Ludic Narratology: Creating a Theory of Structure in Choice-Based Video Game Narratives

Kieran Wilson

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Ludic Narratology: Creating a Theory of Structure in Choice-Based Video Game Narratives

于Levelling Up: The Cultural Impact of Contemporary Videogames

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Kieran Wilson

Kieran Wilson
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类型:: 章节

Page Range:: 29–37

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9781848884380_005

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Many researchers in the area of literary studies fail to see the merits studying video games as a novel literary form might have. This is – in part – due to the inadequacy of the critical tools available to analyse games. Particularly, narrative theory is, for the most part, based around single-stranded linear narratives and is therefore unfit to analyse video games, notably games which feature the ludic experience of a changing narrative based on the player’s choices in game. By analysing the narrative structures of various games of this type – BioWare’s Mass Effect series, Dontnod’s Life Is Strange, and Galactic Cafe’s The Stanley Parable – a general theory of multi-stranded game narratives emerges. This theory incorporates multiple strata of narrative structure, including core scripted elements, optional scripted elements, and unscripted elements. This theory of narrative seeks to explain and resolve certain issues with analysing video games as literary texts. In particular, it engages with games with multiple endings, narrative threads, or optional content. This includes – but is not limited to – analysing how a player’s perception of character, setting, or plot changes depending upon choices made. As a theoretical by-product, it also engages with player-embodiment and immersion, as well as completionism – factors that are ubiquitous to the gaming experience. The implications of this theory are widespread and interdisciplinary. For narrative theory and literary studies, it shows that tools for analysing video games, and other new emerging modes such as hypertext fictions, still need to be developed to further our understanding of these novel forms. For game studies, it is an illustration of the applications of narratology in the field, contributing perhaps to reconciling the ‘ludology vs narratology’ debate and finding a common ground and synthesis between these two approaches to game studies.

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Levelling Up: The Cultural Impact of Contemporary Videogames

ISBN:: 9781848884380

出版社:: Brill

印刷出版日期:: 01 Jan 2016

Subjects
- Philosophy
  - General
- Social Sciences
  - Cultural Studies

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Ludic Narratology: Creating a Theory of Structure in Choice-Based Video Game Narratives

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Levelling Up: The Cultural Impact of Contemporary Videogames

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