In class on Tuesday, we discussed Henry Jenkins Game Design As Narrative Architecture. One main point was that not all games tell stories. The author makes a good point by thinking of games such as Tetris, where there isn’t really a story involved and it’s more of a manipulation of the graphics. I agree with his statement, and it got me thinking about the games that I play that don’t tell a story. I don’t play many single-player story games, but it had me wondering if games such as Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege which are mostly multiplayer tell stories. I believe it’s a mixture of both, since a lot of the game is just teams shooting each other. However, each operator has their own background story and their own abilities, which makes me wonder more about the story itself behind the game. Even though there isn’t a specific plot, like there might be with a game such as Life Is Strange, it still has story aspects to it. Regardless, Jenkins’ point that games don’t need stories to still be games persists in this case.
Jenkins also discussed enacted narratives. In these cases, the story is mostly structured around the character’s movement through space. The environment may also accelerate the plot in this case. Jenkins talks about “micronarratives”, which are “emotional attractions” such as cut scenes. However, instead of a cut scene, the game could allow a player to do something in the story space so that they themself can see the interaction instead of just watching it without actually doing much to get to that point. There is also a difference between a plot and a story; plot happens to be how a movie will display its narrative, whereas story is how we personally construct events that have happened in order. This reminded me of Firewatch and how the chronological events were all very out of order. The main character was experiencing flashbacks of his time with his partner, Julia, while he was currently in the woods. I liked the fact that the past was being told in the present, and intermittently between his flashbacks, we could see the peaceful environment of the world.
Jenkins, Henry. “Game Design as Narrative Architecture”, Electronic Book Review, July 10, 2004, https://electronicbookreview.com/essay/game-design-as-narrative-architecture/
I agree with the fact that it is up to the players to decide the chronology of a story and Firewatch is a really good example of it. Another example would be Half-Life 2. In Half-Life 2, we encounters so many strangers and hostile authorities, but when we get to see friendly faces, we mentally construct the story, assuming that the character has past relationships with these people.
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I like that your brought up the question of multiplayer games like Rainbow Six Siege and how they relate to the question of narrative in games. While there doesn’t seem to be a linear narrative that the player is meant to experience, it seems impossible to me that game developers would be bale to come up with such an immersive and diverse world of charcters and mechanics without having some stories in their heads to help them come up with the things in the game. Even though the players may not experience the story, there may be one behind it that we cannot see (such as in The Beginners Guide discussion).
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