Storyplaying (eBook)

Agency and Narrative in Video Games

Sebastian Domsch (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2013
196 Seiten
De Gruyter (Verlag)
978-3-11-027245-1 (ISBN)

Infos

Incontestably, Future Narratives are most conspicuous in video games: they combine narrative with the major element of all games: agency. The persons who perceive these narratives are not simply readers or spectators but active agents with a range of choices at their disposal that will influence the very narrative they are experiencing: they are players. The narratives thus created are realizations of the multiple possibilities contained in the present of any given gameplay situation. Surveying the latest trends in the field, the volume discusses the complex relationship of narrative and gameplay.

Sebastian Domsch, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany.

Autoren

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Sebastian Domsch, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany.

Sebastian Domsch, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München.

Inhalt

1 Introduction: What is Storyplaying? 7
1.1 Preliminaries: Medial Forms 12
1.2 Preliminaries: Exclusions 16
2 Video Games and Narrative 19
2.1 Gameplay and Narrative 19
2.1.1 Gameplay and Game Mechanics: The Rules of the Game 20
2.1.2 Semanticization and Fictionalization: Towards Gameworlds 24
2.2 Narrative Forms 37
2.2.1 Passive Forms 37
2.2.1.1 Exposition 38
2.2.1.2 Cut scenes 38
2.2.1.3 Loading Screen 40
2.2.2 Actively Nodal Forms 40
2.2.2.1 Player Actions 41
2.2.2.2 Quick Time Event 41
2.2.2.3 Dialogue tree 44
2.2.2.4 Event trigger 47
2.2.3 Dynamic Forms 49
2.2.3.1 Non-player Character 49
2.2.3.2 Timed Events/Intradiegetic Clock 52
2.2.4 Digression: Architecture and Protocols 54
3 Non-Unilinear Gameplay in Video Games 59
3.1 Levels of Observation 59
3.2 Non-Unilinear Existents 67
3.3 Non-Unilinear Objectives 74
4 Non-Unilinear Narrative in Video Games 81
4.1 Non-Unilinearity in Quest-Based Narrative 87
4.2 Non-Unilinear Narrative Outside of Quests 99
4.2.1 Character 100
4.2.2 Spatial Narrative 104
5 Choice and Narrative in Video Games 118
5.1 The Anatomy of a Player Choice 118
5.2 Choice and Meaning 129
5.3 Choice, Information, and Narration in Video Games 134
5.4 Choice and Consequence in Video Games 143
6 Narrative’s Contrast Agent: Moral Choices 154
6.1 Valorisation Rules 156
6.2 Valorising Morality 161
6.3 Ethics and Rules 169
7 The Future of Storyplaying 175
7.1 Media-Economic Aspects 176
7.2 Media-Technological Aspects 177
7.3 Artistic Potential of the Medium 183
Works Cited 187
Index 194

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 28.8.2013
• Zusatzinfo: 25 b/w ill.
• Verlagsort: Berlin/Boston
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Essays / Feuilleton
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: Computer Games • Computerspiel • Erzähltheorie • Narration • narrative • video games
• ISBN-10: 3-11-027245-8 / 3110272458
• ISBN-13: 978-3-11-027245-1 / 9783110272451