Narrative in Games

-Games often criticised as lacking in narrative.

'Narrative is not the only tool for computer game analysis in town there are other crucial aspects to successful computer games such as game playability.'

-Good narrative does not logically imply bad game playability.

Computer Games with “Characters” Have Stories

-Computer generated characters should have a minimum of five properties of (philosophical) personhood: language, autonomy, creativity, phenomenal consciousness, and reasoning capacity, and argued that since artificial autonomy is impossible, computer generated characters are impossible.

-We systematically identified a set of capabilities that characters should appear to have that would allow all of Polti’s thirty-six dramatic units to be realised (Hall, 2002). These capabilities are summarised in Figure 1.
Attributes: All attributes of character A which have an effect external to themselves in the situation should appear to have their normal effect. For example, if one character can run faster than another, the former would normally win a foot race.
Perception: A should appear to normally perceive their situation perfectly. For example, if A perceives their situation incorrectly then they are much more likely to make mistakes.
Mental state: The normal mental state for A should appear to be that their aim is to satisfy their goals, and every emotion which A has towards other agents reflects a perceived relationship. For example, if their actions do not reflect their internal goals then their behaviour would be described (in pop psychology) as madness.
Pursuit: The position of A (being in a specific situation) should appear to be normally independent of the position of other objects, and A can move freely around in and between situations. For example, most As are not continuously pursuing something.
Love: As should appear to be normally emotionally neutral towards other As, unless special circumstances have caused them to exhibit the important directed emotions of love or hate. For example, if A1 is in love with another, the former will not appreciate the latter being removed from those circumstances.
Family: A should appear to not belong to a family with all other characters, and special conditions must occur for a family to exist. For example, members of the one family happily coexisting in the same situation should not be enemies.
Friend: A should appear to be normally friends with characters that they interact with, although specific interactions can cause them to become enemies. For example, if A1 is friends with A2 but enemies with A3, A1 will not appreciate A2 being friends with A3.
Power: A should appear to normally not have power over other A, although A may often be involved in power structures where they or others have power. For example, if A1 has power over A2, A1 does not expect A2 to try to gain power over A1.
Exchange: A should appear to normally not exchange objects with other actors. Transactions of objects do occur between situations, but not always according to the wishes of the A involved.
Intention: A normally tries to produce the outcomes they desire. However there are four possible reasons for action from the point of view of actors: choice, accident, necessity, or irrelevant. Irrelevant means that the source of the deterministic cause is not important. [1]

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[1] http://gamestudies.org/0801/articles/hall_baird

What is Interactivity

-An active relationship between two things.

-The participant of 'agents' within a representational context. the 'reading of a 'text'.'

The problem.

-Vague term

-Are all media, or even experiences, by definition, interactive?

-No identification where and how interactivity takes place or of structure or context.

Iterative process.

- Radically different from the 'top-down' approach of many mainstream game titles. Helps streamline production resources and create a successful product.

Zimmerman's model of interactivity

Model 1 -Cognitive

-Psychological, emotional and intellectual participation between a person and a system.

Model 2 - Functional

-Functional and structural interactions with the material components of a system - Real or Virtual.

Model 3 - Explicit

-Interaction in the most obvious sense of the word. eg; following the rules.

-Explicit interactivity is the biggest challenge to using approaches from film and literature.

- Film theories often rely on spectatorship. Although watching and listening are important parts of digital games there is also a lot of doing, which makes games much different from films.

(A game is not a film!)

Model 4 - Beyond the object interactivity

-Interaction outside the experience of a single system.

-Fan culture that co-construct communal realities that designed systems as raw material.

-Trans medial storytelling.

Interactivity and Games

-Some of the four modes occur almost universally in human experience.

-interaction is never as simple as it appears.

-'Dice' = Designed interaction.

Interaction and Choice

-Crafting of player experience through a system of interaction is critical.

-Choice is not always obvious of rational but can be intuitive.

Choice - Complex, multilayered process that translates into a complete video game experience.

-Games represent action which players participate - Basis of choice.

Anatomy of Choice

-Concept of choice appears basic at first.

1. What happened before the player was given a choice? (Internal)

2. How is the possibility of choice conveyed to the player? (External)

3. How did the player make the choice? (Internal)

4. Result of choice? (Internal)

5. Results of choice conveyed to player. (External)

-Actions have meaningful outcomes in good design.

-Player doesn't know what to do next. (Bad design)

-Losing and not knowing why. (Bad design)

-Not knowing if action had an outcome. (Bad design)

Rise of the Video Game

-Video games as art and culture.

-Reflection of the times eg: Space race.

-Direct expression, Open source, First game to show destruction.

Ralph Baer created the first console (Brown Box)

Military and gaming industry are connected.

Atari's Pong started the video game industry. Women were better at playing it then men.

Japans game industry emerged after World War 2.

Japan were at the height of the electronics industry.

Space Invaders arcades were set up over night in Japan. Big rift in generations started to form because of this.

Pac man example of 'Japanese Weirdness'. First non violent video game with girls as the target audience. First game with a protagonist. It is also a long running game.

1983 - USAs video game industry crashed.

USSR invented Tetris. First game to use peoples 'brains'.

Games as a System

SYSTEM - A group of interacting, interrelated, or independent elements forming a complete whole.

Framing systems:

-Formal system - a formal system of rules.

-Experiential system - Either opened or closed.

Chess as a Formal System

Objects - Pieces on a board and board itself.

Attributes -   Characteristics given to objects.

Experiential System

Objects - Players themselves.

Attributes - The pieces each player controls and the current state of the game.

Cultural System

Objects - The game itself in its broadest cultural sense.

Attributes - Designed elements of the game and by whom was the game made and used.

GTAIV as a Formal System

Objects - Digital assets eg: Avatars.

Attributes - Ways of acting/moving allowed by sets of rules.

Experiential system

Objects - The player.

Attributes - The character avatar as the players attributes. The current game state.

Cultural system

Objects - The whole game of GTA IV and its location within wider culture.

Attributes - Designed elements of the game, who made them? Why? How?

Uses of framing games as systems

-Focussing on specific framings can be useful when attempting to conduct critique.

Jesper Juul's Definition Half-Real (2005)

Rules - Rules based system

Variable, quantifiable outcome.

Jesper Juul's + K. Salen, Zimmerman.

Similarities.

Rule based system.

-Player effort, Player participation.

-Quantifiable outcome.

Differences.

No mention of conflict.

Conclusions

-There is a long history of attempts to define 'play' and 'games' and separates

them.

-Definitions are constantly being renegotiated but provide framework.

Magic Circle

Magic  Circle

The term refers to the membrane that encloses virtual worlds such as First Person Shooters, Online Social Environments and MMORPGs. Edward  Castronova  notes that this membrane “can be considered a shield of sorts, protecting the fantasy world from the outside world." [1] Instead of being impassable, however, an examination of contemporary virtual worlds reveals that the magic circle is actually quite absorbent. There appears to be a relationship between virtual worlds and the outside world. Even though virtual worlds display a range of attributes that are unique to their realm, they also exhibit characteristics deriving from the outside world. Castronova uses the term "synthetic world" because a synthetic world “cannot be sealed completely; people are crossing it all the time in both directions, carrying their behavioral assumptions and attitudes with them." [2]

[1] Edward Castronova, Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2005), 147.

[1] ibid

What A Game Is

'Play' and 'game'. In English there is some difference between the two words although some variants of the same word. Play is a wide activity, only part of which is made up of games. Games can be seen as containing Play. It is a crucial component but a 'subset' of games.

Game History (David Partlett)

There are Formal and Informal games. Formal games have two components: Ends and Means.

Ends is the Objective. Means is the Rules.

John Huizinga

Play as:
-Outside Ordinary life.

-Not serious.

-Utterly absorbing.

-Not associated with material gain.

-Creates social groups that separates themselves from the outside world.

Roger Cailois

Play as:

-Free - Not obligatory.

-Separate - Limits of own time and space.

-Uncertain - Course or not determined by the player.

-Make-Believe - Accompanied by awareness of second reality.

-Unproductive - Creates neither goods or wealth.

-Governed by rules - Conventions that suspend ordinary law.

Bernard Suits

-Activity

-Voluntary

-Specific state of affairs

-Rules

-Inefficiency - The Lusory Attitude.

-Acceptance of rules.

The Lusory Attitude

A psychological attitude required of a player entering into a play of a game. To adopt a lusory attitude is to accept the arbitrary rules of a game in order to facilitate the resulting experience of play

Chris Crawford

-Representation - Closed formal system that represents subset of reality.

-Interaction - Cause and effect. Allows the audience to generate causes and observe effects.

-Conflict - Arises naturally from interaction. Pursuit of goal creates obstacles to stop easy achievement.

-Safety -Conflict implies danger. Provides psychological conflict whilst excluding physical realisations.

Greg Costikyan

-Art - Games as culture.

-Decision making players - Game requires active participation.

-Resource management - Player decisions hinge on manipulating resources.

-Game tokens - The means by which the players enact their decisions.

-Goals - A game has an objective.

Elliot Avedon & Brian Sutton

-Exercise of control systems - Games require some form of physical or intellectual activity.

- Voluntary - Freely entered.

- Contest between powers -Embodies conflict.

K.Salen & E. Zimmerman

-System - Formal, Experiential or cultural

-Players - Something one or more participants play.

-Artificial - Maintain a boundary from "Real-life".

-Conflict - Contest of powers

-Rules - Crucial part.

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[1] Edward Castronova, Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2005), 147.

[2] ibid

Game History

Game History

The first game I ever remember playing was Spyro the Dragon on the PlayStation. I loved the game because it was bright and simple, yet still managed to be challenging, even when I play it now. The two sequels that make up the original trilogy are also my childhood favourites.

Another game I remember playing was Cool Boarders 2. It was a snowboarding game. Though I'm bad at extreme sports in real life I love playing games involving them, especially games like SSX and the Tony Hawk series.

Later I began playing the Final Fantasy games. The first I played was VII which was given to me by a friend. I loved the storyline and the characters and found myself able to completely loose my self in the world that was created thanks to the amount of effort and thought the creators put into the game.

As well as Final Fantasy I also got into other RPGs such as pokemon which was incredibly popular at the time. Thanks to my friends I got into it as well and got Pokemon Red as my first ever pokemon game. I don't think I ever completed it though.

Later on when I got my PlayStation 2 I discovered the Jak and Daxter games. I loved the first one because humour and the challenging levels. I loved the designs for everything in the game but I loved the characters and vehicles the most.