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Retelling Game Stories
It's natural for players to construct a story from a game play experience, but it is not inevitable, nor is the story the game.—Greg Costikyan, RE:PLAY
Narrative has happened, or been created, while "playing" is always happening, a particular realization of the potential offered by the game, the precise shape or outcome of which is indeterminate.—Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska, "Computer Games / Cinema / Interfaces"
When does the narrative play of a game become a narrative about the play of the game? When is game experience retold as story? There is a difference between playing the narrative of a game and telling the story about that play experience. Up to this point in the present schema our exploration has dealt strictly with narrative play within the space of the magic circle. We examined how narrative play emerges from elements within the game world and how game designers can craft meaningful narrative contexts for their players. But narrative play can also occur when a story is created through a recounting of a game experience. Why does this retelling occur? Below are examples of various reasons why players re-count game experiences. To recount a particularly dramatic victory: You should have seen it! I had just a sliver of health left, but I threw one of those elbow-backfist-spin-kick combos, followed by a triple dragon punch. I barely finished him off!
To share a series of story events: In a game last week our characters were attacked and we were forced into an emergency landing on an asteroid. We were rescued by the local population who fed us and took care of our injured crew. But unbeknownst to everyone, we were carrying a virus deadly to their species, spawning an epidemic. Many people died. To share strategic information: I found this secret door at the beginning of the mission that let me sneak up behind the demon snipers and I was able to get through the entire level using only the chainsaw.
To celebrate the pleasure of play: I was running so fast I felt like I was flying! It is common for players to construct stories out of game play experience, creating narratives that exist separately from the actual narrative play in the game. This is a subtle point that bears repeating. Narrative play within game play emerges from a player's interaction with the game system. Narrative play outside of game play is the retelling of this experience in story form. This phenomenon of retelling play shouldn't seem surprising. When we see a great movie or overcome a life obstacle, there is a natural tendency to share this personal information with friends. Games can also represent powerful experiences in our lives that we want to share and relive with others, particularly other game players that will appreciate the details of play. Retelling play helps build communities of players through a common interest in the experience of a particular game.
Retelling play can take many diverse forms, such as verbally recounting a Dungeons & Dragons encounter, pantomiming a thrilling Basketball play, posting a sequence of edited Sim City screenshots online, writing fan fiction about an EverQuest adventure, watching an instant replay in a drag racing stadium, text-chatting about a Tennis match post-game, or uploading a recorded demo of a Quake deathmatch to a community web-site. Because retelling play is such a common phenomenon, game designers have found many strategies for fostering it. What about including an instant messaging system within your online game that allows players to comment on the action while playing? Or allowing players to review recorded game actions after the fact? Or providing functions that let players take screengrabs of your game to post online? All of these are existing devices game designers use to support re-telling play. In the next few pages, we look at strategies for designing retelling play in more detail.
