.
Linear interactive story systems offer a simple linear story that the user cannot change, while still offering the user various ways of interacting with the system. In terms of our Poetics model, the user may interact as a character within the bounds of the Story World, yet their actions do not become part of the Action.
These linear story structures are what Mark Stephens Meadows (2003) refers to as "nodal" structures. Chris Crawford (2005) also explores such structures in some detail.
Linear story structures can be broken down as follows:
At its most basic, a system can alternate between story-advancing action and user interaction. The system may show a video segment or cut-scence, then give the user a chance to solve a puzzle. Following the puzzle is another story-advancing video scene. Crawford calls these constipated stories.
These puzzles may be more complex--such as a level in a first-person shooter. The bulk of player's time is spent interacting; yet it is only the short story scenes between levels that advance the story, perhaps providing the goal for the next "mission". The cut-scenes may not be separate videos, but actually enacted by the gaming engine, making the transition between interaction and story less jarring, as in the games Half Life and Grand Theft Auto (Crawford 2005). Crawford calls these storified games.
Some stories are constructed as a series of puzzles. For instance, a game may start with the player's character locked in a dungeon. Once he solves the puzzle of how to free himself from his manacles, he can talk to the jailer through the dungeon door. Solving the "puzzle" of the getting the jailer to free him gets the player out of the dungeon. And so on. The only way to advance the story is to solve the next puzzle. The player's interaction does not change the story, it just advances it.
Some games are a relatively open collection of puzzles or interactions. But the player's puzzle-solving or note-reading tends to reveal some previous, static story, not advance their own. Myst is a good example of this.
|
Argax Project : Dissertation :
A Rough Draft Node http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ztomasze/argax |
|
Last Edited: 13 Dec 2006 ©2006 by Z. Tomaszewski. |