Fiction and Fictional Worlds in Videogames

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies, 2014

In the last ten or fourteen years there has been a debate among the so called ludologists and narratologists in Computer Games Studies as to what is the best methodological approach for the academic study of electronic games. The aim of this paper is to propose a way out of the dilemma, suggesting that both ludology and narratology can be helpful methodologically. However, there is need for a wider theoretical perspective, that of semiotics, in which both approaches can be operative. The semiotic perspective proposed allows research in the field to focus on the similarities between games and traditional narrative forms (since they share narrativity to a greater or lesser extent) as well as on their difference (they have different degrees of interaction); it will facilitate communication among theorists if we want to understand each other when talking about games and stories, and it will lead to a better understanding of the hybrid nature of the medium of game. In this sense the present paper aims to complement Gonzalo Frasca’s reconciliatory attempt made a few years back and expand on his proposal.

Bigl, B. & Stoppe, S. (Eds.) Playing with Virtuality. Theories and Methods of Computer Game Studies, pp. 53-64., 2013

The proposed chapter is focused on the creation of video games fictional worlds from an integrative perspective of narratology and ludology. In addressing as premise the Leibniz’s Possible Worlds Theory -which has also been successfully applied to the literary field by Eco, Dolezel, Albadalejo and Laure Ryan-, we will study the predesigned possible worlds structure of video games worlds. According to the Possible Worlds theory, the actual world can be considered to be one of the many possible worlds and considering some rules of accessibility (for instance, the principle of non-contradiction) the actual world may change to another possible world. Structuralism has applied this theory regarding to the relationship between fictional and real world and, in this chapter, we will used it close to other perspectives like Ludology (Aartseth, Eskelinen, Juul, Frasca), Semiotics (Greimas, Eco, Ruiz Collantes) and Narratology (Genette, Soriau, Murray, Laurel and, specially, the “narration as game space” Henry Jenkin’s proposal). Thus from the modal-logical operators of possibility and necessity, different game experiences are built. In some games, the experience is focused on possibility (walking in Skyrim, driving in GTA IV) and, in other cases, video games are essentially goal-oriented (some “needed” possible worlds are required). For which reason, this chapter would focus on the Possible Worlds Theory to explain how video games are built (game design) and received (game experience via game play) through the following model: The designer proposes a specific reference world from the “objective reality” and other ideological and social possible worlds that configures his “enciclopaedia” (Eco). In this "axiological level" lays the principles and values (propositions, existens, properties) that must be transmitted and translated into a "surface level" by (a) game rules (' player must do', 'play can do') and (b) aesthetic and discursive structures (for instance, Greima’s actancial model). The combination of both blocks generates the play space (game world or diégèse), an interactive system where the ludic nonlinear possibilities allow the player to "rebuild" the world of reference and generate specific possible worlds. The ordenation and explicitation of these worlds by the player generates narrative experiences. The ontological articulation of these worlds can be conceived with the application of Lewis’s “indexical term”, which appoints an actual world in relation to all other possible worlds considering our existence in it. In its translation to video games, the indexical term establishes the position of the main character (for instance, the player’s avatar) in the “possible worlds” framework: the game level determines the current (actual) gaming world. The correlation between actual world, possibility and necessity makes possible to analise the game from its macrostructure (what kind of worlds arise from permuting these 3 categories?), but also from its microstructure (what possible worlds may configurate the characters’s psychology and which ones affect the video game interactivity system?). Therefore, this chapter proposes a two level methodological analysis: macro (the possible worlds system considering the possibility, the necessity and the actual world) and micro (characters’s subworlds and their impact on game narrative).

Expanding Practices in Audiovisual Narrative, 2014

Broadly speaking, digital games can be studied in three ways: the social sciences perspective focuses on the social context of games and their players; the humanities perspective takes games as cultural artifacts, and concentrates on their meaning as well as ways of meaning-making; and the design perspective views games as a set of design and programming problems. What distinguishes digital games from traditional ones like chess is their greater emphasis on representational and narrative elements. From the humanities perspective this raises a number of questions. What is the scope of literary theory and narratology in the game scholar's methodological toolbox? How should computer games as objects of study be defined? In the early years of game studies these questions were at the heart of the so-called "ludology versus narratology" debate. I believe that revisiting the debate could be edifying for humanities scholars working in adjacent areas. Additionally, while contemporary research tends toward more holistic approaches, as far as I know extant accounts of how narratives and game rules are intertwined have either reduced games to non-trivial cybernetic machines or interactive semiotic matrices, restricted themselves mostly to the expressive aspects of games, or left the interrelation between rules and narratives ultimately somewhat vague. After reviewing the ludology vs. narratology debate and some of its central points of contention, I will propose a holistic account of the relationship between games and narratives. Narrative will be treated as a cognitive strategy for making sense of the game's fictional world that is created by the rules of the game via semiotic means. Instead of reducing games to other kinds of entities, it will be shown that games qua games are the source of the semiotic processes which ultimately create fictional worlds and direct the player toward a narrative interpretation of the game's signs.

"In highlighting the apparatus as the keystone for the magic circle of video gaming, we displace players—the subject of ludology—and “text”—the subject of narratology. This is not to deny the importance of players’ agency or the meanings of texts in video gaming; rather it is to reconsider these with regard to the screening of player from played inherent in the gaming apparatus. To better understand the situation of homo ludens in these more mediated play spaces, we turn to Jacques Lacan’s account of “split” subjectivity and retread it by explaining how it may well explain the operation of a magic circle spanning three dimensions of screen-play: rules (Symbolic dimension), representations (Imaginary dimension), and wares (Real dimension). In the end, we come around to the other space of Huizinga’s theory—the connections with the non-game world—to show that the value of video game play is also found beyond the apparatus, that the experience and enjoyment of video games are affected in part by social reality and, in turn, social reality is being affected by the experience and enjoyment of video games. Arriving at this point by first theorizing the video game apparatus, however, highlights matters of video game design more so than issues of audience or textual analysis. To illustrate this perspective, we conclude by defining three ways to analyze video games in terms of “realism,” proposing three types of video game realism: representational, simulative, and inverse. "

In current digital games, classic fictional worlds are transformed into ludofictional worlds, spaces rich in characters and emotions that are especially affected by the intervention of a player. In this book, we propose a model, inspired by the Semantics of Fiction and Possible Worlds, which is oriented to the analysis of video games as integrated systems

This paper (the script of my DiGRA keynote 2015 with slides) ventures some intitial steps into an unnatural narratology of videogames. It explores two core definitions of unnaturalness and argues that broad definitions of unnaturalness end in tautological paradoxes that may not yield any conclusive analytical insights. The paper showcases how a more narrow, antimimetic definition of unnaturalness may be used to study unnatural space, time and narration in literary games.

This paper reviews and synthesizes ideas in the philosophy of play and relevant psychology research in order to address videogame medium specificity, with particular focus on the notion of videogame play as simultaneously " rule-bound " and " make-believe. " It offers the sustained analogy of " trellis and vine " for provisionally sorting through the tangle (the " mess " or " assemblage ") of function and fiction in games.

In: John R. Sageng (Hrsg.): Proceedings of the Philosophy of Computer Games Conference 2009. Oslo: University of Oslo. S. 1-6., 2009

This paper is intended to serve four primary purposes: first, to show why a common argument purporting to describe why videogames are artistically valuable fails. Second, to show that the failure of that argument is actually in the best interests of the group who advocate it. Third, the subject matter of this paper will demonstrate some interesting metaphysical features of interactive artworks, and some interesting features of videogame players, that make themselves plain under close scrutiny of the medium. Finally, I intend that this paper should serve to highlight a case study of the kinds of muddles that can be avoided if some attention is paid to the ontologies of (especially new) artistic media when pronouncing on their various artistic merits. To meet these aims this paper will proceed in the following way: I will firstly lay out, in its most defensible form, the claim that part of what makes videogames artistically interesting is that the player has a creative role in the production of the work. I will then show how this claim, while not actually self-contradictory, commits us to a particular, and I will argue unwelcome, answer to what Dominic Lopes calls the ontological problem of frigidaire poetry. I will set out Lopes’ problem, as well as his proposed method for finding a solution (which I will replace with what I think is a more useful one). I will conclude that the idea that players of videogames have a uniquely creative role is neither true nor helpful.

2018

This dissertation deals with the stigma-ridden medium that is the videogame and how it relates to the highly-regarded art of literature. While there is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of videogames as major cultural artefacts of our time, they continue to be studied essentially for their behavioral effects or in terms of their ludic aspects and little else. Recently, there has been renewed interest in videogames in the academia prompted by the rapid evolution of the medium especially in its story telling function, increasingly at the core of its design purposes. However, proper examination of its narrative and literary aspects is still lacking relevant substance. Thus, this interdisciplinary research compares the narrative elements of videogames to those of another established art, literature, with the narrative fiction prototype, the novel genre in particular. The central thesis being that the story-driven or narrative videogame can be considered as part of literature for its potential as an interactive, audiovisual as well as literary storytelling medium that effectively tells book-worthy stories. The work is divided into two chapters, the first covers the major theoretical dimensions necessary for the analysis that will be carried on in the second chapter which is as a practical application of literary and narrative theory on videogame narratives, precisely that of the arguably postmodern story of Dear Esther to reach the conclusion that videogames and literature, though seemingly unrelated, are closely linked in both narrative and literariness.

NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies, 2019

Virtual and Augmented Reality systems are becoming increasingly popular in our everyday lives. Although these systems are extraordinary examples of the new role played by the human body in digital media ecologies much of the academic scholarship conducted in this area tends to interpret such phenomena from a narrativist standpoint. Such approaches often overlook the essential characteristics of non-narrative media. As a counter-strategy, we propose virtual fictionality – a concept emphasising central aspects of worldliness in VR-based works that lie beyond the narrative paradigm. The aim of the paper is to outline virtual fictionality as a particular world-making strategy of digital games that turns players into configurators.

Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Studies, 7 (1)

This article presents an ontological theory of the narrative work in order to identify the storygame (videogame with high narrativity) as a postclassical narrative phenomenon. The theory is demand-based, meaning that it perceives narrative works through the demands they set for their progression, progression demands. In the postulated ontological theory the article identifies the storygame primarily as an extrademanding narrative work: a narrative work whose progression entails input that is either strategic (constrained by indeterminacy) or time-critical (constrained by time limits). Observing that not all artifacts currently considered ‘storygames’ set strategic or time-critical progression demands leads to the suggestion that some narrative works labeled as such might be better studied, in a very classical sense, as narrative literature.

Arts, 2018

There have been misunderstandings regarding “narrative” in relation to games, in part due to the lack of a shared understanding of “narrative” and related terms. Instead, many contrasting perspectives exist, and this state of affairs is an impediment for current and future research. To address this challenge, this article moves beyond contrasting definitions, and based on a meta-analysis of foundational publications in game studies and related fields, introduces a two-dimensional mapping along the dimensions of media specificity and user agency. Media specificity describes to what extent medium affects narrative, and user agency concerns how much impact a user has on a narrative. This mapping is a way to visualize different ontological positions on “narrative” in the context of game narrative and other interactive narrative forms. This instrument can represent diverse positions simultaneously, and enables comparison between different perspectives, based on their distance from each other and alignment with the axes. A number of insights from the mapping are discussed that demonstrate the potential for this process as a basis for an improved discourse on the topic.

I argue that the theoretical debate between ludology and narratology concerning narrative in game spaces is too restrictive. Of course traditional narrative models don't fully apply, as ludology argues, but no reason exists to argue that narrative can only be formulated as it already has. Ludology has argued far too restrictive a sense of time and temporal perspective in games.