Narrative

A narrative is the account of events and experiences, whether fictional or non-fictional; in layman's terms, narratives are stories or tales. Narratives in game consist of atmosphere, plot, dialogues, aesthetic, gameplay and more. and is catered to the player's interaction with the elements. There is a myriad of ways that narrative can be incorporated into games.

## Narrative in Digital Gaming

In digital games, the narrative is represented as a very literal sequence of events and the "campaign" structure or "story mode" are the most common ways that it is implemented in games.  In such a structure, the player often takes the role of one or more protagonist characters within a story where the design of the game follows the events of a narrative defined by the game designers.

Early examples of narrative appearing in gaming include such games as Donkey Kong and Super Mario Bros. Games like these follow a very loose definition of narrative where gameplay and narrative exist independent of one another. For example, the gameplay of a Mario game may not be impacted heavily by the removal of narrative elements.

Another standard approach for implementing narrative in games is the use of cutscenes, which breaks up the gameplay and provides context to segments of the game; this can often be found in games that are structured as a series of "levels" or "missions". Cutscenes can be limiting, however, long segments of gameplay can often create a disconnect between scenes and remove players' immersion. An example of this is the games in the Halo franchise which rely heavily on cutscenes at the beginning and end of gameplay segments to provide context to the game.

True integration of gameplay and narrative is often found in role-playing games where there is no difference between gameplay and narrative. It often involves having players make choices and interact directly with narrative elements. Games like The Elder Scrolls give the player freedom to interact with and affect a number of narratives and sub-narratives with in-game actions.

The integration of gameplay and narrative can often lead to unique solutions and design choices. For example, the game, Dishonored 2 features a gameplay segment where the player is able to time travel between the past and present at will; such gameplay elements allow the player to witness a ruined location prior to the events which lead to its destruction, which allows the player to discover and alter the narrative of in-game events.

The organic player-driven discovered narrative is also present in the Dark Souls games, which similarly allows the player to explore a ruined world, where the narrative is revealed through various artifacts and items that the player may find. This allows the player to organically discover or not discover the greater narrative of the game-world, while simultaneously rewarding the player for deeper exploration of the same.

## Narrative in Analog Gaming

Narrative in analog gaming is difficult to create but has a profound effect on the players' experience. Analog games do not have the same tools at their disposal as digital games; this naturally means that different techniques are employed to integrate narrative.

Often at times, the narrative is represented in a game through the means of artwork which correlates the in-game mechanics to the events of the narrative. This is the primary way that an overarching narrative is integrated into the trading card game, such as Magic: the Gathering. Magic uses cards as "windows" into an overarching story where a major event is to be represented through artwork and game mechanics. The method of using game mechanics to express important details about characters and worlds is central to the design of the game and allows players to form connections and express elements of themselves through a language of game mechanics.

Analog games do not need to have an overarching story to express the narrative. Card games like Dominion, use game mechanics to represent the basic concepts and the archetypical characters which vary from set to set, based on the setting which the game experience is trying to emulate. For example, the Dominion base set emulates a medieval-European setting and uses game mechanics and artwork to express tropes of that setting. An example of this is the card militia which depicts the scraggly jeering facades of a group of soldiers in mismatched armor. The effect of the card gives the player two, buying power and causes all other players to discard down to 3 cards in hand. Through this simple card design, players are able to extract a basic narrative of militiamen shaking down the passers-by for money. In a similar fashion, the card moat allows the players to ignore the effects of cards with the attack subtype, drawing upon the players' notions of medieval moats and defenses.

There are still less direct ways of integrating gameplay and narrative in analog games. Some games are able to create rich and meaningful player-guided experiences, much like what may be found in a role-playing game. The game *The Mushroom Eaters* attempts to emulate a psychedelic experience, where players must cooperate by taking actions to guide the experience of the group. This game is very unique as the main goal is not necessarily to compete against other players or to win, but to give players the tools to create and guide an experience.