Narrative Interactivity: Game Examples

Last week I went into detail on the four main models used when analyzing video game narrative interactivity. This week I will expand on this by using the models to categorize a popular modern game. Let's get started!

Halo: Reach

Halo: Reach is the fourth (and supposedly last) game created by Bungie in the Halo universe. Its gameplay is primarily shooting and is told from a first person perspective. Modern First Person Shooters are almost always Internal Mode and the Halo series is typically a bit Ontological, but Halo: Reach is a decidedly complex game with multiple modes of play and options, so let's break it down further.

In the game's primary storyline, or Campaign mode, you control a character with the call sign 'Noble Six' (as you are the sixth member of 'Noble Team'). This is a character with weight in the game world's story, and is not entirely a user generation. Although interestingly, the user is asked to assign the visual look of the character -- armor and gender (the developers recorded both a male and female voice for the part dependent on player choice) specifically. This definitely tilts the game towards Ontological slightly because the player's choices here decide how the character looks throughout the game.

Noble Six, armored as the player decided.

Now, there is a lot of gray zone with Ontological vs Exploratory in gaming as fully Ontological games are very rare, and many games now have at least some kind of player influence on the narrative. Many people would classify Halo: Reach as exploratory simply because the overall narrative doesn't really stray from its path. Still, I would argue Halo: Reach's campaign is slightly Ontological, with the sandbox nature of the gunfights and the player customization in mind. Campaign isn't the only component of Halo: Reach though so let's break down a couple more modes: namely Forge mode, and Theater mode.

Forge is a mode entirely based on user content, and it's designed to fully support Reach's robust multiplayer suite. In Forge mode the player is given the tools necessary to create his own worlds: walls, ramps, doorways, archways, pillars, etc. The player simply chooses one of the pre-made environments shipped with the game (called 'maps') for base terrain and he's ready to go. With full control the user is able to create limitless content and distribute it online with the rest of the world.

Here a player has reconstructed the Eiffel Tower in Forge.

A mode like this would almost always be External, but there is a problem: the player still has his created character in this mode. Instead of flying around body-less as an invisible camera, the player controls a character while he is constructing worlds. This keeps it from being External, but Forge definitely has typical External qualities.

Theater mode is the other interesting mode in the game. Remember last week when I said External/Exploratory games are basically non-existent? Well, I do believe Theater in fact falls under that category. Here's how the mode works. Basically whenever you play Halo: Reach the game is recording your gameplay. Be it in multiplayer, Campaign, Forge, anything. When you go into Theater mode in Halo: Reach it will bring up a list of your recently played footage. Let's say you pick the footage of a competitive multiplayer match you just played. When you boot up the match in Theater mode, the game recreates the match exactly as it played, like a movie (with pause/play, rewind, and fast forward options as well). Only, unlike a movie, you control the camera and can fly around in the world while you control the time. This is completely External: you don't have your character like the other modes in Reach. You are simply an external camera source. That being said, it is still Exploratory because you don't affect the events at all; they already happened. You're simply viewing them at better angles, taking pictures, saving clips, etc. Hence the name 'Theater' mode.

Theater mode enables the player to view any previously played match from
any angle, at any speed, at any time.

I hoped you like this analysis of the concepts in Marie-Laure Ryan's article, Beyond Myth and Metaphor: The Case of Narrative in Digital Media, as this is the last week I will spend on it. See you next week!


References:

Ryan, M. (2001). Beyond myth and metaphor: The case of narrative in digital media.
Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Research, 1 (Issue 1).
Retrieved from http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/ryan/