Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
James Merry
Animation (MA)
June 2000
1
Contents
2. Introduction – page 5
8. Conclusion – page 41
9. Bibliography – page 42
10.Endnotes – page 46
2
1 – List of Illustrations
Figure 1; Java version of Spacewar, which can still be played on the Internet at
http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/spacewar – page 7
Figure 3; Beneath a Steel Sky, an example of a point and click graphic adventure. –
page 11
Figure 6; Short sequence taken from the intro animation from Civilisation: Call to
Power, which tells the story of the rise and fall and rise of a civilisation. – page 21
Figure 7; What Civilisation: Call to Power looks like when its being played. –
page 21
Figure 8; Snake’s first meeting with Meryl, in Metal Gear Solid. – page 24
3
Figure 11; A scene from ZX Spectrum version of Tir Na Nog, based on the Celtic
Figure 11; Amiga version of Guild of Thieves, text adventure with illustrations. –
page 34
Figure 12; The Codec screen in Metal Gear Solid. Narrative is communicated by
dialogue. – page 38
Figure 13; Screenshot from Bladerunner. Much of this game involves interviewing
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1 – Introduction
can involve any number of participants and the final outcome is not
known until it has happened. A game can be used for the training of one’s
own skills, for the entertainment of both the participants and the
society.
can be used for entertainment, for lessons and for recording events. A
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involvement. Because of these preparations – particularly various forms
field of computer games that this dissertation intends to look at. Why it
has happened? How does it work? Or doesn’t work? And where it may
lead to next?
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2 – History of Narrative in Computer Games
relevant to this essay. These are Action games, Adventure games and
Action Games
Figure 1; Java version of Spacewar which can still be played on the Internet at
http://lcs.www.media.mit.edu/groups/el/projects/spacewar
7
Poole’s Trigger Happy: The Inner Life of Videogames3 on the other hand
illustrates, limited graphical capability meant that the state of play had to
player’s spacecraft. A big star at the centre of the screen represents the
gravity force. The star field in the background helps the players to judge
the speed of their spacecraft. Playing the game consists of trying to shoot
your opponent whilst avoiding being sucked into the centre. If either
event happens then the game ends and then begins again. Although the
game itself is fun to play, the only interesting narrative that could come
Strategy Games
Lander and Hammurabi. Lunar Lander was “…a turn based game with a
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without running out of fuel before meeting the surface.”4. This game can
successful feudal kingdom. From this game one can trace a straight line
to the more recent sophisticated god games such as Sim City and
Civilisation.
Adventure Games
It was not until 1967 that narrative as scripted by the game author
right up until the late 1980s. It was the first computerised version of
around the virtual world, use objects and solve fiendish puzzles.”5 (page
9
J.C. Herz describes ADVENT as, “a logical extension of the
games that require reams of graph paper and twenty-sided dice. Both are
happen. ADVENT not only took care of the scorekeeping and referee
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generation of game programmers. In Adventure and its descendants, the
way, in that they involved the same basic exploration of locations, object
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manipulation and simple character interaction. Animated graphics
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3 – Why Computer Games Have Narrative
The main reason why a computer game should have a narrative is simple.
It is to encourage the player to play the game in an effort to find out what
happens next. Narrative can also be used to create an atmosphere for the
player to play within, e.g.; scary, tense, calm, etc. Another use for
narrative is to help create an emotional link between the player and the
characters in a game.
itself but, used correctly, narrative can act as a powerful carrot and stick
for the player. If the player can be encouraged to care about the characters
in the game he or she will try all more harder to help them. If a player
should ever ask him or herself why he/she should bother attempting the
henchmen then a narrative (or lack of narrative) can help make that
example, will have little use for narrative and will be much more
concerned with shooting his/her opponents. Indeed, many will argue that
a narrative would simply get in the way of the gameplay and diminish the
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provide the player with an excuse to shoot opponents if nothing else. This
often involves nothing more than the player’s character’s fiancé / princess
/ kiwi friends being kidnapped by a horrible evil character (figure 3). The
fiancé / princess / kiwi friends must be rescued. This then explains why
the player must negotiate level after level of platforms and do battle with
hordes of goblins / trolls / bizarre evil turtles. The kidnapper does not
need to be motivated by anything other than by the fact that they are evil
and therefore must perform evil acts. Too much detail would get in the
rarely under the control of the character. The narrative puts the player
where he or she is and tells them what their goal is. Sometimes the goal
of a game is to find out what the back-story is, such as in Half-Life. This
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type of narrative technique can also be seen in cinema, for example in a
doesn’t know exactly what is going on, or why. Much of the narrative in
the film is about how the protagonist is trying to find out the back-story.
This can work well in computer games as the story can then be relatively
complex and at the same time, be veiled from the player by a layer of
hints and clues. This can help in making the player feel that he/she is
character’s (Gordon Freeman) first day at his new job. The friendly
guided tour at the beginning of the game introduces the player to the
Black Mesa complex. After the tour the player is then left to explore the
reception area, locker room, staff canteen and offices before unwittingly
initiating the terrible disaster that changes everything. These rooms are
populated by scientists who are very irritable, and security guards who
are friendly but firm. Little accidents occur such as one of the computers
exploding and the general casual recklessness of the scientists but nothing
serious happens. This works as a contrast to the rest of the game after the
disaster happens.
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The managing director of Valve Software, Gabe Newell, describes
there was a novella he had written called “The Mist”. The primary aspect
of the story that really appealed to me was this sense of an ordinary world
which I really liked. And in general the main character was struggling
with realising he had to be the main actor in the situation, that people who
should be on his side were turned against him, and that even though bad
things were happening, the shape of the catastrophe wasn’t very clear for
the day’s experiment. Outside the test chamber two scientists explain
authorities.
Once Gordon has entered the test chamber, he is prompted via his
suit’s radio link, to “start the rotors”. This involves pressing a big red
button (figure 5.3). At this point an energy beam appears in the centre of
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the room and Gordon is then instructed to push a trolley holding the test
sample into it. As soon as the test sample touches the beam everything
and the room shakes violently. Figure 5.7 shows a brief scary vision of
alien worlds that Gordon receives, before then being dumped back into
the now wrecked test chamber (figure 5.8). As Gordon makes his way
back out of the test chamber, he discovers that something very bad indeed
has happened. The entire complex has been wrecked. The corridors are
littered with corpses, there are bloodstains on the walls and there is now
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
complex. The point of all this is that is provides such a stark contrast to
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what was going on before that the player wants to know what really
happened. What was the test sample? Why did it react like it did when it
touched the energy beam? Where is everybody? What are those creatures
and where have they come from? Why was the government so interested
in this experiment? And how will I get out of this? Of course these are all
questions which lead to the cliched conspiracy theory style narrative. The
means have to blast his or her way through hordes of ghastly beasts and
individual is drawn into a relationship with forces that are not rightly
understood. As Freud has shown, blunders are not the merest chance.
They are the result of suppressed desires and conflicts. They are ripples
be very deep – as deep as the soul itself. The blunder may amount to the
opening of a destiny.”9. For his example of this, Campbell uses the Frog
King fairy tale and declares the frog as a “herald” and “the crisis of his
appearance is the “call to adventure””10. With this in mind one can say
that the scientists in Half-Life are “heralds”. The disaster that occurs
when Gordon pushes the test sample into the energy beam is the “call to
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adventure”. It is this “call to adventure” that pulls the player into the
game.
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4 – Influence of Film
narrative computer games) seem to have taken much its inspiration from
early photography took much of its stylistic cues from religious paintings
and early cinema took its cues from the theatre. Visually, narrative
computer games often try to make themselves look like movies. Indeed, it
is generally expected these days that any game should come with at least
bombastic intro animation (figure 6). In addition to this it also has little
video sequences that pop up every time the player has made a new
graphics (figure 7) are very abstract and iconified. What Civilisation: Call
gameplay itself then what is the reason for their inclusion? For a game
sales. The images from the narrative sequences appear quite prominently
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Figure 6; Short sequence taken from the intro animation from Civilisation: Call to Power, which tells the
story of the rise and fall and rise of a civilisation.
Figure 7; What Civilisation: Call to Power looks like when its being played.
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on the box and it is not hard for them to look that much more impressive
It must be made clear that although games can be made to look like
a movie, a game can never be a movie and a movie can never be a game.
Often, games that are designed to look like a movie fall down on
their lack of gameplay. One of the first games to sell itself on its
cinematic looks was Dragon’s Lair by the Don Bluth studios. It was
released in 1983 and it used laser disc technology. Although this game
looked stunning for its time it was critically panned for its lack of
interactivity. It was a game that really did play more like a movie. As Jim
enough, but just based on memorisation. Others said they were too
difficult.”11.
Konami in 1999. Despite the fact the player still has no control over the
narrative sequences in this game, the narrative sequences and the actual
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gameplay have been edited together seamlessly. As stated in the April
2000 issue of Edge magazine, “…the way in which its set pieces relate to
its action is often quite effective. Snake’s initial meeting with Meryl
works well. The manner in which it blends in with the following action
Metal Gear Solid. Figures 8.01 to 8.14 are all part of a narrative sequence
which lead into the game sequence depicted in figure 8.15. Previous to
this sequence Snake had just escaped from a prison cell. As he left the
cell, the player’s control over the game was taken away for this narrative
daughter, Meryl. In figures 8.01 and 8.02, the narrative had just cut away
to the other side of the door where a group of enemy soldiers are
preparing to burst in on them. One can see how cinematic style is used to
heighten the tension of the stand-off and at the same time of the
impending enemy attack. Metal Gear Solid uses film style narrative to set
up the next action gameplay sequence which starts in figure 8.15, where
soldiers.
The narrative for Metal Gear Solid is as tightly plotted and scripted
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Figure 8; Snake’s first meeting with Meryl, in Metal Gear Solid.
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comparison might be seen in the Die Hard movies, which involve lots of
Like Dragon’s Lair, however, one could hardly call Metal Gear
Solid an interactive movie. It works better than Dragon’s Lair because the
gameplay is more important that the narrative. Narrative is still linear and
unchanging. To play on the player must succeed at the tasks that the
narrative gives him or her, otherwise Snake will just get killed. The
narrative doesn’t get in the way of the gameplay though. If one wanted to
one can just click through the narrative sections and just get on with the
meanwhile is still not used. An action movie would, for instance, cut
enemies, then back to a mid-shot of the hero with gun drawn, whereas
long shot [see figure 8.15]. Metal Gear Solid is a great videogame with
movie.”13
sit down and watch a film that lasts for much more than four hours. A
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filmmaker has a time limit to get his or her message across before an
short time span. The extreme of this can be seen in any weekly prime
time drama episode on television that can pack a complex narrative with
According to Edge magazine Final Fantasy VIII takes over 100 hours to
complete and that, “Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a title that demands about 30
hours to complete via the most linear route from start to finish, has been
coming back to, to play a little bit at a time. Unlike both books and film,
smoothly from beginning to end. This can lead to the player forgetting
what has gone on before in the game and what his or her goal is. This is
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especially the case when a player returns to a game after a particularly
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5 – Influence of Mythology and Folktale
setting forth from his common day hut or castle, is lured, carried away, or
encounters a shadow presence that guards the passage. The hero may
defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the dark
the threshold, then, the hero journeys through a world of unfamiliar yet
some of which give magical aid (helpers). When he arrives at the nadir of
reward. The triumph may be represented as the hero’s sexual union with
again – if the powers have remained unfriendly to him – his theft of the
powers have blessed the hero, he now sets forth under their protection
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(emissary); if not, he flees and is pursued (transformation flight, obstacle
resurrection). The boon that he brings restores the world (elixir).”15 (page
Fontana Press).
Bearing this in mind one can look at many computer games and
pick out equivalents to match the points that Campbell has raised. In
Metal Gear Solid, the hero, Snake, is kidnapped by his employers, the
Alaskan island. His mission is to infiltrate the top-secret base that has
Gordon Freeman, is given a guided tour train ride through the huge Black
section to start his day’s work. In Tomb Raider II, Lara Croft arrives at
what the player must do to trigger the beginning of the actual gameplay
itself. In Half-Life’s case, it is that Gordon must insert the sample into the
energy beam before the game will begin properly. In Tomb Raider II,
Lara has climb up a massive cliff before she can get anywhere. In Metal
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Figure 9; End of level guardian in R-Type
Gear Solid, Snake must make his way through the docks, to the elevator
level guardians. These are usually particularly big and scary beasts or
particularly violent and spectacular set pieces that can be found at the end
of each level in many action games (figure 9). They must be overcome if
assistance. There are also objects left lying around the Black Mesa
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levels. At the same time Gordon must deal with hordes of scary monsters
and government troops and solve various puzzles. These things act as
tests. In Tomb Raider, Lara Croft will generally encounter agents who
will hinder her progress and agents that will help her. The same again
applies to Metal Gear Solid and just about any other computer game one
Metal Gear Solid, Snake must engage in combat with the Metal Gear
robot itself, which is under the control of his evil brother. Metal Gear “…
A game might end with the overcoming of the supreme ordeal, but
completed. In Metal Gear Solid for instance, Snake must escape through
The player will eventually emerge at the end of the game, having
saved the world, rescued a friend or found the talisman or elixir that he or
that all folktales can be broken down to a few simple formulae. He argues
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Figure 11; A scene from ZX Spectrum version of Tir Na Nog, based
on the Celtic mythology of Cuchulain.
personalities don’t really matter. Its what they do that counts; what their
function in the game is. Do they help the player? (e.g.; giving the player a
actually been made into a computer program that generates its own
folktales.
games that “[dip freely] into the myth kitty by basing themselves on
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Arthurian Legend (Excalibur), Celtic sagas (Tir Na Nog [figure 10] and
Middle Earth (The Hobbit), not to mention science fiction and fantasy
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6 – The Communication of the Narrative to the Player
Figure 11; Amiga version of Guild of Thieves, text adventure with illustrations.
34
graphics, these were invariably static illustrations and added little to the
game itself (figure 11). Indeed, sometimes a text adventure game fan
would complain that graphics got in the way of the writing and that it
develop more visual ways of telling a story. Indeed, we have already seen
particular challenge in a game can take, the player can forget the
what the point of the game is and what his or her goal is.
“…you can peer through a pane of glass in a fire door and see your exit at
the far end of a corridor; but since the fire door is locked, you’ll need to
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explore other avenues. Clever use of obstacles can turn a completely
obvious route into a complex non-obvious route. This technique was used
obvious from the first, in order to give players a start on solving the
problem of how to get there. And if they forget their goal somewhere
along the way, they will experience a jolt of recognition when they finally
Mystery House in 1980 for Sierra On-Line. She also stresses the
noticed is twice the size it should be, and centre screen, if possible. She
developments through the mouths of the scientists and the security guards
reward for the player and to set up a new, tougher task(s) for the next
level. For example, when Gordon does reach the surface at the end of
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Having escaped from that first encounter with government troops,
Gordon finds another scientist. “Well, so much for the army.”, says the
scientist. He then goes on to explain to Gordon that from now on the base
personnel would be on their own. Caught between the vicious alien beasts
on one side and the government troops on the other, Gordon will now
have sort out this mess himself. He can start by going into the blast pit to
is confirmed and the player now knows what his/her main task is for the
next level.
this game, the player is often made to follow vast tracts of dialogue,
detailing the highly intricate plotline. Indeed, despite Metal Gear Solid’s
cinematic looks, a lot of the narrative action actually takes place via
Snake to hold a radio conversation with his bosses without making any
noise (figure 12). This means that, for many of Metal Gear Solid’s major
plot developments, the player just follows the dialogue without the game
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Figure 12; The Codec screen in Metal Gear Solid. Narrative is
communicated by dialogue.
character to wait in a certain location for the player to arrive and then
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The narrative in Half-Life is also hinted at in other ways. Marc
Laidlaw, who oversaw the level designs during the game’s production,
the research environment, and that added to the underlying story. Certain
raises questions about how long the researchers at Black Mesa have
known about the aliens, and to what exactly they were doing with them.
pursuing soldiers.”23.
Figure 13; Screenshot from Bladerunner. Much of this game involves interviewing
different characters with pre-recorded dialogue.
39
Half-Life is interesting in terms of computer game narrative, as it
does not take control away from to player to explain the story. Even as
characters are explaining the situation to Gordon, the player is free to turn
characters whose help is essential if the player is to move further into the
game raises problems for the narrative, however. As the narrative has no
way of progressing any further, the game has no option other than to end,
even though Gordon is still alive. Even so, the transparency of the game
works well as it increases the immersion for the player. Gabe Newell, the
project director of Half-Life describes the techniques used for this, “The
made the other characters in the game sympathetic and helpful, and then
we did horrible things to them to try a get the player to feel both loss and
the sense that the world was actually dangerous. We left a lot of
ambiguity in the story to allow the player to write the story however he
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8 – Conclusion
It can be seen that although narrative and games are in many ways
incompatible with one another, they can still be used to complement each
computer may well have a choice of narrative threads that a player can
follow, they will always be pre-written by the authors. The player will
have very little influence over the narrative itself. What the narrative does
do, however, is provide a frame from which the gameplay can be hung.
For example, in Metal Gear Solid, Snake will get captured and tortured
by Revolver Ocelot. This is narrative and the player has no influence over
this, therefore this is non-interactive. It does, however, tell the player why
he or she must try to resist the torture by pressing the buttons on the
interactivity.
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9 – Bibliography
Books
Bernays, A. and Painter, P. “What If?: Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers”, Harper
Perennial, New York 1990
Bishop, L. “Dare to be a Great Writer: 329 Keys to Powerful Fiction”, Writer’s Digest
Books, Cincinnati 1992
Campbell, J. “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, Fontana Press, London 1993
Cook, P. (ed.) “The Cinema Book”, Published by British Film Institute, London 1996
Gaul, L. “The Fist That Shook the World: The Cinema of Bruce Lee”, Midnight
Marquee Press Inc., Baltimore 1997
Morley, S. “Horror and Fantasy in the Cinema”, Studio Vista, London 1974
42
Rollings, A. and Morris, D. “Game Architecture and Design”, Coriolis, Scottsdale
Arizona 2000
Polti, G. “The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations”, The Writer Inc., Boston 1993
Poole, S. “Trigger Happy: The Inner Life of Videogames”, Fourth Estate, London
2000
“Metal Gear Solid: The Official Strategy Guide”, Cyber Press Publishing S.A. and
Piggyback Interactive Limited, France and U.K. 1999
Articles
Arcade, “Get Flesh at the Weekend”, February 2000, Issue 16, Published by Future
Publishing
43
Bickmann, J. “Dragon`s Lair, a Laser Disc Legend”, 12/1/98, http://www.dragons-
lair-project.com/community/legend
Edge, “An Audience with Mev Dinc”, December 1999, Issue 79, Published by Future
Publishing
Edge, “But is it Art?”, December 1999, Issue 79, Published by Future Publishing
Edge, “Size Matters”, March 2000, Issue 82, Published by Future Publishing
Edge, “Telling Tales”, April 2000, Issue 83, Published by Future Publishing
Computer Games
ADVENT, 1967
Beneath a Steel Sky, Revolution Software Ltd. 1994, Published by Sold Out Software
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Final Fantasy VII, Squaresoft 1997. Published by Sony
45
Endnotes
46
1
Barret, Mark. “Irreconcilable Differences: Game vs. Story”,
http://www.gamedev.net/reference/design/archive/article887.asp, 1997
2
Herz, J.C. “Joystick Nation”, Abacus, U.K. 1997, page 5
3
Poole, S. “Trigger Happy: The Inner Life of Videogames”, Fourth Estate, London 2000, page 29
4
Poole, S. “op cit.”, page 32
5
Poole, S. “op cit.”, page 32
6
Herz, J.C. “op cit.”, page 11
7
Poole, S. “op cit.”, page 107
8
Gabe Newell, managing director, Valve Software in ed. Saltzman, M. “Game Design: Secret of the Sages”,
Bradygames, Indianapolis 1999, page 21
9
Campbell, J. “The Hero with a Thousand Faces”, Fontana Press, London 1993, page 51
10
Campbell, J. “op cit.”, page 51
11
Bickmann, J. “Dragon’s Lair, A Laser Disc Legend”, http://www.dragons-lair-project.com/community/legend,
12/1/98
12
“Telling Tales” in Edge issue 83, April 2000, Future Publishing, page 59
13
Poole, S. “op cit.”, page 96
14
“Size Matters” in Edge issue 82, March 2000, Future Publishing, page 47
15
Campbell, J. “op cit.”, page 245
16
“Metal Gear Solid: The Official Strategy Guide”, CyberPress Publishing and Piggyback Interactive Ltd., France and
U.K. 1999, page 126
17
Propp, V. “Morphology of the Folktale”, University of Texas Press, Austin 1998
18
Dundes, A, “Introduction to the Seond Edition”, Berkeley 1968, in V.Propp. “op cit.”, page xv
19
Poole, S. “op cit.”, page 107
20
Marc Laidlaw, senior level designer, Valve Software in ed. Saltzman, M. “op cit.”, page 138
21
ed. Saltzmann, M. “op cit.”, page 113
22
Poole, S. “op cit.”, page 114
23
Marc Laidlaw, senior level designer, Valve Software in ed. Saltzmann, M. “op cit.”, page 141,
24
Gabe Newell, managing director, Valve Software in ed. Saltzmann, M. “op cit.”, page 21