Bachelor’s Thesis Degree in Information Technology 2017 NINFOS12 Supervisor: Patric Granholm Jussi Nurmio A USER EXPERIENCE STUDY IN STORYTELLING BACHELOR’S THESIS | ABSTRACT TURKU UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES Information Technology 2017 | 46 pages Jussi Nurmio A USER EXPERIENCE STUDY IN STORYTELLING The goal of the thesis is to discuss the importance of storytelling and investigate the importance of storytelling in video game(s) both through theory and a user survey and discusses some common issues with video game storytelling. The purpose of this thesis was to observe how video game players experience video game story and how much value they put in to it over other aspects. A week long survey was held which was put on common video gaming forums and garnered over 200 submissions of varying opinion. The survey revealed that the survey takers were greatly in favor of storytelling over gameplay. However, many points were raised over the importance of both. KEYWORDS: Video games, Storytelling, User experience CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 5 2 THEORY 6 2.1 History of Storytelling 6 2.2 Why is storytelling important? 7 2.3 Storytelling in video games 8 2.3.1 Storytelling forms 8 2.3.2 How storytelling has changed through the years of video gaming 12 2.3.3 Problem of Ludonarrative dissonance 14 2.3.4 Examples of good/bad storytelling in video gaming 16 3 CASE STUDY 22 3.1 The survey 22 3.2 Content of the survey 23 4 ANALYSIS 28 4.1 Age, Gaming careers and Preference 28 4.2 Value of story 30 4.3 Ludonarrative dissonance 37 4.4 Experiences regarding storytelling 39 5 CONCLUSION 44 REFERENCES 46 FIGURES Figure 1.Survey answers for gender question. 28 Figure 2. Length of experience in video gaming. 28 Figure 3. Survey taker age distribution. 29 Figure 4. Distribution of video gaming genre preferences 29 Figure 5. Values for the importance of story in Sport games. 30 Figure 6. Values for the importance of story in Racing games. 30 Figure 7. Values for the importance of story in Role-playing games. 31 Figure 8. Values for the importance of story in Shooter games. 31 Figure 9. Values for the importance of story in Action games. 32 Figure 10. Values for the importance of story in Horror games. 33 Figure 11. Values for the importance of story in Adventure games. 33 Figure 12. Values for the importance of story in Fighting games. 34 Figure 13. Values for the importance of story in Strategy games. 35 Figure 14. Values for the importance of story in Casual games 36 Figure 15. The yes and no answers to the question of "Were you familiar with the term "Ludonarrative dissonance" beforehand?" 37 Figure 16. The yes and no answers to the question of "Have you ever encountered such an issue during gameplay?" 37 Figure 17. The yes and no answers to the question of "Have you ever encountered anything else which seemed odd/abnormal or disruptive in a game's story?" 39 Figure 18. The yes and no answers to the question of "Have you ever been disappointed by a game's story after completing the game?" 40 Figure 19. The answers to the question of "Have you ever stopped or continued playing a game solely due to its story?" 42 PICTURES Picture 1. Text block in a Shadowsgate event. 9 Picture 2. Dialogue options in Mass effect. 10 Picture 3. Screenshot of Environmental prop in Fallout 4. 11 Picture 4. Cutscene from Final Fantasy 13. 12 5 1 INTRODUCTION Video games are a new way of telling story alongside books and movies. This thesis will attempt to show how storytelling in video games affects user experience. The subject itself has been widely researched and the concept of storytelling is a constant topic in video gaming. The scope of the thesis is to show the basics of what storytelling consists of and its history as well as to show some examples of good or bad storytelling in video gaming. The practical part consists of a survey whose results are analyzed to illustrate a general idea of how storytelling affects the player experience. At the of writing this thesis video gaming storytelling as a format has settled down and most of it is conducted in the same way. However some companies have moved outside the box and provide games that do not follow the usual format of storytelling while still providing a good story. The understanding of what makes a good story or a storytelling method is vital for the development of gaming as well as other entertainment platforms. A story is affected by numerous factors which are not related to the writing itself. The thesis will continue with the theoretical part which introduces the history of storytelling and video game storytelling, the importance of storytelling and the forms of videogame storytelling as well as some examples of good and bad storytelling. The theoretical part will also present ludonarrative dissonance which is a term that describes an issue between storytelling and gameplay. Finally, the thesis will then move onto the case study where present and discuss a small survey concerning video game storytelling and the user experience relating to it. TURKU UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES THESIS | Jussi Nurmio 6 2 THEORY The theory section discusses non practical side of storytelling such as the history behind it, why it is important, the problem of ludonarrative dissonance and analyses examples of good and bad storytelling. 2.1 History of Storytelling Storytelling has been engraved into humanity ever since the cavemen learned to draw. From describing how an animal looks by finger painting to describing a dynasty of Egyptian pharaohs through hieroglyphs. Stories can give meaning to life, expres values, teach the young and convey culture (Miller 2011, 2). This is why humanity inclined to leave visual representation to the coming generations. Storytelling by word of mouth has also had its place in the lore of old in the form of songs, chants, myths and poetry that were handed through generations and eventually written and published. Yet storytelling in this form always had the problem of being skewed or embellished by the person telling it which lead to its credibility being questioned and the art form eventually fading into the background. Storytelling by word of mouth nowadays rarely happens outside a group of people coming together to socialize. At the age of technology at around the year 1800. Through the invention of cameras we could now record and show what had been seen to complement a story no matter if it was through spoken word or written text. Some years after motion pictures had been invented, we could tell a whole story through pictures which eventually gained colour and became movies which moved on to eventually have sound. Then came the age of computers in the year 2000 where technological improvements hit each fold of the entertainment industry. Digital age brought higher quality to pictures, movies and sound. Yet the more important effect of the digital age was the improvement of computers which made the quality of editing skyrocket in each field on top of that. The amount of data a machine could process at its limit rose and opened up new possibilities across the board. In the wake of improved hardware, video gaming prospered alongside it as the game engines gained room to improve and graphics began to resemble that of movies on the big screen. With hardware it became possible to imitate fantasy and reality TURKU UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCES THESIS | Jussi Nurmio 7 in a much better way which added to the story that was being told. Yet new technology can also restrain as told by design editor of Ceros Simon Martin in the following quote. “Virtual reality is going to be an interesting place to play from a storytelling perspective. Ultimately I think VR has stories that will best be experienced within that immersive space. However VR is also extremely constrained, because everything is always first person and we can not ever take control of the camera away from the user. This really cuts us off from a lot of important visual storytelling tools” (Martin 2017, 1). Now with these newer technologies creeping in one has to wonder how storytelling will develop in the upcoming years. Will new forms of conveying a story be found or will the old ones simply be polished and brought to new heights? 2.2 Why is storytelling important? In short, storytelling is the fault of evolution. We understand events by cause and effect. Our ancestors have been conveying meaning and action through stories since the dawn of humanity. It is a central characteristic of being human. Politicians,, generals and teachers convey their message through the form of a story. Events happen to us and around us, these are the elements of a story but we humans have unique perspectives which shape how a story is relayed. A story can have many effects on us from educating to inciting the masses;- it is meant to invoke emotions in the reader. If a person were to listen through a PowerPoint presentation with bullet points a certain part of the brain would get activated. Scientists call this Broca's area or Wernicke's area. Overall it is part in our brain which processes language where we decode the meaning of a word. Compared to a PowerPoint presentation when listening to a story you would not only light up the same areas but they would also activate any area which are related to the experiences in the events of the story.