Select One Example to Outline the Key Concepts of the Interactive Narrative Genre

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Does the interactive narrative still have a role to play in video games today? Give exemplary examples?

The interactive narrative genre, is striving still today with the TellTale Games releases, Naughty Dog’s award winners or Quantic Dream’s immersive storytelling gameplay. To cover both of these questions I will be looking at “The Last of Us” by Naughty Dog, winner eleven different awards, including a BAFTA for Story and Best Game, to cover the genre’s role in video games today and the key concepts. However in terms of what makes the Interactive Narrative Genre, “If you were to ask a room full of writers, game designers, and English professors for the definition of “interactive storytelling,” you’d get quite a lot of different answers” (Lebowitz, 2011). So in reality there is no consensus as to what is or isn’t an interactive story, virtually everything is an interactive as long as there is interaction.

Storytelling

Unsurprisingly, an interactive narrative, should be designed to tell a story. This means, not to allow the key focal immersion to be shooting, looting or puzzle solving. Though the game could contain these, they shouldn’t be the focal point. The game’s existence must be to immerse the player inside a story driven universe. As mentioned prior, The Last of Us, not only did this but won awards and continues to be a favourite amongst many gamers, even a starting point for others: four years on. Using a heartfelt Father-Daughter connection between two mismatched characters, attempting to get through a world gone to hell, not only due to the infection that ravages the world, but also overbearing governments.

Thus the key aspect to this element, is that the story needs to be palpable. It must contain characters and settings identifiable to cause a connection between player and universe. As mentioned, the Father-Daughter connection between Joel and Ellie, within the game, portrays a story of two strangers landing in a situation that causes them to grow into a family, which is struck by haunting pasts and scarring current events that tug at the heart-strings with the growing dynamic between the two characters.

(Playstation, n.d.)

Interactions Need to make Narrative Sense

For true immersion in a narrative, a player’s actions must be connected to the important events within the game for example, any quick time events within the game which could be portrayed as any time a clicker or infected grabs you within The Last of Us.

(CBSNews, 2013)

Players must feel as though they have an active part to the story and not just being an observer. If none of the important story moments connect the player, they become ‘passive participants’ (McMullin, 2014). If the gameplay only consists of looting, then it doesn’t matter if the player spends 90% of their time interacting; they are not part of any of the key happenings, and their actions are then pointless. “Gameplay must be foundational to the narrative, not just a side activity while waiting for the next cutscene.” (FrictionalGames, 2017)

Also, players must be able to understand their role from their actions. If the player is supposed to be a detective, then this must be evident in the gameplay. Meaning you could still be swinging a sword and fighting demons, but as long as the story elements are there for you to know this is your role.

No Progression Blocks

Keeping players immersed within a narrative, they must be focused constantly on the story development. This doesn’t rule out making the game challenging, but it needs to be made sure that an obstacle doesn’t consume so much focus that the fluidity of gameplay ceases to continue. It must be remembered that the players are playing to embrace a story. If they get stuck at some point, focus can fade away from story and divert to progressing.

Overview

To look at it properly, even The Last of Us fails to do this sometimes, as do most Action based games. The closest to come to covering all of these major elements is Heavy Rain by Quantic Dreams or TellTale’s The Walking Dead. However, these games tend to fall flat on their Immersion into Narrative Sense. The only game I personally found to cover all aspects was Steve Gaynor’s ‘Gone Home’ even though your actions do tend to have little relevance to the core narrative.

References

CBSNews. (2013, February 9). Preview: The Last of US. Retrieved from CBS News: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/preview-the-last-of-us/

FrictionalGames. (2017). In the Games of Madness. Retrieved from http://frictionalgames.blogspot.co.uk/

Lebowitz, J. (2011). Interactive Storytelling for Video Games.

McMullin, K. (2014, April 24). Passive vs. Active Participants. Retrieved from Collegewise: http://wiselikeus.com/collegewise/2014/04/passive-vs-active-participants.html

Playstation. (n.d.). The Last of Us Remastered. Retrieved from Playstation: https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/games/the-last-of-us-remastered-ps4/