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Week 11 Presentation

'Multivariant Narratives' Marie-Laure Ryan

Plan of Attack

Definition of 'Narrative' Evolution of narrative mediums The Digital Age Variable discourse/point of view/plot Real-world examples Critique and questions

Defining 'Narrative'

Medium-free

Evokes a response from the audience in response to stimuli provided

Linear (or multilinear)

Vectoral (plot must go between a beginning and an end)

Can be told (diegetic mode), shown (mimetic mode) or enacted as a self-rewarding activity.

Defining 'Narrative'

Narrative Text

An artifact designed to bring a desired meaning to the audience's mind.

Narrative Script

Builds a world where the actions of intelligent 'agents' within a certain time span alters the environment within which they interact.

History-The Oral Age

'...a mnemonic device for the transmission of knowledge.' (Ong, 1982)

'Mnemonic': Technique to aid the memory Had to be memorised, so meter, rhyme and alliteration

were important to help the speaker remember.

Fixed formulae and standardised images

Flexible (within reason) episodic structure

Narrative was unique to person speaking, restricted to a live audience and only existed as long as the speaker/audience remembered it.

History-The Chirographic Age

Unified, more control over plot devices

Condensed narrative structure

Much tighter management of emotional responses

'Froze' the sequence of plots

Lessened the need for mnemonic devices in the story

Still subject to changes based upon person rewriting

History-The Print Age

• Increase in the length of the narrative

• Episodic pattern adapted from poetry (chapters)

• Made mnemonic devices obsolete

• Increased the complexity of the narrative

• Introduction of visual devices (such as fonts) and pictures

Problems and Limitations

Problems regarding 'serious' narration and absolute truth

– The only correct viewpoint of the world is that provided by the narrator. All facts provided by them must be taken as 'absolute knowledge'.

Narrative is always a fabrication, unreliable. (White, 1987)

Printed text is static and can never be 'self-renewable'.

Text can be 'chunked' and rearranged (eg. 'Catch 22'), but this can prevent it from having a coherent narrative form.

Branching can be used, but limits power of audience in favor of author control

Present-The Digital Age

Algorithm-driven operation

Reactive and interactive nature

Performantial aspect

Multiple sensory and semiotic channels

Networking capabilities

Volatile signs

Modularity

Variable Narration

Discourse Point of View Plot

Variable Discourse

• The way the narrative is presented.

– Multiple possible paths through a story.

• Author has control over the individual decisions of the reader, but not their 'global' path through the story.

• Does not tell lots of different stories, but tells a specific story in different ways.

• 'Hypertext' often used to achieve variable discourse.

– eg. 'Victory Garden'

Variable Point of View

• Lets the audience view a story through multiple perspectives.

• Does not change the story itself. The information provided to the audience is 'coloured' by the character's individual point of view.

• Experiments in 'Interactive Film' where time is not effected by the change in perspective.

– A viewer may miss information on first viewing, requires further viewing through different POV.

Variable Plot

• Multiple strings to follow in a plot.

• Plot can be changed

• Multiple ways for the narrative to progress and end

• Digital media less limiting then written text

• Video games provide excellent worlds for 'emergent' narrative based upon user interaction

– Interactive fiction, FPS, God games

Crimeface

• Interactive Film

• Uses in-video 'hyperlinks' and web interface to allow user interaction

• Convergence of digital media: video, music, interface

• Allows limited re-ordering of events, little-to-no impact on the overall plot arc.

Crimeface Official Websitehttp://www.crimeface.net/index.html

Heavy Rain

• Released for the Playstation 3 in 2010 by Quantic Dream.

• Jumps between different character POVs to enact parts of the story.

• Constant measurement of time passing within given time frame (inc. inches of rain fallen)

• Multiple endings

• Characters can be incapacitated or even die, but story will continue.

Heavy Rain Walkthrough - Chapter 3: The Nurse HD (Uploaded by user 'MahaloVideoGames' 7-3-10)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7uG4o2SXJI&feature=relmfu

Duke Nukem 3D

First person shooter

Story-based singleplayer mode

Networking capabilities (eg. 'deathmatch')

Players form their own story in the world 'provided' by the game

Heavy modding capability, allowing players to easily share and create stages

3D Realms Official Websitehttp://www.3drealms.com/

Ebert Critique

• Argument that video games are not 'art'.

– Too much malleability in the narrative. Films are able to control the response of the audience by directing the narrative.

• How much can we expect to 'change' the narrative of the game before it becomes our story and not the original creators?

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070721/COMMENTARY/70721001

Further Ideas

• Where do we draw the line between a 'narrative' and an 'interactive experience' or 'game'? Is there even a line?

• Video games clearly provide narrative potential, but can we call them narrative devices?

– The player is required to understand how to play the system before they can manipulate it and expose the narrative.

• Does narrative still need to be within a set time frame?

– If we could create an emergent, persistent digital world where new branches of the story are constantly being created, could it still be considered a narrative even though it would not have a set 'end point'?

References

• Penny Arcade - http://www.penny-arcade.com

• 'Game Design as Narrative Architecture' by Henry Jenkins - http://web.mit.edu/cms/People/henry3/games&narrative.html

• 'Narrative Leeway in Games'' by Seth Marinello - http://www.altereddreams.net/writing/narrative-leeway-in-games/

• 'Heavy Dreams: Pushing Interactive Narrative' by Brandon Sheffield - http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4203/heavy_dreams_pushing_interactive_.php

• 'Multimedia Murder Mysteries' by Peter Gendolla & Jorgen Schofer - Peter Gendolla & Jorgen Schofer