Evaluation

I chose to blog about dramatic elements, more specifically narrative as I have always been fond of game storylines, I wanted to explore why I am fond of digital game narrative ad compare it to other media. I remember narrative of digital games in the same way as people remember great film or novels. I wanted to explore the similarities and differences between digital game narrative and other media and put across how it can be as, if not more effective in some instances. My interests in digital games lead me to discover and think more about innovative ways of portraying narrative within a dynamic system. “Fable 2” and "Assassin’s Creed 2” being some of my favourite games at the moment are great examples of pushing the boundaries of narrative within a digital and interactive system. These cutting edge games and my love of a good story pointed me in the direction of narrative and dramatic elements for my choice of blog.

I chose to write a blog format for several reasons: firstly, I have never written a blog before and it seems that modern digital games practitioners use them regularly. If I want to be part of the games industry, I should be trying to integrate myself within its traditions. And it was a good way to widen my digital shadow for any possible games developers considering my application. A blog also allowed me to work in a more segmented way, focusing on one thing at a time, rather than considering a linear argument or exploration of ideas as you may get from a research portfolio.

If I were to have done my blog again, I would have done it differently. I would have focused more on researching the two academic texts and used those thoughts and theories to structure the blog as an exploration of the ideas and concepts of the practitioners. As the blog stands at the moment, the posts are stand alone statements almost, with the only liking theme being parts of narrative. I am pleased that i was able to link a theory between the two academic texts however.

Despite not linking all of my blog posts directly to the two academic texts, I feel that the blog posts do explore aspects of narrative I find interesting and engendering. Therefore a likeminded reader may find the blog enjoyable. Reflectively it seems most of the games and other media I have compared and used as suggestions are quite modern, this may mean that it is contemporary and the points I have made may lose their impact over time, becoming less relevant. It also shows I have not paid enough attention to historical context, that project brief asked us to emphasise. I also did not manage my time correctly and subsequently, I have not posted all I stated I would do in my original rough outline of the blog. I feel they contain valuable subjects to be explored and I will continue to update the blog with the for-mentioned posts when I am next able to do so.

I stated my blog under the impression that because of the vast differences between viewing a media like a film and playing a digital game, there was little to learn from traditional story telling that could be relevant within a digital game format. My view changed from reading “Game Design Workshop” and “Games Telling stories?” by Jesper Juul. I discovered that narrative is a very important part of digital games and the best way to study something it to re-trace its source and find out what makes it popular or critically acclaimed, in the case of digital games, the souse was film, TV, theatre and novels. Once you can understand what makes them popular, you can then add in the elements specific to digital games like interactivity, rules and goals. Once you can master the successful integration between these elements and narrative, you have a solid game concept. I found this point particularly important as I aspire to be a games designer.

I created my blog in a very natural way. I blogged about thinks I instinctively wanted to research and write about. Therefore the posts include a lot of modern media I am familiar with and like. I did this as I felt I could add more to the blog if I already had a previous understanding of the subjects that were being investigated. Retrospectively, I should have chosen a wider array of subjects to cater for the ethical and historical issues that were meant to be explored. I started off by brainstorming narrative and looking through the notes I made during critical studies tutorials. Then I added a film of television show that would relate, support or argue the points that were being discussed. This seemed like the natural way to work at the time. But more attention should have been made on how the blog would read as a whole.

The blog has created a deeper understanding about narrative within the digital game world for me. However I am still finding myself asking questions about it. For example, looking at the technological advancements within digital games, and how narrative has been able to expand and evolve with it, what will the future hold for narrative within digital games? How immersive or interactive can it be? Jesper Juul states, “You can’t have narration and interactivity at the same”. I would be interested to see if that statement could be contested in the future.

Spaced series 1 episode 2 opening sequence

I will be summarising and commenting on the opening sequence of series 1 episode 2 of spaced, a British situation comedy aired in 1999.

The sequence depicts Simon Pegg’s character “Tim” taking on the persona of his avatar in the game resident evil by shooting zombies and quoting one liners. The director Edger Wright used similar lighting and camera angles to show that the game world that “Tim” has been in is merging with his world due to lack of sleep. The audience only realise that “Tim” has only been dreaming or sleep walking when he is awoken by “Daisy” played by Jessica Stevenson, at this point the lighting return to convention. “Daisy’s” character inadvertently mirrors a stereotypical zombie expression, which are numerous in “Resident Evil” resulting in a comical climax. This is the only example I know of where common traits specific to a Digital game are used as an artistic means to facilitate narrative in another form of media in this case a comedy.

For most of the episode, “Tim” is sat, playing the game on an original Play Station and at numerous times throughout the episode, clips of the game, depicting zombies getting shot are flashed in between character conversations. I feel the flashes of death, represent the characters felling of dread. The writer used “Resident Evil” as a vehicle to relate how the character is feeling to the audience which I feel is quite innervating.

I think the episode was written as homage to video games, showing both the negative connotations associated with digital games, in the form of sleepwalking, and the positives, using the images and the affect of the game on the character resulting in comedy.

Games Telling Stories?

Taken from "Games Telling stories? -A brief note on games and narratives" by Jesper Juul

Juul, J. Games Telling Stories - A Brief Note On Games And Narratives (July 2001)

Available at: http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/juul-gts/ (accessed 9/01/2010)

“Conclusion

I would like to repeat that I believe that: 1) The player can tell stories of a game session. 2) Many computer games contain narrative elements, and in many cases the player may play to see a cut-scene or realise a narrative sequence. 3) Games and narratives share some structural traits. Nevertheless, my point is that: 1) Games and stories actually do not translate to each other in the way that novels and movies do. 2) There is an inherent conflict between the now of the interaction and the past or "prior" of the narrative. You can't have narration and interactivity at the same time; there is no such thing as a continuously interactive story. 3) The relations between reader/story and player/game are completely different - the player inhabits a twilight zone where he/she is both an empirical subject outside the game and undertakes a role inside the game.”

There is a difference in that stories are told to the viewer of other media. But players live the story in digital games

“Even if this article has been somewhat structural in its orientation, I would like to state that I think we need to consider games as fairly formal structures that in complex ways spawn and feed player experiences. This means that we cannot afford to ignore the effect of interactivity: The non-determined state of the story/game world and the active state of the player when playing a game has huge implications for how we perceive games. Even if we were to play only a single game session of a hypothetical game and end up performing exactly the same sequence of events that constitute Hamlet[11], we would not have had the same experience as had we watched Hamlet performed. We would also not consider the game to be the same object as the play since we would think of the game as an explorable dynamic system that allowed for a multitude of sequences.”

A large part of narrative is the uncertainty of events, and the control we have over the game system, we perceive games as narratives we create ourselves, and other media narratives have already been created and are viewed or read by the audience or reader.

“The narrative turn of the last 20 years has seen the concept of narrative emerge as a privileged master concept in the description of all aspects of human society and sign-production. Expanding a concept can in many cases be useful, but the expansion process is also one that blurs boundaries and muddles concepts, be this is desirable or not. With any sufficiently broad definition of x, everything will be x. This rapidly expands the possible uses of a theory but also brings the danger of exhaustion, the kind of exhaustion that eventually closes departments and feeds indifference: Having established that everything is x, there is nothing else to do than to repeat the statement.”

What Juul is stating is that as soon as we have defined narrative, we have been finding ways to change it and evolve it into something that could be argued as being different. This can be related back to the other academic text extract from “Game Design Workshop” I made the point of other media having several narrative arcs, rather than the one in “Jaws” given as an example. So maybe the point I was making about the dramatic arc not being the backbone of dramatic media is nullified by Juul’s statement. If expanding the concept of overlapping narratives is the original dramatic arc, then it would be correct to say that the dramatic arc is the backbone of all dramatic narrative.

“Using other media as starting points, we may learn many things about the construction of fictive worlds, characters ... but relying too heavily on existing theories will make us forget what makes games games: Such as rules, goals, player activity, the projection of the player's actions into the game world, the way the game defines the possible actions of the player. It is the unique parts that we need to study now.”

This shows that Jull views narrative as important part of digital games but the defining parts of digital games are as or more important a thing to study. A successful game needs more than just a good narrative; it needs a good dynamic system for the player to interact with.

“These are both descriptive and normative issues. It does not make much sense to describe everything in the same terms. It also is quite limiting to suppose that all cultural forms should work in the same way. The discussion of games and narratives is a relevant one and I can not hope to close it here. This article has argued for telling the difference.”

The Dramatic Arc

In this post, I have summarised part of the academic text “Games Design Workshop” specifically on the dramatic arc.

“The Dramatic Arc

We’ve looked at a number of key elements that can help to create player engagement with the game system. But the most important of these elements is actually one that we’ve talked about already, and that is conflict.

Conflict is at the heart of any good drama, and as we’ve seen in our discussion of formal elements, it’s at the heart of games systems. Meaningful conflict is not only designed to keep players from accomplishing their goals too easily, as we pointed out in the discussion of formal elements but it also draws players into the game emotionally by creating a sense of tension as to the outcome. This dramatic tension is as important to the success of a game as it is to a great film or novel.”

What “Games Design Workshop” is doing here is defining what makes a good drama. Looking at the traits of what we find entertaining, something that the general public really do, but it seems it is a key factor in creating dramatic media.

“In traditional drama, conflict occurs when the protagonist faces a problem or obstacle that keeps her from accomplishing her goal. In the case of a story, the protagonist is usually the main character. In the case of a game, the protagonist may be the player, or character that represents the player. The conflict that the player encounters may be against another player, a number of other players, obstacles within the game system, or other forces or dilemmas.

Traditional dramatic conflict can be broken down into categories such as character verses, character, character verses nature, character verses society, or character verses fate. As games designers, we might overlay another group of categories, which are player verses player, player verses game system, player verses multiple players, team verses team, etc. Thinking about game conflict in this way, helps us to integrate a game’s dramatic premise and its formal system, deepening the players’ relationship to both.”

It seems that just by being aware that digital games have the opportunity of having more conflict is important to player.

“Once the conflict is set in motion, it must escalate for the drama to be effective. Escalating conflict creates tension, and in most stories, the tension in a story gets worse before it gets better, resulting in a classic dramatic arc. This arc describes the amount of dramatic tension in the story as it progresses in time. Figure 4.14 shows how tension rises and falls during various stages in a typical story. This arc is the backbone of all dramatic media, including games.

As the figure shows, stories begin with an exposition, which introduces the setting, characters and concepts that will be important to the rest of the action. Conflict is introduced when the protagonist has a goal that’s opposed by their environment, an antagonist, or both. The conflict and the protagonist’s attempts to resolve it causes a series of events that lead to a rising action. This rising action leads to a climax, in which some sort of deciding factor or event is introduced. What happens in the climax determines the outcome of the drama. The climax is followed by a period of falling action, in which the conflict begins to resolve, and the resolution, or denouement, in which it’s finally resolved.”

Where I agree that tension rises and falls during a typical story, I do not feel it is the backbone of all dramatic media. There have been several examples in media, where the arc is looks more like a roller coaster, full of times where the viewer or player feel that the narrative has resolved it’s self, then at the last minute, there is a narrative twist. Film and TV like “Pulp Fiction” and most soap operas have multiple narrative stories, where the viewer is shown snippets of each narrative. Typically the climatic tensions of the narratives happen at different times to keep the viewer interested. “Pulp Fiction” even deviates from the normal linear narrative timeline, showing characters that have previously been killed in past scenes.

“To better understand the classic arc, let’s look at it in terms of a simple story you are probably familiar with. In the movie Jaws, Sheriff Brody is the protagonist. His goal is to keep the people of Amity safe. The antagonist is the shark, who opposes Brody’s goal by attacking the people of Amity. This creates a conflict between Brody and the shark. Brody, who’s afraid of the water, attempts to keep the people safe by keeping them out of the water, but this plan fails. The tension rises as the shark attacks more people, even threatening Brody’s own children. Finally, Brody must face his fear and go out on the water to hunt down the shark. In the climax of the story, the shark attacks Brody himself. The story resolves when Brody kills the shark and returns the story to the status quo. Simple right? You can look at any story you know and you’ll see the dramatic arc reflected in its structure.

Now, let’s look at the arc again, this time in terms of a game. In a game, the rising action is linked to both the formal and dramatic systems. This is because games are usually designed to provide more challenge as they progress. Games that also have well-integrated dramatic elements will intertwine those elements with the formal system so that as the challenge rises, the story develops. Here is an example of a classic game: Donkey Kong, Mario is the protagonist. Mario’s girlfriend, Pauline, has been kidnapped by the giant ape, Donkey Kong, and taken to the top of a building under construction. Mario’s goal is to save Pauline before time runs out. To do so, he must climb the levels of the building, traversing girders, elevators, and conveyer belts, while avoiding flames, barrels, and bouncing rivets thrown at him by Donkey Kong. Each time Mario reaches Pauline, Donkey Kong grabs her and carries her off to the next higher level. Each level builds in difficulty, creating rising tension for the player. Finally, in the climax of the game, Mario must not only avoid Donkey Kong’s attacks, but also fight him directly by removing all the rivets on every floor of the level. After all the rivets are removed, Donkey Kong falls head first onto a stack of girders and is knocked out, allowing Mario to rescue Pauline and resolve both the formal and dramatic tension.”

Some modern popular games end with dramatic tension (and therefore no narrative conclusion) if there will be another game made, much in the same way as some films that have sequels. The reason for doing this is clearly to entice the customers into buying the product. This strategy is called a cliff hanger.

“It’s clear from these simple descriptions that the story in jaws is more developed as to character and story – Brody has a fear which he must overcome in order to solve the problem, and his character changes in motivation as he goes from protecting all the people of Amity, to saving his own family, to defending himself from the shark. While Mario has a goal, and he is certainly vulnerable to attacks from Donkey Kong, he does not have internal conflict that keeps him from completing his goal, and his goal never wavers. The jeopardy that Pauline is in, never increases either, a touch that would have made the formal and dramatic elements of the game better integrated.

What Mario has that Brody does not, however, is that his success or failure is in the hands of the player. It’s the player who must learn how to avoid the attacks, moving closer and closer to the goal. And in the climax of the game, it’s the player that must figure out how to topple donkey king from his perch and knock him out. So while our response to the climactic moment in jaws, when Brody finally figures out how to kill the shark, is a release of tension built up by our empathy for his character and the characters struggles over the course of the story, our response to the climactic moment in Donkey Kong is quite different.

In the case of Donkey Kong, we are the ones who have figured out the crucial action needed to resolve the tension, and the tension has built up over a number of levels of play. When we finally resolve the tension, there is a sense of personal accomplishment on top of any sympathetic response that we might have to the resolution of Mario and Pauline’s story. This integration of conflict in the formal and dramatic systems can clearly provide a powerful combination for the players in a game experience.”

I agree that playing a game, and having a sense of accomplishment is different to a film. I do not think the experience is “quite different”. If you can feel empathy for a character on the screen, you can empathise with their sense of achievement, much in the same way as you empathise with your avatar. The player has not defeated a giant ape, but successfully navigated a formal system.