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What do stories in games have in common with political narratives?
This book identifies narrative strategies as mechanisms for meaning and manipulation in games and real life. It shows that the narrative mechanics so clearly identifiable in games are increasingly used (and abused) in politics and social life. They have »many faces«, displays and interfaces. They occur as texts, recipes, stories, dramas in three acts, movies, videos, tweets, journeys of heroes, but also as rewarding stories in games and as narratives in society – such as a career from rags to riches, the concept of modernity or market economy. Below their surface, however, narrative mechanics are a particular type of motivational design – of game mechanics.
Beat Suter (PhD), born in 1962, works as lecturer and researcher in game design at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and manages GameLab and Game Archive. He has a PhD in literary studies.
René Bauer, born in 1972, studied German philology and literary studies, biology and computer linguistics at the University of Zurich. He works as lecturer, researcher, and head of master education in game design at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).
Mela Kocher (PhD), born in 1972. After publishing her dissertation in 2007 on aesthetics and narratology in video games, she spent two years on a post-doc project at the University of California, San Diego. Today she works as senior researcher in game design at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).
Frontmatter 1
Contents 5
Introduction 9
Narrative Mechanics 19
Narrative Patterns in Video Games 51
Teaching Narrative Design 79
The Narrative Role of Sound in Games 91
Mukokuseki and the Narrative Mechanics in Japanese Games 113
Characterization and Emergent Narrative in Dwarf Fortress 151
On the Evolution of Narrative Mechanics in Open-World Games 161
Open-End Storytelling in Pinball Machines 177
Mechanics of Inspiration 197
Narrative Approaches in Contemporary Video Game Reviews 211
"We're not murderers. We just survive." 231
QUIZ 247
Ludic Meanders through Defictionalization: The Narrative Mechanics of Art 257
If You Play It, Do You Believe It? 279
Ball Games and Language Games 291
Florence 301
The Last Guardian 309
Murder at the Museum 315
Even Missile Command Tells a Story 323
Shave 329
The Twitter Game 337
Commander Kurz 351
Authors 355