1stperson_hjenkins

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FIRSTPHE?SS

GameDesign sNarrativeArchitectureHenryenkinsThe relationship etweengamesand story remainsadivisivequestionamonggame ans,designers, ndscholars like.At a recentacademicGamesStudiesconference,or example, bloodfeud hreatened oerupt between }e self-proclaimedudologists, howanted o see he focusshift onto the mechanics fgameplay,and the narratologists,who were nterestedin studyinggamesalongside ther storytellingmedia.rConsider ome ecentstatementsmadeon this ssue,

Interacti 'ritysalmost he opposite fnarrative; arrative lows under thedirectionof the author,while interactivitydepends n the player or motive power.(Adams1999)There s a &rect, mmediateconflictbetween he demandsof a story and thedemandsof a game.Divergencerom a

storys path is likely to make for a lesssatisfyingstory; estrictinga player'sfreedom of action is likely to make for aless atisfyinggame. Costikyan2000,44-s3)Computer ames renot narratives....Rather the narrative tends to be isolatedlrom or evenwork against he computer-game-nessf the game. Juul f gg8)zOutsideacademicheory peopleareusuallyexcellent t making distinctionsbetweennarrative,dramaandgames. f Ithrow a ball at you I don't expectyou todrop it and wait until it starts tellingstories.Eskelinen001)

I find myselfresponding o this perspectivewith mjxedfeelings.On the one hand, understandwhat thesewriters are arguingagainst- various attempts to maptraditional narrative structures("hypertext,""lnteractiveCinema," nonlinearnarrative")onto gamesat the expense fan attention to their specificityasanemergingmodeof entertainment.Yousay narrative"to the average amerand what they are apt to imagineis somethingon the orderof a choose-your ,own

Responsey Jon McKenzieThemodelof creativityoften associated ith digitalmedia s not that of originality and uniqueness utrecombinationand multiplicity, a model hardwired tothe computer's ncannyability to copyandcombineimages, ounds, exts,and other materials rom anendless rrayofsources. ndeed,n different houghrelatedways,both &gital media and poststructuralisttheory teachus that it is impossibleo create nd studythe new without drawingat timeson formsandprocessesaken from what is alreadyaroundus. Fromthis perspective,o genre,work, or field s uniqueandself-contained:ach s a specificyet uzzy combinationof other things hat are Jremselvesiverse ndnonunique. n short,what makessomething unique"is

not somuch ts makeup but its "mix,up."Forpractical, onceptual, nd nstitutional reasons,any formation of a field of "ludology"may nevitablyinvolvearguingfor that field'suniquenessandoriginality, ts clear-cut istinction rom other fields:thus, gamesarenot narratives, ot films,not plays,etc."Yet I'm willing to gamble hat if a formal disciplineof ludology everdoesemerge, t will sooner or laterdiscoverwhat other disciplines ave earned:&scoveries re riggeredby the oddest andoldest)ofsources.

As HenryJenkinssuggests,amesare ndeednotnarratives, ot films,not plays but theyre alsonot-not-narratives, ot-not-films, ot-not-plays.Gamesshare raits with other forms of cultural production,


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Game heoriesJenkins McKenzieskelinen. l r r ' r ' . i "c . : ; i ia , :l,'.:,::,,,.,,';:::; ;,;i''*t

adventure ook,a form noted or its lifelessnessndmechanicalexposition rathe than entJ-rrallingentertainment, hematic sophistication, r charactercomplexiry.And game ndustry executives re perhapsjustly skeptical hat they havemuch to learn rom theresolutely npopular (andoften overtly antipopular)aesthetics romoted by hypertext heorists.Theapplication of film theory to gamescan seemhea',y-handedand literal-minded, often failing to recognizethe profound differencesbetweenthe two me&a. Yet,at the same ime, here s a tremendous mount thatgame designersand critics could earn through makingmeaningfulcomparisonswith other storytellingmedia.One gets id of narrativeas a framework or thinkingaboutgamesonly at ones own risk. n this short piece,hope o offer a middle-ground ositionbetween heludologistsand the narratologists , ne hat respectsheparticularity of this emergingmedium - examininggamesessas stories han as spacesipe with narrativepossibility.Let's tart at somepoints wherewe might all agree:1.Not all games ell stories.Gamesmay be an abstract,expressive,nd experiential orm, closer o musicormodern dance }ran to cinema.Someballets(TfteNutcrackeror example) ell stories,but storytelling isn't

IV.Game heories

an intrinsic or defining featureof dance.Similarly,many of my own favoritegames Tetis, BIix,Snoodaresimplegraphic games hat do not lend themselvesvery well to narrative exposition.3To understandsuchgames, e needother termsand concepts eyondnarrative, ncluding interface designand expressivemovement or starters. he ast thing we want to do sto reign n the creativeexperimentationthat needs ooccur n the earlieryearsof a medium's evelopment.2.Many games ohave narrative aspirations.Minimally, they want to tap the emotional residueofpreviousnarrativeexperiences. ften, hey dependonour familiarity with the rolesand goalsof genreentertainment o orient us to the action,and n manycases, ame designerswant to createa seriesofnarrative experiencesor the player.Given hosenarrativeaspirations,t seems easonableo suggestthat someunderstanding f how games elate onarrative s necessaryeforewe understand leaestheticsof gamedesign or the nature ofcontemporary gameculture.3. Narrativeanalysis eednot be prescriptive, ven fsome narratologists - Janet Murray is the most oft-citedexample do seem o be advocatingor gamesto pursueparticularnarrative orms.There s not one

although reducing them to any one of thesecomesat acertain cost. Jenkins rightly contends hat gamedesigners hould hereforeseek o expand he formsand processesrom which to draw rather t}'ran educethem. He s also ight to point out that someIudologists re hemselvesmuchtoo quick o reducenarrative to overly simplistic models(e.g., trictly linearstructures).Most importantiy,his explorationofspatially oriented narrative forms prorridesprovocativeapproaches o contemporary gamedesign.At the sametime, however,Jenkins'sstatedgoal to offer a "middleground"between udologistsand narratologistsremainsslanted oward the narratologica l nd ofthings. This is indicated n his essay'sitle, "GameDesignas Narrative Architecture."A more pla14u1

ludologist might haveoffereda response itled"NarrativeArchitecture as GameDesign." ohanHuizinga, after all, analyzed aw, war, poetry, andphilosophy'as"play,andacross .rverseulturaltraditions storytellinghascomplexagonistic&mensions.

Another middle ground for ludologymight be"experiencedesign," notion and practice hat runs indifferent ways rom BrendaLaurel o DonaldNormanto EricZimmerman. Experience esign efers o thegenerationand shapingof actions,emotions,andthoughts.How one operatesa kitchen appliance,akes na sophisticated cience xhibition,or becomes nmeshedin a role-plapnggame or for that matter shops n astore, eadsa novel,or visits a polling booth - all this


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GameDesign s Narrative rchitectureHenry enkinsfuture of games.The goal shouldbe to fosterdiversification fgenres,aesthetics, nd audiences,oopengamers o the broadestpossible angeofexperiences.he past ew yearshavebeenonesofenormouscreative xperimentation nd nnovationwithin the games ndustry, as might be representedbya list of some of the groundbreaking itles. TheSims,Black ndWhite,Majestic, henmue:ach epresentsprofoundly different conceptsof what makes orcompellinggameplay.A discussionof the narrativepotentials of gamesneed not imply a privileging ofstorytelling over all the other possible }ings gamescando, even f we might suggest hat if gamedesignersaregoing to tell stories, hey should tell them well. In orderto do that, gamedesigners,who aremost oftenschooledn computerscience r graphicdesign, eed obe retooled n the basicvocabulary of narrative theory.4. The experience f playing gamescanneverbe simplyreduced o the experienceof a story. Many other factorsthat have ittle or nothing to do with storytelling per secontribute to the developmentof great gamesand weneed o significantly broaden our critical vocabulary ortalking about games o dealmore fully with those othertopics.Here, he udologi sts nsistencehat gamescholars ocusmoreattention on the mechanics fgame play seems otally in order.

FIRSTPERSON5. If some games ell stories, hey are unlikely to tellt-hem n the sameways -hatother media tell stories.Storiesarenot empty content lat canbe ported fromone mediapipelineto another. One would be hard-pressed, or example,o translate the internal dialogueof Proust'sRemembrancef ThingsPast nto acompelling cinematic experience, nd the tight controlover viewer experience hat Hitchcock achieves n hissuspense ilms would be directly antithetical to theaestheticsof good game design.We must, therefore,beattentive to the particularity of gamesas a medium,specificallywhat distinguishes hem from othernarrative traditions. Yet, n order to do so requiresprecise omparisons not the mappingof old modelsonto gamesbut a testing of those models againstexistinggames o determine what features hey sharewith other media and how they differ.

Much of the writing in the ludologist tradition rsunduly polemical: hey are so busy trying to pull gamedesignersout of their "cinemaenry or define a fieldwhere no hypertext theorist dares o venture that theyare prematurely dismissing he use value of narrativefor understanding their desiredobject of study.For mymoney,a series f conceptuai lind spotsprevent hemfrom developinga full understanding of the interplaybetweennarrative and games.

First, the discussionoperateswith too narrow a

FromMarkkuEskelinen'snline ResponseFor some easonHenry Jenkinsdoesn'tdefine hecontested oncepts narratives, tories, nd games) ocentral to his argumentation.That's certainly aneffectiveway of building a middle ground (or aperiphery),but perhaps ot the most convincingone.

canbe approachedn terms of experience esign.Howare nteractionsorganizedand solicited?How doesoneevent flow into another?How does he overallexperiencehangtogether"?Although Laurel }eor2esexperience esignusing the model of fuistoteliant-heaterarguing hat it has been shapingau&ences'experience or centuries),hereare n practicean almostunlimited set of performativemodels o draw upon:sports, ituals,sagas, opular entertainments,novels,jokes, nd soon.Perhapswhat's really at stake n ludology is ess heright modeland more a sense f tone and attitude - awillingness o mix it up, to entertain many possibilities,to play with lots of different models.

Jenkinsalsomisrepresents &spute (on theusefulnessof narratology), mportant parts of which heseems o be unawareof It has ts roots both in EspenAarseth'sCybertext which dealsextensivelywith therelationshipbetween stories and games, howingelementary differences n communicative structures ofnarratives and adventuregames)and Gonzalo Frasca'sintroduction of ludologyo computer game stu&es.A


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Game heories Jenkins McKenziesketinen,: rj l i|-r PlarCe;:;;"",",.-:il,ffi;l*-'-

model of narrative,onepreoccupied ith the rulesandconventions f classicalnearstorytellingat theexpense f consideration f other kinds of narratives,not only the modernistand postmodernistexperimentation hat inspired he hlpertext theorists,but alsopopular traditions that emphasize patialexploration over causalevent chains or which seek obalance he competing demandsof narrative andspectacle.a

Second,he &scussion perateswith too Limitedanunderstan&ng of narration, focusingmore on theactivities and aspirations of the storyteller and toolittle on the process f narrativecomprehension.sThird, the discussiondealsonly with the question ofwhetherwhole games ell storiesand not whethernarrativeelementsmight enter gamesat a morelocalized evel. Finally, he discussionassumesJratnarratives must be self-contained ather thanunderstanding amesasservingsomespecificfunctions within a new transme&a storytellingenvironment. Rethinking eachof these ssuesmightlead us to a new understandingof the relationshipbetween gamesand stories.Specifically, want tointroducean important third term into this discussion- spatiality - and argue or an understanding ofgamedesigners essas storytellers and more asnarrative architects.

IV.Game heories

Spatiat tories ndEnviron entaIStoryteltingGamedesigners on't simply ell stories; hey designworlds and sculptspaces.t is no accident,or example,that game design documentshave historically beenmore nterested n issuesof leveidesign han onplotting or charactermotivation.A prehistoryof videoand computer gamesmight take us through t}eevolution of paper mazesor board games, othpreoccupiedwith the design of spaces, venwhere theyalsoprovided somenarrative context. Monopoly, forexample,may tell a narrative abouthow fortunes arewon and lost; the individual Chancecardsmay providesome story pretext for our gaining or losinga certainnumber of places; ut ultimately, what we remember sthe experienceof moving around the board and landingon someone'seal estate.Performance heorists havedescribed ole-playinggames RPGs)as a mode ofcollaborativestorytelling, but the Dungeon Mastersactivities start with designing he space thedungeon- where the players'quest will take place.Even many of the early text-basedgames, uch as Zork,whlch couldhave old a wide array of different kinds ofstories,centeredaround enablingplayers o movethrough narratively compelling spaces:Youare acingthe north sideof a white house.There s no door here,and all of t}re windows are boarded up. To the north a

discussion f the present opic,which ignores heseworks,cannot hope o breaknew ground.A few factsofcultural history wouldn't hurt either:as he oldestastragals forerunnersof dice)date back o prehistory,I'm not so sure'games it within a mucholder ra&tionof spatialstories."http://wwuetectronicbooreview.om/thead/fistperson/eskelien1

Jenkins espondsI feel a bit like Travis Bickle when I ask Eskelinen,Areyou talking to me?"For starters, don't considermyselfto be a narratologist at all.

http //www. ectro icb okreview.om/th ead/fi stperson/jeninsr2


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GameHenryDesign s Narrative rchitectureJenkins

70.7.Civilizotion. (Atari)narrow path winds tlrough tie trees."The earlyNintendo gameshavesimple narrative hooks - rescuePrincess oadstool but what gamers oundastonishingwhen they first played hem were leircomplexand imaginativegraphic realms,which weresomuch moresophisticatedhan the simplegrids thatPongor Pac-Man ad offered us a decadeearlier.When we referto such nfluential earlyworks asShigeruMiyamoto'sSuperMario Bros.as "scrollgames,"we situate hem alongsidea much older tradition ofspatialstorytelling: many Japanese crollpaintingsmap,for example, he passingof the seasons nto anunfolding space.When you adapt a film into a game, heprocessgpically involves ranslatingevents n the 6lminto environmentswitlin the game.When gamermagazineswant to describe he experienceof gameplay,they are more ikely to reproducemaps of the gameworld than to recount their narratives.6Beforewe cantalk about gamenarratives, hen, we need o talk aboutgame spaces. crossa seriesof essays,havemade hecase hat gameconsoles houldbe regardedas machinesfor generatingcompellingspaces,hat their virtualplayspacesavehelped o compensateor tle decliningplaceof tle traditional baclcyardn contemporaryboyculture,and that t}recorenarratives behind many gamescenter around the struggle o explore,map,and mastercontested pacesFullerandJenkins1994;Jenkins1998).Here, want to broaden hat discussionurtherto consider n what ways he structuring of gamespace

FIRSTPHRSON

facilitatesdifferent kinds of narrative experiences.As such,games it within a much older tradition ofspatialstories,which haveoften taken he form ofhero'sodysseys, uestmyths, or travel narratives.T hebestworks of J.R.R. olkien, ulesVerne,Homer,L.Frank Baum,or Jack London fall loosely within thistradition, asdoes, or example,he sequencenWar andPeacehat describesPierre's imlesswanderings acrossthe battlefield at Borodino.Often, suchworks exist onthe outer bordersof literature.They are much loved byreaders,o be sure, ndpassed own from onegenerationto another,but they rarely figure in thecanon of great iterary works.How often, for example,hasscienceiction beencriticized or being preoccupiedwitl-rworld-making at t}re expenseof characterpsychology r plot development?

Thesewriters seem onstandy o be pushing againstthe limits of what canbe accomplishedn a printed textand thus their works fare badly againstaestheticstandardsdefinedaroundclassicallyonstructednovels. n many cases,he characters our guidesthrough these ichly developedworlds - are strippeddown to the barebones, escriptiondisplacesexposition, nd plots fragment nto a seriesof episodesand encounters.When gamedesigners raw storyelements rom existingfilm or literary genres, ley aremost apt to tap thosegenres fantasy,adventure,scienceiction,horror,war - which aremost investedin world-makingand spatialstorytelling.Games,nturn, may more firlly realize he spatiality of thesestories, iving a muchmore mmersiveand compellingrepresentationof their narrative worlds.Anyone whodoubts that Tolstoy might haveachievedhis true callingas a game designershould reread he final segmentofWar and Peace herehe works through how a seriesofa-lternative hoicesmight have eversed he outcomeofNapoleon's ussian ampaign. he passages deadweight in the context of a novel,yet it outlines ideasthat couldbe easily ommunicatedn god-games uchas hose n theCivilizahon eries figure10.1).Don Carson,who worked asa SeniorShow Designerfor Walt Disney magineering,has argued hat gamedesigners an earn a great dealby studying techniquesof "environmentalstorytelling,"which Disneyemploys


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GameTheories> Jenkins McKenzie skel inen;,1i... t. ,r1",-*r,.,or.rl: i : ; r r : , t* r , t : L jeL i .? fr-r idi" i . i r* i

in designing musementpark attractions.Carsonexplains,

The story element s nfused nto thephysicalspacea guest walks or ridesthrough. t is the physical pace hat doesmuch of the work of conveying he storytlre designersare rytngto tell....umedonly with their own knowledgeof theworld, and those visionscollected rommoviesand books, he audiences ripe tobe dropped nto your adventure. he trickis to piay on thosememoriesandexpectations o heighten the thrill ofventuring into your createduniverse.(Carson 000)

The amusementpark attraction doesn't o muchreproduce le story of a literary work, suchas TheWindin the Willows,as t evokes ts atmosphere;he originalstory provides a set of rules that will guide the designand project team to a common goal"and that will helpgivestructure and meaning o the visitors experience.Ifl for example, he attraction centersaround pirates,Carsonwrites, "everytexture you use,everysound youplay,every turn in the road should reinforce heconcept of pirates,"while any contradictory elementmay shatter he sense f immersion nto this narrativeuniverse. he samemight be said or a gamesuchasSeaDogs,which, no Iess lan Piratesof the Caibbean,dependson its ability to map our preexisting piratefantasies.The most significant difference s thatamusementpark designers ount on visitorskeepingtheir hands and arms in the car at all times and t}ushavea greater control in shaping our total experience,whereasgamedesignershave o developworlds wherewe can touch, grab,and fling things about at wiil.Environmental storytelling createshe preconditionsfor an immersive narrative experiencen at leastone offour ways:spatial storiescan evokepre-existingnarrative associations;hey can providea stagingground where narrative eventsare enacted;hey mayembednarrative information within their mise-en-scene; r they provideresourcesor emergentnarratives.

IV.Game heories

10.2.American cGee'slice Rogue ntertainment,tectronicrts)Evocative pacesThe most compelling musement ark attractionsbuildupon stories or genre ra&tions alreadywell-known tovisitors, allowing them to enter physica-llynto spacesthey havevisited many times before n their fantasies.Theseattractionsmay either remediate preexistingstory (Back o the Future)or draw upon a broadly sharedgenre radition (Disney'sHauntedMansion).Suchworks do not so much tell self-containedtoriesasdraw upon our previouslyexistingnarrativecompetencies.hey can paint their worlds n fairlybroad outlines and count on the visitor player to do therest. Something similar might be said of many games.For example,AmericanMcGee's lice* san originalinterpretationof Lew is Carroll's lice nWonderland(figure10.2).Alicehasbeenpushed nto madness fteryearsof living with uncertainty about whether her


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Game esignsNarrativerchitectureHenry enkinsWonderlandexperiences ere ealor hallucinations;now, shes comeback nto this world and is ooking forblood.McGeeswonderland s not a whimsicaldreamscapeut a dark nightmare ealm.McGee ansafelyassume hat playersstart t|e game wit} a prettywell-developed entalmap of the spaces,haracters,and situations associatedwith Carrolls fictionaluniverseand that they wilJ readhis distorted and oftenmonstrous imagesagainst he background of mentalimages ormed from previousencounterswithstorybook llustrationsand Disneymovies.McGeerewrites Alice'sstory in large part by redesigningAlice'ssPaces.fuguing againstgamesasstories,JesperJuulsuggests hat, "youclearlycan't deduct the story of StarWars from Star Wars he game,"whereasa film versionof a novel will giveyou at least thebroad outlines of tlreplot (Juul 1998). This is a pretty old-fashionedmodelof the process f adaptation. ncreasingly, e nhabit aworld of transmedia tor ytelling,one hat dependsesson each ndividua-lwork beingself-sufficient han oneachwork contributing to a larger narrative economy.The Star Wars gamemay not simply retell the story ofStar Wars.but it doesn'thave o in order to enrich orexpand our experienceof the StarWars saga.

We alreadyknow the story beforewe evenbuy thegameand would be frustrated if all it offered us was aregurgitationofthe original ilm experience. ather,the Star Warsgameexists n dialoguewith the films,conveying ew narrativeexperienceshrough tscreativemanipulation of environmental details.Onecan magine games aking their placewithin alargernarrative systemwith story informationcommunicated hrough books, ilm, television, omics,and otler medja,eachdoing what it doesbest,eacharelatively autonomous experience, ut the richestunderstanding f the story world coming o tlose whofollow the narrative across he various channels. nsuch a system,what gamesdo best will almost certainlycenteraround heir ability to giveconcrete hape o ourmemories and imaginings of the story'world, creatingan immersiveenvironment we can wander through andinteractwith,

FIRSTPERSON

Enacting toriesMost often,when we &scuss amesas stories,we arereferringto games hat either enableplayers o performor witness narrative events for example, o grab alight-saberand dispatchDarth Maul in aStar Warsgame.Narrative enterssuchgameson two levels rnterms of broadly definedgoalsor conflicts and on thelevelof localized ncidenrs.

Many gamecritics assume hat all storiesmust beclassically onstructedwith eachelement tightlyintegrated into the overallplot trajectory Costikyan(2000)writes, or example,hat 'a story is a controlledexperience; he author consciouslycrafts it, choosingcertain eventsprecisely,n a certain order, o createastory with maximum impact."s

Adams(1999) daims, agood story hangs ogethertlre way a good jigsawpuzzlehangs together.When youpick it up, every piece s locked ightly in placenext toits neighbors."

Spatialstories, n the other hand,areoften&smissedasepisodic that is,eachepisode or setpiece)can becomecompelling on its own termswithout contributing significantly to the plotdevelopment, nd often t}e episodes ouldbe reorderedwit}out significantly mpactingour experience sawhole.Theremaybe broadmovementsor series fstageswithin the story as Troy Dunniway suggestswhen he drawsparallelsbetween the stages n theHero'sourney (asoutlined by JosephCampbell)andthe levelsof a ciassicadventuregame,but within eachstage,he sequencing f actionsmay be quite oose.Spatialstoriesarenot badly constructed tories; ather,they arestoriesthat respond o alternative aestheticprinciples, privileging spatialexploration over plotdevelopment. patial toriesareheld togetherbybroadly defined goalsand conflicts and pushed forwardby the charactersmovementacross he map.Theirresolution often hinges on the player reachinghis orher final destination, hough,as Mary Fullernotes,notall travel narratives end successfully r resolve henarrativeenigmas hat set hem into motion. Onceagain,we areback o principles of "environmentalstorytelling."The organization of the plot becomesamatter of designing he geographyof imaginary worlds,


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Game heories Jenkins McKenziesketinenj'. iu[ i ic Pearce:;;;:,*." :;:il,u;,li'*"'"so that obstacles hwart and affordances acilitate theprotagonists forward movement towards resolution.Over the past severaldecades, ame designershavebecomemoreand moreadeptat settingandvaryrngthe rhythm of gameplay through featuresof the gamespace.

Narrativecan a-lso nter gameson the leveloflocalizedncident,or what I am callingmicronarratives.Wemight understand how micronarrativeswork bythinking about the Odessa teps equencen SergeiEisenstein's attleshipPotemkin. irst, recogni e that,whatever ts serious moral tone, the scenebasicallydealswith the samekind of material as most gamesthe stepsare a contested pacewith onegroup(thepeasants)rying to advance p and another (theCossacks)moving down.

Eisensteinntensifiesour emotiona-l ngagementwith this large-scale onflict through a seriesof shortnarrative units. The woman with the baby carriage sperhaps he best known of those micronarratives.Eachof theseunits buildsupon stockcharacters rsituations drawn from t}e repertoire of melodrama.Noneof them last more than a few seconds,houqhEisenstein roiongs hem (and ntensifies heiremotiona,lmpact) throughcross-cutting etweenmultiple ncidents.Eisenstein sed he term "attraction"to describesuchemotionally packed elements n hiswork; contemporarygamedesignersmight call them"memorablemoments." ust as somememorablemoments n gamesdependon sensations the sense fspeedn a racinggame)or perceptions thesuddenexpanseof slcy n a snowboardinggame)as well asnarrative hooks,Eisensteinused he word "attractions"broadly to describeany element within a work thatproduces profound emotional mpact,and theorizedthat the themesof the work could be communicatedacrossand through these discreteelements.Evengamesthat do not create arge-scale lot trajectoriesmay welldependon thesemicronarratives o shape he player'semotiona-lexperience.Micronarrativesmay be cut,scenes,ut they don't have o be.One can magineasimplesequence f preprogrammedactionsthroughwhich an opposingplayerresponds o your successfiJtouchdown in a football sameas a micronarrative.

IV.Game heories

Gamecritics often note that the player's articipationposes potential }reat to the narrativeconstruction,whereas he hard rails of the plotting can overlyconstrainthe "freedom,power,and self-expression"associatedwith interactivity (Adams1999). Thetensionbetweenperformance or gameplay) andexposition (or story) is far from unique to games.Thepleasures f popularcultureoften centeron spectacularperformance umbersand self-conta ined et pieces.tmakesno sense o describemusical numbers or gagsequencesr actionscenes sdisruptionsof the film'splots: he reasonwe go to seea kung fu movie is to seeJackieChan show his stuff.eYet, ew films consistsimply of such moments, typically falling back on somebroadnarrative expositionto createa frameworkwithin which localized c tionsbecomemeaningfirl.10

We might describemusicals, ction ilms, or sl apstickcomedies shavingaccordion-like tructures.Certainplot points are fixed, whereasother moments can beexpandedor contracted n response o audiencefeedbackwithout serious consequenceso the overallplot. The introduction needs o establish he character'sgoalsor explain he basicconflict; he conclusion eedsto show he successfulompletionof thosegoalsor thefinal defeatof the antagonist. n commediaell'arte,orexample,he masksdefine le relationships etweenthe charactersand giveus somesenseof their goalsanddesires.r

The masksset im its on the action,even hough lreperformance as a whoie is created hroughimprovisation.The actorshavemastered he possiblemoves,or lazzi,associatedwith eachcharacter,much asa gameplayerhas mastered he combinationof buttonsthat must be pushedto enablecertain characteractions.No author prescribes hat the actorsdo oncethey get on t}re stage,but the shapeof the storyemergesrom this basic ocabularyof possible ctionsand from the broad parametersset by this theatricaltra&tion. Someof the lazzicancontribute o the plotdevelopment, ut many of them aresimple estagingsof the basicoppositions the knave ricks the masterorgetsbeaten).

Theseperformance r spectacle-centeredenresoften display a pleasure n process in the


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Game esigns NarrativerchitectureHenryenkinsexperiences long the road - that can overwhelm anystrong sense f goalor resolution,whileexpositioncanbe experienced san unwelcomenterruption to t}repleasure f performance.Gamedesignerstrugglewitllthis samebalancingact - trying to determinehowmuch plot will createa compelling ramework and howmuch freedomplayers anenjoyat a ocal evelwithouttotally derailing he largernarrative trajectory.Asinexperiencedstorytellers, hey often fall backonrather mechanical xposition hroughcut scenes, uchas early filmmakers weresometimesoverlyreliant onintertides rather than learning the skillsof visualstorytelling.Yet,as with any other aestietic tra&tion,

gamedesignersare apt to developcraft through aprocess f experimentation nd refinementof basrcnarrativedevices, ecoming etterat shapingnarrativeexperiences ithout unduly constraining he spaceorimprovisationwithin the game.EmbeddedarrativesRussian ormalist critics makea usefuldistinctionbetweenplot (or syuzhet) hat refers o, n KristenThompsons 198S) erms, t-hestructuredsetof al lcausal ventsaswe seeand hear hem presentedn thefilm itselfl"andsrory (or fabu]a),whiclL efers o tJ.reviewersmentalconstructionof the chronologyofthoseevents Thompson1988,39-40). Few ilms ornovelsareabsolutelyinear;mostmakeuseof someforms of backstoryt}at is revealed raduallyaswemove tlrough the narrativeaction.The detectivestoryis the classicllustration of this principle, telling twostories onemoreor lesschronological the story ofthe investigation tself) and the other told radicallyoutof sequencethe eventsmotivating and ea&ngup tothe murder).According o this model,narrativecomprehension san activeprocessby whlch rriewers".r.-tl. and makehypotieses about likely narrative developmentson thebasisof information drawn from textualcues ndclues.l2 s they move hroughthe film, spectatorsestand reformulatetheir mental mapsof the narrativeactionand the story space.n games, layers re orcedto act upon thosementalmaps, o literally est themagainst he gameworld itself. If you arewrong about

FIRSTPERSSh

whether the badguys urk behind he next door,youwill find out soonenough- perhapsby being biownSwayand having to start the gameover.The heavy-handedexposition hat opensmanygames ervesuseful unction in orienting spectatorso the corepremisesso that they are ess il


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GameTheories Jenkins McKenzieEskel inen;;:::." ,,1^1;=,;"o,u,.",,*,.:i qi ;:{ : i ::r ; i , C :tv.jor i Jrtr .t l

spaces.We may have o battle our way past antagonists,navigate hrough mazes,or figure out how to pick locksin order to move through the narratively impregnatedmise-en-scene.ucha mixtureof enacted ndembedded arrativeelements an allow or a balancebetween he flexibility of interactivityand thecoherencef a pre-authored arrative.

UsingQuakeas an example, esperJuul argues hatflashbacks re mpossiblewithin games, ecausehegameplay always occurs n real-time(Juul 1998).Yeqthis s to confusestory andplot. Games reno morelocked nto an eternal presentthan films arealwayslinear.Many games ontain moments of revelationorartifacts hat shedLighton past actions.Carson 2000)suggestshat part of the art of gamedesigncomes nfinding artfr.rlways of embeddingnarrativeinformation into tie en'v-ironmen t ithout destroyingits immersiveness nd without giving the playerasensation fbeing drug aroundby the neck:

Staged reas...can] ead he gameplayer ocome o their own conclusions boutaprerrious ventor to suggest potcntiajdangerust ahead. omeexamplesinclude... oors hat havebeenbrokenopen, racesofa recentexplosion,crashed ehicle, piano dropped rom agreatheight,charred emainsof a fire.

Players, e argues, anreturn to a familiar spaceater inthegameand discovert hasbeen ransformedbysubsequent off-screen)events.CliveBarker'sUndying,for example, reates powerfirl sense f backstory nprecisely his manner. t is a story of sibling rivalry thathas aken on supernatural imensions. s we visit eachcharacters pace, e havea sense f the human theyoncewere and the demon they havebecome. n PeterMolynenx'sBlackand Wh te, the player'sethicalchoiceswithin the game eave raceson the landscapeorreconfigure he physicalappearances ftleir charactersHere,we might readnarrativeconsequencesff mise-en-scene he sameway we read Dorian Gray'sdebauchery ff ofhis portrait. Carsondescribesuchnarrative devicesas "followingSaknussemm," eferring

IV.Game heories

to the waysthat the protagonistsof JulesVerne'sJourney o The Centerof theEarth keep stumbling acrossclues nd artifacts ef t behindby the sixteenth-centuryIcelandic cientist/explorerune Saknussemm,ndreaders ecome ascinated o seewhat they can earnabout his ultimate fate as he travelers omecloser oreaching heir intendeddestination.

Gamedesignersmight study melodrama or a betterunderstanding fhow artifactsor spaces ancontainaffective potential or communicatesignificant narrativeinformation.Melodramadepends n the externalprojectionof internal states, ften through costumedesign, rt direction,or lighting choices. s we enterspaces, e may becomeoverwhelmedwith powerfirlfeelings f lossor nostalgia, speciallyn thoseinstanceswhere he space asbeen ransformedbynarrativeevents.Consider,or example,he moment inDoctor hivagowhen the characterseturn to themansion, ow completely eserted nd encasedn ice,or when ScariettO'Hara travelsacross he scorchedremainsof her famiiy estate n GoneWith the Windfollowing the burning of Atianta ln Alfred HitchcocklsRebecca,he tide character everappears, ut sheexertsa powerfirl influence over the other charactersespeciallyhe secondMrs. DeWinter,who must inhabita spacewhere every artifact recallsher predecessor.F]itchcock reates number of scenes f his protagonistwandering hrough Rebeccaspace, assing hroughlockeddoors, taring at her overwhelming ortrait onthe wall, touching her things in drawers,or feeling thetextureof fabricsand curtains.No matter whereshegoes n the house, hecannot escape ebeccas emory.

A gamesuchasNeil Young'sMajesticpushes hisnotion of embedded arrative o its logicalextreme.Here, he embedded arrative s no longercontainedwithin the console ut rather lows acrossmultipleinformation channels.The player'sactivity consistsofsorting hrough documents, eciphering odes,makingsense f garbled ransmissions, oving step-by-steptowardsa firller understanding f the conspiracyhat isthe game'sprimary narrative focus.We follow linksbetweenweb sites;we get nformation throughwebcasts,axes, -mails, ndphonecalls.Suchanembeddednarrative doesn'trequirea branchingstory


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GameDesign s Narrative rchitectureHenry enkins

structurebut ratherdepends n scramblinghe piecesof a Linear tory and allowing us to reconstruct the plotthrough our actsof detection,speculation,exploration,and decryption.Not surprisingly,most embeddednarratives,at present, ake the form of detectiveorconspiracy tories, ince hesegenres elp to motivatethe playersactiveexaminationof cluesand explorationof spaces nd providea rationale for our efforts toreconstruct he narrativeofpast events. et.as hepreceding xamples uggest.melo&amaprovidesanother - and as yet largelyunexplored- model forhow an embeddedstory might work, aswe read ettersand diaries,snooparound in bedroom drawersandclosets,n searchof secrets hat might shed ight on therelationships etweencharacters.

FIRSTPERSON

Emergent arrativesThe Sims epresentsa fourtl model of how narrativepossibfities might get mapped onto game space figure10.3).Emergentnarratives are not prestructured orpreprogrammed, aking shape hrough the gameplay,yet they are not asunstructured, chaotic,andfrustrating as ife itself. Gameworlds, ultimately, arenot real worlds, even hose as denselydevelopedasShenmue ras geographicallyexpansiveas Everquest.Will Wright frequently describesThe Simsas a sandboxor dollhousegame,suggesting hat it should beunderstood as a kind of autloring environment withinwhich playerscan define their own goals and writetheir own stories.Yet, unlike Microsoft Word, the gamedoesn't open on a blank screen.Most playerscomeaway from spending ime with The Simswith somedegreeof narrative satisfaction.Wright has createdaworid ripe with narrative possibilities,where eachdesign decisionhas been madewith an eye owardsincreasing he prospects f interpersonal omanceorconflict.

The ability to design our own "skins"encouragesplayers o createcharacterswho areemotionallysignificant to them, to rehearse heir own relationshipswith friends, amily, or coworkersor to map charactersfrom other fictional universesonto The Sims.A glanceat the variousscrapbooksplayershaveposted on theweb suggests hat they havebeenquick to takeadvantage fits relatively pen-ended tructure.Yet,let'snot underestimatehe designers' ontributions.The characters ave awill of their own, not alwayssubmitting easily o the players control, as when adepressed rotagonist efuses o seekemployment,preferring to spendhour upon hour soaking n theirbath or moping on the front porch.

Charactersare given desires, rges,and needs,whichcan come nto conflict with eachother,and thusproducedramatically compelling encounters.Charactersrespond emotionally to events n their enrrironment,aswhen charactersmourn the lossof a ovedone.Ourchoices aveconsequences,s when we spendall of ourmoney and havenothing left to buy them food. Thegibberish anguageand flashing symbolsallow us tomap our own meaningsonto tJreconversations, et the

10.3 TheSims. Maxis.Etectronic rts)


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Game heoriesJenkins McKenzieskelineni:::,. ill"l"1'j-.-,.,u.,"Zimnierman Crawford Iuul

tone of voice and body languagecan powerfully expressspecific motionalstates,which encourage s tounderstand those interactions within familiar plorsituations.The designers avemadechoices boutwhat kinds of actions areand are not possible n thisworld, such asaliowing for same-sex isses, ut limitingthe degreeof explicit sexualactivity that canoccur.(Goodprogrammersmay beable o get aroundsuchrestrictions, but most playersprobablywork within thelimitations of t}re system asgiven.)

Janet Murray'sHamlet on the Holodecl< ight describesome of what Wright accomplishes ere asproceduralauthorship.Yet, would argue hat his choices odeeper han this, working not simply through theprogramming, but also through the designof the gamespace.For example,ust as a dollhouseoffers astreamlinedrepresentationthat cuts out much of theclutter of an actualdomestic pace,he Sims'houses restripped down to only a small number of artifacts, eachof which perform specifickinds of narrative functions.Newspapers,or example, ommunicateobinformation. Characterssleep n beds.Bookcases anmake you smarter. Bottles are or spinning and thusmotivating lots of kissing.Suchchoices esult in ahighly legible narrative space.n his classic tudy TfreImageof The City, Kevin Lynch made he case haturban designers eeded o be more sensitive o thenarrative potentials of city spaces, escribingcityplanning as "t-hedeliberatemanipulation of the worldfor sensuous nds" Lynch1960,116).

Urban designersexert even esscontrol than gamedesignersover how peopleuse he spaces hey createorwhat kinds of scenes hey stage here.Yet,some kindsof space end themselvesmore rea&ly to narrativelymemorableor emotionally meaningfirlexperiencesthan others. Lynch suggested hat urban plannersshouldnot attempt to totally predetermine he usesand meanings of the spaces hey create: alandscapewhoseevery rock tells a story may makedifficuit thecreationoffresh stories" Lynch1960,6).Rather, eproposesan aestheticof urban design hat endowseachspacewith "poeticand symbolic"potential "Suchasense f place n itself enhances veryhumanactivitythat occurs here, and encourageshe deposit of a

IV.Game heories

memory race" Lyrrch1960,119).Gamedesignerswould do well to study Lynch'sbook, especially s heymove nto t}le production of game platforms whichsupport player-generated arratives.In eachofthese cases,hoices bout the designandorganization of game spaces ave narratologicalconsequences.n the case f evoked arratives, patialdesign an either enhance ur sense f immersionwithin a familiar world or communicatea freshperspectiveon that story through the altering ofestablisheddetails. n the caseof enactednarratives, hestory itself may be structured around the character'smovement through spaceand the featuresof theenvironment may retard or acceleratehat plottrajectory.ln the caseof embeddednarratives, }re gamespace ecomes memorypalacewhosecontentsmustbe decipheredas he player tries to reconstruct he plot.And in the caseof emergentnarratives,gamespaces redesigned o be rich with narrative potential, enablingthe story-constructing cti vity ofplayers. n eachcase,it makessense o think of game designersessasstorytellers than as narrative architects.Notes1. The er m Ludo[ogy"as oined y Espen arseth,hoadvocatesthe emergencef a new ieLd f study, pecificattyocusedn hestudy f games ndgame Lay,ather han ramedhroughheconcernsf pre-existingisciplinesr othermedia.Editors'ote:Markku ske[inen,n his esponseo thisessay,oints ut hat hetermwas ntroducedo computeram e tudiesyGonzalorasca.This ntroduction,ccordingo Frasca,as n theCybertextearbook- a pubticationoedited y Esketinenndnamedor Aarseth'sCybertext1997].)2. For more ecentormulationf this same rg ument,ee esperJuul.2001),GameseL[ingtories?"3. EskeLinen2001) akes anetMurrayo task or hernarratjveanalysisf lefnsas a perfect nactmentf the overtaskedives fAmericansn the 1990s of heconstantombardmentf asksthatdemandurattention nd hatwe must omehowit intoou rovercrowdedchedu|'esndclear ff ourdesksn ordero make oomfor he nextons[aught."skelinens conect o note hat heabstractionf lefnswou[d eemo defunanativenterpretation,utthat s no t he samehingas nsistinghat nomeaningfulnaLysiscanbe made f thegame nd ts fit withincontemporaryulture.Ietru mightwellexpressomethingf the renzied ace f modern[ife,ust as modern ances ight,withoutbeing story.4. A story s a collection f facts n a time-sequencedrderhatsuggest cause ndeffect elationship"Crawford982). The toryis the antjthesis f game. hebestway o tel.[ storys n [inearform.Thebestway o create games to provide structure ithinwhichhe p[ayer as reedom f act'ion "Costikyan,000).


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GameDesign s Narrative rchitecture FIRSTPERSONHenryJenkins5. "In it s richest orm, storytelling narrat'ive means hereade/s urrendero the author. heauthor akes he reader y thehandan d eads im nto the wortdof hi s magination. he eaderhas a rote o pLay, ut i t's a fairly passive oLe:o pay attention, ounderstand,erhapso think... but not o act" (Adams 999).6. As I have noted elsewhere,hese maps ake a distinctive orm -not objectiveor abst ract op-down viewsbut composites fscreenshotshat representhe gamewortdas we will encounter t inour travels hrough ts space.Game paceneverexists n abstract,bu t alwaysexperientiatLy.7. My conceptof spatiaIstories s strongly nfluencedby MicheIdeCerteau 1988) ThePradiceof Everyday ife and HenriLeFebvre(1,991),Thehoduction of Space.8. Fora futler discussion f the normsof c[assicalty onstructednarrative, ee Bordwetl, taiger, nd Thompson L985), TheClassicalHollywood Cinema.9. Fo rusefuI iscussionf th is ssue n fiLm heorv. eeDona[dCrafton 1995), Pi ean dChase: ag,SpectacLend NarrativenSLapstickomedy,"n Krist ine runovska arnick nd Henry enkins(eds.), ClassicalHollywood Comedy;HenryJenkins (1991), WhatMade Pistachio Nuts?:Early Sound Comedyand The VaudevilleAesthetic; Rick Attman (1999), TheAmerican.Filrn rYusical; omGunning 1990), "Ihe Cinema f Attractions:EartyFitm, ts Spectatorand he AvantGarde"n Thomas tsaesserit h AdamBarker eds-),Early Cinema:Space,Frame, Narrative; LindaWi[iams (1999), HardCore:Power,Pleasureand "The Frenzy of the Visible."10 . "Gameshatjust havenonstop ctionar e un for a whi le butoften ge t boring.This s because f t he lack of intrigue, suspense,an d drama.Ho wmany ctionmovies ave ou seenwhere he heroof the story shootshis gun every ew seconds nd s alwayson therun? Peopleose nterestwatching his kind of movie.Playingagame s a bit different,bu t the fact is the brain becomes verstimulated fter oo muchnonstop ction" Dunniway 000).11. See, or example,ohn Rudl in 1994),Commedia el l 'Arte: nActor'sHandbook or a detailed nventoryof the masksand azzi ofthis tradi t ion.12. See, or example,DavidBordwell 1989), Vanahon n the FidionFilm, and EdwardBranigan 1992), NarrativeComprehension nd FiIm.ReferencesAarseth, spen1997). ybertext:erspectivesn Ergodiciterature.BaLtimore:ohns opkinsniversityress.Adams, rnest1999).Three roblemsor nteractivetorytelters."Gamasutra.ecember9. 7999.Attman, ick 1,999). he merican ilmMusical. [oomington:IndianaUniversity ress.Bordwell, avid,anetStaiger,ndKristen hompson1,985).heClasstcalollywood inema. ewYork:Columbianiversity ress.BordwelL,avid1989).Narrationn theFidionFilm.Madison:Universityf Wisconsin.Branigan, dward1992). arrative omprehensionndFflm.NewYork:Routledge.Carson,on 2000).Environmentaltorytelting:reatingmmersive3DWorlds sing essonsearned romhe Theme arkndustry."Gamasutra, arch , 2000..htIp:/ /www.gamasutra.com,/featues/20000301carson_pfu.tm>.Costikyan,reg 2000).Where tories nd ndGamesegin."Game

Developer, eptember 000.Crafton.Donald 1995). Pi ean d Chase: ag.Spectaclend Narrativein Sl.apstick omedy."n Classical ollywoodComedy, dited byKrist jne runovska arnick nd Henry enkins.Ne wYork:Rout[edge/American itm nstitute.Crawford, hris 1982). TheArt of ComputerGameDesign. .de Certeau,Michet 1988). Thehactice of Everyday rle. Berkeley:Universityof Ca[iforniaPress.Dunniway, roy 2000). Using he Hero's ourneyn Games."Gamasutra,November 7. 2000..http://www. gamasutra.com/feattres/ 20001127du nn way_pfv. tm'.Esketinen,Markku 2001). "TheGamingSituat'ion."GameStudies ,,no.1 (Juty 2001). .Juu[, Jesper 2001). "Games eltingStories?"GameStudies , no.7(Ju ty2001)..LeFebvre,enri 1991). he odudtonof Space.Lynch, evin 1,960).hemage f theCify.Cambridge:heMITPress.Munay, anet 1997). anleton theHolodeck:he uture fNaffativen Cyberspace.ambridge:heMII Press.Ritvo,Harrjet1998).he Platypusnd he 4ermaid, nd therFigments f the Classifuingmagination.Cambridge:arvardUniversity ress.Rud[in, ohn 7994\.Commediaell'Arte:n Actor's andbook. ewYork:Routledge.Thompson,risten1988). reahng heGlassrmor:NeoformalistFilmAnalysis. rinceton:rinceton niversity ress.WjLtjams,inda 1999). ardCore: ower, leasurend "The renzyof the Visible.Berketey:niversityf Catiforniaress.

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