The Player`s Story: The Narrative Experience in RPG

The Player's Story:
The Narrative Experience in RPG
by Alexander Jacobs, BA
c3113260
Bachelor of Arts (Honours)
October, 2013
School of English & Writing
University of Newcastle
Statement of Originality
The thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other
degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution and, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, contains no material previously published or written by
another person, except where due reference has been made in the text. I give consent
to this copy of my thesis, when deposited in the School of Humanities and Social
Science Thesis Library being made available for loan and photocopying subject to
the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968.
Alexander Jacobs, BA
c3113260
Signed:
Date:
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank Dr. Jesper Gulddal Sorensen for his supervision, and express
gratitude to Satoshi Tajiri for creating Pokémon, the first game-story that captured
my imagination.
Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................ 2
Terminology ................................................................................................................ 3
Introduction.................................................................................................................. 4
A Brief Overview of the Games ....................................................................... 12
Narrative Rules & Narrative Fictions ........................................................................ 14
Narrative Context of Gameplay in Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 ............................. 16
The Use of Fiction to Explain Game Rules in Final Fantasy VI...................... 22
Immersion in the RPG Genre .................................................................................... 27
Transhumanism in the Story and the HUD in Deus Ex ................................... 30
Character Interactions, Inconsistencies and Immersion in Mass Effect 1, 2, and
3 ........................................................................................................................ 37
The Player's Agency .................................................................................................. 45
Ultimate Agency and the Destruction of the Video game ............................... 50
Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 53
Images ........................................................................................................................ 55
Games Cited............................................................................................................... 69
Works Cited ............................................................................................................... 70
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Abstract
This thesis is an examination of the presentation of narrative in role playing video
games (RPGs) to discern the amount of control a player has over a video game story. In
order to fully understand the player's participation in a RPG's story, the thesis is divided
into three sections. "Narrative Rules VS Narrative Fiction" looks at established theories
in game studies, establishing the basic relationship between a RPG's narrative and its
game rules. "Immersion in the RPG Genre" builds upon the basic relationship by
exploring the immersive techniques used in RPGs, like multi-linear narrative structures
and explorable virtual spaces, to engage the player in meaningful play. "The Player's
Agency" looks at special narrative generation, or narrative praxis, the player performs
by interacting with a video game, and asks at what point the player overtakes the
developer as the author of meaning. Six video games are investigated to demonstrate the
value for gameplay to be contextualised in narrative, along with some supplementary
video games: Deus Ex (Ion Storm, 2000), Final Fantasy VI (Square, 1994), Mass Effect
1, 2, and 3 (BioWare, 2007, 2010, 2012). All games are examples of RPG genre, while
manipulating the genre to serve their respective narratives, and range over a decade of
video game history.
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Terminology
FPS- First Person Shooter
NPC- Non-Playable Character
PC- Playable Character
Platformer- two dimensional game which scrolls along the x and y axis
RPG- Role Playing Video Games (unless stated otherwise)
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Introduction
In this thesis I will discuss the presentation of narrative in roleplaying video games, or
RPGs, with a specific scrutiny of Deus Ex, Final Fantasy VI, Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3.
My objective is to look at the quality of narrative in certain RPGs in relation to the
medium's place in literature studies, exploring how game and narrative inform each
other to empower the player's role as an authorial agent. The first issue of the Game
Studies states that existing fields, like literature studies, should be involved in the study
of games alongside an independent academic structure of game studies (Aarseth
"Computer Game Studies, Year One"). The work in this thesis builds on this research,
drawing from game-centric ludology, story focused narratology, studies in-between and
even those outside of video games. Five games are used to discuss the role of narratives
in RPGs: BioWare's space opera epics Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3, Ion Storm's cyberpunk
Deus Ex, and Square's Final Fantasy VI. With the exception of Final Fantasy VI, these
are not typical role-playing games. Bioware and Ion Storm blend game genres in their
respective games, taking cues from first person shooter (FPS) gameplay, RPG character
focus, stealth, and adventure games. I have used these games as examples of the RPG
genre because they are not conventional RPGs. These games draw from various
cinematic, literature, and video game genres to create a fulfilling role play experience
for the player in both gameplay and narrative by allowing the player a degree of control
over a character's story in the virtual game world.
RPG narratives give the player choice, with consequential and trivial decision
making impacting upon the interpretation of the game world. When a player begins
Mass Effect 1, the customisation screen facilitates the construction of a unique
Commander Shepard (Figure 1.1, 1.2). The dialogue between Admiral Anderson and
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Councillor Udina in the cinematic after customisation is a result of choosing, for this
example, to be male with a military history of losing an entire unit of soldiers on the
planet Akuze:
UDINA: Well, what about Shepard?
HACKETT: He saw his whole unit die on Akuze. He could have some serious emotional
scars.
ANDERSON: Every soldier has scars. Shepard's a survivor.
UDINA: Is that the kind of person we want protecting the galaxy?
ANDERSON: That's the only kind of person who can protect the galaxy.
UDINA: I'll make the call.
Mass Effect, BioWare 2007
Some choices in video games are completely arbitrary: the character's ethnic
appearance in Deus Ex or Mass Effect has no impact on the gameplay, the game's rules
or its story (Figure 1.3, 1.4). The player's choice of in game name has next to no effect
on the game beyond a personal attachment, especially so in Final Fantasy VI where
preset names are provided and the story is fixed. However there are some choices in
video games that are designed to impact on the fiction and rules of the game. Video
games with consequential and game altering choices create interesting interactive
possibilities for the player, providing a certain amount of control over the media. RPGs
are designed with character customisation and player choice in mind; even arbitrary
decisions like the main character's appearance can be manipulated by the player to some
degree. It is the non-arbitrary player decisions within the plot of an RPG that empowers
the player with a sense of control and authority over the medium. Deus Ex and to a
greater extent Mass Effect create moral choices for the player, and even the fixed story
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of Final Fantasy VI allows the player at a certain point in the game to determine the
order of the story's progression. The discussion of these choices, or lack thereof, and
what they do to narrative in video games is the primary interest of this thesis.
The concepts in my work are drawn from the contributions of ludology and
narratology, two recognisable theories for video game studies. Ludology makes a case
for the rules of the game, that is the constructs of the program that define a video game,
to be the focal point for study and that other factors are supplementary to the rules that
define the game. Narratology critiques the use of narrative structures in video games
borrowing from literature theory to create definitions, such as in Tosca's video game
'close reading' where she importantly points out a distinction between "story that
informs gameplay (feels as meaningful) and story that doesn't (feels superfluous)"
("Reading Resident Evil-Code Veronica X" 210). There has, unfortunately, been
academic confusion between the two theories and how they interact. Frasca notes "there
is a serious misunderstanding on the fact that some scholars believe that ludologists
hold a radical position that completely discards narrative from videogames" (94),
implying that bias-based commentary was more damaging than helpful. This perception
of ludology as the anti-narrative video game theory is a derived from misinterpretation;
the real issue was a concern that video games were being subject to colonisation by
other fields (sociology, literature studies, psychology, etc.). This concern was shared by
academics, notably Aarseth and Eskelinen, who are both associated with the term
ludology in video game studies. Tosca disregarded this as boring and disappointing, as
she stated in a blog post from the 2003 DAC conference:
When we asked that games be treated as games, it was a call for the people to stop
considering them a subset of another academic disciple [...] This is not to mean that we
cannot use the tools of all these sciences [...] I find that a lot of the papers dealing with
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game at DAC feel the need to position themselves in the ludology-narratology debate [...]
this is not a religion not a school of thought, what unites all the articles we publish is that
the focus is games, not affiliation to a weird sect.
(Games and Other Things)
Tosca is not alone in her dismay at the debate's proliferation; Konzack has made
similar remarks stating "attempts at mediate the two rhetorics [...] usually ends up
stating that one part of the conflict is just a bit more correct than the other" (124). Both
ludology and narratology are relevant and both inform the study of video games, and I
have strived to reflected this in my thesis. I am observing the primary games from a
literature studies stance, but in no way is it an effort to champion narrative aspects in
RPGs, with colonization as the end game. This is an exploration of the existence of
narrative in certain video games, and that involves engaging the game's rules and
narrative in equal respect. Anything less than that would not do justice to these games
from the RPG genre or the video game studies.
Roleplaying video games are a genre of games that emphasise the player
assuming a central role in the game's narrative. The player controls a character central to
the game's plot and commences playing through the plot and the game. A RPG provides
solitary experience in a virtual world, immersing the player to a degree in interactions
with the game world. Deus Ex capitalises on this kind of immersion, allowing the player
to develop strategies when confronting missions: does the player annihilate all the
opposing forces with firepower, sneak past any confrontation or sneak past security
using stolen information? Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 contain dialogue choices that have
consequences across the trilogy, with immense detail in the environment to develop a
sense of believability in the world. Focus on a believable world is also present in Deus
Ex, as the player is exposed to transhumanist themes in narrative and rules. Final
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Fantasy VI, along with the games mentioned above, places the narrative in a position of
great importance in the game by centralising the plot and a wide cast of characters onto
one antagonist. These games, along with supplementary games, are the main text used
to explore the relationship between narrative and rules in roleplaying video games.
Derived from the qualities of the RPG genre and video game theory, the afore
mentioned games are appraised to explore three topics: narrative rules and narrative
fiction, immersion through the RPG genre and the player's agency. This explores the
Author-Text-Reader relationship of literature, but modified to suit the medium, which
becomes Developer-Game-Player. Narrative rules and narrative fiction inspects the
relationship between the rules and the fictional aspects of a game and the narrative
characteristic of both, with a focus on how Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 and Final Fantasy VI
negotiate between rules and fiction to transmitted their stories. Juul defines these two
aspects of games as intertwined and equally important. Rules limit actions and facilitate
play, they "specify limitations and affordances [...] they add meaning to the allowed
actions and this affords players meaningful actions that were not otherwise available;
rules give games structure" (58). Fiction is classified by Juul as "any kind of imagined
world" (122), not including storytelling that utilises such imagined worlds. Rules
therefore define the game's fictional elements. It is important to note that Juul separates
fiction and storytelling, as he states the latter "is a fixed sequence of events that is
presented (enacted or narrated) to a user" (122). When a story is introduced to a game,
these two features support the story: rules facilitate while fiction elaborates.
Defining this relationship is key to understanding the capacity and importance of
narratives in games and realising that there are games that cannot be if they do not retain
their stories. As the relationship between rules and fiction is explored regarding RPGs,
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it is important to remember the differences between different game genres: "in an
abstract game the goals of players are only made desirable by the rules of the game [...]
while in a narrativized game the player pursues the kind of goals that people may form
in everyday life or in their fantasies" (Ryan, "From Narrative Games to Playable
Stories: Towards a Poetics of Interactive Narrative" 46). Ryan goes on to note that,
while there are narrative goals in narrativized games "in the intensity of the action,
players may forget whether they are terrorists or counter-terrorists, space-aliens or
defenders of the earth: in a narrative game, the player plays to win, to beat the game,
and the story is mostly a lure into the game world." Her distinction between what she
calls ludus and paidia (ludus games are rules based and paidia games are imaginative
without rule constraints) makes almost too clear a distinction between abstract and
representational games.
Rules do not suffocate narrative or fiction, and can be used to facilitate narrative
in a video game: Mass Effect as a trilogy could not explore its grand narrative arc
without interesting and stable rule structures. Parlett has a more moderate view: "In
short, no hard and fast distinction can be drawn between abstract and representational as
a classification of games. How representational a game is depends on the level at which
it is being played and the extent of the player's imagination" (Parlett 6). The first section
looks at the Mass Effect trilogy and Final Fantasy VI, a linear and far more ludic RPG,
to explore narrative in both game's rules and fiction, demonstrating that while rules and
fiction both can be separated and isolated they are intangible parts of a game with
narrative.
After elucidating rules and fiction is a scrutiny of how immersion is stimulated in
the virtual worlds of RPGs. The exploration of fictional spaces in RPGs is a process
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drawn from tabletop roleplaying games and travel or quest narratives by the likes of
Tolkien or Verne, and rewarding discovery drives players to continue exploration.
Video games of the fantasy and sci-fi genres construct worlds that provide a sensation
of immersion for the player, "which should impel him to use his controller for many
long hours" (Natkin 40-1), and these worlds rely on a narrative aesthetic that the player
extracts from exploration and discovery.
The role of the player in all this is left to consider. The player has his own agency
during gameplay: he controls his avatar, what he does, where he goes. This is ultimately
controlled by the story and level design of the developer, but inside this maze the player
is able to exercise an agency that has the potential to create any action that the rules
allow. This control, though limited, lets the player make smaller sections of narrative;
these actions become a narrative of player experience which is tied to the game. Game
designers value and cater to the player; the game is for them, after all. Pacotti, principle
writer for Deus Ex, affirms that "we [game developers] tie ourselves in knots to give
game-players multiple solutions to problems, customizable characters, and branching or
"multiform" story lines [...] The fact that our ideal in computer entertainment is the
empowerment of end users to compose their own experiences is no accident" (Pacotti).
Whether it is a matter of creating an illusion of control or granting real control, the
player's position in the video game is given the utmost respect, for without them games
have no meaning.
The final section also looks at the possible destructive qualities of player agency,
which could be considered a definitive agency: modifying, or modding, and cheating a
game. Enabling 'God Mode' in Doom, for instance, while facilitated by the developer,
makes the player immortal which makes the game easier but moves away from the
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original goal of defeating enemies based on skill. Withdrawing the need for skill is done
by removing the rule that the player will die when hit by an enemy's attack. With 'God
Mode,' skill is no longer needed as players can barge through hordes of enemies without
consequence. Once the game has been changed as its most basic level, that of code, the
game is no longer as the developer intended. Regardless of the developer allowing
cheating or modding in a game or not, once the change has occurred a new text emerges
based on the player's intention. In certain cases, the player's modification can be so
drastic that the game is aesthetically unrecognisable as the original game: a good
example of this is the online military simulation game ARMA 2 and DayZ, an extremely
involved modification which changed a military simulation into a zombie survival
simulation.
A focus on these three areas aligns with a Developer-Game-Player model, where
the developer controls the content (rules and fiction), the game makes immersion
possible, and the player becomes an agent with abilities to change the world they enter.
Be it an abstract game that with emergent gameplay in which "a game is played in a
way that the game designer did not predict" (Juul 76) like Minecraft, a game with a
progression structure that "yields strong control over to the game designers" (73) like
Tetris, or any game in-between these two extremes of game design, all parties involved
in producing meaning from the game are essential to the game. The game designer and
the development team assemble the game which facilitates the player's gameplay, and in
RPGs the narrative is built out of all these contributors. In other words, this is an effort
to delve into what makes the player the only kind of person that can save a galaxy
beyond just gameplay; it is an effort to find what makes the player want to be the kind
of person who can save a galaxy.
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A Brief Overview of the Games
Overall, six games are used in this study as primary texts, three of which are from the
same franchise. These games are distinguishing for their use of multiple gaming genres
to create the role playing experience. Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3, are a trilogy of sci-fi
RPGs by Bioware, produced for computer and Xbox 360 from 2007 to 2012 (with PS3
and Wii U releases following later). They span an enormous space opera narrative that
follows the story of Command Shepard, a high ranking member of the System Alliance,
and his ongoing fight against the Reapers, and ancient race of sentinel AIs intent of
wiping out all advanced civilisations in the galaxy. The gameplay uses techniques from
the FPS and RPG genres, and borrows cinematic techniques to communicate a refined
character development throughout the series. Players are able to direct aspects of the
plot, making one gameplay experience different to the next.
Deus Ex is a sci-fi FPS RPG for computers in which players assume the role of JC
Denton, a genetically modified agent who enters a world of espionage and global
conspiracy that has ramifications for the entire human race. Developed by Ion Storm in
2000, the game is renowned for its deep and involved plot, and highly immersive
gameplay. The plot and gameplay are used to transmit themes of transhumanism by
having the player experience the narrative and actively engage in the theme through
action, that is, being JC Denton. Like the Mass Effect trilogy, Deus Ex mixes multiple
gameplay genres and provides player's with control over parts of the narrative, though
with a more limited scope.
Square (now Square Enix) developed Final Fantasy, an iconic and popular RPG
series. The 1994 Super Nintendo release, Final Fantasy VI (original released in the US
as Final Fantasy III), is an epic fantasy RPG with a linear narrative, exploring themes
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of dystopian empires and rebellion. The gameplay uses turn based combat systems
derived from popularised table top roleplaying: the gameplay and narrative revolves
around party mechanics. The player builds increase the various character's levels to
become more powerful, enabling him to advance further in the game. Narrative progress
is opposed by enemies and battles; if the player is unable to beat a boss or a dungeon, he
cannot proceed with the narrative. Final Fantasy VI uses spatial narrative to explore the
concept of utopia (Hourigan), splitting the game into two sections: the World of Balance
and the World of Ruin.
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Narrative Rules & Narrative Fictions
Rules do not have a narrative, or at least they appear only to be systems in which play
occurs. A game of Tetris is an exercise in following the rules: stack blocks to create
rows to earns points. FPS video games centralise action around a first person view while
the player kills an opposing enemy, usually with a ranged weapon (like a gun): games
like Doom or Quake contain narrative reasons for fighting, but nothing more than
something that will catapult the player into a game of shooting an assumed enemy.
Huizinga provided the concept of a 'Magic Circle' of play which ludologists have built
upon as a prototype from video game rules. "All play moves and has its being within a
play-ground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately or as a
matter of course" (Huizinga 28), that is any space can be defined as a play space by the
implementation of a game's rules.
The roleplaying video game genre places the player in control of the central
character or group of characters, allowing direction of the story through the game world.
The rules of the video game govern the game world and what the player can do in this
world. These rules are narratives when they are enacted. The Tetris player's narrative of
playing the game derives from following the rules. The FPS gamer adheres to the rules
of the mission to achieve a goal, which are facilitates in the rule structures of the game.
The RPG gamer takes a character into a world defined by the rules of the game and
completes quests which have narrative goals and consequences. Rules are at the heart of
all games, but they are not devoid of story: it depends on how and whether the rules are
utilized for storytelling. Simply following rules is a narrative in itself as it determines
how the game is played. In a video game, following rules can be interpreted as building
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a rudimentary story: completing the objective of travelling from point A to point B is a
narrative, be it a simple one.
The idea for narrative rules arises from Juul's theory of Rules VS Fiction in video
games. Rules, for Juul, are like a scaffolding that restrains and defines the fictional
aesthetic of the virtual world, like Earth's gravity constrains and defines humans on
Earth. He defines the difference between games as rules and games as fiction,
demonstrating a synthesis between the two, centred around rules. For games as rules he
states:
The rules of a game provide the player with challenges that the player cannot trivially
overcome. It is a basic paradox of games that while the rules themselves are generally
definite, unambiguous, and easy-to-use, the enjoyment of a game depends on these easy-touse rules presenting challenges that cannot be easily overcome.
(5
He continues for games as fiction with:
Most video games create fictional worlds, but games do this in their own special tentative
and flickering way [...] the fictional worlds of many games are contradictory and
incoherent, but the player may not experience this as such since the rules of the game can
provide a sense of direction even when the fictional world has little credibility. In fact, the
player's experience of the game fiction appears not to require much consistency−the world
of a game is something that the player can often choose to imagine at will.
6
Juul ascribes fiction to the task of "making the player understand the rules of the
game" (163), hiding the rules from the player's view to create a believable world that the
player explores. This works in reverse: rules help the player understand the fiction, that
is, the story, of the game. This is not a proposal to offset Juul's theory as both are correct
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statements, but an expansion of his theory to account for the neglected aesthetic fiction
and video game stories. Narrative, in some games, becomes a support for greater virtual
realism. Ryan notes this movement towards visual realism while supporting the study of
narrative in video games. For her, combating against narrative ignores a useful factor of
player stimulation: " if narrativity were totally irrelevant to the enjoyment of games,
why would designers put so much effort into the creation of a narrative interface? [...] It
may not be the raison d'être of games, but it plays such an important role as a stimulant
for the imagination" ("Beyond Myth and Metaphor: Narrative in Digital Media" 602).
Narrative is a prop in the game, its function being "a stimulant for the imagination."
However, neither addresses the phenomenon of narrative as it originates from the
relationship between rules and fiction. Juul gives rules and fiction no narrative qualities,
preferring to keep the video game as an object to be studied on its own terms; Ryan
notes the role of narrative in video games but does not give it a birthplace beyond the
designer's intention. A greater plot might encompass the gameplay in an RPG like in
Mass Effect or Final Fantasy VI, but following the game's rules is itself a narrative. On
top of this, an aesthetic fiction brings more narrative content. Now, instead of simply
moving from point A to B, the player is a hunter running from a village to a waterfall, or
a space marine dropped at the LZ and charging through to a communication tower.
There is a narrative in both following rules and engaging with fiction.
Narrative Context of Gameplay in Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3
It is important to note that games are defined by rules because it does not immediately
mean that a game has a story. While Tetris and Mass Effect both abide by the rules that
define them each game uses a different arrangement of rules for different reasons. Tetris
is an arcade puzzle game where the player follows rules in order to clear blocks from
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the screen before they reach the top of the screen, a provision that if achieved ends the
game. So, the player must try to do this for as long as possible until it occurs, with
difficulty increase appropriate to the time spent playing. The entire Mass Effect trilogy
uses rules and fiction to tell a space opera story. The rules in Mass Effect are used to
frame a narrative, aid in narrating and facilitate gameplay, while the rules in Tetris are
there exclusively to facilitate gameplay.
This is a very broad example though, stretching from one extreme to another. A
closer comparison would be between Mass Effect and a 2D platformer like Ghosts 'n
Goblins. While these older 2D platformers have a limited connections to a typical RPG,
the fundamental elements of the RPG genre are present: the player assumes a role and is
given a narrative based object to achieve a goal, or a quest. Ghosts 'n Goblins utilizes
the Princess and the Dragon fantasy arch-type placing the player as the gallant knight on
a quest to save a princess from a demon king: a basic roleplaying quest. While it uses
these traits within the arcade game formula, it is still a game in which the player is given
a role and he plays out the simple narrative objective. What drives gameplay here is a
score, like the Tetris player, and the satisfaction of completing the skill challenge the
game presents. Points are given to the player for slaying monsters and collecting the
objects they drop, and after he has died and lost his final life his score is recorded, if it
was high enough. Arcade-style rules drive gameplay, challenging the player to compete
against increasingly difficult gameplay in the hope of acquiring the high score, whereas
the quest to save the Princess is an aesthetic choice to make gameplay visually
attractive. In Mass Effect, narrative, not score, drives gameplay and gives the player
context for his actions and choices. Of course, these comparisons do not explore the
relationship between rules and fiction in relation to the RPG genre of video games, or
delve further into either's narrative qualities; they are there to illustrate a basic principle.
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While all games have rules, and those rules have a narrative when implemented, not all
games use stories to achieve their goals. Some games work better without stories.
Fiction, when applied to rules with a consideration beyond a limited context for
action, can provide real and significant context for the player's actions. This context is
demonstrated by the Mass Effect trilogy, an RPG FPS which directs the player to make
resounding choices that affects the game story using a well executed conversation and
consequence system. This system is embodied in cut-scenes between characters and in
climatic narrative points, giving what would usually be a break in gameplay a set of
rules. The rules in a Mass Effect cut-scene are simple: the player is provided with
control over the direction of a conversation between his character, Commander Shepard,
and a NPC (Figure 2.2). The script plays out and at certain junctions in the conversation
a wheel appears at the bottom of the screen. Players decide the conversation's direction
based on preference for certain topics or conversational tactics provided by the dialogue
scene, such as an aggressive blunt statement or a calm considered response. The rules
here facilitate the player's choices during conversations or significant story events: the
available choices are provided on a dialogue wheel which appears on screen when
Shepard is directing or being directed in conversation. Options on the top half of the
wheel usually initiate more tempered and considered responses from Shepard, the
options on the bottom half usually deliver far more aggressive dialogue. At times the
player is offered special options which fall into composed or belligerent responses,
categorised in the game as Paragon or Renegade respectively. These options have
consequences, and usually results in changes to the plot in noticeable ways. Calm or
aggressive decisions affect some character's dialogue with Shepard, and in Mass Effect
2 and 3 change Shepard's physical appearance. Gameplay is also affected by these
moral choices: the Paragon and Renegade choices reflect the personality the player
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wants his Commander Shepard to have. This is quantified as 'reputation' (a morality bar)
in the character customisation menu (Figure 2.3). Different NPCs will react differently
to the player's reputation, and at the end of each game there are significant differences
depending on Shepard's choices and reputation.
There is distance from consequence, as the "separation from consequence is
fundamental to a gaming experience" (Dreunen 6), but that does not diminish the
player's experience when viewing the consequences. Some choices have narrative
consequences across games: if a player utilises the function which allows importation of
a saved game file from an older game (Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 2 to
Mass Effect 3) the consequences arise in the next game. These can be outcomes that
change or affect fiction and/or rules in a game sequel, and these results are usually
derived from significant decisions or events of the previous game. For example, after
fighting his way through a secret research facility on the planet Noveria, Commander
Shepard discovers a Rachni Queen at the centre of the facility (Figure 2.4). The Rachni
are an extinct alien race that nearly decimated the galactic community years ago and the
player is given a choice: kill the last known Rachni Queen and consign the race to
extinction, or release her and allow the race to repopulate on the condition they hide and
seclude themselves.
The full ramifications of that decision come to fruition in the third game in the
series. If the player kills the Rachni Queen in Mass Effect 1, he will be surprised to
encounter the rachni as an enemy in Mass Effect 3: the Reapers, an ancient cybernetic
race and primary antagonists who indoctrinates races to be thralls, have genetically
engineered a clone of the Rachni Queen which begs Shepard to be released (Figure 2.5).
The player is given another choice: kill this Queen or let her free to assist in the war
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effort against the Reapers. The first choice resolves the situation quickly; the second
choice results in the cloned Rachni Queen travelling to assist in constructing the
Crucible, a weapon that may destroy the Reapers, but on arrival they cause
pandemonium as the player realises the cloned Rachni was under Reaper control. The
second option in Mass Effect 1, freeing the Rachni Queen, has a similar consequence
with crucial differences. Mass Effect 3 still sees the player battle the Rachni as an
enemy, but the Reapers have not cloned the Queen in this narrative strand instead
imprisoned the previously Queen. The player has the same choice as in the other
narrative strand: kill her or release her. Killing the Rachni again concludes the narrative
arc, and releasing the Queen results in Rachni being sent to assist in construction of the
Crucible. This narrative arc, originating from the decision to free the Rachni in Mass
Effect 1, resolves in 3 with the Rachni providing vital assistance.
All possible outcomes concerning the Rachni storyline might seem aesthetic, but
it results in real consequences during gameplay. The player's participation in the story is
active and meaningful, even if the provided choices are limited; "most interactive
narrative written today still follows a simple branching structure, which limit's the
interactor's choices to a selection of alternatives from a fixed menu of some kind"
(Murray, Hamlet on the Holodeck 78). In the Mass Effect trilogy the backwards
compatibility of saved data expands the established fictional universe by creating
programmed connections between the gameplay and stories in each games.
Interestingly, this function grants a player who was played the previous games a
knowing eye as well as a vicarious eye on the narrative level, something Rusch claims
to be uncommon in video games (26-7), as the player actively participates in gameplay
while having a narrative context for the performed actions.
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In Mass Effect 3 gameplay and most of the story is focused on collecting allies
and resources for a final push against the Reapers. This is represented at the war
terminal: a screen filled with all the various war assets collected and collated into a
numerical value (Figure 2.6). An Effective Military Strength is derived from the Total
Military Strength and the Readiness Rating. Total Military Strength is improved by
collecting assets. When the Rachni Queen is released in Mass Effect 1 and rescued in
Mass Effect 3, the Total Military Strength increases as the Rachni are added to the war
effort. At the end of Mass Effect 3, the result of the final battle with the Reapers is
determined by the player's Effective Military Strength: a combination of war assets
discovered in the single player campaign (Total Military Strength) and the Readiness
Rating (represented as a percentage) received from playing the online multiplayer mode.
What is originally a decision to exterminate or revive an alien race in the first game can
be the difference between victory or defeat at the end of the third game.
This is a consistency in the series: during a cut-scene the player makes a choice,
and the consequences are played out. The video game cut-scene is sometimes seen as
unnecessary or too homogenous with cinema, Newman arguing that in Tomb Raider
"the game needs me. Lara [the player's character] doesn't need me in the introduction
and cut scenes- but Tomb Raider needs a player [...] the characters are nothing without a
player" (Newman). Cut-scenes are inconsequential in video games when the player is
not actively participating; Mass Effect involves the player in the cut-scenes, giving rules
to a wholly narrative and fictional section of the game. The player becomes an active
member of the cast, blurring the line between cut-scene and game. There are still noninteractive cut-scenes throughout the game but they are all fixed points in the narrative,
impervious to the player's choice because if they were not the game would have no way
to move forward. It is the dialogue sections outside of fixed story events that involve the
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player in an essential, active role beyond pressing a button to see the next piece of
dialogue: now they must choose an option that has consequence. This places significant
meaning into the player's navigation of such events in the game that are no longer
estranged from the game but are a part of gameplay.
The Use of Fiction to Explain Game Rules in Final Fantasy VI
RPGs, and video games in general, usually require the player to accept breaks in
consistency so they can operate the game. Interesting and engrossing gameplay helps
the player accept any inconsistencies that might arise in the narrative or in the virtual
world but at times a video game will intentionally break the fourth wall and directly
address the player's playing of the game. A game's content becomes self-referential,
infiltrating useful information about the narrative or gameplay which benefits the player
while breaking out of the established fiction the player is currently occupying.
Regardless of whether a manual has been consulted prior to play, most video games
discharge operating instructions during an introduction sequence or throughout the
game: a portion of gameplay that educates the players in the video game's operation.
Learning is directly associated with enjoyment: "For games to be enjoyable, they must
support player skill development and mastery [...] it is necessary that players develop
their skills at playing that game to truly enjoy the game" (Sweetser & Wyeth 7). Fiction
therefore needs to, at times, facilitate these instructions. Throwing a player into a
situation with a narrative object without operating instructions is frustrating; it is equally
frustrating to know how to operate the video game without a directional cue provided in
the narrative.
Final Fantasy VI provides an interesting approach to instructions which has been
used in some form across numerous RPGs. There is an ironic self-awareness as NPCs
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supply instructional, directional allusions and comments foreshadowing future events
which will occur in the story or a change to gameplay that is about to happen. This
concept is explored in "Reverse Design: Final Fantasy 6," published on The Game
Forum. The anonymous author breaks apart the NPC dialogue in Final Fantasy VI into
"ironic communication and narrative communication," finding to natures to the in-game
dialogue: the first, labelled NPC irony, "is based on the need for the creators to tell the
player a lot of information about the game and how to play it," and the second is
communications of any fictional elements that do not contribute to gameplay or hide
"gameplay instructions with narrative pretext," such as information about locations,
people, world history, etc ("Reversing Design: Final Fantasy 6"). Advise against an
action is nearly always an inference to perform that action. To further support the claim
for ironic NPC dialogue, the provided graph shows the quantity of ironic
communication as opposed to narrative communication in the game (Figure 2.7), even
though the study fails to address that some NPC dialogue might fulfil the requirements
of two or more categories at once.
NPC irony can be found throughout the game: during an adventure involving the
characters Sabin and Cyan the player become stranded in a place called the Veldt, a vast
plain far away from Narshe, the current destination for the player. There is no directions
provided to the player on how to get to Narshe from the Veldt until the player finds
Mobliz, the solitary town of the Veldt. There, an NPC discusses the fast and powerful
underwater currents of the Serpent Trench with the characters (Figure 2.8), which leads
to the northern town of Nikeah, very close to Narshe (demonstrated in a short cutscene). The NPC states that it would take you there right away, but that it is "Too bad
our underwater breathing device was stolen!" The developer has placed an NPC in the
world telling the player that if he finds the underwater breathing device, a diving
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helmet, he can progress in the game. The helmet is in fact found by taming the wild boy,
Gau, in the Veldt. After giving him some dried meat, a veiled instruction from another
of Mobliz's inhabitants (Figure 2.9), Gau joins the party. In return for the food, Gau
wishes to share his 'shiny' treasure with the rest of the party (Figure 2.10). NPC irony
here is directional, pointing out the solution to an obstacle to the player: Gau's treasure
is the underwater breathing device required to progress further into the game.
Arguing that rules and fiction in Final Fantasy VI do not mingle or co-operate
would ignore NPC irony and the narrative obstacles which regulate the player's
movement. It is impossible to ignore the narrative extent of the franchise, with over
fourteen games over twenty years, and recurrent themes and plot models centred around
internal character struggles, epic conflict between good versus evil, and utopia as an
explorative idea. Final Fantasy VI easily fits into the franchise themes: Terra, a magic
user, struggles with her amnesia and heritage; the playable characters (typical known as
PCs) fight alongside a group called the Returners against the Empire and the main
villain Kefka; the game begins with a false utopia or anti-utopia in the World of
Balance, breaks down to a dystopia in the World of Ruin, and the future utopia is left to
be speculated on after the dystopia has been overcome. The pursuit of this utopia is
regulated by narrative obstacles impeding the player's progress: "the process of play that
involves overcoming spatial obstacles may be read as a narrative empowerment
through the achievement of free movement" (Hourigan 56). The fiction of these games,
the struggle between good and evil, lies atop a predictable game structure that does not
diminish but empowers the fictional elements that contribute to the story. Hourigan's
investigation of open space exploration in RPGs reveals that both narrative and game
constructs of the RPGs genre collude to engage the player in a challenging and
interesting manner while developing any narrative themes. NPC irony exists to facilitate
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a communiqué from the designer/developer to the player, and at the same time fills the
virtual world with inhabitants. Bogost provides the concept of procedural rhetoric, "the
practise of using processes persuasively [...] of authoring arguments through processes"
(28-9). The processes used are procedural computational structures, that is the program
and coding that defines the video game. Drawing from Aristotelian rhetoric practise, he
explains the idea of procedural enthymemes which are completed by the player's
interaction with the program to complete a syllogism; "Unlike syllogism, in which both
propositions and conclusions are given explicitly, in enthymeme the orator omits one of
the propositions in a syllogism" (18), and both can be translated into the processes that
occur during gameplay.
When the player encounters veiled communiqués in NPC dialogue, it invokes a
procedural enthymeme in which "the player literally fills in the missing portion of the
syllogism by interacting with the application" (Bogost 34). Players encountering the
events in the Veldt complete a syllogism that allows them to progress:
Travel between Mobliz and Nikeah is only possible using the missing underwater breathing
device.
There is a wild boy, Gau, running loose in the Veldt who can be tamed using dried meat.
Gau has the underwater breathing device (omitted).
Therefore, progress to Nikeah requires Gau to join the party.
The players interaction completes syllogisms through the act of play, and by
doing so becomes a part of procedural enthymeme. The player's progress is assisted by
information garnered from NPCs, and this is where rules and fiction coexist to motivate
progress in the narrative: without ironic NPC dialogue there are few veiled directions
for the player in regards to playing the game and navigating the narrative obstacles.
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RPGs provide other operational and directional instructions but they are not hidden
within the ironic NPCs dialogue, they are more corporeal instructions like 'press A to
jump' or 'press start to begin.' Final Fantasy VI and both the rules of the game and the
aesthetic fiction of the game are utilised by the developer to get the player to the end of
the story. The completion of a chain of syllogisms is a designed experience that draws
the player through the video game's story and the virtual world it inhabits.
Comedian Dara Ó Briain uses an anecdote which very succinctly epitomizes the
difference between video games and other media: "You cannot be bad at watching a
movie. You cannot be bad at listening to an album. But you can be bad at playing a
videogame, and the videogame will punish you and deny you access to the rest of the
videogame" (Briain). An important factor is ignored for comedic effect: games are
challenging but designed so the player can win. A developer making an unbeatable
game removes the pleasure of achievement from the player. A contrary example can be
found in video games that are intentionally difficult: Rare's Battletoads, remembered as
an extremely difficult game, has achieved cult popularity due to being nearly
unplayable. Final Fantasy VI, like nearly all games of varied difficulty, provides
enough information to the player so that the game can be completed. Nothing is
unbeatable in a video game, it simply requires either skill or correct information to
complete it: "it is necessary to progressively supply him with the requisite help needed
to get past the obstacles without losing interest in the game" (Natkin 45). Events of
syllogisms draw the player through a narrative of gameplay, while the story generates
meaning for the player's participation in the procedural syllogism.
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Immersion in the RPG Genre
"One of the most basic qualities of a game," says Natkin, "is the sensation of immersion
felt by the player, which should impel him to use his controller for many long hours"
(40-1). Immersion in an RPG is difficult to determine, but it relies on appealing game
rules, the illusion of narrative control for the player and real narrative control from the
video game, and game perception. These factors are manipulated to immerse the players
in the video games. Video games create large spaces outside of reality which the player
explores; gameplay is the most defining feature that separates video gaming from the
transmissions of, say, cinema and writing. Funnelling the player through a story without
the player engaging in the fiction risks the video game becoming inaccessible as a
game; likewise, forcing the player to perform repetitive actions without context can
become equal tedious. RPGs have the added duty of representing a world the player
wants to engage with while being a piece of entertainment. Filling the virtual world with
tasks that are hopefully interesting for the player to complete engages the player.
Helping an alien find a lost relic (Mass Effect 3) or preventing a man from beating a
prostitute (Deus Ex) are not essential for the completion of the main story, but are
essential in giving the virtual world vibrancy, perceived as a 'living' world. If we are to
understand immersion in an RPG, we must understand what kind of gameplay
undertaken during play that makes the player want to be a part of the narrative.
Ryan's classification of ludus and paidia games provides two types of play that
comfortably outline the types of play that occur in video games. Using the distinction
made by French sociologist Roger Caillion, Ryan differentiates between the two:
The best example of paidia games is building imaginary scenarios with toys [...] These
games do not aim at a specific goal, and they do not lead to losing or winning. The
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pleasures of paidia reside in the free play of imagination [...] If there are rules, they are
spontaneously created by the participants [...] Ludus games, by contrast, are strictly
controlled by pre-existing rules accepted by the participants as part of a basic game
contract, they lead to clearly defined states of winning or losing, and their pleasure resides
in the thrill of competition and in the satisfaction of solving problems.
Ryan, "From Narrative Games to Playable Stories: Toward a Poetics of Interactive
Narrative" 45-6
A paidia video game in this sense is impossible: the rules of a video game are
controlled by the program and are unavoidable. However, the focus on imaginative play
is important for the RPG genre, as the player should engage with the fantasy; for science
fiction RPGs, this also involves an imaginative acceptance of fictional elements that
have a based in reality. Ludic qualities are far more common in video games. Preexisting rules, not just of programming code but of game genres like RPGs and FPSs,
are the foundation from which narrative structure is derived; the syllogisms of Final
Fantasy VI, for example, only exist within the game's rules. Once the game rules are in
place (like those of the RPG genre) the narrative will form around it. The problem with
ludic games in regards to immersion is allowing the player to learn the video game's
rules while engaging in the story.
A RPG that can immerse and direct the player without disturbing the player's
interaction with the narrative is an ideal ludic game. Deus Ex integrates transhumanist
themes into its narrative and its HUD, making qualities of gameplay part of the overall
story (Figure 3.1). What the player sees on the screen is what the PC, J.C. Denton, sees:
the reality of the virtual world. Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 reach for immersion through
imitation, emulating social human interactions with romance subplots and character
specific quests. Final Fantasy VI, the oldest of these games, relies on its engrossing
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narrative arcs to convince players to keep playing through the repetitive gameplay.
Immersion is disparate from visual realism: while video games are "played along
graphical logics," the playable media is not entirely graphical (Wardrip-Fruin 235-6).
Technologically advanced computer graphics help the player acclimatise into a game
but the player will always be aware that the world he is playing in is virtual regardless
of its graphics. If video games relied solely on visual realism for immersion, it would be
unobtainable. Deus Ex is visually unattractive in comparison to Mass Effect (mostly due
to technological differences between the years they were produced), but the gameplay
and narrative in both are strong; Final Fantasy VI was developed for the Super
Nintendo which could not render three dimensional graphics at all, instead creatively
using two dimensional graphics. Immersion does not need realism, but to hold the
player's attention so that the narrative is transmitted as wholly as possible.
If the narrative and gameplay are operating harmoniously the player will naturally
want to keep playing. This is good for the game as an entertainment product and as a
piece of media. More importantly, it holds the player's attention while transmitting a
story containing themes and ideas. The theme of transhumanism is completely
understood in Deus Ex because the narrative and the gameplay represent and embody
the theme. Loyalty from the player's squad mates in Mass Effect 2 is an important factor
in completing the game, so much so that the player's success or failure depends on the
crew's temperament prior to the final mission: it becomes an immersive activity because
the player's success relies upon investing playtime in Commander Shepard's squad
mates. While having no impact on gameplay, Romance across Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 is
immersive and, with the loyalty missions in Mass Effect 2, is required to construct
accurate representations of social interaction. RPGs commonly require the player to
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invest large amounts of time in a large narrative arc, and a meaningful transmission of
thematic content needs immersive techniques to succeed.
Transhumanism in the Story and the HUD in Deus Ex
Transhumanism, sometimes known as H+, is the belief that humanity is able to
artificially advance itself using technological advancement to overcome the faults of the
human body and mind, and "some transhumanists hope to rework reality in accordance
with a vision - played out in video games - of a fantastic realm of imagination" (Geraci
736). It is the belief that humans will, at some stage, be able to remake themselves and
many contemporary examples of transhumanism exist: South African sprint runner
Oscar Pistorius, who has double below the knee amputations, completed at the 2012
Summer Olympics using prosthetic legs, and cochlear implants can renew hearing in the
deaf or hearing impaired. There is an alluring application for transhumanism in both
video game narratives and video games themselves to explore the concept of a
transhuman society. The video game can be seen as a window into transhumanist
fantasies, as "almost every virtual world is, by definition, an opportunity to transcend
our biological limits" (736). They are not inherently transhumanist, but transhumanism
infers its own meaning from video games: they share the same expression of power in a
virtual environment, like the extra life which teaches the player not to repeat a mistake
or the boon of immortality, experiences alien to humans in reality (Pacotti, qtd. in
Geraci 740). Deus Ex explores such a society, and the ethics of artificial changes to the
human body: it is a game about transhumanism.
The manifestation of these ideas is important for the player's immersion: if the
player is not immersed, the transmission of the ideas is compromised. Dialogue writer
for Deus Ex, Pacotti, stated the game's freedom of character customisation and
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gameplay, along with its narrative, is "a preview of the godlike powers of creation we
will all have when the human-machine language progresses beyond crude signs to a true
language of choice and customization” (2). Apart from arguing the possibility of such a
reality, the vast and blatant transhumanist themes at play in the world of Deus Ex
definitely do preview the potentials of such a reality. There is an inconsistency between
the intention to preview such a reality and what actually occurs in both the gameplay
and narrative of Deus Ex. Within the narrative, the player is provided a seemingly
branched narrative in which dialogue options are chosen, like in Mass Effect, but this
does not provide as much freedom as it might appear.
Figure 3.2 Branched narrative structure
A typical branched narrative has an origin point, and divides depending on the
choices made, resulting in multiple endings (Figure 3.2). In Deus Ex, the player is
always at the writer's whims, unable to affect the largest narrative outcomes in the
game: the three set endings. Branched narrative does not exist in Deus Ex, not in a
traditional sense. The narrative structure is closer in form to a rich 'string of pearls'
model (Figure 3.3), one that has the false illusion of choice while following a linear
path: "within each pearl (or microworld) there is plenty of choice, but on the level of the
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string there is no choice at all (Aarseth, "Quest Games as Post-Narrative Discourse
367).
Figure 3.3 String of Pearls narrative structure.
However, because of the player's affect on narrative content that is not part of any
fixed narrative event, the string of pearl structure does not completely fit Deus Ex. A
better fit is a hybrid structure between the string of pearls and branched narrative
structures. There is a predetermined linearity to the story (string) with sections that
allow choices to be made (pearl), but the choices made in those sections carries on into
other sections (pearls), branching the narrative out. The entire narrative branches back
into itself during fixed narrative points, and separates into three final strings at the end
of the game. Instead of typical branches there are multiple versions of the same story
line, leading to fixed events that have been slightly modified by the players choice: a
multi-linear narrative. The result is the following basic lattice of pearls structure (Figure
3.4) which expands out from the beginning of the narrative and once narrative subplots
have been resolved, contracts back to one linear path for a conclusion, or a choice of
three endings in the case of Deus Ex. Originating from the start of the story, small
player choices made create alternative versions of the same story; the vertically aligned
pearls connected by the dotted lines are sections that are identical until the player's
choices have impacted to create alternatives. Deus Ex and Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 all use
this lattice of pearls structure, the difference being the complexity of their respective
narratives; Final Fantasy VI is, however, almost completely linear.
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Ending 1
Start
Ending 2
Ending 3
Figure 3.4 Lattice of Pearls narrative structure with multiple endings.
Pacotti's preview of a transhuman society is undercut by the restriction on
narrative choice and is restrained to the narrative itself, unable to flourish under the
player's navigation of the text which would, if it had happened, been closer to allowing
"the player to drive meaningful developments in the game world" (1). Deus Ex is ludic
for all intents, unable to reach a paidia game status of player control. Navigating in a
lattice of pearls structure does enable the player to make selective choices about smaller
details. In one instances, J.C. Denton (the player) can either protect his brother Paul or
run away from MJ-12 agents who wish to capture the brothers. The fixed event, being
captured by MJ-12, is unavoidable regardless of the player's skill but the player's choice
regarding Paul results in his death or his survival if whether the player stays to protect
him or flees. Paul's survival opens additional dialogue later in the story when J.C.
Denton reunites with him in Hong Kong and during the final mission at Area 51, where
Paul discusses the three available uses for Area 51: coincidently, these three choices for
J.C. Denton are also the three endings the player has to choose.
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Gameplay in Deus Ex far outshines narrative choice as a function for transmitting
themes. During gameplay, the player can find 'augmentation canisters,' upgrades to J.C.
Denton's body that allow him to perform acts beyond that of a normal human (Figure
3.5). The player also accumulates skill points which are spent on upgrading weapon,
medical, swimming skills to name a few (Figure 3.6): all this variation provides a real
branched narrative for the player's personal modifications of J.C. Denton. It is the heads
up display (HUD) and the first person perspective that really encapsulate the
transhumanist themes Pacotti is so invested in when trying to portray an "Age of
Fashion, in all senses of the word" (2). With exception to dialogue cut-scenes, which are
similar to those in Mass Effect, the player always views the world through the eyes of
J.C. Denton, an artificially engineered human. The HUD is not a simple game mechanic
to display the player's ammo and health in Deus Ex, like it would be in FPS games like
Doom or Quake: it is what Denton actually sees. The player is not playing as Denton,
they are inhabiting Denton, becoming him. If Figure 3.1 is considered this way, the
multiple panels of information are not just for gameplay purposes, they have narrative
context by being what J.C. sees as he enters a fight or explores his surroundings (Figure
3.7). The transhumanist themes are a part of the player's inheritance upon entering the
role of a character, as the character becomes a conduit between the narrative and the
player: "the user cannot carry over her or his identity, because to become part of the
narrative textuality means to be born again in the fictional world, and to be confronted
by its ethics and politics" (Maietti 100).
Given that the lattice of pearl structure is an illusion of narrative freedom devised
by a writer/developer, any transhumanist idea that could be represented by narrative
choices is compromised because the player's choice is restrained. That does not mean
the choices are not important or are wasted: they are made in a virtual world where
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certain constraints must be followed. Gameplay still remains a more useful narrative
and immersive tool for conveying intended themes since the implication that the player
is J.C. Denton is enough to convey the possible future of transhumanism, engaging "an
extension of our own consciousness" (Murray , Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of
Narrative in Cyberspace 99) while immersed in the gameplay. What remains is whether
that idea is transmitted in a way that the player understands. Deus Ex needs narrative
choice to compliment the gameplay function of 'being' the character because simply
being the character without some narrative context can cloud the transmission of
meaning. The narrative of Deus Ex, the setting and tone, give context to the
transhumanism portrayed in the gameplay. Understanding the transhumanist themes
requires comprehending the dystopian cyberpunk setting, which is done by exploring
the virtual world and interacting with NPCs. This returns to the idea of procedural
rhetoric, the rhetoric practise of using procedural figures, forms, and genres of
programming persuasively: Deus Ex, and other RPGs, make arguments "made not
through the construction of words or images, but through the authorship of rules of
behaviour, the construction of dynamic models. In computation, those rules are authored
in code, through the practise of programming" (Bogost 29).
It is important to remember that Bogost's proposal for a new domain of rhetoric
stems from a similar argument amongst ludologists, that current studies such as in film
or literature are inadequately prepared to account for video games. Procedural rhetoric
arises from the need for an adequate rhetoric domain that reflects the intricacies of
computational artefacts, especially for video games which "are among the most
procedural of computational artefact [...] video games tend to run more code, and also
do more with code" (44). These proposals from Bogost are extremely valid and also
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applicable to previous domains, providing literature studies with a more useful tool than
what has already existed.
"Deus Ex mounts a procedural rhetoric of moral uncertainty" which demands
multiple play throughs to accommodate multiple moral paths, as opposed to other
games which project only one perspective and attempt to enforce a certain rhetoric
(Bogost 286). Pacotti and lead designers Warren Spector and Harvey Smith use
transhumanism to not only make Deus Ex philosophically interesting for the player, but
to allow the player to explore the morality of such a world: they are not afraid to frame
transhumanist discourse in a negative light. In fact, most of the game contextualises its
ideas within governmental conspiracies that have global consequences, exposing the
motives and logic of both governmental and nongovernmental agents to the player's
scrutiny. The player's scrutiny is exceptional in the medium, as the player is a part of the
narrative. This level of discourse between video game and player that grants greater
immersion for the player.
Gameplay choice is as restrictive as narrative choice in Deus Ex, because if there
were no restrictions, it would be a paidia game or not a game at all. RPGs are closer to
ludic than paidia games, so a lack of structure and restriction would hamper the
transmission of ideas. That is not to say that role playing games cannot be paidia games,
especially when the creative and expressive possibilities of tabletop RPGs like
Dungeons & Dragons are considered, but that roleplaying video games are considerably
more restrictive and designed in comparison. When the player approaches the NSF base
of operation in Hell's Kitchen, NY, numerous tactics can be used to approach the
objective: climb roofs, navigate booby-trapped alleyways, or traverse the sewers. Does
the player capitalise on trained skills, augmentations, or weaponry? Like the lattice of
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pearls narrative model which expands then contracts across a linear path, the gameplay
in Deus Ex has only one objective in this section: travel from point A to point B. How
the player gets to the objective depends on the player's ability to navigate the virtual
world. Linearity does not hold negative connotation in regards to Deus Ex because the
immersion is not affected by constraints on directions and narrative choice, but
supported and enhanced by the very sophisticated ethical doubt expressed in the game.
For example, some NPCs will chastise the player for using tactic that might be deemed
reckless: if the player does not act with care during a bomb threat in Battery Park
subway station and compromises the safety of civilians just to neutralise a group of
terrorists, Paul Denton later reprimands J.C. Denton. The player's collective narrative
and gameplay decisions within the establish constraints of the video game creates an
immersive experience that explores the morality of transhumanism in Deus Ex while
exploring an engaging virtual world.
Character Interactions, Inconsistencies and Immersion in Mass Effect 1, 2,
and 3
Juul is keen to point out the simplification of player actions when engaging complex
themes in video games:
Games resist many of the more complex themes we can imagine, such as love, ambition,
and social conflict, because they are not implemented in the rules. When games are actually
about these things, the actions that the player can perform are often simple, but the
'complex' events in the game are only present in the fictional world, or happen as a result of
the player's simple actions [...] This shows that the technical issue of what is readily
implemented in rules and/or programming influences the content of the fictional worlds of
the video game.
189
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There is a technical issue when implementing the fictional content of a video
game, but it is not as challenging as Juul postulates. The rules can be designed, or
programmed, alongside the script, or even after the script has been written. Mass Effect
2 premise centres the entire game on a 'suicide mission:' Commander Shepard is tasked
with stopping the Collectors, an alien race that harvests human colonies all over the
galaxy, who live deep in the galactic core. The success of the suicide mission is relative
to the completion of certain condition, such as the space ship's capabilities, researched
technologies and information and most importantly the loyalty of the crew. Each team
members loyalty is quantified as an unlockable power: each character is made 'loyal' by
completing an corresponding side quest (Figure 3.8 & 3.9). Here, the supporting
character development has a direct causal link to the potential of the suicide mission: if
the player has not invested time into completing each character's respective mission,
that character has a great chance of dying during the suicide mission. The worst possible
outcome is that player will die, fail the mission and the game; the best outcome is the
completion of the final mission without a single character death. Other factors affect the
mission, such as upgrading weapons and improving the Normandy (Shepard's space
ship), but the game's dependency on character development is the most substantial
variable in the narrative.
Murray has found two common important structures between games and stories as
she ponders "the story-rich new gaming formats": contest and puzzle. Contest "is a
structure of human experience[...] a cognitive structure that may have evolved as a
survival mechanism in the original struggle of predator and prey in the primeval world,"
and Murray states that "games take this form, enacting this core experience; stories
dramatize and narrate this experience" (Murray, "From Game-Story to Cyberdrama" 2).
Puzzles can "be seen as a contest between the reader/player and the author/game38 | P a g e
designer." Her issue is that it is easier to discuss a puzzle-contest rather than a gamestory, as all games and stories contain some elements of contest and puzzle. The
question of "which comes first, the story or the game?" (3) is the root of this concern,
and Murray sides with the core human activity of storytelling before games. In Mass
Effect 2, and other games with role playing activities, game and stories can and do occur
simultaneously. Loyalty missions engage the player in an optional narrative tangent,
exploring each team member's character development with the game as a canvas for
action: a team member's issues become Shepard's issues, and it is the player's task to
resolve them. Jørgensen's game character analysis of Dragon Age :Origins and Mass
Effect 2 explains that this narrative focus is extremely useful, that "by equipping
supporting characters with agendas of their own, the games have allowed a coherent
narrative experience that is dependent on the motivations of supporting characters
instead of that of the player character" (315). Of course, Murray is talking more about
"story-rich new gaming formats" with a wider scope. Stories are the reason RPGs are
played; the game is the ideal medium of transmission. The question of whether it is the
developer's intention to create a video game with a narrative or a narrative in video
game form is not of great concern. What is of concern is that these RPGs, these gamestories or story-games, are evaluated as to how they negotiate being both things at once,
how they transmit narratives via gameplay and how they give gameplay context via
narrative.
Juul and Murray premises are not in conflict. Juul claims that there is resistance to
more complex themes but not that it is an impossibility, and Murray is very eager to
champion the overlapping of game and story than proliferate them as opposing
dichotomies. This is not to say that Juul is wrong when he states that complex themes
are implemented with simple player actions, because coding does not readily facilitate
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such social complexities. This in known as emergent gameplay: using simple gameplay
actions to communicate complicated themes. Leniency can be made in regards to what
can be readily implemented in programming if the narrative is reinforcing key elements
of gameplay. Mass Effect 2, more than 1 & 3, creates a causal link between narrative
justification and character development to gameplay; that is, there is an increase in what
is readily implemented in the rules and/or programming of the Mass Effect world's
fictional content.
Murray makes the argument for better cyberdrama, new emerging narratives of
the 21st Century that engage the digital medium, stories that "offer the interactor an
opportunity to have many adventures" (Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of
Narrative in Cybertext 204). Her primary example of fully realised cyberdrama is that
of the holodeck, a device from Star Trek: Voyager: a holographic virtual reality suite in
which the participant(s) becomes the character of a well-known tale, such as Hamlet,
and explores the world of the novel and interacts with the characters (15). The holodeck,
a fully realised and immersive virtual reality, is the epitome of simulation: an
environment that perfectly mimics reality, but is not reality. The romantic narrative
tangents in Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 move towards Murray's cyberdrama ideal, but the
execution of these romantic tangents support Juul's position that only emergent
gameplay can accommodate complex social themes like romance. The player simply
chooses ideal conversation options that direct Commander Shepard to pursue a
character's affection, and into a romantic subplot. RPGs are able to take simple interface
actions from a keyboard/mouse or controller and translate gameplay into narrative
meaning, and the implementation of romance in RPGs signals the integration of
cyberdramatic aspects into gameplay.
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The player has the option to romance a number of crew mates in each instalment
of the video game which opens up new dialogue options during gameplay, and
throughout the trilogy if the player has enabled the backwards compatibility function.
The relationships in Mass Effect are diverse, including heterosexual, homosexual,
bisexual, and interspecies options, however they have no impact on the gameplay
beyond offering optional unique dialogue and cut-scenes (Figure 3.10). Across all three
games there are a total of twenty three possible romantic events from fifteen crew mates
that can occur and out of the fifteen romantic possibilities, thirteen of them are recurring
characters at some point and four are non-human (Figure 3.11). Liara T'Soni, an alien
crew member, is a romantic option across all three games for a male or female player;
Kaidan, a human crew member, is romantically available in 1 for a female PC and in 3
for the male or female PC of Shepard.
If gameplay was the only thing of importance, there would be no reason to have
any romantic subplots. The impact these seemingly aesthetic narrative options have on
gameplay is less tangible than the impact the loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2 have. The
romantic options provide an imitation of social interactions that reflect a movement in
the RPG genre towards simulations of social interactions. The diversity of these
relationships is expressed through differing narrative content different for each possible
pursuit: a relationship with Garrus is different to one with Liara or Kaiden, for example.
Gameplay elements are involved in the romantic pursuit of another character, facilitated
by the dialogue options, but it the romantic subplot is not the intention but an addition to
the video game. A comprehensive simulation would have a near perfect mimicry of
reality, both temporally and spatially, and for the romantic plots to be the game's main
attraction; here romantic tangents are narrative traits designed to enhance the narrative
experience.
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When a video game involved a large amount of play time to complete,
encouraging the player to invest time developing an empathetic connection with
characters and events can consistently renew the player's urge to keep playing. The very
bold space opera of Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3, with all its intricacies, is one facet of
immersion. It is entirely possible to play each Mass Effect game without engaging in the
world, but the full role playing experience would be compromised: the most favourable
player experience would be sacrificed if the trilogy was played in ignorance of
narrative. Imitating social interactions with narrative gameplay procedures is an
immersion technique to involve the player in the life of a seemingly vibrant virtual
world. Choices in Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 have no meaning without their narrative
context. Loyalty missions have context in that the player can lose the game if the crew
is not prepared for the suicide mission. It is harder to justify the romance subplots as
essential to gameplay, but they offer a less tangible benefit by providing an option, a
choice, that does not necessarily have to be made but that can be made. Film, television,
and written books can only depict a relationships but in Mass Effect relationships are
determined by the player; the developer has programmed into the video game a way for
the player to exert some authorial decisions. When a game demands large investments
of time, drawing players into regular interactions with a cast of characters immerses the
players in the world and maintains gameplay.
Social interactions in RPGs contribute to "a player's comprehension of temporal
situations in games"(Nitsche 146), an awareness of time and space. Nitsche is
concerned with collating and constructing an understanding of the role time has in video
game, specifically the narrative portrayal of video game time and the time surrounding
player actions. There is no explicit control over time for the Mass Effect player, but the
player is exposed to temporal events: all romantic pursuits are time based and require
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the player to continually return to an available romantic interest to develop and sustain
that narrative tangent. However, the Mass Effect games (and this is a problem for other
RPGs) suffer from temporal and spatial flaws. Time is not consistent in the Mass Effect
universe, with some events, such as romance subplots and character encounters, are
time sensitive and require the player to revisit locations frequently whereas most fixed
narrative events are free from the restraint of time: that is, the player has no urgency to
progress onto these fixed events. Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 place great narrative emphasis
on the final missions being an emergency, a crisis that must be dealt with in haste, but
there is no restriction during the gameplay to enforce this urgency. Chasing the Mass
Effect 1 antagonist Saren to the planet Ilos is framed as a time sensitive event even
though the player can proceed with any number of remaining side-missions prior to
commencing the mission. Logic would assume the player must quickly chase down the
culprit before he enacts his evil plan, but the final mission scenario in all three Mass
Effect games is just a signal to the player that after its completion, the game will end.
There are similar spatial issues in RPGs: in a genre where player agency is given
flexibility, there is a pseudo-space completely disconnected to the player. The Citadel, a
massive central space station inhabited by all alien races, features in each game yet
restricts the player to certain areas: A player cannot, for instance, wander freely on this
colossal space station; this is a programming decision to reduce strain of computer
systems and a design decision to limit the player's travelling to a pre-determined path.
Temporal and spatial inconsistencies are sometimes unavoidable; there just might not be
enough time or budget to develop fully explorable locations, or it just might not be that
important. The player does not have to be overly concerned about this since they
already have a fully established world to explore with a vibrant and dynamic cast of
characters to maintain interest in gameplay. Immersion is not so much about narrative as
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it is about being attractive to the player: narrative, characters, gameplay, and the virtual
environment all contribute.
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The Player's Agency
Here is a simple concept: a script, which provides some of the content for a story, is
picked up by a director of theatre or maybe film who then applies his own vision to
complete the story. Interpretation is quite varied when translating a script to a medium,
and becomes even more varied once actors are introduced to bring the work, and
director's vision, to life. Players create new narrative objects within predetermined
narrative and game structures, using the interface and information provided by the
game. The agency granted to the player is control over a portion of the game. The
player's agency, in terms of narrative, has another, more interesting purpose: to create
new, smaller narrative bits inside the established narrative. Travel from point A to point
B is a narrative progression which the player has almost complete control over.
"The difficulty of gameplay with respect to the traditional narrative concept of the
dramatic arc lies in the loss of authorial control over the details of progression," and
while there are tactics in the game design metric that allow a level of authorial intent,
they become problematic an interactive narrative (Bizzocchi 7). This returns to the idea
of micro-narrative: Bizzocchi identifies 'micro-narratives,' "smaller individual moments
of play [...] the gameplay itself is an instantiation of the narrative development phase,
and intermediate successes and failures act as interim resolutions and localized
climaxes" (7). Micro-narrative for Bizzocchi is a section that contributes to the overall
narrative arc: each pearl of the lattice of pearls model (Figure 3.4) contains micronarrative events. Little narrative events that contribute to the player's experience in the
game world, creating a more dynamic game world. These moments signal the blurring
of distinction between game and narrative and "In moments of micro-narrative
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engagement within an immersive gameplay experience, we are engaged in praxis - the
story as enacted" (8).
Praxis is a far more efficient term for what is being proposed here. Micronarrative is not small enough; it is certainly an important part of the player's experience,
but it can be engineered. The story as enacted has no size constraint, but this praxis,
which I shall call narrative praxis, is the narrative derived directly from a player's
actions: from jumping, running, picking up objects, killing enemies in a certain way.
Narrative praxis is the narrative that come from the player's use of the game's interface
to perform an action, it is small, unnoticed, and unavoidably present in all games, and is
defined by the scope of control the interface endows to the player. I have placed this
concept at the end of my thesis because it relies on an understanding of how narrative
emerges in a video game: the extent of narrative praxis in a video game depends on the
content of the video game itself. Narrative rules and fiction establishes a base on which
immersion is built, and both lead to an understanding of the player's authority in a video
game; that is, once the relationship of rules and fiction and the operation of immersion
is understood, the player's agency can be understood.
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Game
Narrative
Output Interface
(screen, audio,
controller vibration)
Meaning/Purpose
Video game
Player
Enjoyment/Understanding
Game Rules
Input Interface
(keyboard/mouse,
controller)
Figure 4.1 The relationship between the player and the video game.
This diagram demonstrates the interaction between the player and the video game.
Using an input interface, such as a typical keyboard/mouse arrangement or a game
controller, the player expresses agency over the video game. The extent of this agency is
defined by the rules of the game, which includes programmed rules and success
parameters, such as a physics engine that allows a model to move in a 3D environment.
Rules are given context by the narrative, which includes the spatial narrative and
character development: the galaxy database in Mass Effect illustrates a history that fills
out the virtual world; the interactions between the Deus Ex cast provide social and
personal motives for action. Rules and narrative come together making to final product,
the video game that in turn is given meaning and purpose by the player's participation as
both player and author of meaning. Bizzocchi and Grant make this participation a
prime difference between the narrative of video games and that of other media:
game designers have considerably less control over what happens in a game [...] an author's
power to select events can determine whether there is an 'up' or 'down' ending for the
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protagonist character in the narrative, but in a game, player agency has significant effect on
the outcome.
7
Without players, games obviously have no purpose as a form of entertainment. To
implant this purpose, that is, to make the player play the game, there must be an
enjoyable acquisition of knowledge and understanding that comes from playing the
game. An understanding of how the game works via the input interface and how the
narrative works is translated by the output interface, technologies that convey an audiovisual, and in the case of vibrating controllers, a physical stimuli.
Narrative praxis occurs when the player uses the input interface to manipulate the
avatar in the virtual game world. The extent of the player's agency to create narrative
praxis depends on how comprehensive the input interface expressed control over the
video game. Ghosts 'n Goblins uses a simple control scheme: player moves left and
right, can jump, and attack. The immediate praxis in Ghosts 'n Goblins creates nearly
non-existent narratives. In Figure 2.1, the narrative generated by the player adheres
strictly to the game's narrative: to save the Princess (the game's narrative), the player
must fight off waves of enemies by exerting agency (narrative praxis). Deus Ex gives
vast agency to its player, with character customisation before and during gameplay
(Figure 1.4, 3.5, 3.6), and most importantly through exploration. Players still must
adhere to design in Deus Ex; in fact, nearly every game with a narrative will maintain
some control over the player for the sake of narrative pace. However, the large
explorable environments in Deus Ex, littered with micro-narratives, inspire and
encourage discovery. Finding an elusive path on the way to or deviating from the main
objective can be rewarding for the player ,with experience points to improve the J.C.
Denton's abilities. Using this comprehensive interface control over J.C. Denton, which
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is provided to the player intentionally by the developers, the player engages in a more
involved narrative praxis. How a player completes a mission is a large part of the Deus
Ex experience, and while it has been noted that the ultimate success of an objective is
not significantly swayed by this choice, the choice still exists and by choosing, new
narrative content is created.
This prompts another look at the Hell's Kitchen mission earlier in the game as the
player attempts to reach to NSF hideout to shut down the power. An assisting NPC
furnishes the player with a map of the area (Figure 4.2), noting that the alleyways are
booby trapped and that there are snipers patrolling the rooftops. Depending on the
approach taken, the player starts either on the ground or atop a building, and is able to
navigate freely until the mission is complete. The objective is to destroy a generator in
the NSF hideout so fellow agents can neutralise the terrorist (in essence going from
point A to B), but the journey, or the player's preferred approach, is a narrative object
itself: the perpetual narrative praxis. Players author new narrative object by engaging
with the game: in Deus Ex, new narrative objects are made by the player's choice of
direction, as to whether they traverse the roof or discover the sewer system that leads
directly under the NSF hideout.
Modern RPGs are emerging as objects defined by their explorable worlds that
invite the player to take control of a personal narrative destiny. The Elder Scrolls and
Fallout franchises from Bethesda in addition to main storyline quests contain many
side-quests and an abundance of micro-narratives to lure players into the world and into
generating personal stories. The narrative praxis in RPG games which involve other
gaming genre styles, specifically in Deus Ex and Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3 which are RPG
FPS hybrids, are more constrained as the player is given clear and definite direction in
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terms of the narrative arc. The player exerts narrative authority over individual actions,
but are constrained to the established story and rules. RPGs with both large explorable
worlds with or without constraint are limited by the game's programming; therefore, so
is the player's agency. What would happen, though, if the player's agency was not
restricted but included a game's programming? That is, what happens to the narrative
transmitted in the RPG medium when a player personally modifies a game at a
structural level?
Ultimate Agency and the Destruction of the Video game
Cheating, abusing, and modifying (commonly known as modding) in a video game
signals the destruction of the original text. Destruction occurs in different quantities
depending on what kind of changes are made. Cheating is facilitated in the coding and
intentionally left in the game by developers in most cases. A common example of
cheating is turning on God Mode during a game of Doom: the player becomes
invulnerable to attacks until the cheat in removed. Cheats remove a challenge from the
gameplay, whether it is for the player's amusement or to overcome a particular obstacle
of great difficulty. Abusing a game is a more interesting trait of player's agency: the
player abuses a flaw in the game's programming for an advantage. This is undesirable
emergence, "where players find ways to exploit the rules in ways that make the game
less enjoyable" (Juul 76) outside of the designed desirable emergence. Smith, Deus Ex
designer, gives an acute example of this kind of emergence:
Some clever players figured out that they could attach a proximity mine to the wall and hop
up onto it (because it was physically solid and therefore became a small ledge, essentially).
So then these players would attach a second mine a bit higher, hop up onto the prox mine,
reach back and remove the first proximity mine, replace it higher on the wall, hop up one
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step higher, and then repeat, thus climbing any wall in the game, escaping our carefully
predefined boundaries.
Smith
While this is undesirable emergent gameplay, the player is expressing a
comprehension of the video game's limitations and manipulating them for personal
benefit. Modifying a game is a very interesting type of agency for the player, and the
most transformative. When a player modifies a game, aspects of the game's original
design are changed: this can include aesthetically by changing the appearance of NPCs
or the virtual environment and by modifying the soundtrack to have a completely
different mood. More importantly the player has the ability to craft a new narrative
and/or a new game, using the basic gameplay structures of the original game. The
question is not whether a new piece of media has been created, but at what point does
the modification of a game destroy the original content to become a new, player-defined
game. Computer based video game software is typically more alterable due to a higher
level of user control of the personal computer, as opposed to the more secure hardware
and software of a video game console. Modification can be achieve in the fiction and
the rules, depending on the proficiency the user has with video game modification.
Aesthetic changes are common in computer RPGs: changing the skin of avatars and the
environment; building new NPC models, weapons, items or vehicles using already
present programming; changing of making new dialogue and narrative situations, and;
creating whole new areas to explore.
These kind of changes are facilitated by the rules that are present, that is, the
programming for the new content has not been modified. Changing the appearance of
the player's avatar is not a critical change because the original programming is intact,
even though the player perceives a change in the aesthetic. Due to the technological
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advancements in video game design, user modifications of a video game has become
more difficult without the assistance of developer produced editing software. Mojang's
Minecraft promotes this kind of behaviour, encouraging players to actively modify the
'skins' of the environment, player avatars, NPCs, and items. Bethesda, in The Elder
Scrolls: Oblivion for personal computers, facilitates more comprehensive user
modification by providing a program that enables users to create new game content for
the already vast video game. If, like Bethesda and Mojang, the developers allow players
to become authors of new content, the new content is facilitated and intended to be a
part of the original video game, even though the specifics of that new content is outside
the developer's control. The modification of rules is a different matter, as the user
performing such changes is engaging in behaviour that can make the program unstable,
tilted to a certain bias, or deviate greatly from the original video game's intention. With
enough deviation from the defining narrative and fictional elements of an RPG, the
intended meaning is destroyed and a new media with the same rules takes its place.
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Conclusion
My intention throughout this thesis has been to demonstrate the importance of narrative
context for gameplay in RPGs, especially in relation to the player's gaming experience. I
believe that the most ideal way to portray this significance is through an appreciation of
a variety of arguments in the field of game studies, especially those that focus on the
relationship between rules and narrative, and works that demonstrate a close study of a
video games narrative and gameplay. Tosca's work applying reader response theory by
'close reading' video games demonstrates the use of some older theories when adapted
to video games, as is the same with Huizinga's work on play theory. The relationship
between narrative and rules, and the context that they grant each other, is different for
every video game, even when following established genre functions. It is important to
recognise the player's role in a video game because of the player's control over the
media; without the player, there is no progress, no story is enacted. Without the player
as both the audience and participant, an RPG has no meaning as a piece of media: 'role
playing' will always imply that a player must inhabit a role for the narrative and
gameplay to commence and ultimately resolve itself.
A lot of video games never engage in plot devices and solely promote the rules as
the source of enjoyment. The text-based adventure genre inversely makes the story so
vital to the video game that there is little space for actual gameplay to be facilitated in
the rules; they become more like a digital-based novel, programs for telling stories with
brief moments of interaction, rather than games that tell stories. Nonetheless, neither a
focus on the rules of gameplay or the video game story should place higher value on the
other: it depends merely on what qualities are needed to realise a certain game. If Tetris
was originally programmed with a narrative arc the story would have become irrelevant
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very quickly in the face of its simple yet effective arcade puzzle gaming. If the narrative
arc was removed from games such as Deus Ex, Mass Effect, or Final Fantasy VI, they
would become soulless slogs through tedious, repetitive battles that have no meaning or
entertainment value for the player.
RPGs, requiring the player to inhabit a role in a virtual world, place narrative as a
necessity in the video game. The lattice of pearls narrative formats used in Deus Ex and
Mass Effect provide context for action to occur and motivate the player to continue
playing. Final Fantasy VI centralises its large cast of characters around the actions of a
primary antagonist to prevent the narrative from becoming confusing and the repetitive
gameplay from becoming lacklustre. Of course, ludological arguments that promote the
understanding of video games independent from established fields of research are
correct to state the importance of a rules-based approach to the study of video games,
but the player's experience with the narratives of RPGs cannot be ignored. Games are
for players, they are entertainment, so it should be natural that when discussing the
operation of a video game that the player's role is the first thing considered. Murray
wishes to "hasten to place this new compositional tool as firmly as possible in the hands
of the story-tellers" (285). I propose something different: that all members of video
game development become story-tellers in some form, not to create better cyberdrama
but to create better player experiences, worlds where the player has that great sense of
ownership over the narrative.
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Images
Figure 1.1 Mass Effect (Bioware, 2007). The first of the character customisation menus.
Figure 1.2 Mass Effect (Bioware, 2007). Aesthetic factors have no impact on gameplay beyond a player's
personal preference.
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Figure 1.3 Mass Effect (Bioware, 2007). Same as Figure 1.2.
Figure 1.4 Deus Ex (Ion Storm, 2000). Character's appearance has nothing to do with gameplay, but
choosing which skills to upgrade before the game directly impacts on gameplay.
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Figure 2.1 Ghost 'n Goblins (Capcom, 1985).
Figure 2.2 Mass Effect 3 (Bioware, 2012). In a discussion with his crew, the player determines the
conversation path for Shepard.
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Figure 2.3 Mass Effect 3 (Bioware, 2012). While it manifests differently throughout the trilogy, the
morality bar always depicts Commander Shepard's Paragon and Renegade reputation.
Figure 2.4 Mass Effect (Bioware, 2007). Shepard’s first encounter with the Rachni Queen on the planet
Noveria.
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Figure 2.5 Mass Effect 3 (Bioware, 2012). Shepard encounters the Rachni Queen again, this time
enslaved by the Reapers.
Figure 2.6 Mass Effect 3 (Bioware, 2012). The War Terminal displays collected War Assets and progress
on the War Map (not shown).
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Figure 2.7 "NPC Irony & The Sociology of an Imaginary World,” Reverse Design: Final Fantasy 6 (The
Game Design Forum, 2011). The pie chart categorizes the different varieties of NPC dialogue created by
the developers.
Figure 2.8 Final Fantasy VI (Square, 1994). NPC irony as the player is told that the town's underwater
breathing device is unavailable.
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Figure 2.9 Final Fantasy VI (Square, 1994). NPC facilitates the directions to obtain the character Gau in
the Veldt.
Figure 2.10 Final Fantasy VI (Square, 1994). Gau's shiny treasure is actually the underwater breathing
device the player needs to progress in the game.
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Figure 3.1 Deus Ex (Ion Storm, 2000). The HUD (heads up display) shows the itinerary, health, and
available augmentations as J.C. Denton would see them.
Figure 3.2 Branched narrative structure
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Figure 3.3 String of Pearls narrative structure.
Ending 1
Start
Ending 2
Ending 3
Figure 3.4 Lattice of Pearls narrative structure with multiple endings.
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Figure 3.5 Deus Ex (Ion Storm, 2000). The augmentation menu, where players upgrade J.C. Denton's
abilities by installing augmentations into his body.
Figure 3.6 Deus Ex (Ion Storm, 2000). The skills menu, where player's spend skill points to upgrade J.C.
Denton's skills, such as swimming.
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Figure 3.7 Deus Ex (Ion Storm, 2000). J.C. Denton explores the markets of Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
Figure 3.8 Mass Effect 2 (Bioware, 2010). This squad member is not loyal to the player yet, therefore the
'Reave' power is inaccessible.
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Figure 3.9 Mass Effect 2 (Bioware, 2010). The squad member is now loyal, and the 'Reave' power is
accessible in battle and can be upgraded.
Figure 3.10 Mass Effect 2 (Bioware, 2010). An optional romantic narrative between Shepard and
Garrus.
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Male PC
Female PC
Male/Female PC
Ashley
Kaidan
Liaraᵞ
Jack
Jacobs
Kelly ᵝ
Miranda
Garrusᵞ
Morinth ᵞ
Tali'Zorahᵞ
Thaneᵞ
Samara ᵞ
Ashley
Garrusᵞ
Diana Allers ᵝ
Jack
Samanthaᵟ
Kaidan ᵝ
Mass Effect
Mass Effect 2
Mass Effect 3
Miranda
Kelly ᵝ
Steveᵟ
Liara ᵞ
Tali'Zorahᵞ
ᵞInterspecies or alien relationship, ᵟHomosexual relationship, ᵝ Bisexual relationship
Figure 3.11 Romantic options with NPCs across the Mass Effect trilogy depending on player character
(PC) gender.
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Game
Narrative
Output Interface
(screen, audio,
controller vibration)
Meaning/Purpose
Video game
Player
Enjoyment/Understanding
Game Rules
Input Interface
(keyboard/mouse,
controller)
Figure 4.1 The relationship between the player and the video game.
Figure 4.2 Deus Ex (Ion Storm, 2000). This image sent to J.C. Denton details the NYC warehouse area
near Hell's Kitchen, where the NFS have set up their hideout. The hideout is identified in the picture,
along with several guards portrayed as thermal images.
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Games Cited
ARMA 2. Bohemia Interactive; Valve Corporation. 2009.
Battletoads. Rare; Nintendo. 1991.
Day Z. Dean "Rocket" Hall; Bohemia Interactive. 2012
Deus Ex. Ion Storm; Eidos Interactive. 2000.
Doom. id Software; id Software. 1993.
Final Fantasy VI. Square; Nintendo. 1994.
Ghosts 'n Goblins. Capcom; Capcom. 1985.
Mass Effect. BioWare; Electronic Arts. 2007.
Mass Effect 2. BioWare; Electronic Arts. 2010.
Mass Effect 3. BioWare; Electronic Arts. 2012.
Minecraft. Mojang; Mojang. 2009.
Quake. id Software; GL Interactive. 1996.
Tetris. Alexey Pajitnov. 1984.
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Bethesda Game Studios; 2K Games. 2006.
Tomb Raider. Core Design; Eidos Interactive. 1996.
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