Here is a more in-depth look at this article by Barry Ip:
http://gac.sagepub.com/content/6/2/103.full.pdf
Introduction
The introduction is fantastic. Explains clearly what this article is looking at and what it will be considering. It gives plenty of examples and keeps a level head.
Story, Plot and Narrative
It then goes on to explain the different meanings of story, plot and narrative. This is a highly interesting section as when reading it, I can't help but link everything to my project - hence it being an interactive story more so than a game. These 3 terms have been defined - (p106):
A story is defined as:
... a sequence of events involving entities. A story is bound by the laws of time; it goes in one direction, starting at the beginning, moving through the middle, and arriving at the end ... the only time involved is the time it takes to read [the story], and the only order is that of the structure of the essay (Abbott, 2002, p. 195).
Linked closely to this is the plot that is distinct from story and narrative. Aristotle defines this as:
... the organisation of events. The events, i.e., the plot, are what tragedy [serious dramas] is there for, and that is the most important thing of all (Heath, 1996, p. 11).
Cobley (2001, pp. 4-6) corroborates with this but extends the definition to include a more explicit link between events:
The chain of causation which dictates that these events [in the story] are somehow linked and that they are therefore to be depicted in relation to each other.
While a narrative is defined as:
... the representation of an event or a series of events. ... when we read a narrative, we are aware of, on the one hand, the time of reading and the order in which things are read, and on the other hand, the time the story events are supposed to take and the order in which they are supposed to occur (Abbott, 2002, pp. 13-14).
And similarly:
A narrative recounts a story, a series of events in a temporal sequence. Narratives give expression to feelings, but within the framework of a story and its telling (Cohan & Shires, 1988, p. 1).
These a some very nice explanations of these 3 closely related terms. Summing all this up, Ip states:
Hence, the story is the information about an event or sequence of events (typically linear), the plot being the causation and links between events, whereas the narrative is the unique way in which story is being presented to the audience. - (p107)
Narrative Techniques in Computer and Video Games
When discussing a cut scene within a game to tell a story, Ip makes a valid point of how this can sometimes be disruptive for the player and break any kind of immersion the player may have:
However, despite the apparent necessity and ubiquity of cut scenes, they are often criticized as being a passive mode of narrative, which in some cases can disrupt and antagonize the interactive experience when sown into a game’s core fabric of interactivity (Falstein, 2005, pp. 92-95; Glassner, 2004, pp. 286-288; O’Luanaigh, 2006). - (p108)
Going further, Ip discusses the use of cut scenes in linear and/or non-linear games which again, links to what I am looking to accomplish:
The principal advantage offered by a nonlinear approach is greater freedom, where the player is given the impression that a greater degree of control may be exerted over the progression of the game’s story than what is actually possible in terms of interaction - (p109)
...although linear and branching structures may have fulfilled audiences’ expectations a decade or so ago (i.e., in the dawn of 32-, 64-, and 128-bit platforms during the mid to late 1990s such as Sony’s PlayStation and PlayStation2, Nintendo’s N-64 and Gamecube, and Microsoft’s Xbox), the rising power and capability of the current and future generations of gaming hardware require extra efforts to be directed toward more dynamic, natural, and convincing game narrative. - (p109)
...the common techniques for narrative delivery found in interactive games are thusly:
- back stories;
- cut scenes (including interactive cut scenes);
- game structures, for example, linear and branching;
- the portrayal of emotion and/or reactive environments; and
- narrative structures: for example, monomyth, three-act plot, archetypes, kernels, satellites.
- (p113/114)Method
Summing up Ip's method on analysis, he picked 10 different games that ranged in age/platform in order to compare how and if narrative has improved over the years. All games that were picked had some form of storyline/narrative. Each game that was selected was played from start to end by a single player (the same player for each game). This player had never played any of the games before but is still a regular gamer and so understood the fundamentals of most of the games. All the narrative from each game was recorded via transcripts/video etc in a chronological order to help link similarities between games and their narrative styles.
Results
There was some very interesting results, when measuring the amount of 'time allocated to prescribed narrative in the form of cut scenes, on-screen text, and other in-game prompts.' The Secret Of Monkey Island, Shenmue 2 and Final Fantasy X all had between 20 and 30 percent of game time dedicated to the various forms of narrative where as The Legend Of Zelda and Half-Life 2 had about 1 percent. This is a very interesting difference considering the games. It was made aware that Half-Life 2 uses more audio cues and textual cues.
When discussing back stories, it was noticed that only one title didn't have a 'self-contained back story - Half-Life 2. This is very interesting and is almost very like my project.
One of the most interesting techniques used by four of the more contemporary titles (Half-Life 2, Fable, The Godfather, and Halo 3) is the delivery of narrative and/or prompts via the simultaneous use of gameplay, sound, and textual cues. This technique begins to demonstrate the use of reactive environments as discussed in section on Narrative Techniques in Computer and Video Games, which rather than using interventions that interrupt play, more seamless forms of narrative and/or prompting are provided during play. - (p121)
Personal Notes
Things too look at:
- Atkins (2003, p. 55-84) provides an in-depth examination of the audio and environmental techniques used in Half-Life to create a more dynamic and believable experience, - (p110)
- exception of Half-Life 2, where most of its narrative is presented as an integral part of gameplay (see Atkins (2003, pp. 63-78) for further theoretical discussion) - (p122)
- Half Life 2
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