Narrative in Video Games by Patrick Holleman (Research)

Narrative in Video Games - link

An essay examing the issue of studying video games through ludology and narratology, while also examing how video games are different from traditional games and mustn't be explained as being like another medium such as film or literature.

It was written by Patrick Holleman for thegamesdesignforum.com. 

Summary

• Holleman opens suggesting video games should have their own form of criticism instead of through narratology and ludology
• Narratology - the study of narrative
• Ludology - the study of rules, theories and practices common in games like chess, backgammon or hearts
• Video games are different from traditional games in these ways:

1. AI (artificial intelligence) - programming which works in the background, independent and dynamic.
2. The game 'world' - not created or operated by the player, compared with tabletop games where the players are responsible for everything, featuring AI designed by people other than the player.

• Video games are different/similar from/to traditional narratives in these ways:

1. Some narrative segments in video games are exactly like movies - the player watches without any interaction, e.g. cutscenes or cinematics, without doing anything except pausing and unpausing.
2. Video game worlds can be accessed largely at the player's discretion, unlike movies which act similar to 'guided tours' scheduled for the viewer and cannot be deviated from.

Setting 

1. The setting of the video game is the designer's "best narrative resource", e.g the Silent Hill games. It is the primary influence on both gameplay and narrative. 
2. Other mediums (movies, books, music) lack the powerlessness and trapped feeling of games like Silent Hill, as they proceed one second of a time, whereas players can be quite literally trapped in a nightmarish situation without knowing how to get out of it. 
3.  Setting, even when gameplay is standard, can be "captivating" for the player, sometimes even hiding things from the player in areas sometimes left undiscovered by players. This is different from books and films, which lack these 'secret areas'.

Character

1. Customisable characters allow the player to "control their artistic experience". Although this is sometimes purely cosmetic and has no effect on the narrative. 
2. Characters can have important narrative advantages; they are useful. Players have a practical, not just voyeuristic, relationship with these characters. 
3. The death of characters in video games can more closely replicate the real-life experience of loss than any other medium. Not only a deep emotional effect is produced, but also a second; the player needed that character in a practical sense. Their loss is felt in gameplay, not just in the narrative. 

Challenge

1. The drama and difficulty of a situation is best represented in video games, often after many restarts the player won't quickly forget the fearsome power of the enemy. 
2. Any plot rewards after completing a difficult stage appear doubly sweet for the effort

• Holleman offers his opinion on what can be done to improve video games and suggests ways narrative can be used most effectively within them

1.  More freedom and less strict linearity - "the freedom of a game world is key to its persuasiveness". 
2. Character usefulness over character customisation, until the technology is there to create more dynamic narratives rather than strict branching paths.
3. A change in the application of AI characters:

- At least moderately useful

- Mortal

- Personality

    4. The rules of challenge

- Challenge must go up and down in sync with the narrative

- Difficulty spikes must feel organic or somewhat familiar, even if sudden, rather than cheap and unfair

- Use of checkpoints and auto-saves is increased or decreased with difficulty level, instead of punishing the player unfairly by respawning them back in the easy section again

• Holleman's last point is that he thinks video games should be judged through 'video game studies' rather than old "Greco-Latin" terms like narratology and ludology, terms he thinks are unnecessary

Key Quotes

"Whether or not videogames can be art, they must nevertheless have their own form of criticism that assesses them for what they are, not what other thing they are like." 

"The study of traditional games—ludology—studies the common ideas in traditional game design, like the use of chance, how players take turns, and how the players drive the action of the game to win."

"...videogames don’t really owe as much to chance; in fact randomness in videogames can be perceived as thwarting skill and cancelling out fun."

"The player is a guest in that world, the central participant in its mechanics."

"A movie creates a fictional world that one can see and hear, but viewers are locked into a guided tour that the filmmakers have scheduled for the viewer, and viewers can never deviate from that tour."

"It is certainly possible to notice things in a book or a movie that other readers and viewers don’t notice, even if everyone is seeing the same thing. But it is not possible to venture into a secret area of a book or a movie, to have the pleasure of finding something which never even flashed before the eyes of other viewers, who are reading the same book or watching the same movie at the same time."

"Characters in a videogame have a more important narrative advantage than customization, one that mirrors reality: they are useful."

"The freedom of a game world is key to its persuasiveness..."

"Certainly, nothing in the ancient world predicted videogames; it is absurd, therefore, to use a Greco-Latin term like ludology or narratology for the study of them."