لطفا منتظر باشید ...
A Framework for "Narrative"
Before we go any further, let's define the key term of this schema, narrative. Rather than coming up with our own definition, we borrow one from literary theorist J. Hillis Miller. In his essay "Narrative," he outlines a handful of components that constitute a narrative: There must be, first of all, an initial situation, a sequence leading to a change or reversal of that situation, and a revelation made possible by the reversal of the situation. Second, there must be some use of personification whereby character is created out of signs— for example, the words on the page in a written narrative, the modulated sounds in the air in an oral narrative. However important plot may be, without personification there can be no story-telling….Third, there must be some patterning or repetition of key elements.[3]
Miller's model for understanding narrative contains the following elements:
Situation: A narrative has an initial state, a change in that state, and insight brought about by that change. This process constitutes the events of a narrative.
Character: A narrative is not merely a series of events, but a personification of events though a medium such as language. Miller doesn't mean character in the usual sense of fictional persona, but rather the process by which "character is created out of signs." This component references narratives as not just events that take place in the world, but as represented events, events that occur via systems of representation.
Form: Representation is constituted by patterning and repetition. This is true on every level of a narrative, whether it is the material form of the story or its conceptual themes.
Miller goes on to note that "even narratives that do not fit this paradigm draw their meaning from the way they play ironically against our deeply engrained expectations that all narratives are going to be like that."[4]
How do games relate to Miller's definition of narrative? From a formal perspective, they fit the definition very well. Take Chess, for example. Chess has a beginning state (when it is set up for a game), changes to that state (the game play), and a resulting insight (the outcome). It is a personified representation, a stylized depiction of war, complete with a cast of differentiated characters. The game also takes place in highly patterned structures of time (turns) and space (the checkerboard grid). Miller's definition of narrative is succinct, but it is also very abstract. All games are narrative by this definition, as is literature, theater, and film. Many other kinds of experiences also fall into the wide net Miller casts, some of them activities or objects we might not normally think of as narrative, such as a marriage ceremony, a meal, or an argument. All contain situation, character, and form of the sort that Miller outlines. (A meal, for example, has a beginning, middle, and end, it comes to pass through systems of culinary representation, and it involves formal patterning on many levels.) The cleverness of Miller's definition lies in the fact that it is so inclusive, while still rigorously defining exactly what a narrative is. Miller's model helps us understand exactly which components of a game come into focus when we consider them from a narrative perspective. Miller's definition is in some ways a formal approach to narrative. Events, characters, and patterned action describe the qualities of the narrative object, rather than the experience of that object. Because Games as Narrative Play falls within our primary schema PLAY,our intention is not just to arrive at a formal understanding of narrative (What are the elements of a story?) but instead an experiential one (How do the elements of a story engender a meaningful experience?). In our schemas based on PLAY, our concern is with the experience of players: their internal state of mind, and the relationships they form with each other and with the dynamic system of a game. If we shift Miller's definition of narrative into an experiential framework, we can begin to discuss narrative play in familiar terms. Everything we know so far about the experiential components of games— that they are complex sensual and psychological systems, that they create meaning through choice-making and metacommunication, that they sculpt and manipulate desire—are tools for crafting narrative experiences. These experiences emerge from the design of events, actions, and characters. Take our analysis of Centipede, from Games as the Play of Experience. The taut interaction between the game's five elements—mushrooms, centipedes, spiders, scorpions, and fleas—provides a formal framework filled with the possibility of narrative play. Each type of creature interacts with the mushrooms in different ways. Accordingly, the personification of each creature's interaction, the way that it becomes a meaningful representation, is based on its designed relationships. Spiders eat mushrooms, for example, whereas scorpions poison them. When shot, the deadly centipede's segments transform into mushrooms, an evolutionary action that changes the state of the creature from insect to landscape. Although these interactions are formal on one level, players experience them within a narratively descriptive space. How do we design such a space? How can we design game events as narrative events? What kinds of personifications do game actions allow? Next we begin to address these questions by looking in detail at one game, through an experiential application of Miller's framework. [3]J. Hillis Miller, "Narrative, " In Critical Terms for Literary Study, edited by Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1990), p. 77.[4]Ibid. p. 76.
