ABSTRACT Title of Document: GAME FICTION Jason Christopher Rhody, PhD, 2010 Directed By: Associate Professor, Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Department of English ―Game Fiction‖ provides a framework for understanding the relationship between narrative and computer games and is defined as a genre of game that draws upon and uses narrative strategies to create, maintain, and lead a user through a fictional environment. Competitive, ergodic, progressive (and often episodic), game fictions‘ primary goal must include the actualization of predetermined events. Building on existing game and new media scholarship and drawing from theories of narrative, cinema, and literature, my project details the formal materiality that undergirds game fiction and shapes its themes. In doing so, I challenge the critiques of narrativism levied at those scholars who see a relationship between computer games and narrative forms, while also detailing the ways that computational media alter and reform narratological preconceptions. My study proposes a methodology for discussing game fiction through a series of ‗close playings,‘ and while not intended to be chronological or comprehensive, provides a model for understanding narrative and genre in this growing field. Chapter one, "Defining Game Fiction," locates video games within the larger context of computer-mediated narrative design, and interrogates the power structure of reader to author, consumer to producer, and media object to its user. I articulate a framework for approaching computer games that acknowledges a debt to previous print, cinematic, and ludological forms, while taking into account computer games' unique ergodic and computational status. Chapter two, "Paper Prototypes,‖ examines the principles of game fiction in three analogue forms: the choice book, the board game, and the tabletop role-playing game. My third chapter, "Playing the Interface," theorizes the act of narrative communication within the ludic, multimodal context of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Chapter four, "Data, Set," posits the game quest as analogous to the database query in Adventure and StarCraft. Much like data exists in a database, requiring only the proper query for access, narrative exists in game fiction, shaped by quests through fictional settings. Chapter five, "The Game Loop," argues that the grammar of user input within the game loop shapes the player‘s relationship to the character and, in MediEvil, the subsequent themes of redemption. GAME FICTION By Jason Christopher Rhody Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2010 Advisory Committee: Associate Professor Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, Chair Professor Brian Richardson Professor Neil Fraistat Assistant Professor Kari Kraus Associate Professor Katie King © Copyright by Jason Christopher Rhody 2010 Dedication For Lisa. ii Acknowledgements I am tremendously grateful to the many individuals and institutions that helped shape this project. The keen insight and unwavering support of my dissertation director, Matthew Kirschenbaum, throughout the many iterations of this project was matched only by the profound impact he has had on my thinking about materiality in a digital age. Brian Richardson led me toward "possible worlds," and introduced me to a wide range of "unnatural voices." Neil Fraistat introduced a green graduate student to the world of digital humanities, and I am grateful for his support and kindness throughout my career. Kari Kraus has provided invaluable moral support over the years, where her contagious enthusiasm always accompanied her thoughtful, penetrating questions. Katie King's support and guidance have been invaluable to me since our earliest days together at the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities (MITH). I thank them all for their contribution and assistance. I also am indebted to the many scholars who have influenced my thinking on games, media, and narrative, with special thanks to Espen Aarseth and Noah Wardrip-Fruin for our conversations about earlier versions of work presented here. I deeply appreciate the two institutions that have supported me—and employed me—throughout this process. I was fortunate to work with Martha Nell Smith and David Silver in the earliest days of MITH, and my interaction with them, the MITH Fellows, and the many other employees I met along the way, especially Susan Schreibman, shaped my perspective on studying culture in a digital age. I would be remiss without acknowledging the support I received from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), which granted me three awards toward the iii completion of this project. The financial and leave support allowed me to complete the necessary research that formed the foundation of my work. I wish to thank the many colleagues and friends at NEH who have kindly asked about my progress in ways that were always encouraging. And I am deeply grateful for my colleagues in the Office of Digital Humanities—Brett Bobley, Jennifer Serventi, and Michael Hall—for their friendship and encouragement. My family has always been a tremendous source of support for me, and it was in their company that I came to love games of all kinds; my Mom, Dad, and brother, Matt, taught me the joys of competition and the values in fair play, and I am always grateful for their active presence in my life. Many other family members and friends contributed to this process with kind words, meals, child care, and love. Though an extensive list is impossible, I would be remiss without mentioning my in-laws, Annette and Russ Antonille, as well as friends Evan Jones, Dave Eubanks, Natalie Bailey, Ryan and Ann Claycomb, Tanya Clement, and Marc Ruppel for their tireless support. My daughters, Evie and Claire, never failed to remind me that it is more fun to play games than to write about them, and I will always appreciate the times they let me write, and the times they would not. Most importantly, I wish to thank my wife, Lisa. It was her generosity of spirit, constant but gentle encouragement, fierce editing skills, and deep intellectual engagement that allowed me to complete this project. I dedicate this dissertation to her, with profound appreciation for her contribution to this work, which reverberates throughout each chapter, and with gratitude that she occasionally lets me win at Scrabble. iv Table of Contents Dedication ..................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................... v List of Tables ............................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................. vii Chapter 1: Defining Game Fiction ................................................................................ 1 Game Fiction ............................................................................................................. 8 Defining Game Fiction ........................................................................................... 10 Properties of Game Fiction ..................................................................................... 15 Play again? Y / N — Narratology and Ludology ................................................. 19 Feedback in Narrative Communication .................................................................. 24 The Rise of Game Fiction ....................................................................................... 28 Chapter 2: Paper Prototypes: The Mystery of Game Fiction ...................................... 33 Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?: Paperback as Game Fiction .............................. 34 Clue: A Close Playing ............................................................................................. 42 Dungeons and Dragons and the Game Loop .......................................................... 57 Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 68 Chapter 3: Playing the Interface ................................................................................. 70 Rendering Ludic Narrative ..................................................................................... 74 Interface and Narrative Perspective ........................................................................ 84 Channels of Narration in Game Fiction .................................................................. 91 Playing the Interface in The Sands of Time............................................................ 97 Directed Action: ―Throw your lever!‖ .................................................................... 98 Catalysts and Cameras .......................................................................................... 105 The Multiple Voices of the HUD.......................................................................... 116 The Myth of Immersion ........................................................................................ 122 Chapter 4: Data, Set .................................................................................................