"... we use narratives to make sense of our lives, to process information, and to tell stories about a game we have played. Therefore, no genre or cultural form (including games) falls outside the idea of narrative." (1. Salen & Zimmerman, 379)
The point of the argument is that humans love to create narrative out of almost anything, helping them make sense of an otherwise chaotic series of events. For example legends surrounding natural formations such as the Giant's Causeway, or The Giant Chocolate Hills in the Philippines. Both have legends of giants attached to them. When a player first enter a game world so much is unknown to them, and will often be keen to seek out more about their game environment in order to give themselves a greater meaning for being there.
Next comes Marc LeBlanc's talk in the 1999 Games Developers Conference. He posed the idea that there are two distinct types of narrative, "embedded" and "emergent".
"Embedded narrative is pre-generated narrative content that exists prior to a player's interaction with the game. Designed to provide motivation for the events and actions of the game, players experience embedded narrative as the story context." (2. Salen & Zimmerman, 383)
"It is experienced through player interaction but exists formally apart from it. It is the embedded narrative that gives Jak a reason for collecting Precursor Orbs and Power Cells; without the pre-generated storyline the game would feel like an abstract fetch-the-next-item quest. The embedded narrative also provides the major story arc for the game, structuring a player's interaction and movement through the game world in a meaningful way." (3. Salen & Zimmerman, 383)
Emergent narrative "... arises from the set of rules governing interaction with the game system. Unlike embedded narrative, emergent narrative elements arise during play from the complex system of the game, often in unexpected ways. Most moment-to-moment narrative play in a game is emergent, as player choice leads to unpredictable narrative experiences. ... The exact narrative experience of a particular game, whether it is Jak easily dispatching the Lurkers, or whether it is a series of defeats that leads to an eventual victory, depends on player interaction." (4. Salen & Zimmerman, 383)
"Emergent narrative approaches emphasize the ways that players interact with a game system to produce a narrative experience unique to each player." (5. Salen & Zimmerman, 384)
While narrative may be easily recognisable within most games some at first seem to lack flow and coherency. One of the best examples for this I found was WarioWare. It involves a short series of incoherent games, with the previous game being totally unrelated to the next. Even with a seemingly chaotic series of events there is some narrative. If the player fails the task they lose a life, and if all lives are lost they lose the game. Tasks get fast and faster as the player progresses, with a number showing what task they are on. At the end is a boss battle, the final showdown between game and player. The game is full of emergent narrative, the player is constantly tested to see what their outcome may be.
Skyrim on the other hand contains both embedded and emergent narrative. At the start of the game the player is told where they are and why they are being executed, narrative embedded into the game. As well as the dragon coming down to cause chaos and let the player escape. Reacting to the dragon is something emergent, you could either chose to stand there admiring its beauty while it breaths fire at you, or run away to try escape its rage.
Bibliography.
1. Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman (2004). Rules of Play. Cambridge,Massachusetts: The MIT Press. 379.
2. Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman (2004). Rules of Play. Cambridge,Massachusetts: The MIT Press. 383.
3. Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman (2004). Rules of Play. Cambridge,Massachusetts: The MIT Press. 383.
4. Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman (2004). Rules of Play. Cambridge,Massachusetts: The MIT Press. 383.
5. Katie Salen & Eric Zimmerman (2004). Rules of Play. Cambridge,Massachusetts: The MIT Press. 384.
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