Authored Agency: Exploring the Language and Grammar of Video Games by Allen Kwan A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in School of English and Theatre Studies Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Allen Kwan, January, 2016 ABSTRACT AUTHORED AGENCY: EXPLORING THE LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR OF VIDEO GAMES Allen Kwan Advisor: University of Guelph, 2016 Professor Alan Filewod This thesis is an examination of narrative structure of single-player story-driven video games, shifting the focus toward the exploration of their design and methods by which game designers and authors are able to use the language of interactivity in order to convey meaning to a video game player. Although the role of the player is important in examining video game narratives, it is only recently that scholars and critics have begun to examine the role that the game designer has in creating the conditions that allow for meaning to be created in the first place. This thesis examines the narrative structure of video games by exploring the major attempts to define a language of video games and using this criticism to suggest a greater shift toward considering how many moments of interactivity are purposefully designed in order to encourage a specific interpretation of the game’s narrative. The thesis surveys a significant number of video games to help illustrate how player interactivity is specifically authored and uses this survey to provide context for a more in depth discussion of major single-player story-driven video games released in the last few years. This thesis concludes that a new framework for studying narratives in video games and authoring video game narratives is needed, suggesting that moments of carefully controlled interactivity are the building blocks of the language of video games. Contents Chapter 1. Introduction……………………………………………………………….......1 Chapter 2. A Grammar and Rhetoric of Interactivity and Bounded Agency…..……..….34 Chapter 2.1. Full Simulation……………………………………………………..39 Chapter 2.2. Simple Gameplay Mechanics……………………………………....44 Chapter 2.3. Misdirection………………………………………………………...52 Chapter 2.4. Metatextual Narratives……………………………………………..57 Chapter 2.5. The Anti-Game……………………………………………………..65 Chapter 2.6. Forced Player Agency……………………………………………...78 Chapter 2.7. Embodied Agency………………………………………………….91 Chapter 2.8. Scope…………………………………………………………….....93 Chapter 2.9. Gameplay Limitation or Constraint………………………………..98 Chapter 2.10. Empowerment……………………………………..…………….101 Chapter 2.11. The Grammar and Rhetoric of Video Games…………...……….103 Chapter 3. The Dissonance of Play……………………………………………………..105 Chapter 3.1. Ludonarrative Dissonance………………………………………...105 Chapter 3.2. Negotiating the Cutscene………………………………………….137 Chapter 4. The Fight for Control and Agency Run Amok……………………………..154 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...196 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………….204 Kwan 1 Chapter 1. Introduction This dissertation is in part a response to the emphasis scholars have placed on the interactive nature of video games and the implication that video games are a medium that necessarily privileges the player and player agency. While players are center-stage in a video game and make the decisions that influence the outcome of a video game, this dissertation argues that the game designer carefully crafts every single-player action in a game in order to provide the illusion of choice. As such, the argument put forward here is that the video game is as much an authored medium as novel or a film and that a formal study of how games are authored should be considered. Given the tremendous scope of video games as a medium, this dissertation will focus on single-player story-driven games in order to illustrate how game designers are key to creating meaning in video game narratives. These particular types of games are specifically designed to convey a story to the player, and as such, the decisions that game designers make in these games can be easily contextualized within the narrative framework of traditional non- interactive media. That is, these types of games typically have standard formal elements of narrative such as plot, setting, characters, and themes. Other genres of games can be as authored as single-player story-driven games in order to elicit specific responses from players, such as the so-called Skinner box effect purposefully designed into free-to-play games in order to encourage players to spend time or money on the game. But for my purposes, limiting the scope to a particular subset of games allows for a more in depth discussion of how games can be authored so that they follow the formal conventions of other forms of media. My explanation of why I am focusing on this particular subset of games is expanded on further on in the introduction. I will draw on a deep archive of these types of games in order to develop an extensive Kwan 2 understanding of the many methods that games can be considered authored texts. This archive will be culturally diverse, including games from North America, Europe, and Japan, but also chronologically diverse, including games from the late 80s up to the present. By using an expanded archive of primary texts, I will be able to illustrate that these ideas about authorship are not limited to a specific or smaller number of games, but that they are the common building blocks of storytelling that can be found in any game. I will show that designers have purposefully manipulated how a player can interact with a game in order to engender an affective experience based on a player’s expectations of agency not only throughout time, but throughout cultures as well. A Japanese developer from the 80s uses the tools that an American developer will still employ when designing a game now. Using this archive, I will provide a larger understanding of how games can be authored, and then use case studies to illustrate how some of these principles can be applied to games in greater detail. As such, the first chapter provides an introduction to the scholarly attempts to atomize the concept of gameplay and player interactivity into the base units of a grammar that describes the language of video games. With an understanding of the various attempts to formalize a language of interactivity, or the system of meaning that is informed by this understanding of video game grammar, we can begin to see how game designers have always had access to a grammar of games that allows them to exert authorial control over a work that seemingly privileges player interaction. Implicit to this understanding of the language of interactivity is that video games draw heavily from the visual language of film, television, and theatre. However, the language of interactivity – and the grammar that describes this interactivity – is what distinguishes meaning creation in a video game from these other forms of media. The second chapter continues this broader introduction to the language of video games by first Kwan 3 considering the concept of “flow”, a mental state designed to encourage the affective experience in a player, suggesting how game designers can maintain an immersive narrative experience by not disrupting a player’s feeling of flow. This chapter will then illustrate how player agency itself can be atomized into the component parts of a language of video games through an exploration of interactive rhetoric, or in other words, how game designers can use the grammar of interactivity in a specific manner in order to create rhetorical meaning. This chapter will do this by providing an exhaustive taxonomy of the many ways in which interactivity agency can be manipulated by the game designer in order to convey a meaningful affective experience, but also by supporting this taxonomy with real-world examples and case studies. Chapter three examines two special cases where player agency and meaning are in conflict with each other. Ludonarrative dissonance and the continued use of cutscenes in games introduce a series of design challenges that shatter the illusion that players are the ones in control of a game and a game’s narrative. Finally, chapter four examines spaces where players and designers meet, creating points of conflict in how meaning is created in games. If designers are not careful about properly contextualizing moments of agency, then they can expect a violent reaction from a player in response. By the end of this dissertation, it should be clear that interactivity itself does not imply that games are a medium where players construct narratives, but that interactivity is more of an interpretive action. It is true that moments of interactivity or affordances of player agency are what set games apart from other media. However, it is in these moments where the player is allowed to feel in control of a text that a game designer is able to exert their authorial influence onto the player. Moments of agency merely present the player with the illusion of choice, and in the end a game designer has as much authorship over their text as a writer or a film director. Kwan 4 Let’s begin by considering a specific example of the intersection between designed interactivity and the affective experience that a player has when engaging with this moment of interactivity. Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014) begins with a prologue that throws the player into the middle of a war between North Korea and South Korea. The player character, Jack Mitchell, is deployed to Seoul with his best friend Will Irons as part of the American response against the North Koreans and by the end of this level, the player watches helplessly as Will Irons sacrifices himself in order to ensure the success of the mission. If this description of the opening of the game is terse, it is only because this level does very little more than simply provide context for the following scene in the game, one that is meant to provoke a deep emotional response but has become a subject of mockery and derision.