Argax Project

Supportive

Sometimes games, like toys, serve only an artifact that supports our projection of a story on the action it presents. It may also facilitate dramatic social interaction, though the system itself does not produce stories.

Contextual

Sometimes games have a story only as a context for the action. The user's imagination expands this context, adding depth to the game. At the extreme--as is often the case in older games--the manual and accompanying artwork lays out a rich story and world. But gameplay does not produce a story itself. More recently, a game might layout the dramatic context in an introductory video sequence, and end with a victory video.

Sometimes games are based on stories in other media. For instance, X-Wing is essentially a space flight simulator. Any dramatic context is derived from knowing the events of the Star Wars movies. Certain X-wing missions may correspond to events from the movies, but the game itself does provide a story.

Projected

Sometimes we project deeper stories onto an interaction system, even when a specific or related dramatic context is not provided. For instance, if playing a flight simulator game with a career option, the lifespan of our character ties the separate missions together into a weak sort of narrative whole. Games like The Sims allows users to projects stories on the otherwise mundane actions of the characters.

Social

Some systems, such as MUDs or MMORPGs, provide a dramatic environment. But the interesting dramas arise through interaction between the players. These stories are not part of the system's design, but are still facilitated by the system.

Works Cited

ToDo

• Come up with a better term than "supportive".
• Cite for the "projected"/toy thing--from Crawford's old AoCGD, perhaps?
• Cite Murray on the context-of-other-story thing.
• Get that Habitat article and a bit of other stuff for the social aspect.
• "Participation", (currently in ToDo in Poetics-Interaction) probably fits here in among contextual/social.
• What about one-time interactions/initial input systems? Like audience participation in various improv games--giving initial parameters (even parameters that may be used later to direct plot, but not such that the audience is intentionally/consciously directing in anyway, as input was collected at outset). Other possible inputs: character stats/nature, genre, setting, etc.
• POV control (1st/2nd/3rd in games ). Is camera control interaction (only, w/o plot influence) actually used to any real extent? Examples?

Argax Project : Dissertation : A Rough Draft Node http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ztomasze/argax

Last Edited: 13 Dec 2006 ©2006 by Z. Tomaszewski.