Select one example to outline the key concepts of the interactive narrative genre. Does interactive narrative still have a role to play in video games today?
The use of interactive narrative, whether it be in games or literature or any other form of media, is in my opinion one of the most powerful ways to place a story into the hands of the one experiencing it.
In order to explain this better, let’s use The Stanley Parable as an example to examine the genre. While being one of the most obvious examples for this sort of discussion, I believe it’s made itself so by the pure volume of choice making given to the player. The player controls Stanley from a first person perspective, submerging them in the idea of autonomous control and making them feel heavily involved in the gameplay from the get-go. The game’s narrator explains that Stanley works in an office building in a mindless job as a data monitor, until the screen turns off and Stanley is forced to explore his surroundings.
The Stanley Parable 2011
From this point on in the game the player is presented with possibility after possibility as to the choices they make. The narrator throughout suggests what Stanley should do, but it is ultimately up to the player to decide the route they take. This gives the player power over Stanley’s subsequent “destiny” – they carve out the narrative themselves instead of remaining relatively passive in the progression of the plot. Choosing to completely obey the narrator will result in a certain ending, whilst choosing to completely disobey the narrator will result in something entirely different. But what makes the Stanley parable so memorable within the interactive narrative genre is that there is an entire spectrum of choices to be made between these two polar opposites, and each one yields a different result. The game is self-aware, and highlights this by presenting the player with a god-like character in the form of the omnipotent narrator, only to reveal to the player that they are in fact the god of this world.
Interactive narrative still has an integral role to play in the games industry today. The Stanley Parable, after all, was only released in 2011, and pushed the boundaries of what could be done with interactive narrative with the added help of advancing technology. That aside, other games featuring an interactive narrative to a greater or lesser extent are rife in the industry. From Life is Strange, which relies heavily on choice making as part of the mechanic but ultimately presents the player with two final outcomes, to Oxenfree, an indie game with a fairly fixed narrative but a plethora of changes the player can make that affect the outcome with varying degrees of importance.
One of the many choices in Life is Strange
Choice-based dialogue in Oxenfree
Whether there is only ever a choice between two options at a time, or so many the player doesn’t even notice they’re making them, these games make the player feel involved. Interactive narratives help to place them within the universe the game is presenting, makes them feel less distant, and breaks down the barriers between the game-designers and the players themselves.
Toby Forward says in his essay entitled Naked and Unashamed, that, “Tracey’s work is about me” (Emin, 2007).