Mass Effect 2 A Case Study in the Design of Game Narrative

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on www.gabrieleferri.com

http://bst.sagepub.com/content/32/5/393.short Jim Bizzocchi and Joshua Tanenbaum

Abstract. Digital games have matured substantially as a narrative medium in the last decade. However, there is still much work to be done to more fully understand the poetics of story-based-games. Game narrative remains an important issue with significant cultural, economic and scholarly implications. In this article, we undertake a critical analysis of the design of narrative within Mass Effect 2: a game whose narrative is highly regarded in both scholarly and vernacular communities. We follow the classic humanities methodology of “close-reading”: the detailed observation, deconstruction, and analysis of a text. Our close-reading employs a critical framework from our previous work to isolate and highlight the central narrative design parameters within digital games. This framework is grounded in the scholarly discourse around games and narrative, and has been tested and revised in the process of close-reading and analyzing contemporary games. The narrative design parameters we examine are character, storyworld, narrativized interface, emotion, and plot coherence. Our analysis uses these parameters to explicate a series of design decisions for the effective creation of narrative experience in Mass Effect 2, and by extension, for game narratives in general. We also expand our previous methodology through a focused “edge-case” strategy for exploring the limits of character, action, and story in the game. Finally, we position our analysis of Mass Effect 2 within contemporary discourses of “bounded agency”, and explore how the game negotiates the tension between player-expression, and narrative inevitability to create opportunities for sophisticated narrative poetics including tragedy and sacrifice.

Blog: Narrative Mechanics in The Last of Us

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on www.gabrieleferri.com

Alex Cope published an interesting blog post on the narrative structures in The Last of Us. He writes: “By limiting what the player can do and see, it allows for a focus on the smaller details of its locales. Instead of roaming through the streets of a large city, exploring in The Last of Us takes place on a more personal level; for example, looking through the contents of a master bedroom in an abandoned home”.

Read the full post at http://gamesandimpact.org/news/blog/the-storytelling-series-narrative-mechanics-in-the-last-of-us/

Thanks to Hartmut Koenitz for sharing this in the first place.

Game: “Three Fourths Home”, a narrative game about families and adulthood

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on www.gabrieleferri.com

From the game’s website: “In her mid-20’s, Kelly has moved back into her parents’ house. Back to the flat expanse of Nebraska, that seemingly endless sea of rustling cornstalks peppered by rusty silos and rustier towns. In Three Fourths Home, players assume the role of Kelly while she is driving home during this thunderstorm. The focus of the game is its narrative, conveyed through an extended conversation Kelly has with her parents and younger brother. The player must navigate the conversation while driving through a stylized representation of rural Nebraska set against rumbling thunder and the music playing from the car’s tape deck. The narrative touches on a variety of issues affecting Kelly and her family, including disability, adulthood, familial obligation, nostalgia, and loss.”

Browse the website for the game http://www.threefourthshome.com/about/ and read Nathan Grayson’s review on Kotaku http://kotaku.com/the-game-that-made-me-realize-i-ve-let-down-my-family-1663850730