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Conference paper: “The Role of Micronarrative in the Design and Experience of Digital Games”, Jim Bizzocchi, Michael Nixon, Steve DiPaola, Natalie Funk. DiGRA 2013 Conference.

Abstract: Designing robust narrative experience in games is a complex and demanding task. The need to balance authorial control with player interactivity necessitates structurally flexible storytelling tools. One such tool is the micronarrative – an internal unit of narrative progression and coherence. This paper explicates relationships between the size, form, and experience of narrative units within electronic games. It identifies three design properties that enhance the utility and effectiveness of micronarratives within game experience: micronarratives are hierarchical, modular, and accumulative. The analysis is based on close readings of two commercial game titles, NHL 12 (Electronic Arts Canada 2012) and Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Eidos Montreal 2011).

http://www.digra.org/digital-library/publications/the-role-of-micronarrative-in-the-design-and-experience-of-digital-games/

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“Ludological Storytelling and Unique Narrative Experiences in Silent Hill Downpour”, MA Thesis by B.A. Holmquest, examines the relationship of ludology and audience agency to the narrative structure of video games, specifically by examining the ludological narratives of the games in the Silent Hill series, with a focus on the most recent entry in the franchise, Silent Hill Downpour.

PDF available at http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363456341

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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.

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“The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is unlike many other first-person adventure games you might have played. There’s no violence or combat, but rather, the story unfolds as the player explores the various environments, and discovers how certain bits and pieces work alongside other puzzles”. Its author Adrian Chmielarz says:”[The virtual world] allows the players to feel both as voyeurs and guilt-free intruders, and also forces them to build mental models of both the environment and the action. All of that results in the deeper sense of presence in the world, helping the trinity of presence, immersion and engagement.”

Read the full article here

Thanks to Ivan Girina for sharing