Review of Chapter 3 in Game Writing: Narrative Skills for Videogames

Okay, things are finally moving along. Although I’ve actually already read the book in its entirety, I’m back-tracking a bit to catch up on the reviews. This chapter, written by Richard Boon, continues in the tradition of the previous two chapters as being an introduction to more general premises in game writing. The chapter focuses, in general, on the relations between game design and narrative design, and how the two relate.

Much of the chapter is devoted to operational definitions of key ideas that a game writer should be familiar with. While the definitions are short and sweet (usually half a page, or a paragraph), they do provide some amount of insight into how we can understand games in terms of their narrative delivery. For instance, Boon distinguishes between a few kinds of narratives: implicit/emergent narratives (ie. a Roguelike, or Animal Crossing), formal narratives (ie. the Wing Commander series), interactive narratives (ie. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess), and interactive stories (ie. Ultima VII: The Black Gate) {3.1}. While I won’t go into detail here, each definition builds upon the previous - and gives the reader a sense for how games can be understood in terms of interactivity and the balance between the author’s need for “narrative delivery” and player-choice.

In terms of narrative delivery, Boon discusses how several delivery methods (text, FMV, voiceovers, cutscenes, etc) can be used to provide different gameplay experiences. These sections cover the pros and cons of each method in a fair amount of detail, and demonstrate that effective game writing begins with a critical eye for the different kinds of tools the author has to work with. Of course, this critical eye is interleaved with the usual cautions against ‘too much in-game reading’, repetitive dialogue, etc. However, unlike previous chapters, Boon is careful to delineate between the development of “conventional” (read: mass-market) games, and more “unconventional” (read: experimental) games, and how each narrative delivery method might benefit or detriment a game based on these principles {3.2}. Boon’s message, throughout the section, is that narrative delivery methods must reflect the pacing that the writer has chosen for the game - although usually he means that the player should be never left bored.

The chapter ends with a short “suggested writing process” section that outlines the typical developmental steps that a conventional game writer might follow. While Boon does not go into a great amount of detail here, the section acts as a decent overview of the kind of writing process that the rest of the book implicitly relies upon. In fact, readers of this book benefit most by reading Boon’s “suggested writing process” outline before the rest of the chapter.

Conclusion

Boon’s chapter profitably introduces several key concepts otherwise missing throughout the rest of the book (such as distinctions between narrative and story for instance), and makes reference to a few modern games (such as Max Payne and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time). I would have liked to see a much wider range of game examples (some of us have went beyond the standard mass-market fare), but considering that the rest of the book uses so few examples - Boon’s illustrations are a welcome change. In short, his chapter is lucid and precise, and should provide new game writers with the necessary conceptual tools to deliver narratives in conventional game production environments.

Editorial Comments

3.1
While I offer these games as possible examples of each kind of narrative, none of these games obviously fit every detail of the definitions. For example, while Animal Crossing mainly consists of an emergent narrative that the player comes to be a part of as the town grows and changes, it also has more scripted “formal” narrative elements such as the introductory sequence, where the player assumes the role of a character moving to a new town. In essence, all games certainly feature many kinds of narrative methods with varying levels of interactivity. What is of more value, of course, is understanding the value that each narrative form brings to the game-playing experience.

3.2
As I discussed in the previous reviews, I often find that “conventional” advice is most useful when turned upside-down. For instance, Boon cautions against the use of in-game documents because they may alienate players who do not wish to read large amounts of text. While this might be good advice for the next Haloesque shooter, in-game documents can be used effectively when delivered in the right manner. One of the most interesting uses of text that I’ve seen is in the classic RPG Wasteland, which requires the player to look up narrative passages in the supplied player’s manual. While this design decision was made due to space limitations (the original version for the Apple //e was distributed on a single 140Kb diskette), it provided players with a truly unique and surprisingly engaging way of playing through the narrative despite conventional wisdom. “Feelies“, as they used to be called, were maps, documents, or trinkets that used to be included in game boxes due to disk space limitations, as anti-piracy measures, or simply to increase the immersive quality of the game. More experimental or visionary games these days might make use of such innovations in order to tailor the gameplay experience in certain ways.