explosion and the helmet flies in the window. He’s not aware of all the conversation that Buck’s had with Dare leading up to that. … He’s not aware of the whole story and everything that’s happened. He’s still just getting these little snapshots really.

5.2.5 Player suggestions for improvement Each of the participants expressed a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction with the game’s visual imagery and world-building. Yet, two of the participants, Kevin and Sam, offered suggestions as to how this element could be improved. In terms of suggestions related to the navigational component of the visual imagery, Kevin proposed that having map pathways that were more clearly discernible would address problems such as running into a dead end: Some of the map points as well; I was a little unclear as how you were meant to get from one place to the other, a little door icon would be much appreciated. Sam suggested improvements centred on the narrative and the game-world. As a long-term Halo fan, but playing Halo 3: ODST for the first time, he said that he

49 would have preferred more struggles and hopeless scenarios, so that he could more easily identify with grunt soldiers on the front lines. In illustrating this sentiment, he said: I think if I was myself to make ODST again, I’d put in a lot more marines, a lot more human soldiers and I’d make your [the player’s] character weaker. He indicated that a plot twist towards the end of the narrative detracted from his initial expectations of the game: I was kind of expecting it to be a bit more of a quiet, sombre version of Halo comparatively [sic] to the other Halo’s. … So I guess I was hoping for it to be a bit more grounded, a bit more violent, realistic. Towards the end it wasn’t so much. It kind of lost that a bit for [sic] general ‘theatrical-ness’, which is sort of what I probably should have expected from the Halo universe. However, Sam considered the novelty of the noir visual and narrative style to be an improvement over other games in the series. When reflecting on his experience with the narrative component of the game, he suggested that the developers could have gone further in this stylistic direction: Halo ODST was good for the same reason that Reach was good, in the sense that it was something different. It wasn’t just following Chief again. Same reason that Halo 2 was good, because it was something different when you were playing as the Arbiter; keeping something fresh and presenting something new. Regardless of this enthusiastic appraisal, he indicated that he felt a greater attachment to the game’s premise over the game’s narrative: I think the game could have been better. … There was a gorgeous core of something that was definitely at the start of the game that kind of disappeared towards the end. It lost what separated it from the other Halo’s.

5.3 The Player Experience of Sound and Music Sound and music was identified as another principal narrative element within the experiences of the participants. As referred to in the previous section, the participants suggested that Halo 3: ODST signified a new direction for the series, and that this

50 was exemplified in the auditory component of the game. Three superordinate themes were located in the reported experiences of participants related to this element. First, in previous Halo games, the Master Chief’s entrances have been hailed, even by in- game characters, as being far from stealthy. Halo 3: ODST, however, features two notable variations on old Halo weapons, those being the silenced sub-machine gun (SMG) and the silenced pistol which participants suggested influenced their gameplay actions. Second, the game also represented a departure from the classic Halo Gregorian-inspired chant, now utilising a jazz style piano and saxophone, a feature reflecting the novel noir style of the game. Third, another feature of the game that impacted on this element was the use of audio-logs which introduced an unseen character to the game’s cast, that being the Superintendent AI. These features, together with the participants’ personal suggestions for improvement to the narrative element of sound and music in the game, are presented in the subsections below.

5.3.1 Silenced weapons and the implication of stealth The signature Halo weapons appear to have been designed to provide a loud and unique array of sounds, with each weapon distinguishable in large scale fire-fights. The inclusion of these new weapons appeared to reflect a departure from the bold galaxy-saving heroes to simple soldiers on the front line of the human-Covenant war. A major theme was identified in the participants experiences related to their eagerness and pleasure to accept the developers’ implications for a quieter, stealthier Halo game. Kevin reported that having silenced weapons exemplified the quietness of the city, and that it changed the way he approached situations: I like the variation in the gameplay. There’s classic Halo weapons but a couple of new ones. The silenced SMG [sub-machine gun] was a nice change, something a bit different. … Sort of a bit more stealth as well. Just the way the game’s set up makes you feel a little bit more stealthy. Sam reported experiences similar to those of Kevin, in which he felt encouraged by the game’s visual and auditory environment to play stealthily. Sam suggested that acting in this way had a positive impact on his experience. He described that using the silenced weapons helped him identify more closely with the characters:

51 Playing as the Rookie with the silenced pistol, you’re just trying to take everyone out really quickly. And you get a real kick when you get three head-shots in a row on some Grunts. You feel like you’re an elite ODST, which was cool.

5.3.2 Atmosphere and all that jazz Each of the participants independently described feeling immersed in a particular atmosphere, which they largely attributed to the soundtrack. Sam indicated that this atmosphere reflected the Rookie’s solitude in the darkness of the city. He reported that, together with the silenced weapons, the atmosphere greatly contributed to his immersion in the game and effected his play style: Well, the music was fantastic. I think that out of everything was probably the most immersive aspect of the game. Especially after the first mission, dropping in and jumping out of the pod as the Rookie, and that sort of slow jazzy piano kicking in with the dark atmosphere and the rain kicking down, that was quite gorgeous. I was inclined to sneak past a lot of the enemies due to that atmosphere, and I kind of wanted to stay down. In each of the three participant’s experiences, the feeling of solitude and sombreness in the Rookie’s missions was consistent. For example, Kevin commented on how the music differentiated this sombre atmosphere from the heroic flashback missions: Sound design is obviously a very large part of ODST. It kind of helps separate the different missions and the story into the characters you play. So as the Rookie there’s the jazz style of music which kind of reinforces the fact that, for the majority of this game, as you’re playing the Rookie, you are alone, trying to find your squad. The jazz style helps to build that. It’s also directly contrasted to playing as the other members of the squad. ... Which kind of makes you feel like more of a hero when you’re playing as those characters as if you are saving the world. Trevor reported a similar sentiment in that, while playing the flashback missions, he felt heroic and this was complimented by a change in mood conveyed by the soundtrack, omitting the game’s motif which utilised the piano and saxophone

52 combination. He provided an example of this sentiment, experienced during Mickey’s mission in Kizingo Boulevard: Well you’ve got all the marines sitting on the tank, blasting the [expletive] out of people with assault rifles and it feels very, very ‘World War’-y. And the music kicks in and you’re like: ‘Yeah, this is my jam, I’m gonna go blow some [expletive] up!’ Even though you’ve been blowing [expletive] up for the entire level, you only acknowledge it then. That’s when you hit your stride as a bad-ass. Trevor reported a similar experience to Sam, in indicating that the shift in mood from these heroic events and activities back to the Rookie’s quiet exploration was largely determined by the soundtrack. He commented that the “nice little piano, that introspective quiet line that plays whenever you jump back to the Rookie when you’re holding a clue” not only created a sombre atmosphere but also evoked a sense of uncertainty in the narrative: For all of the investigative missions, where the Rookie is just piecing together stuff, it’s weird because you’ve got the piano serenading you and it’s equal parts hope and despair. It’s strange because you’re not sure whether you’re progressing or whether everyone’s about to die early on. The next thing you find might be a severed head.

5.3.3 Audio-logs and embedded narrative Another theme identified in the reported experience of participants centred on their engagement with the embedded narrative of the audio-log collectibles. Embedded narrative in video games often comes in the form of text or audio files recorded by intra-diegetic characters. Such narratives are often related to, but not pivotal to, the main story and usually unfold to a player through their finding hidden collectibles scattered around a game-world. In Halo 3: ODST, when playing as the Rookie, thirty audio logs were able to be found throughout the city which tell the story of Sadie, a character who played a big role in New Mombasa’s occupation. Her actions became part of the mystery and ultimately helping the characters escape the city. Each of the three participants expressed that the audio-logs created a sense of expansiveness in the game-world, and that they felt a desire to collect all of these logs, a desire which was not fulfilled by any of the participants.

53 Kevin was the only participant who reported a connection between his experience of the audio-logs and that of the Superintendent AI, also known as Vergil. He indicated that these logs helped him understand that the AI was a character and had an important role in the game’s mystery. From Kevin’s reflections, it would appear that the audio-logs helped to alleviate the sense of solitude that he felt was created by the music, in that it made him feel that there was another character within the game to assist him: You only really know the story of Vergil – which is the AI that runs the city of New Mombasa – through the audio-logs which are spattered around the city. I only saw about eight or nine of them, but they were good. They help add to the atmosphere. I’m a sucker for audio-logs in any game because I like it to flesh out a world … But, just in those few audio-logs, I did catch that his interactions with Sadie almost gives him a human quality and explains why the city is almost helping you through. While you’re playing as the Rookie you’ve got this omniscient force watching over you. Without those audio-logs to understand the city is the one that watches your back, it would kind of be a bit lost.

5.3.4 Player suggestions for improvement Participants expressed a sense of immersion in the game-world which they attributed to some extent to the element of sound and music. Nevertheless, each of the participants made suggestions on how the sound and music of the game could be improved. Sam and Kevin both made suggestions centred around the audio-logs. Neither of them located all thirty of the logs which would have triggered a separate section of gameplay for the Rookie in the penultimate level. Sam expressed disappointment that he only experienced a portion of the side-narrative, indicating that he had not yet experienced Halo 3: ODST’s narrative to its full extent. He expressed that: “I wish I had found those Sadie audio-logs sooner, because I didn’t find them until a couple of levels in. … So I only got about half of that story”. Kevin also indicated that he would have preferred to find all of the audio- logs, so that he could have more fully understood the character of the Superintendent. He commented that the fact he didn’t collect all of them made him eager to replay the game in order to find more:

54 If I hadn’t seen any of the audio-logs, I probably wouldn’t have even realised there was a Superintendent, until they mention it right at the very end. Even then I wouldn’t have really understood the significance of what the Superintendent really is. … I feel like the audio-logs should have been a more central part of the story, but then again it’s always good to have something to collect and something to find which adds to the replay-ability of any game.

5.4 The Player Experience of Character Three superordinate themes were identified within the participants experiences of playing as each of the multiple characters. First, each of the participants acknowledged that the Rookie, as the only silent protagonist, was portrayed as a ‘blank canvas’, upon which the players could ‘paint’, or project, their own personality. However, their reactions to the role of the Rookie were varied. Second, the character of Buck was recognised by the participants as being voice-acted by Nathan Fillion, a well known actor in science-fiction film and television productions. The participants noted that his voice and personality was so enjoyable and recognisable to them that they were favourably disposed towards his character in the game because of their identification with the actor. Third, each of the three participants expressed that they did not relate to the character of Captain Dare. Participants expressed that this character felt both clichéd and unnecessary. One participant in particular had suggestions on how Dare’s character and her role in the narrative could be improved to remedy his dislike of her.

5.4.1 The Rookie and the self By contrast with the other characters in the game, the Rookie is characterised by a lack of personality, back-story and dialogue. A prominent experience among participants, in projecting their own personality onto the character of the Rookie, was the feeling that this projection was expected of them by the game developers. However, participants commented that they felt the other, well-developed, characters were only instruments to piece the story together and no such projection was expected. As such, the participants indicated varied reactions to what they perceived as the developers’ intention that they should identify with the Rookie as the silent protagonist.

55 Sam reported that he felt most satisfied when playing as the Rookie, in that he experienced no difficulty in projecting himself onto the character. He suggested that his enjoyment of the Rookie’s detective-like nature and the aforementioned atmosphere created by both the music and the noir visual imagery, contributed to his identification with the character: I loved playing as the Rookie and the links to all the other side characters; finding all the clues. I thought that was really cool, where you as the player knew more about what’s going on than the actual characters. Conversely, Trevor expressed detachment from the Rookie, attributing this to the character being the only silent protagonist. He indicated that the expectation to identify with the Rookie was unwelcome, by contrast with the ease and enjoyment he experienced in identifying with the other four well-developed and voice-acted characters: I treated him as another character separate to me, because I also played as Romeo and Dutch and Mickey and Buck, so I could attach myself to those guys and play as them. But when I came back to the Rookie, it was like: ‘No you have to step inside the armour and be this guy’. But I wanted to be like a puppeteer controlling this other individual that had his own characteristics and they just weren’t there. Trevor also indicated that his unwillingness to identify with the Rookie as a character did not significantly impact on his overall enjoyment of the narrative. He implied that video games create a sense of escapism for him and the Rookie’s lack of character development left him disengaged at times: I wanted him to be his own character, I wanted him to be a character because he didn’t actually have anything that set him apart – aside from like: generic soldier – whereas all the other guys have defining characteristics. And Bungie might come back and say: ‘Well, what are your defining characteristics? Because you’re the Rookie’. I am myself every day of my life. I have to be myself when I play your game too? I want to be someone else, you know? … Another reason why I had a bit of trouble inhabiting his armour is because I knew a lot more than he did and I really wasn’t the same person. If you put me in

56 a character’s place, make me feel like the character and let me only see what the character sees. By strong contrast, Kevin conveyed that he had a favourable disposition towards silent protagonists in video games and reported that: “It’s very easy to project your own self into that kind of character”. He suggested that his relationship with the Rookie, compared to the other characters, changed the way he played the game during the different levels: The character I related to the most was the Rookie, because he’s the first character you play as and the last character you play as. I feel like that’s sort of the game saying: ‘This is you’. … I probably took the Rookie’s life a bit more seriously than I did with the other characters’ lives. … That was the character I identified with most, and as a player that character is you.

5.4.2 Edward Buck a.k.a. Nathan Fillion Nathan Fillion was both the voice actor and the face model for Edward Buck, the ODST team leader in the game. The actor was perceived by the participants as having such a unique and memorable personality that he was indistinguishable from the character he portrayed. The participants indicated that their appreciation of the actor and his previous work in film and television heavily influenced the favourable way in which they perceived his character in Halo 3: ODST. This appreciation of the actor is exemplified by Trevor’s statement that the game was “pretty solidly just being carried by Nathan Fillion”. He reported that the satisfaction of playing as Buck contributed to his enjoyment of the overall game: Of all of them Buck is my favourite because: Nathan Fillion. I spent the whole game hanging out for the next Buck mission. Buck’s inescapable association with Nathan Fillion was also reflected in Kevin’s sentiments, who stated that, despite his identification with the Rookie: Buck was probably my favourite character, that may be a Nathan Fillion bias. His interaction with the rest of the team was great, the voice acting was impeccable. So, I probably liked his character the most.

57 5.4.3 No-one likes the Captain The game has five playable characters: the Rookie, Buck, Dutch, Romeo, Mickey; and one non-playable character (NPC), Captain Veronica Dare. Each of the three participants expressed a rejection of Captain Dare. From their reflections, it was interpreted that their dislike was not based on the aesthetic design nor the voice acting of the character. Participant responses suggested that this dislike for her character was due to a lack of sufficient character development, her status as a non- playable character, and her romantic involvement with Buck, which felt superfluous to the narrative premise. Sam commented on the main reasons contributing to his expressions of antipathy towards the Captain, the only NPC in the ODST team. He reported that, if she had been a playable character, he “probably would have liked her character more, to be honest”. He also suggested that the game had enough of an interesting premise for it to be successful and enjoyable for him, while the Captain’s place in the narrative and the related plot twist detracted from his enjoyment of the story: We didn’t need some higher motive. We’re defending planet Earth from extinction. What other motive is more powerful than that? What else do you need in a game? … I definitely would have preferred the game if Dare had stayed dead and it was just a struggle to get out of the city. I think that would have been a very cool game. Trevor indicated that Dare as a character was no more than stereotypical. When discussing why he felt antipathy towards her, he stated that this was because “there are no levels for her, and you don’t have any insight into her through her eyes”. He went on to suggest that the main issue for him was: Definitely the way they wrote her character. She’s kind of a token, fierce, independent woman, I guess. And there’s not much more to her than that. … I think Dare’s writing [portrayal by the video game designers] leans on the authoritarian stereotyped strong woman, and obvious romantic arc with Buck, but I don’t blame her, because he’s Nathan Fillion and I would take that chance. That’s cool. But there wasn’t really much setting her apart other than like, you know, Ms Naval Intelligence. So what?

58 5.4.4 Player suggestions for improvement One participant in particular, Sam, offered alternative approaches to the use of character as an element in the game. He reported on how he would improve the game in terms of modifying the characters’ actions, motives and gameplay: I guess if they made something subtle with each character that made it so that, as you were playing them, you knew who you were playing. It would be very apparent, and you’d remember each. If I was just playing without music, or I wasn’t paying attention, I’d probably just think I was playing as the Rookie in all these other areas. He noted that Captain Dare’s close affiliation with the notoriously secretive and morally ambiguous Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), the high ranking officials who make all the major decisions in the Halo universe. He suggested that this affiliation provided an opportunity to make her character more developed and more likeable than her actual role in the narrative: I think it would have been cool if they did something a bit more sinister. Because, I mean, there’s a lot of ties between ONI, like the secret intelligence service and our current intelligence service and we know they get up to some pretty shady stuff. … It would have been cool if they sort of tied it in as Sadie or her dad being like a target of extermination for the Captain.

5.5 Discussion The superordinate themes that emerged from the analysis of participant experiences presented above were able to be grouped into the narrative elements identified in Chapter Two as the principal means by which a video game’s narrative is experienced by a player: visual imagery and world-building, sound and music, and character. Most of the participant experiences of Halo 3: ODST’s single-player narrative were able to be related to a number of concepts identified in the published literature regarding video game theory. However, the findings were not able to be related to concepts identified in the book Halo and Philosophy or any other particular literature regarding the Halo franchise. The desire for discovery and exploration within a game environment, as presented in section 5.2.1, was a theme that has been located in the work of Dixon (2009). The experience of sound and music in a game creating an acoustic soundscape or atmosphere, as mentioned above in section 5.3.2,

59 is a concept that has been discussed by Grimshaw (2008). The connection between an in-game character and the self, described by the participants, and presented in in section 5.4.1, is a concept thoroughly investigated by many researchers, from as early as 2001. Notably, some themes that emerged from the interpretive analysis of the participant experiences were not located in existing video game literature.

5.5.1 Visual imagery and world-building When considering visual imagery, participant responses centred on both the desire for discovery and exploration and on the difficulties they had in navigating the game environment. Alexander (2015), as part of his dissertation, analysed research conducted into video games unrelated to their entertainment value, rather concerning player brain activity, in particular the increase of grey matter. Each of the participants reported that, despite the inclusion of a map, they had difficulty navigating the sprawling environment of New Mombasa. However, they each reported that, after some time, they adapted to the environment, remembering places they had already seen, including environments first experienced during the day-time flashback missions. These participant reports resonate with the findings of Kuhn, Gleich, Lorenz, Lindenberger and Gallinat (2013, in Alexander, 2015) in determining that video games can improve the ability of parts of the brain related to “working memory … strategic planning … [and] spatial navigation” (p. 44). Dixon’s (2009) views are exemplified by the reports of participants in this study who indicated enjoyment of Halo 3: ODST’s open-world aspect and expressed a desire for more places, objects and narrative to explore and discover for themselves. As stated in Chapter Two, Dixon (2009) contended that the enjoyment of playing video games is derived from “the pleasure of figuring things out, understanding a story, solving a problem, seeing beauty in the system” (p. 6). Carson (2000) argues that ‘cause and effect’ storytelling is one of the most successful methods of conveying a narrative. This style of narrative storytelling is characterised by objects, environments and events that a player encounters, or interacts with, that results in particular outcomes or gameplay. This can provide a degree of narrative context for players who encounter such objects, environments and events either later in the narrative or from a different perspective. This is evident in participant’s engagement with the ‘cause and effect’ nature of the storytelling in Halo 3: ODST. Yet this engagement can also be attributed to the ability of players to inhabit

60 characters who had an effect on objects, environments and events earlier in the chronological timeline. In the context of the world-building aspect of this element, the emergent theme of gamers experiencing nostalgia through intertextuality, as highlighted above in section 5.2.3, has not been identified in the existing literature. This experience relates to narrative world-building, whereby the experience of a video game can be notably influenced by previous games in the same series. The participants’ indicated that their experience of nostalgia was due to the game’s narrative taking place during an event and in an environment that they had previously experienced in Halo 2, a game reportedly admired by all participants. It can be seen that the participants’ stated admiration for Halo 2 impacted their expectations and subsequent experience of Halo 3: ODST. Carson (2000) discusses the powerful impact of familiarity on a player’s engagement with a game environment – a familiarity established through game design. The nostalgia felt by the participants, when experiencing New Mombassa for the second time in the Halo series, may be a direct result of this powerful impact.

5.5.2 Sound and music Participant reports indicated that the combination of diegetic sound and extra- diegetic music played a major role in their experience of Halo 3: ODST. Silenced weapons, a novel feature introduced by Bungie in Halo 3: ODST, provided players with the implication of stealth as a characteristic of the gameplay. Each of the participants indicated that this new charactertistic of the gameplay, together with the night-time atmosphere, effected the way they played, in that they made conscious decisions to act stealthily during substantial portions of the game. The participants indicated that they were aware that their stealth play style was notably influenced by the intentions of the game developers. This connection between the intentions of game developers and the experience of the participants is reflected in Alexander’s (2015) remark that “game developers want a certain level of control over the experiences a player must go through to complete the game” (p. 155). Participants reflected on their experience of the game’s music, indicating that it created a particular atmosphere and mood during gameplay. This finding is also evident in discussions by Grimshaw (2008), who described the relationship between audio and the player in an FPS game as a “soundscape” and an “acoustic ecology”

61 (p. 1). He further suggested that within this ecology, an atmosphere can be created based around what he refers to as being a ‘subject’. In the case of Halo 3: ODST, such a subject can be said to be the Rookie and his narrative predicament. Participants’ responses indicated that the element of sound and music created a lonely, sombre, noir atmosphere. One particular emergent theme within the element of sound and music was identified by the researcher as being notably under-explored in the literature. This theme related to the impact that auditory embedded narrative – in this case the audio- logs – may have on the narrative experience. Several researchers, including Qin et al. (2009), have discussed the concept of embedded narrative and how it functions in video games as a useful tool for developers to expand a narrative or further explore characters. Jenkins (2004) explores the use of embedded narrative in games, stating that: “Most embedded narratives, at present, take the form of detective or conspiracy stories, since these genres help to motivate the player’s active examination of clues and exploration of spaces and provide a rationale for our efforts to reconstruct the narrative of past events” (p. 128). Lemmens (2017) commenting on the work of Jenkins (2004) in a discussion of embedded narrative, describes some forms of embedded narrative as ‘micro-narratives’. Lemmens (2017) suggests that ‘micro- narratives’ can provide players with a sense of anticipation about the primary narrative of a game. Sadie’s story in Halo 3: ODST – that participants described as being a prominent source of their engagement – is a clear example of a micro- narrative. However, each of the participants in this study indicated that their experience of the audio-logs was not only effective in engaging them in the narrative world of the game, but left them wanting more, as none of the participants located all of the 30 logs. Each participant expressed a desire to play the game again to locate all of the logs based on the enjoyment that they experienced from finding the logs that they had been able to find. This constitutes a notable finding that has been under- explored in the literature, where experiencing only a portion of an embedded narrative may increase the replay value of a game and encourage deeper engagement with a narrative.

5.5.3 Character In referring to character specifically as a narrative element, participant reports of their experience with the multiple playable characters in Halo 3: ODST were varied.

62 Each of the participants’ reflections indicated an awareness that the Rookie, as the silent protagonist of the game, was intended, by the developers, to represent the player. The concept of a video game character as a representation of the self has been explored by many researchers, including Klimmt et al. (2009) and Alexander (2015). In fact, Cohen (2001) argued that the process of identification “does not foster any judgements that require treating a character as external to the self” (p. 254). Furthermore, Kempton (2015) stated that “this extension of the self influences decision making” (p. 15) with implications for the way the game is played. This is exemplified in one participant’s report that, because he identified so closely with the Rookie as an extension of himself, he chose to play more cautiously and valued the Rookie’s life over that of the other characters. The concept of multiple playable protagonists in a video game, explored here, was demonstrated in Chapter Two and Chapter Three to be under-represented in the literature. Therefore, the impact of a game having one particular character as portraying the self, while others do not, is a finding of this study that has not been identified in the published literature. Identification with video game protagonists has been explored by Vorderer (2000), Hefner et al. (2007) and Klimmt et al. (2009) in relation to escapism. This study, however, importantly provides a nuanced understanding of such identification, exploring the experience of identification with multiple playable characters. While some of these characters are well-developed, one character could be seen as being a blank canvas. The Rookie was intended by the game developers to be a character upon which the player could project themselves (Bungie Studios, 2009b). One participant in particular expressed a reluctance to identify with the Rookie, despite the expectation that he was to project himself upon that character. He reported that his reluctance was due to his preference for playing as Buck, a well- developed character, rather than playing as the Rookie, a character that represented the player himself. Indeed, he expressed a modicum of resentment that he had been coerced by the game’s design to project himself upon a character when there were other more developed characters that he preferred to inhabit. This sentiment indicates an area where further research could be pursued, that is into the relationship between the phenomenon of multiple playable characters and the concept of escapism. The gameplay of the Rookie in particular is related to the concept of paidia, referred to previously in Chapter Two and Chapter Three. The participant

63 experiences of the Rookie’s levels and those of the other characters’ levels – including how these levels are related to the theoretical constructs of paidia and ludus – are presented and discussed in the next chapter, Chapter Six.

64 Chapter Six The Gameplay Experience and the Roles of Paidia and Ludus

The previous chapter presented and discussed the findings of the research in relation to both the essence of the participants’ experience of playing Halo 3: ODST and their experience of the single-player narrative. This chapter continues the presentation and discussion of the findings but in relation to the participants’ experience of gameplay and connects these experiences to the theoretical constructs of paidia and ludus.

6.1 The Player Experience of Gameplay The findings in relation to the participants’ experiences of gameplay are presented here, in this second chapter of the findings. Gameplay was interpreted from participant reports as being a separate thematic category from the experience of the single-player narrative. Such gameplay is associated with the two theoretical constructs, paidia and ludus, the principal concerns of the secondary research question. Three superordinate themes emerged from the responses of participants when reflecting on their experiences of the gameplay. First, the participants reported serendipitous moments within the gameplay which stood out to them as being notably immersive. Second, despite the game’s cast of five characters, each of the participants indicated that there was a disappointing lack of variety in the fundamental gameplay between each of those characters. Third, each participants’ reports and reflections indicated that the Rookie’s gameplay became repetitive, which detracted from their overall enjoyment of the experience.

6.1.1 Narrative immersion through movie moments Each of the participants reported that moments of immersion seemed to occur serendipitously during their experiences of the gameplay. They each indicated that these specific moments of gameplay made them feel so immersed in the narrative that they felt as if they were a character in a movie. Trevor, for example, reported that one of these moments of immersion occurred during the first flashback mission, in which he was playing as Buck in Tayari Plaza:

65 There was a super difficult Hunter [large Covenant creature] fight halfway through the level and I died a few times trying to get [past] it and I regrouped and strategised. But the time I got it and actually got past them [Hunters], I looked down at my ammo counter and it was empty. So, I’d killed the last Hunter with the last shell and I didn’t even know about it. I was just focussing on hitting that orange [the Hunter’s weak point]. I wish I would have been aware of it, but then I might have [expletive] it up. But it was just one of those movie moments that you get where you just go: ‘Oh! Instant replay. Save that moment forever!’ Trevor reported experiencing another immersive moment that occurred, during a cut-scene, in which he described having wished that the characters on screen would act in a particular way during dramatic events. When the characters did act in the way that he desired – shooting in retaliation at the fleeing Banshees – he indicated experiencing not only immersion through the empathy that he felt, but a great sense of satisfaction with the narrative trajectory of the cut-scene. One of Trevor’s immersive experiences took place during what the developers have described as being a “signette” (Bungie, 2009), where the player inhabits a character from a first-person perspective, but has not yet been given control of the character. This moment occurred for Trevor when he was playing as Romeo in the fifth level: In the first cut-scene, when the Banshees [Covenant air-assault vehicle] attack the Pelican [Human drop-ship] that’s about to pick up Romeo and Buck off that landing pad. As soon as those guys fly off, the two dudes just spray machine gun fire at them [the Banshees]. You don’t ever see that in video games. It’s so real. … It was such a visceral thing. I was thinking [while watching the cut-scene]: ‘Oh, my god! Shoot them! Shoot them, guys!’ And then they did, and you’re like: ‘Yes! That is exactly what I was telling you to do!’ That was very satisfying. Sam indicated that, for him, one of these serendipitous moments of immersion occurred during the first level played as Dutch: Uplift Reserve. He implied that fighting alongside other soldiers in a hopeless scenario evoked a sense of sympathy for them, and that his immersion occurred through an empathy with those soldiers:

66 I thought that was really cool – that they were just sort of freaking out, that they were stuck here with all these Covenant without any real backup coming. Of course we realise, you know, at the end of the game, that whole area ended up being glassed [bombarded by superheated plasma by the Covenant]. So, you can probably imagine what the result would have been for most of those dudes in there. Which sucks, you know?

6.1.2 Different character, same armour Each of the participants indicated that they were aware of the moment they came to play as another character, but they reported that there was a disappointing lack of variety in the fundamental gameplay between each of those characters. Although participants commented on the difference in the purpose of the gameplay between the Rookie and the other four characters, they reported that gameplay mechanics such as speed, strength, and weaponry, remained consistent. Kevin reported having a particular preference for Role-Playing Games (RPGs), in which players are able to ‘level up’ by developing and upgrading the skills and visual representation of their in-game character. He attributed the disappointing lack of variety between characters in Halo 3: ODST to the absence of such RPG gameplay: Because there’s not really an upgrade system, or anything like that, you don’t really feel like the characters are changing too much. You’re playing as these different people, you’re seeing these characters interact with other things in different ways. But, in terms of gameplay, there wasn’t a dramatic difference from the start to the end. In a lot of games that I like – RPGs and the like – you start the game as a really weak character and then you get stronger and, by the end, you can take on things that you could never even dream of. But I feel like, if I played the last mission first, I wouldn’t have missed anything, because I wouldn’t be any stronger than I was at the start. In common with Kevin, Trevor also reported a preference for RPG gameplay, indicating a desire for this gameplay genre to be incorporated within a future Halo game. However, for him, the absence of RPG gameplay in Halo 3: ODST was not such an issue as it had been for Kevin, because the multiple-playable characters fulfilled his need for variety:

67 In lot’s of single-player RPGs, you’re just grinding away as this one person for hours and hours, playing The Witcher 3 or something with all the DLC [Down-Loadable Content]. And then, in Halo you’re just the Master Chief. And Master Chief is a bad-ass. Geralt of Rivia [protagonist of the game The Witcher 3] is a bad-ass. But it still becomes stale. It’s nice to switch up between a bunch of characters who are equally fascinating for the most part. Sam, in describing a similar disappointment in the lack of variety in gameplay, reported that this need was able to be fulfilled by yet another factor, that being the variety of level design. He indicated that, whether it be a vehicle mission or an escort mission, there was a satisfying variety in the level design for the game to maintain his engagement and to provide an immersive, enjoyable experience: That’s something that Halo always excelled at, it’s ability to keep things fresh. Bungie was always able to do something different with each level – which was cool – and I think ODST managed to really convey that. And they used multiple playable characters as an excellent avenue to that end, to keep things fresh, to keep things interesting. For playing as different people, I think they could have probably put in something more to make each character uniquely different, but overall it was good stuff.

6.1.3 Walk, shoot, clue, repeat Each of the three participants indicated that exploring New Mombasa by night as the Rookie – the silent protagonist – was, for them, a novel, noir experience. However, they also indicated that the Rookie’s gameplay eventually became stale and repetitive, detracting from their experience. Trevor exemplified this sentiment by indicating that the gameplay was boring, describing the experience as “just walking, walking, walking, shoot, walking, walking, walking, shoot, and then you find a clue”. However, he indicated that, when he felt engaged with the narrative, focussing on the bigger picture, he felt a sense of hope. He indicated that his sense of boredom, which he attributed to the Rookie’s need to search for clues, was outweighed by this hopeful experience: It’s like driving to see family for ten hours and there’s actually people at the end of this road and I’m not looking for Romeo’s foam cannister

68 or a bent sniper rifle or a gauss [magnetically powered] cannon mount that’s busted up. I’m looking for the people and the squad mates now … Everything that pops out at you doesn’t really distract you from the end goal. Sam indicated that the repetitive nature of the Rookie’s gameplay detracted from the enjoyable atmosphere he had experienced at the beginning of the game. However, he suggested that such repetitive gameplay frequently detracted from his experiences playing FPS games: A couple of levels into the New Mombasa Streets, I was still in love with the soundtrack and I still enjoyed walking around, but I would have preferred more. … You want this middle ground to be where the juicy stuff is. When you get to point B, it’s over. Great! … I mean, to be fair, it is a failing that most first person shooter games have, is [sic] that it’s moderately difficult to keep evolving the gameplay because it’s relatively limited in that sense.

6.2 The Roles of Paidia and Ludus This section explores the participants’ experiences of gameplay in relation to the secondary, theory-derived, research question: What are the roles of paidia and ludus in the player’s experience of the gameplay of Halo 3: ODST’s single-player narrative? An important consideration in exploring these experiences from the perspective of IPA was that, during data gathering, participants were not directly exposed to the research questions. Rather, the research questions were responded to by the researcher during the data analysis stage. As described in Chapter Three, the qualities of paidia can be seen as related to the exploratory characteristics of the Rookie’s gameplay, while the qualities of ludus can be seen as related to the linear, narrative-driving characteristics of the flashback missions. Notably, the participant reports indicated that they were able to recognise the inherent qualities of these two theoretical constructs within the gameplay, without prior knowledge of these terms or their meaning. An analysis and interpretation of the participant responses, in relation to the roles of paidia and ludus in their experiences, yielded three superordinate themes. First, the role of paidia was identified as providing enjoyment to the participants through the Rookie’s exploratory gameplay, described by the participants as a novel

69 feature of the Halo series. Second, the role of ludus was identified as providing a degree of comforting familiarity with the gameplay style of previous Halo games but a role which detracted from the potential of the Rookie’s paidic gameplay. Third, there was a marked thematic divergence in the reported experiences of participants which related to the incorporation of both paidia and ludus within the one game.

6.2.1 Paidia in the streets Each of the participants commented on the notable difference between the gameplay of the Rookie’s missions in the streets of New Mombasa, and that of the various flashback missions. They inferred that the Rookie’s gameplay had what can be called paidic qualities as indicated by their use of terms such as ‘explore’, ‘sand-box’, and ‘open-world’. Some of the defining qualities of paidia, as described in Chapter Two, are exploration and discovery. The participants each reported a sense of engagement with the Rookie’s missions due to the exploration and discovery in the gameplay, suggesting that they had previously been drawn to play games that incorporated such qualities. The sole superordinate theme that converged around the paidic qualities of the game was a desire for more opportunities for exploration and discovery. The participants thus implied that more paidic qualities in Halo 3: ODST would have created a more immersive and enjoyable open-world experience for them. Kevin indicated that he enjoyed the Rookie’s gameplay and stated that he would have preferred for the entire game to revolve around such gameplay. In his reflections of his experience of Halo 3: ODST, he likened the gameplay to other games he had enjoyed such as the Batman Arkham series, which often involves searching for clues in an open-world night-time city-scape. Although he reported engagement and enjoyment with the Rookie’s gameplay, he expressed a desire for more opportunities to explore and discover: I really liked the Rookie’s gameplay. In many ways, I would have preferred [it] if the whole game had been from the point of view of the Rookie … I just sort of like the exploration element. I wish that had been the game, that there was no other team. … I really liked the change of pace for the Rookie and the vastly different theme that it was going for from the rest of the Halo games, and a lot of games, you know? It’s rare to have a first person shooter that almost feels like a Batman detective game. … This feels like it was half a unique game

70 that wasn’t quite fleshed out enough, and then just your classic Halo; sort of almost banking on the previous successes, just to make sure that people enjoy it. And I did enjoy it – I did like those sections – but I feel like they should have taken a risk and gone further, done something really different, and it might stand out a bit more. Trevor also indicated that he enjoyed the exploratory nature of the Rookie’s gameplay, expressing a distinct preference for open-world games with no end goal, that is, games with paidic qualities. However, despite his reported enjoyment and engagement with the game’s expansive environment, he expressed that there was not enough content to explore within this ‘open-world’: It’s very minimalist on the guidance. … I love games like that, so go ahead, give me all you got of that. I love that sort of stuff, man! … And especially aimless open-world, where you aren’t really guided at all and they’ve just put you in a sandbox and gone: ‘Okay be free!’ You know? ‘Run, my child!’ … If you have a game where it was just Rookie, and he had character development as the game progressed, then that would be kind of intriguing. As it stands now, with his current character design, if it was just wandering aimlessly in a sandbox … that’d all just kind of blend into each other. Sam, in reflecting on his first experience with Halo 3: ODST, also indicated a desire for more of the exploratory aspects of the Rookie’s gameplay. His responses indicated that, while he applauded the game’s unique and defining features, such as those which can be termed paidic qualities, he felt that this was overshadowed to some extent by linear, goal-oriented ludic gameplay: I think I preferred the game more when it was exploring a lot of things that were happening at the same time, rather than just pushing the story forward. In fact, I think that’s where the story lacked the most, when it started pushing the story forward. … It’s unique, for a Halo game at least. … It’s something very radically different to anything the Halo universe has done before. Especially that open-world aspect, I thought that was very interesting. … I thought the Rookie missions were what made the game unique. I think they should have spent far more time developing that aspect of the game, rather than the story- line.

71 6.2.2 Ludus in the flashbacks Each of the participants indicated that they enjoyed the flashback missions because they reminded them of Halo’s traditional linear ludic gameplay. The sole superordinate theme that converged around the ludic qualities of the game related to the participants’ experiences of the flashback missions. Although participants each expressed enjoyment of these missions, they indicated that it was no more than familiar ludic gameplay. Kevin expressed this sentiment when reflecting upon what Halo 3: ODST would have been like without any of the Rookie’s missions, that is, without any paidic qualities: “I feel like it would be a very different game. It would be very go, go, go. And in a way, much more like an original or classic Halo game”. Trevor and Sam each reported feeling as though linear, objective-oriented qualities began to filter into the Rookie’s exploration and that this detracted from their enjoyment. Sam indicated that, while he enjoyed gameplay qualities that can be termed ludus present in the game during the flashback missions, having ludic qualities – that is, goal-oriented objectives – in the Rookie’s paidic gameplay detracted from the exploratory aspect of the game. He compared the Rookie’s missions to the gameplay of Dead Space 2, a notably linear, goal-oriented, ludic game: I do love that aspect of exploring for the sake of exploring. … I guess, drawing parallels, take something like Dead Space 2, where every room has something unique and it’s something different. You’re always on your toes. When you take out that horror aspect, it would be a straight up entertaining game to walk through. … I thought the first Mombasa level was fantastic. But after that, I thought they were more interested in putting a way-point [visible marker on the HUD signifying the next objective] on the other side of the city and saying: ‘Get to this’. I guess when you want to go from point A to point B – of course when you start out the main objective is get to point B – but you want the journey itself to be entertaining

6.2.3 Too much ludus in my paidia There was a marked thematic divergence in the participants’ experiences of Halo 3: ODST’s gameplay as a whole. This thematic divergence centred on the roles of paidia and ludus in the gameplay. Kevin and Trevor’s reflections indicated that the

72 two distinct styles of gameplay felt to them, as if they were playing two separate games, and that each style detracted from the other. For example, Kevin stated: Part of me feels like it should have been one or the other, either just playing as the Rookie or just playing as the squad. As playing all of these small different sections as these characters, I feel like they [the developers] sort of missed out on the chance to flesh out their stories a bit, you know? Conversely, Sam suggested that he found the use of these two styles within the gameplay made the game feel both unique and enjoyable for him. His reflections indicated that, while the Rookie’s paidic missions may have incorporated too many ludic qualities, the core of the game’s enjoyment for him was a balance between the impact of these two theoretical constructs: Part of why New Mombasa was so cool is because it was different. But, if you had a whole game of that, it would get a bit boring after a while. So, having the atmosphere change immediately from quiet enemy occupied space … back to hours earlier when the fight was the thickest, I thought that was fantastic – to jump in. Everything’s fresh. … I definitely think the game would suffer both ways. I think what makes Halo 3: ODST, Halo 3: ODST is both those aspects, playing as the other characters and playing as the Rookie.

6.3 Discussion The experiences analysed and interpreted above were examined in relation to the existing literature in the field of video game theory and research. Several pronounced superordinate themes emerged from the analysis of participant experiences of Halo 3: ODST’s gameplay. Although some of these themes have been discussed in the published video game literature, other themes were found to be unexplored or under- explored and are topics which may benefit from further research. This section discusses the findings that have been presented above in relation to both the experience of gameplay and the associated theoretical constructs of paidia and ludus.

6.3.1 The Experience of gameplay The experience of gameplay were identified from analyses of participants’ reports as being separate from the experiences of the three principal narrative elements

73 presented and discussed in the previous chapter. The first of the three superordinate themes presented above in relation to Halo 3: ODST’s gameplay was that participants’ experienced narrative immersion serendipitously at various stages, which were referred to by one participant, Trevor, as “movie moments”. These moments were described as having cinematic qualities which contributed to the participants’ immersion in the game and its narrative. Video games that bear cinematic qualities has been a topic of discussion and debate for several video game researchers, including Majewski (2003), who explored “the cinematic origins of the cut-scene, along with its secondary role as a visual reward for the player” (p. 38). In the literature, immersion has been attributed to a number of factors. Participant descriptions of feeling as if they were in a movie during these serendipitous moments of gameplay were interpreted as being a highly immersive experience. The second superordinate theme related to a disappointing lack of variety in gameplay between each of the cast of five characters. Multiple playable protagonists appear in several contemporary console games, and sometimes a game’s Downloadable Content (DLC) will feature a separate protagonist. As established in the previous chapters, the experience of playing as multiple video game protagonists has not been identified in the published literature. Therefore, the experience reported by the participants in this study of their disappointment in the lack of variety of gameplay between the characters appears to be a new finding. The third superordinate theme related to a loss of immersion in the game’s narrative, attributed by participants to repetitive gameplay during the Rookie’s levels. The Rookie’s gameplay represented a novel feature of the Halo series and participants reported that their dissatisfaction could have been allayed if the developers had experimented further in this direction. Each of the participants referred to the positive qualities of the RPG genre in describing how the Rookie’s gameplay could have been enhanced. However, such enhancement may not produce the effect they anticipate. Most RPG gameplay requires players to acquire certain in-game currency or experience points in order to improve their character’s skills, abilities and attributes (Aarseth, 2013). This addition would introduce the concept of ‘grinding’ to the gameplay, in which players can repeat activities over and over to reap rewards and to better improve the performance of their character (Aarseth, 2013). Such gameplay may do no more than contribute to the participants’ dissatisfaction with the game’s repetition by including a different

74 kind of repetitive gameplay. This may additionally interrupt the narrative flow of the game. As mentioned in Chapter Two, Csikszentmihalyi (1990) describes flow as the experience of total immersion of focus and pleasure with an activity. ‘Grinding’ is likely to detract from such an experience. Despite the repetitive qualities of RPG gameplay, the associated grinding at least offers players rewards and incentives for such gameplay. This may have offset the boredom that these participants experienced in Halo 3: ODST and could be the aspect of the game they felt was lacking. Further research into the findings presented above may be valuable so as to inform the impact that immersive ‘movie moments’ during gameplay, a lack of sufficient variety between characters, and overly repetitive gameplay may have on the experience of a video game’s narrative.

6.3.2 Paidia The participants were able to identify a clear difference between the paidic gameplay of the Rookie’s missions in the streets of New Mombasa, and of the ludic gameplay of the various flashback missions. Most notably, the participants expressed a desire for more opportunities to discover and explore, implying that more paidic qualities would create a more immersive and enjoyable open-world experience. Caillois (2001) states that the concept of paidia provides “an occasion for training and normally leads to the acquisition of a special skill, a particular mastery of the operation of one or another contraption or the discovery of a satisfactory solution to problems” (p. 29). This suggests that, in the context of Halo 3: ODST, paidic gameplay aligns with the enjoyment participants derived from discovery and exploration, allowing players to find solutions and to discover things for themselves. Caillois (2001) suggests that the presence of paidia in a game creates “free energy” (p. 35) or represents “freedom of play” (p. 44). Participant reflections indicated that they were given a portion of such freedom but that they were quickly steered towards gameplay characterised by ludus, which detracted from their experience. Jenkins (2004) describes ‘spatial stories’ as narratives which tell the entire story through the environment, “privileging spatial exploration over plot development” (p. 124). It would appear that each of the three participants had a desire to be rewarded for their exploration of the spaces they found themselves in, yet felt dissatisfied when not sufficiently rewarded for such exploration. This may be attributed to Halo 3: ODST’s bounded use of open-world exploration as a game-

75 mechanic, in that the game can be seen to value plot development over spatial exploration. These sentiment were expressed in each of the participant reports, and further suggested that the implementation of RPG gameplay may have remedied their issues with the insufficient exploratory content of the Rookie’s missions.

6.3.3 Ludus The participant’s reflections indicated that they recognised that, while the Rookie’s gameplay represented a novel feature for the Halo series, the flashback missions represented familiar Halo gameplay. Their reports relating to their experiences of these flashback missions referred to linearity and goal-oriented level design, two notably ludic qualities. They commented that this linearity – in only being able to traverse a game environment from one point to another – represented no more than the formulaic style of gameplay exhibited by most other FPS games. The participants expressed enthusiasm for the previous Halo games and reported enjoyment of the gameplay, linear narratives and goal-oriented structure. Participants each suggested that introducing the open-world aspect gave them a taste for something novel, but something that was not presented to them in its entirety. One participant implied that having the two styles of gameplay, characterised by paidia and ludus, made the game feel incomplete. Indeed, these sentiments appear to reflect the views of Caillois (2001) who stated that “ludus, in itself, seems incomplete, a kind of makeshift device intended to allay boredom” (p. 31). Frasca (2003) theorises that video games, especially those with science- fiction themes, will often overbalance towards ludic gameplay due to the nature of ludus and what it represents: Certainly, ludus works great [sic] within worlds built around dichotomies. This explains, in part, why current computer games have so much trouble in trying to escape from the fantasy and science- fiction realms. In other words, the binary logic found in ludus stands out when delivering games set in fairy-tale-like environments, where things are generally black or white. (Frasca, 2003, p. 230)

6.3.4 Paidia and ludus In terms of paidia and ludus in the gameplay of Halo 3: ODST, participant reflections appeared to markedly differ from one another. One participant indicated

76 that both the flashback missions and the Rookie’s exploration felt as if there were two separate styles of gameplay which detracted from on another. This was interpreted as a conflict in the roles of paidia and ludus within the gameplay. The other participants appeared to enjoy the blended presence of paidia and ludus, in that they suggested that the core of the game’s enjoyment was derived from a balance between these two styles of gameplay. This aligns with the views of Frasca (2003) who commented that paidic games are often without an objective and that “ludus games provide an ‘organic whole,’ a closed product that can only be explored within a secluded set of rules defined by the author” (p. 230). However, despite the participants’ enjoyment of the ludic missions in the game, they reported that these were little more than a replication of gameplay found in previous Halo games. Their satisfaction and engagement appeared to derive from the Rookie’s paidic open-world gameplay. They indicated that ludic gameplay had intruded on their enjoyment of discovery and exploration, forcing them to move forward along the linear storyline. This is echoed by Frasca’s (2003) summation that “not surprisingly, all military games are ludus because they do not admit options that break its binary logic (friend or foe, dead or alive, with us or against us)” (p. 231). Despite each of the three participants having volunteered suggestions as to how the game could be improved, when reflecting on Halo 3: ODST for what it was, they indicated that it was the combination of gameplay styles – incorporating paidia and ludus – that contributed most to their enjoyable and immersive experience. This relationship between paidia and ludus has been expressed by the theorist, Caillois (2001), who suggested that ludus “is complementary to and a refinement of paidia, which it disciplines and enriches” (p. 29).

77 Chapter Seven Summary and Conclusions

The two previous chapters, Chapter Five and Chapter Six, presented and discussed the findings of the research. Chapter Five presented the findings in relation to both the essence of the participants’ experience and their experience of the single-player narrative. Participant reports determined the thematic categories within each of the three principal narrative elements. These narrative elements had been identified in the existing literature as being the prominent ways in which a player experiences a video game: visual imagery and world-building, sound and music, and character. Chapter Six presented the findings in relation to both the participants’ experience of gameplay and the roles of the associated theoretical constructs of paidia and ludus. This chapter, the final chapter, provides an overview of the findings of the study, the implications for video game design, and recommendations for further research. The chapter concludes with an outline of the ways in which the study contributes to an understanding of the experience of gamers playing as multiple first-person video game protagonists.

7.1 An Overview of the Findings An analysis of the participants’ experiences revealed a distinct bifurcation of themes identified as being related to two theoretical approaches to the study of video games: narratology and ludology. Narratology and ludology subsequently formed the basis of the presentation of the findings in Chapter Five and Chapter Six respectively. The subsections below outline the essence of the participants’ experience, a nuanced understanding of their experience of Halo 3: ODST’s narrative and gameplay, their suggestions for improving various aspects of the game and the strengths and limitations of the study. This research thus contributes to an understanding of the multi-character gameplay experience of a video game in the context of its single- player narrative.

7.1.1 Essence of the experience The two previous chapters presented and discussed the findings of the research in relation to the experiences of a number of gamers playing individually through Halo

78 3: ODST’s single-player narrative. The essence of the experience was revealed to comprise three facets: an immersive noir style, a non-linear episodic narrative, and playing as multiple playable characters. First, each of the participants independently and specifically used the term noir as a visual and narrative construct. When describing their experience of playing as the Rookie, they commented that their subsequent immersion in narrative was due to features such as the investigatory gameplay, a rainy night-time metropolitan environment and the jazz soundtrack. They each suggested that these features created a noir atmosphere, an experience that was intended by the developers (Bungie Studios, 2009b). Second, participants appeared to engage with the non-linear episodic narrative style of the game, likening this style to that of the films of the director Quentin Tarantino or to the television series Game of Thrones. Third, regarding the use and impact of playing as multiple characters throughout the narrative, there were varied responses. Each of the participants described feeling varying degrees of enjoyment, engagement and immersion in the game’s narrative when playing as each of the characters.

7.1.2 The experience of Halo 3: ODST’s narrative The findings of the research were presented in the form of an interpretation and description of the participant’s experiences in response to the primary research question: How do gamers experience playing as multiple first-person video game protagonists in Halo 3: ODST’s single-player narrative? The themes in relation to participants’ experiences of Halo 3: ODST’s narrative, presented in Chapter Five, were able to be categorised into three narrative elements frequently identified in the literature: visual imagery and world-building, sound and music, and character. Within the experiences of the visual imagery and world-building element, four major themes were identified. First, each of the participants indicated that the game was most enjoyable for them when they were involved in activities of discovery and exploration through the gameplay of the Rookie. Second, each participant expressed that they had a favourable disposition towards the game based to a large extent on the nostalgia they felt for the narrative setting and environment. Each of the participants, prior to this research, had already experienced New Mombasa and its fate in Halo 2, indicated by participants to be their favourite game in the Halo series. Third, each participant reported that they derived enjoyment and

79 satisfaction from seeing the impact of their actions from the analepsis sequences, discovering how the environment came to be in its condition when they subsequently came to experience it as the Rookie. The sole divergent theme related to navigating the open-world New Mombasa. Two of the participants reported that they had great difficulty navigating the open-world game environment, while one participant indicated that he had no such difficulty. However, the two participants who indicated difficulty with navigation reported that the longer they played, the more of the environment they remembered and the less they had to rely on the map. Nevertheless, their reflections indicated that the difficult that they had experienced with navigation broke the narrative flow of the game for them, resulting in a brief loss of immersion. In relation to participant experiences of the sound and music element, three convergent themes were identified. First, each of the participants reported that the novelty of the silenced weapons in Halo 3: ODST changed the way they played the game. It would appear that the presence of stealth weaponry prompted the participants to approach each potential conflict with more caution. Second, each of the three participants expressed that the jazz style of music was a novel soundtrack for a Halo game and created a particularly sombre, noir atmosphere that they varyingly described as “gorgeous”, “introspective” and “hopeful”. Third, the embedded narrative created by the audio logs scattered around the city was described by each participant as bringing a sense of expansiveness to the narrative game-world. They suggested that these audio logs assisted them in understanding the role and impact of the game’s subtly presented but pivotally important character, the Superintendent AI. With reference to participant experiences of the character element, three major themes were identified. First, each of the participants expressed the view that there was an intention of the game developers for players to project their own personality onto the Rookie as the game’s silent protagonist. There was a divergence in this theme related to the participants’ degree of willingness to acquiesce to the perceived intentions of the developers. As such, participants varyingly identified with the Rookie, with one participant expressing resentment towards the developers’ intentions. Second, each participant described that the character of Gunnery Sergeant Buck was inescapably synonymous with his voice actor, Nathan Fillion, who is well known for portraying similar roles in other science-fiction media. They each

80 expressed that playing as Buck was one of the most enjoyable experiences of the game, which they attributed to their familiarity and favour towards the actor. Third, participants each expressed a dislike of the character of Captain Dare, and indicated that they felt that her role in the game was superfluous. They expressed that their antipathy towards Dare was a result of her role in the game being predominantly for romantic purposes and that she was the only non-playable protagonist in the single- player narrative.

7.1.3 The experience of Halo 3: ODST’s gameplay The findings of the research in relation to the participants’ experience of Halo 3: ODST’s gameplay, presented in Chapter Six, were specifically concerned with the gameplay from a narrative perspective. Within the experiences of Halo 3: ODST’s gameplay, three major themes were identified. First, each of the participants described moments of gameplay that they engaged with so deeply that they felt a pronounced sense of immersion. One participant described this feeling as a “movie moment”, where he felt so immersed in an exciting moment of gameplay that he felt as if he were acting as a character in a film. Another participant indicated that this sense of immersion was derived from a feeling of empathy for the non-playable characters around him, developed by seeing them in a hopeless scenario. Second, each participant expressed that there was insufficient diversity in their gameplay to adequately set the characters apart from one another. One participant commented that he felt unsatisfied having identical gameplay for members of a squad who fulfil different roles and purposes. Third, each of the three participants reported that, despite the Rookie’s gameplay being unique and enjoyable, it became stale and repetitive towards the end of the game, impacting on the overall enjoyment of the gameplay. In presenting the findings of the research in relation to participants’ experiences of the gameplay, the analysis was also able to respond to the secondary research question: What are the roles of paidia and ludus in the player’s experience of the gameplay of Halo 3: ODST’s single-player narrative? Each of the participants notably and independently indicated that they understood the difference in gameplay characteristics that are commonly associated with paidia and ludus. This was done without expressing knowledge of, or understanding of, the terms themselves. Within the reported experiences that were interpreted as relating to paidia and ludus, three

81 major themes were identified. First, the Rookie’s exploratory levels – notably characterised by paidia – represented the most novel and enjoyable aspect of the game for each of the participants. They indicated a desire for more of this gameplay style, with two participants indicating that, with the incorporation of RPG characteristics, they would enjoy an entire game dedicated to the Rookie’s paidic gameplay. Second, each of the participants expressed that the linear goal-oriented gameplay in the flashback missions – notably characterised by ludus – represented no more than typical Halo gameplay. They indicated that these ludic sections negatively impacted on their enjoyment of the Rookie’s paidic gameplay. Third, a divergence of themes occurred within participants’ reflections on the gameplay as a whole, concerning the combination of these two constructs. One participant indicated that he would have preferred that the game have multiple characters with solely ludic gameplay, or conversely an exploratory, paidic game playing as the Rookie. Another participant reported that the combination of both styles of gameplay was a major contributor to his enjoyment, providing diversity through alternation of the paidic exploration with the ludic linearity.

7.1.4 Participant’s personal suggestions for improvement Each of the participants were articulate and reflective adult gamers and, as such, volunteered personal suggestions for improvement regarding the narrative and gameplay of Halo 3: ODST. These suggestions were able to be related to the three narrative elements referred to above. First, in terms of visual imagery and world- building, one participant suggested that the map be altered to include icons and more clearly defined pathways so as to reduce navigation difficulties. Another participant commented that what made the game feel unique, novel, and enjoyable for him was the weakness of the ODSTs by comparison with the strength of Master Chief, Halo’s iconic protagonist. He suggested that he would have preferred the game’s characters to have even less capacity to take damage and to be more supported in battles by larger numbers of non-playable characters, so as to account for this reduced capacity. Second, in terms of sound and music, two participants indicated a desire for the audio logs to be more easily locatable, due to the importance of the embedded narrative they contained. Third, in terms of character, one participant suggested that in Halo fiction, the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) often indulged in clandestine and morally questionable activities, and that Captain Dare’s character could be

82 improved with either more character development, or by having her role linked more closely to ONI and to their dark deeds. He proposed that if the game provided the opportunity to not only play as Captain Dare, but have gameplay that involved more sinister tasks, he would have been more immersed in the narrative and less disdainful of the ineptitude of her character.

7.1.5 The strengths and limitations of the study Over the duration of this study, the use of IPA – as a phenomenological methodology – demonstrated its efficacy in responding directly to the primary research question, exploring the experiences of a phenomenon. In addition, the characteristics of the participants as articulate, reflective gamers, and the rigorous application of IPA’s principles as an inductive and idiographic methodology, were major contributors to the fulfilment of the researcher’s intentions. The research, therefore, has been successful in providing insights into the perspective of gamers playing as multiple first-person video game protagonists in Halo 3: ODST’s single-player narrative. One of the strengths of this research is its concern with a detailed, phenomenological investigation and analysis of the reported experiences of gamers themselves. As such, this study is valuable in contributing to the comparatively under-explored field of video game narrative research related to player experience. A review of video game literature related to narrative revealed that most research in this field made use of deductive and quantitative methodologies, based on existing theoretical constructs. This study may be the first of its kind to explore the role and impact of a multi-character video game on player experience. Another strength of this research is that it explores the experiences of playing a video game in which the two theoretical constructs of paidia and ludus are notably manifest. While there have been numerous studies that examine and discuss both of these constructs, these studies are often from a polarised point of view. That is, they discuss the existence of these two constructs within games that predominantly incorporate either one or the other. The limitations of qualitative studies with small numbers of participants are related to an inability to generalise to wider populations and their circumstances. This inability to generalise applies most specifically to an IPA study such as this, where one of the philosophies underpinning the methodology is idiography. It is important to note that the study relied on a small number of participants – each an

83 Australian resident, English-speaking, male and aged in their early twenties. The study relied on a single video game from the Halo franchise to represent the phenomenon. Finally, the study relied on the interpretations of a single researcher. Even so, regardless of such limitations, the work presented in this study fulfils its intentions of providing rich idiographic descriptions and interpretations of the experiences of gamers and their interactions with a console-based video game. In terms of attempts at generalisation from IPA studies, Smith et al. (2009) remark that: “Immediate claims are therefore bounded by the group studied but an extension can be considered through theoretical generalizability, where the reader of the report is able to assess the evidence in relation to their existing professional and experiential knowledge” (pp. 3–4). This study seeks to make a contribution to an ongoing and evolving understanding of the video game experience by video game designers – one of the intended beneficiaries of the study’s research.

7.2 Implications for Video Game Design The most pronounced implications of this research for video game design – including future Halo games – are concerned with the relationship between narrative and gameplay and how this may shape a player’s enjoyment of video games. Notably, the two implications referred to below have not been identified in previous research. First, the findings revealed that, based on the introductory premise, participants indicated that they had certain expectations of the game’s narrative direction, expressing disappointment when the narrative introduced a late plot twist. Second, the findings indicated that, in a video game incorporating multiple playable characters, a lack of differentiation between the gameplay of the various characters may contribute to disengagement from the narrative and a break in the narrative flow.

7.2.1 The only difference between premise and story is the dose Each of the participants indicated that the premise of the game – the familiar narrative convention of a scattered military squad trying to regroup – created excitement and stimulated engagement for them. However, one participant reported that the execution of the narrative – with its plot twist concerning the Captain, the Covenant Engineer and the Superintendent AI – led to disengagement from the narrative. The implication of this experience is that, if a video game’s narrative is

84 initially engaging and immersive for players, a late plot twist may do no more than disappoint those who remain heavily invested in the initial premise.

7.2.2 He doesn’t talk much As previously outlined, participants indicated a desire for more variation in each of the characters’ gameplay, suggesting that if each character served a different purpose – Romeo the sniper, Mickey the demolitions expert – then their gameplay should reflect their specific purpose and skills. The impact of this lack of variance extended to the experience of playing as the Rookie. Participants suggested that certain novel features of Halo games, such as the open-world environment explored by the Rookie, should have been given more attention by the game developers. It was, in fact, the developers’ intentions for the Rookie to fulfil the role that Master Chief occupied in previous Halo titles, that being an empty shell of armour onto which players project their own personality. Two of the participants indicated that they understood this and were happy to acquiesce to the intention of the developers. Yet it appeared that it was the Rookie’s lack of character development amidst a well-developed cast, together with the associated repetitive gameplay, that was responsible for the disengagement felt by each of the participants. One participant went so far as to express resentment at the developers’ intentions, reporting that video games represent escapism for him and that identification with the other in-game characters was more desirable than identification with the only silent protagonist. The overall sentiment expressed by the participants was that they would have enjoyed and possibly have preferred an entire game dedicated solely to the Rookie, with RPG gameplay as a counterbalance to such a lack of character development. The implications for future Halo games are that a system which allows players to develop their character’s skills, abilities and appearance may compensate for the non- rewarding and repetitive gameplay of such an undeveloped silent protagonist. The implications for transferring these findings to other contexts, such as in video game development, is that the experience of video game immersion can be negatively impacted by gameplay design that does not complement the narrative design.

7.3 Recommendations for Further Research Several opportunities for the advancement of knowledge through further research in the field of video game narrative were identified as a result of this study. IPA, as an

85 inductive and experience-based methodology, with small numbers of participants, is able to illuminate opportunities for more generalised research approaches, such as those that may quantify the extent to which various experiences are prevalent. This research suggests opportunities for three particular areas for further enquiry: additional phenomenological analysis of video game narratives, research into multiple playable protagonists within a single video game story, and investigation of the diverse implications of a video game which utilises both paidia and ludus.

7.3.1 Phenomenological analysis of video game narratives The majority of video game studies as identified in the published literature where IPA is utilised as their methodology are concerned with online multi-player games with little to no narrative content. Alexander’s (2015) research was the only IPA study identified in the literature that related to an exploration of the video game narrative experience. The findings of this current study present one interpretation of the experience of playing a video game’s single-player narrative. Further phenomenological studies in this area would broaden the field of knowledge and enhance understanding of the video game narrative experience.

7.3.2 Multiple playable protagonists The findings of this research provide only one interpretation of the multi-character video game narrative experience and one that is based on only three participants’ accounts. Given that no other studies have been identified by the researcher that concern the experience of playing as multiple characters within the one video game narrative, this remains an under-explored area of research. Further IPA or qualitative studies into this area of research may serve to develop increased understanding of the phenomenon. Research into this area utilising quantitative approaches may additionally serve to inform the generalisability of the findings by gathering data from larger numbers of participants.

7.3.3 Paidia and ludus in one game This research has identified that Halo 3: ODST incorporates sections that are characterised by the two theoretical constructs of paidia and ludus. Some gameplay can be seen as being distinctly ludic, such as the flashback missions, and other gameplay can be seen as being distinctly paidic, such as the Rookie’s missions. In

86 video game research, these two theoretical constructs are frequently seen from a polarised perspective. Theorists have often inferred that the constructs have a relationship with each other, yet when the constructs are utilised in the analysis of games, some games are said to be paidic, and others are said to be ludic, emphasising this polarity. However, video games have evolved to include both concepts within the one game, as found in the Assassin’s Creed series, the Grand Theft Auto series and, of course, the Halo series. This co-existence of constructs has been identified as an under-explored area within the published literature and one where further research is needed.

7.4 Conclusions This study sought to explore the experiences of a small number of experienced gamers playing individually as multiple first-person protagonists in a video game narrative. The findings may serve to expand the field of video game narrative research and provide a detailed, idiographic insight into the experiences of members of the gaming community and the suggestions they may have for improvements to video game design. The study has provided a nuanced understanding of the experience of playing a contemporary console-based video game that utilises multiple playable characters within its narrative, and incorporates both paidia and ludus in its gameplay. In relation to the three narrative elements: visual imagery and world-building, sound and music, and character; participants’ experiences of Halo 3: ODST’s single- player narrative, comprised a number of prominent themes. The most enjoyable and satisfying experiences reported by participants were: the joy of discovering and exploring an open-world environment, the feeling of nostalgia induced by the narrative setting of the game being derived from a previous and notably beloved game in the series, and immersion in the noir atmosphere created by the dark, rainy environment and the jazz style music. The most prominent and insightful suggestion for improvement that emerged as a result of the research was the desire of participants to have RPG gameplay as part of the Rookie’s missions. This research utilised an inductive approach to understanding, through thematic convergence, the multi-character narrative experience for a small number of gamers, the characteristics that created a sense of immersion, and personal suggestions for improving the narrative and gameplay for the benefit of potential

87 future Halo games. Through thematic divergence, the study illustrated the differing impact of including a silent protagonist in a cast of well-developed playable characters, featuring well-known voice actors. As such, this research contributes to an understanding of the experience of multi-character video game narratives with a view to informing video game development in relation to narrative and gameplay design. The research therefore enriches a growing field of knowledge related to the expanding entertainment medium that is video games.

88 Appendices Appendix A: Ethics Approval Certificate

89 Appendix B: Participant Information Sheet

PARTICIPANT INFORMATION FOR QUT RESEARCH PROJECT – Interview –

Multiple Playable Characters in Halo 3: ODST

QUT Ethics Approval Number 1600000920

RESEARCH TEAM Principal Researcher: Richard Meyers, MA (Research) Student Associate Researchers: Dr Peter Schembri, Principal Supervisor Dr Sean Maher, Associate Supervisor Creative Industries Faculty Queensland University of Technology (QUT) A/Prof Daniel Johnson, Associate Supervisor Science and Engineering Faculty Queensland University of Technology (QUT)

DESCRIPTION This project is being undertaken as part of a Master of Arts (Research) study for Richard Meyers. The purpose of this project is to explore gamer experiences while playing Halo 3: ODST, a first-person shooter video game. The main way of playing the game is in story-mode, travelling through various levels within a narrative context. This mode of the game can be played alone or together with up to three other players. However, this research project will involve participants playing through the story- mode of the game as a single player. The story-mode requires the player to play as numerous characters as they complete each of the game’s ten levels.

You are invited to participate in this project because you are an experienced video game player with significant prior experience of playing the Halo video game series, and have expressed interest in playing, or replaying, Halo 3: ODST. You have already been verbally approached about the project by the researcher and have been introduced to the purpose of the study, the video game utilised for the research and what is expected of participation.

This information sheet will inform you about the nature of the research in as much detail as possible without influencing any responses you may provide during participation. This sheet will also provide the information you will need to determine whether you are still willing and able to participate.

PARTICIPATION Your participation will involve keeping and updating an experience journal to be completed alongside your play-through of the Halo 3: ODST video game. The experience journal is anticipated to take approximately ten minutes per entry, with an entry being made after completion of each of the ten levels. This could thus involve up to two hours of your time. Your

90 participation will also involve two audio recorded interviews with the student researcher at a mutually agreeable location. This will take approximately one hour of your time per interview. The game itself should take approximately six to eight hours of gameplay, but can be replayed at your discretion. You are allowed up to four weeks to complete one play- through of the game.

Interview questions ask about your experience of the game and include such questions as: 1. How did you feel after you completed each of the levels? 2. Can you tell me what it was like when you were exploring the city as the Rookie?

Your participation in this project is entirely voluntary. If you do agree to participate, you can withdraw from the project without comment or penalty. You can withdraw at any time without having completed the experience journal, or during each of the two interviews. If you withdraw between the two interviews or within two weeks of your second interview, on request, any identifiable information already obtained from you will be destroyed. Your decision to participate or not participate will in no way impact upon your current or future relationship with QUT (for example your grades).

EXPECTED BENEFITS It is expected that this project will not benefit you directly. However, you should know that research such as this is of benefit to society and to the field of knowledge for other researchers and for video game creators and developers. A copy of the research findings from the thesis will be provided to you at the end of the project.

RISKS There are minimal risks associated with your participation in this project. These include the risks typically associated with video game play which may include discomfort. Also there is a risk of inconvenience related to the time taken to complete the video game, complete the experience journal and participate in the two one-hour interviews. You can play the game and complete the journal in your own time; interviews can be organised at a venue and time convenient for you. You do not need to answer any question you are not comfortable with and you can terminate your participation in the project at any time.

To avoid any adverse effects of the game, the researcher advises safe and healthy habits during gameplay such as maintaining good posture, taking frequent breaks, regular intake of sustenance and limiting extended use of the game controller. Further information regarding safe and healthy gameplay is available through the Xbox 360 Healthy Gaming Guide available at xbox.com. The game has an M rating, for mature audiences, and involves killing of fictional aliens but no human-related violence.

You have indicated that you have significant experience with the series and know what to expect from this title. However, should you experience any adverse effects from the game or the study please stop immediately and contact either of the researchers, whose details are at the end of this

91 sheet. The student researcher will also take steps to conduct the interviews in a timely manner to further reduce any inconvenience.

PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY All your comments and responses during the research will be treated confidentially. The names of individual persons are not required in any of the responses. A de-identified copy of this data may be used for other research purposes. However, your anonymity will at all times be safe- guarded.

As the project involves an audio recording:  You will have the opportunity to verify your comments and responses prior to final inclusion.  The audio recording will be destroyed 5 years after the last publication.  The audio recording will not be used for any other purpose.  Only the named researchers will have access to the audio recording.  It is not possible to participate in the project without being audio recorded.

Any data collected as part of this project will be stored securely as per QUT’s management of research data policy.

CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE We would like to ask you to sign a written consent form (enclosed) to confirm your agreement to participate.

QUESTIONS AND FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROJECT If you have any questions or require further information, please contact one of the researchers listed below.

Richard Meyers [email protected] Peter Schembri [email protected] 07 3138 8199

CONCERNS OR COMPLAINTS REGARDING THE CONDUCT OF THE PROJECT QUT is committed to research integrity and the ethical conduct of research projects. However, if you do have any concerns or complaints about the ethical conduct of the project you may contact the QUT Research Ethics Advisory Team on 07 3138 5123 or email [email protected]. The QUT Research Ethics Advisory Team is not connected with the research project and can facilitate a resolution to your concern in an impartial manner.

THANK YOU FOR HELPING WITH THIS RESEARCH PROJECT PLEASE KEEP THIS SHEET FOR YOUR INFORMATION

92 Appendix C: Participant Consent Form

CONSENT FORM FOR QUT RESEARCH PROJECT – Interview –

Multiple Playable Characters in Halo 3: ODST

QUT Ethics Approval Number 1600000920

RESEARCH TEAM Principal Researcher: Richard Meyers, [email protected] Associate Researchers: Peter Schembri, [email protected] 07 3138 8199 Sean Maher, [email protected] Daniel Johnson, [email protected]

STATEMENT OF CONSENT By signing below, you are indicating that you:  Have read and understood the information document regarding this project.  Have had any questions answered to your satisfaction.  Understand that if you have any additional questions you can contact the research team.  Understand that you are free to withdraw at any time without comment or penalty.  Understand that the project will include an audio recording.  Understand that it is not possible to participate without being audio recorded.  Understand that if you have concerns about the ethical conduct of the project you can contact the Research Ethics Advisory Team on 07 3138 5123 or email [email protected].  Agree to participate in the project.

Name......

Signature......

Date......

PLEASE RETURN THE SIGNED CONSENT FORM TO THE RESEARCHER

93 Appendix D: Experience Journal Email Items

Experience Journal - Multiple Playable Characters in Halo 3: ODST Please start a draft reply to this email. Each time you complete a level of the game, add to your draft reply email by responding to each of the relevant experience journal items below. When you have completed the game at least once and have completed all the items to your satisfaction, send your reply email to me. In your response to each item, you may like to comment on your thoughts and feelings in relation to: The visual environment of the game, the music and sounds during the game, the characters you play as and the other characters (including their appearance and voices), the narrative arc of the game and any sense of achievement or difficulty that you experienced.

 Item 1 Prepare to Drop: The experience of dropping into New Mombasa as the Rookie.  Item 2 Tayari Plaza: The experience of searching for the Captain as Buck.  Item 3 Mombasa Streets: The experience of exploring the New Mombasa streets as the Rookie (Please add to this item each time you return to this level).  Item 4 Uplift Nature Reserve: The experience of escaping Uplift Nature Reserve as Dutch.  Item 5 Kizingo Boulevard: The experience of regrouping the city’s lost marines as Mickey.  Item 6 ONI Alpha Site: The experience of defending the Alpha Site as Dutch.  Item 7 NMPD Headquarters: The experience of fighting through the New Mombasa Police Headquarters as Romeo.  Item 8 Kikowani Station: The experience of flying out of the city as Buck.  Item 9 Data Hive: The experience of venturing through the Drone Hive as the Rookie.  Item 10 Coastal Highway: The experience of driving to extraction as the Rookie.

94 Appendix E: Interview 1 Questions

No. Type Interview Question 1 Descriptive Could you tell me about your experiences playing Halo 3: ODST? 2 Narrative Can you tell me how your experiences with the game may have changed over time? 3 Structural Tell me about your experiences playing through each level of the game? 4 Contrasting Describe the high and low points of playing the game and the main differences between those experiences? 5 Evaluative How did you feel after you completed each of the levels?

6 Evaluative How did you feel about playing as multiple characters?

7 Circular What do you think other people think about you playing the game? 8 Comparative How would you feel if this game didn’t offer multiple playable characters? Prompt Tell me a bit more about that? (as required) Probe What do you mean by (your previous comment)? (as required)

95 Appendix F: Interview 2 Questions

No. Type Interview Question 1 Revision of During the first interview, you mentioned (comment Interview One made previously). Can you tell me more about that? 2 Descriptive Can you tell me what it was like when you were (paidia) exploring the city as the Rookie? 3 Narrative How did your experiences change over time when you (paidia) were playing as the Rookie? 4 Contrasting What are some of the best and worst aspects of exploring (paidia) the city as the Rookie? 5 Descriptive Can you tell me what it was like when you were playing (ludus) as the other four characters? 6 Narrative How did your experiences change during the story when (ludus) you were playing as the other four characters? 7 Contrasting How did you feel when you were winning or losing (ludus) during the game? 8 Comparative How would you feel if the game did not include any of (paidia/ludus) the Rookie levels? 9 Comparative How would you feel if the game did not include the (paidia/ludus) opportunity to play as any of the other four characters? Prompt Tell me a bit more about that? (as required) Probe What do you mean by (your previous comment)? (as required)

96 References

2K Games. (2005). Bioshock [Video game]. Novato, CA: 2K Games, Inc. Aarseth, A. (2013). Ludology. In M. J. P. Wolf & B. Perron (Eds.), The Routledge companion to video game studies (pp. 185–189). New York, NY: Routledge. Activision Publishing Inc. (2003). Call of Duty [Video Game]. Santa Monica, CA: Activision Publishing, Inc. Alexander, J. (2015). An interpretive phenomenological inquiry into fulfillment of choice theory's four basic psychological needs through console video game engagement (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Kent State University, Kent, OH. Arsenault, D. (2013). Action. In M. J. P. Wolf & B. Perron (Eds.), The Routledge companion to video game studies (pp. 223–231). New York, NY: Routledge. Atari Incorporated. (1979). Asteroids [Video game]. Sunnyvale, CA: Atari, Inc. BioWare. (2007). Mass Effect [Video game]. Edmonton, Canada: Microsoft Game Studios. Blizzard Entertainment. (2004). World of Warcraft [Video game]. Irvine, CA: Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Bonk, J. (2014). Finishing the fight, one step at a time: Seriality in Bungie’s Halo. Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture, 8(1), 65–81. Brand, J. E., & Knight, S. J. (2005). The narrative and ludic nexus in computer games: Diverse worlds II. Proceedings of DiGRA 2005 conference: Changing views: Worlds in play. Retrieved from http://www.digra.org/dl/db/06278.57359.pdf Bungie. (2009). Halo Nation: Halo 3: ODST ViDoc 'Dramatis personae'. Retrieved from https://halo.bungie.net/News/content.aspx? type=news&link=ODST_ViDoc_DramatisPersonae Bungie Studios. (2001). Halo: Combat Evolved [Video game]. Bellevue, WA: Microsoft Game Studios. Bungie Studios. (2004). Halo 2 [Video game]. Bellevue, WA: Microsoft Game Studios. Bungie Studios. (2009a). Halo 3: ODST [Video game]. Bellevue, WA: Microsoft Game Studios.

97 Bungie Studios. (2009b). Halo 3: ODST ViDoc “Dramatis Personae” [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS3AJCXyJ1Y Bungie Studios. (2009c). Halo 3: ODST ViDoc “Terra Incognita” [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRFfYoLm-QA Caillois, R. (2001). Man, play and games (Meyer Barash, Trans.). Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press. (Original work published 1958). Carson, D. (2000). Environmental storytelling: Creating immersive 3D worlds using lessons learned from the theme park industry [Web article in Gamasutra.com]. Retrieved from https://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/131594/environmental_storytelling _.php Chappell, D., Eatough, V., Davies, M. N. O., & Griffiths, M. (2006). EverQuest – It's just a computer game right? An interpretative phenomenological analysis of online gaming addiction. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 2006(4), 205–216. Cohen, J. (2001). Defining identification: A theoretical look at the identification of audiences with media characters. Mass Communication and Society, 4(3), 245–264. Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Crick, T. (2011). The game body: Toward a phenomenology of contemporary video gaming. Games and Culture, 6(3), 259–269. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1975). Beyond boredom and anxiety: Experiencing flow in work and play. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York, NY: Harper Perennial. Dixon, D. (2009). Nietzsche contra Caillois: Beyond play and games (Paper presented to The Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, 2009, Oslo, Norway). University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. Entertainment Software Association. (2015). 2015 sales, demographic and usage data: Essential facts about the computer and video game industry. Retrieved from http://www.theesa.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/ESA-Essential- Facts-2015.pdf

98 Fliger, S. (2011). Sandbox confrontations. In L. Cuddy (Ed.), Halo and philosophy: Intellect evolved (pp. 161–174). Chicago, Il: Open Court Publishing. Forest, A. (2011). Which way from here? The spatiality of maps & navigation in first-person single-player video games (Unpublished master’s thesis). Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. Forward Unto Dawn. (2010). Narrative evolved – A brief overview of Halo's storytelling [Web article in Forward Unto Dawn]. Retrieved from http://www.forwarduntodawn.com/narrativeevolved/ Frasca, G. (2003). Simulation versus narrative. In M. J. P. Wolf & B. Perron (Eds.), The Video Game Theory Reader (pp. 221–235). New York, NY: Routledge. Given, L. M. (Ed.). (2008). The Sage encyclopedia of qualitative research methods. Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publications. Gregersen, A. (2013). Cognition. In M. J. P. Wolf & B. Perron (Eds.), The Routledge companion to video game studies (pp. 417–426). New York, NY: Routledge. Grimshaw, M. (2008). Sound and immersion in the first-person shooter. International Journal of Intelligent Games and Simulation, 5(1), 2–8. Harvey, C. (2015). Fantastic transmedia: Narrative, play and memory across science fiction and fantasy storyworlds. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. Havstad, J. (2011). Who is Master Chief? In L. Cuddy (Ed.), Halo and philosophy: Intellect evolved (pp. 3–14). Chicago, Il: Open Court Publishing. Hefferon, K., & Gil-Rodriguez, E. (2011). Methods: Interpretative phenomenological analysis. The Psychologist: Official Publication of The British Psychological Society, 24(10), 756–759. Hefner, D., Klimmt, C., & Vorderer, P. (2007). Identification with the player character as determinant of video game enjoyment. Entertainment Computing, 4740, 39–48. Herman, D. (1999). Introduction. In D. Herman. (Ed.), Narratologies: New perspectives on narrative analysis (pp. 1–30). Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press. Hussain, Z., & Griffiths, M. (2009). The attitudes, feelings and experiences of online gamers: A qualitative analysis. CyberPsychology and Behaviour, 12(6), 747– 753. Isbister, K. (2016). How games move us: Emotion by design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

99 Jenkins, H. (2004). Game design as narrative architecture. In N. Wardrip-Fruin & P. Harrigan (Eds.), First person: New media as story, performance, and game (pp. 118–30). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Jensen, G. (2013). Making sense of play in video games: Ludus, padia, and possibility spaces. Eludamos: Journal for Computer Game Culture, 7(1), 69– 80. Johnson, D., Wyeth, P., & Sweetser, P. (2013). The People-Game-Play model for understanding videogames’ impact on wellbeing. In 5th International IEEE Games Innovation Conference (IGIC 2013), 23–25 September 2013. Vancouver, Canada: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Kempton, A. (2015). Reconceptualizing the lived experience of games: A phenomenological analysis of the single-player experience (Unpublished master’s thesis). Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada. Klimmt, C., Hefner, D., & Vorderer, P. (2009). The video game experience as ‘‘true’’ identification: A theory of enjoyable alterations of players’ self-perception. Communication Theory, 19, 351–373. Klimmt, C., Hefner, D., Vorderer, P., Roth, C., & Blake, C. (2010). Identification with video game characters as automatic shift of self-perceptions. Media Psychology, 13(4), 323–338. Kuhn, S., Gleich, T., Lorenz, R., Lindenberger, U., & Gallinat, J. (2013). Playing Super Mario induces structural brain plasticity: Gray matter changes resulting from training with a commercial video game. Molecular Psychiatry (2014)19, 265–271. Lankoski, P. (2011). Character-driven game design: A design approach and its foundations in character engagement. Helsinki, Finland: Aalto University. Lemmens, P. (2017). Narrative in video games: Environmental storytelling in BioShock and Gone Home (Unpublished master’s thesis). Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Majewski, J. (2003). Theorising video game narrative (Unpublished master’s thesis). Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia. Microsoft Xbox Wire. (2015). "Halo" franchise fact sheet – May 2015. Retrieved from http://news.xbox.com

100 Nacke, L., Grimshaw, M., & Lindley, C. (2010). More than a feeling: Measurement of sonic user experience and psychophysiology in a first-person shooter game. Interacting with computers, 22, 336–343. Nacke, L., & Lindley, C. (2010). Affective ludology, flow and immersion in a first- person shooter: Measurement of player experience. Loading…: The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, 3(5), 1–21. National Health and Medical Research Council. (2007/2015). National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research 2007 (Updated May 2015). Canberra, ACT: National Health and Medical Research Council, the Australian Research Council and the Australian Vice-Chancellors’ Committee. Naughty Dog Incorporated. (1996). Crash Bandicoot [Video game]. Santa Monica, CA: Sony Interactive Entertainment. Newman, J. (2013). Video Games (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. Nintendo Research and Development 1. (1981). Donkey Kong [Video game]. Kyoto, Japan: Nintendo. Nylund, E. (2001). Halo: The Fall of Reach. New York, NY: Del Rey Books. Perron, B. (2013). Conventions. In M. J. P. Wolf & B. Perron (Eds.), The Routledge companion to video game studies (pp. 74–82). New York, NY: Routledge. Przybylski, A., Rigby, C., & Ryan, R. (2010). A motivational model of video game engagement. Review of General Psychology, 14(2), 154–166. Qin, H., Rau, P., & Salvendy, G. (2009). Measuring player immersion in the computer game narrative. Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 25(2), 107–133. Reid, K., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2005). Exploring lived experience. The Psychologist, 18(1), 20–23. Rusczek, J. R. (2015). Experiences of playing massively multiplayer online role- playing games: A phenomenological exploration (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA. Sapieha, C. (2009, September 20). Less is more as ODST focuses on storytelling [Web article in The Globe and Mail newspaper]. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/less-is-more-as-odst-focuses- on-storytelling/article4292292/ Shaw, A. (2013). Rethinking game studies: A case study approach to video game play and identification. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 30(5), 347–361.

101 Shaw, A. (2015). Gaming at the edge: Sexuality and gender at the margins of gamer culture. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Skouveroe, K. J. M., & Krangnes, L. (2011). How do World of Warcraft-players experience and give meaning to their activity? An interpretive phenomenological analysis (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway. Smith, J. A., Flowers, P., & Larkin, M. (2009). Interpretative phenomenological analysis: Theory, method and research. London, England: Sage Publications. Smith, J. A., & Osborn, M. (2008). Interpretative phenomenological analysis. In J. A. Smith (Ed.), Qualitative psychology – A practical guide to research methods (2nd ed., pp. 53–80). London, England: Sage Publications. Stanton, R. (2015). A brief history of video games: From Atari to Xbox One. London, England: Robinson. Taito Corporation. (1978). Space Invaders [Video game]. Tokyo, Japan: Midway Games. Tavinor, G. (2009). The art of videogames. Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Tavinor, G. (2015). Tension and opportunity: Creativity in the videogaming medium. In G. P. Green & J. C. Kaufman (Eds.), Video games and creativity (pp. 263– 284). London, England: Elsevier Science. Van Looy, J., Courtois, C., De Vocht, M., & De Marez, L. (2012). Player identification in online games: Validation of a scale for measuring identification in MMOGs. Media Psychology, 15, 197–221. Vorderer, P. (2000). Interactive entertainment and beyond. In D. Zillman & P. Vorderer (Eds.), Media entertainment: The psychology of its appeal (pp. 21– 36). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers. Wolf, M. (2012). Phenomenology. In M. Wolf (Ed.), Encyclopedia of video games: The culture, technology, and art of gaming: Volume 1 (pp. 483–486). Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood. Yardley, L. (2000). Dilemmas in qualitative health research. Psychology & Health, 15(2), 215–228. Yardley, L. (2008). Demonstrating validity in qualitative psychology. In J. A. Smith (Ed.), Qualitative psychology – A practical guide to research methods (2nd ed., pp. 235–251). London, England: Sage Publications.

102