Rules of Play Response #5: Narratives

In my opinion, narrative play is one of the most vital components of an enjoyable gaming experience. A narrative gives meaning to the game we are playing. I tend to prefer games that have a story-mode over games like checkers or tic-tac-toe, which do not require your character or your movements to have meaning. Games like this are just performance games, and we don’t need to have any motive except finishing the game. In order to establish a system for meaningful play, there are 3 elements that we must have: situation, character, and form.

Situation: a narrative has an initial state, a change in that state, and insight brought about by that change. These can be summed up as events.

Character: A narrative is a personification of events through a medium.

Form: Representation is constituted by patterning and repetition.

If we have these 3 components, we have a narrative in game play. Giving a story to a game is probably the only reason why we like to play games. Lets say the goal of a certain level was to collect 10 stars. Without a character or an environment, we would be a digital figure wandering around a coded environment searching for a specific item. Why would we put ourselves through this? If we turn ourselves into Mario and we need 10 stars to gain access to a new level, the goal suddenly becomes much more interesting and meaningful.

         Uncertainty is another important aspect of meaningful game play. Why would we watch a movie if we knew exactly what was going to happen? Why would we read a book if the ending was entirely obvious? The same mindset exists when playing a game. There needs to be some mystery in it for us to be dedicated enough to finishing the game. Even if we know the goal of a game, the way in which we achieve that goal isn’t always obvious. We have to use trial and error to figure out how to beat it, giving uncertainty to the game.