Constraining Interaction to Create Emergent Narrative

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Constraining Interaction to Create Emergent
Narrative

• Greg Costikyan
• CEO, Manifesto Games

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Before 1973...

• People would have looked at you funny if you said
  something like games are a story-telling medium.
• Chess? Monopoly? Candyland? Or even Afrika Korps?

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In 1973, two things happened
Colossal Cave
...and Dungeons Dragons
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Interactive Fiction

• Colossal Cave was considered Interactive
  Fiction from the start...
• Though interaction is limited (few viable actions
  at each location)
• And as fiction, its not that interesting.
• Later games in the genre work better as fiction
  (e.g., Tom Dischs Amnesia)

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Interactive Fiction

• Text adventures no longer a viable commercial
  genrebut they live on as a hobby/literary
  movement (see www.ifcomp.org)
• Graphic adventures declining in popularity, but
  some still appear
• Leads also to action/adventure hybrids (e.g.,
  Psychonauts, Fahrenheit)

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RPG

• Boom in tabletop RPGs in the 70s
• Direct inspiration for computer/console RPGs
  (e.g., Richard Garriotts Akalabeth, the
  precursor to the Ultima series, was based on his
  DD campaign)
• Indirect inspiration for MMOs (via MUDs)
• Leads to LARPs
• In 21st century, spawns the indie RPG movement
  of experimental RPG design
• Still commercially both in tabletop digital
  games

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Cultural Clash over Role of Story Games From
the Start

• In 1977, the Game Manufacturers Association
  (collection mainly of tabletop wargame RPG
  publishers) adopts the name adventure games for
  its field (over the objections of wargame
  publishers who prefer simulation game)
• Every GDC (and before it, CGDC) conference has
  had talks debating the role of stories in games

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...and Continues

• Today the biggest debate among game scholars is
  between narratologists (who view games as a
  form of narrative) and ludologists (who
  maintain they must be viewed as formal systems)
• No end in sight (despite by calls by some, e.g.,
  Janet Murray, for a truce)

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Basic Problem

• Theres a central conflict between the demands of
  story and the demands of games
• Stories are linear. Though they can leap about
  temporally, they are experienced the same way
  every time.
• Games are non-linear. Though they are experienced
  over time, game sessions are different each time.

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From Story to Game

• You can put most games on a continuum from
  story-with-minor game to game-with-vestigial
  story attached.

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Cortazars Hopscotch

• Two Paths.
• But really just a play with time
  (Proust/Remembrance of Things Past,
  Joyce/Ulysses, Vonnegut/Slaughterhouse Five)
• These are hat-tricksnot going to see a genre of
  Hopscotch novels
• But still interesting This is the minimal
  branching narrative (one decision point)
• More game-like than a typical story, but still a
  long way from a game

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Hypertext Fiction

• Robert Coover, Eastgate Systems,
• afternoon a story (Michael Joyce)
• Multiple choices at each node, netlike narrative
• Generally not a predefined resolution, instead
  strives for the reader to have an epiphany after
  exploring enough of the narrative
• But not necessarily a good way to tell stories
• And no goal, aimless browsingnot a good game

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Gamebooks

• A/k/a Choose your own ending or which-way
  books
• Fighting Fantasy
• Branching narrative, sometimes rudimentary game
  system
• Lots of dead ends (but at least one win state)
• Basically the same as hypertextfollow a link to
  the next bit of text

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Solitaire Adventures Paragraph-System
Boardgames

• Solo Adventures are similar to gamebooks, but use
  the more complicated rules of a tabletop RPG,
  thus more potential outcomes
• Para-System Boardgame, leading to occasional
  short gamebook style adventures with resolution.
  Tales of the Arabian Nights.
• Considerably more replayable

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Dragons Lair

• Arcade analog to gamebooks
• Two paths at each decisionpoint, one leads to
  death.
• Popular when introduced (1984) because the first
  game with cinematic-quality visuals
• But sequels failed, because this sucks as a
  gameplay concept.

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Text Graphic Adventures

• More free-form Not predetermined paths, but
  limited game spaces until new ones are opened
  (beads on a string concept)
• Free combination of game objects within spaces
• Not that different from a gamebook, except that
  the text can respond interactively to younew
  paths opened/items available

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Graphic Adventures

• Characters (but limited decision-tree
  interaction)
• Cut scenes (but when overused, kill
  gameplaye.g., Tex Avery Overseer)
• At best, this is a happy compromise Compelling
  story, entertaining gameplay (e.g., Grim
  Fandango)
• All games are structuresbut graphic adventures
  quite constrainednecessary to ensure excellence
  of story

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PC/Console RPGs

• Ultima, Final Fantasy, Zelda, etc.
• Intimately tied to story, but far more freeform
  on a moment-to-moment basis.
• Often multiple ways to overcome obstacles
• Some choice of spaces to enter
• Character growth
• But one (or a handful) of outcomes, story
  experience not much different from player to
  player.

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PC/Console RPGs (cont)

• PC/Console RPGs still highly dependent on
  storybut a greater degree of freedommore
  gamelike
• Limited repeat playability because tied to an
  essentially linear story

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MMORPGs

• Large-scale environment, thousands of players
• Sometimes a story of the game, but players have
  no impact on outcomelinear story irrelevant to
  gameplay.
• Mini-stories in the form of quests.
• Since the game goes on forever, and it is hard to
  allow players to meaningfully impact the world,
  real story is impossible.

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MMORPGs

• To add story, you need to bring the game to a
  conclusion A Tale in the Desert
• Or allow real changes to the world (but hard to
  do in a multi-server environment)
• These are story settingsbut have almost lost
  the connection to story in exchange for becoming
  good social environments as well as good games.

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Tabletop RPG

• Game system very similar (sometimes identical) to
  PC/Console
• --but vastly more freeform since there is a GM,
  players can do anything he deems physically
  possible.
• While there are adventures (pre-written
  stories), most GMs create their own stories for
  their friends.

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Tabletop RPGs

• True roleplaying for the first timeshowing off
  for friends.
• (Roleplaying in MMORPGs is bogus, because no
  possible impact on game outcomes )
• Stories are created through play, and for
  participants, can be if anything more powerful
  than the ones they receive through interactive
  media

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Tabletop RPGs

• but are invariably dull as hell if told to
  non-participants (expedition write-ups suck).
• Many RPGers dont give story a second thought
  more interested in roleplaying, problem solving,
  or character advancement (the Blacow player
  types).

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The Continuum

• Thus, you can view the continuum between
  story-with-minimal interaction (Hopscotch)
  through the game-with-some-story-connection
  (tabletop roleplaying) as an attempt to find
  compromises between the highly linear nature of
  story and the inherently non-linear nature of
  games

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Constraining Gameplay

• I used to think that was all there wasthere was
  only one dimension along which narrative games
  could lie...
• But maybe a better way of thinking about it is
  that to tell a satisfying story, gameplay must be
  constrained to ensure that story does emerge....
• And reducing gameplay to interaction within
  beads on a string is only one way...

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Embedded Stories

• Multiple stories embedded inthe gameeach
  linear, butencountered by players indifferent
  orders, thus improvingreplay value.
• MMO quests.
• Paragraph-system boardgames.
• True of some (not all) console/PC RPGs

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Beads on a StringBut Multiple Paths Within
Each Bead

• Asset development for digitalgames is
  expensivehard to get away from beads on a
  string...
• But you can allow multiple ways to solve each
  problemand multiple ways to shape a character
  (fighter, sneaker, hacker)...
• And multiple outcomes (victories of different
  game factions).

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Ending the MMO

• The never-endingMMO with multiple shards
  essentially cannot permit players to shape the
  overall arc of the story, if any.
• But if you end the game, you can. ATITD has two
  possible outcomes the players accomplish the
  tasks necessary for Pharaoh to triumph over the
  Stranger, in 1 year of playor not.

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A Tale in the Desert (cont)

• And high degree of player freedom during that
  year.
• Commercially riskyyou lose a big piece of the
  player base with each game end.
• But artistically worthwhile.

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My Life with Master

• Narrative arc is explicitlyfixed (the villagers
  willdestroy Master).
• Game explicitly played in scenes with beginnings,
  middles, ends.
• No dierolls for individual actions actions are
  unconstrained.
• But a die-roll is made to determine whether the
  player succeeds or fails in this sceneand he
  must roleplay the results.

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...The Constrained Narrative RPG

• In other words, the game specifically constrains
  the players to an explicit narrative...
• Which can, however, vary greatly in detail from
  playing to playing.
• And unlike traditional RPGs, the burden of
  storytelling is shared among players and PCs.

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The Narrativist RPG

• More generally, a new breedof experimental
  NarrativistRPGs work to share the waythe
  story is shaped among players and GMs
• E.g., Ron Edwardss Sorcerer, in which all
  players have paranormal powers, which they can
  use only by unleashing their inner demonsalways
  at a steep personal price
• Not so much games as storiesbut games as
  theater

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Gamist-Narrativist-Simulationist Theory

• Evolved by Ron Edwards and other participants at
  The Forge
• Attempts to few RPG gameplay as motivated by a
  desire for accomplishment (gamismI want more
  EP), a desire for exploration and verisimilitude
  (simulationismthats not realistic!), or a
  desire to participate in a compelling story
  (narrativism).

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Bartle Yee Player Types

• Interesting overlaps with the Bartle (achievers,
  explorers, socializers, killers) and Yee
  (relationships, immersion, grief play,
  accomplishment, leadership) player types...
• But the motivation behind GNS theory is mainly to
  try to understand how to design games to shape
  narrativist gameplay
• ...And it all ultimately boils down to figuring
  out what set of constraints on gameplay allows
  for a high degree of player freedom, and forces
  the emergence of a coherent narrative.

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Can This Be Done Digitially?

• Its hard to see how (most) GNS-inspired games
  can be modified for use in digital media... Since
  they depend (as all tabletop RPGs do) on the
  creativity and flexibility of a live gamemaster
  (and live players)... But...

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Constraining One Place is Okay if You Free Up
Somewhere Else

• From this, we can learn at least one important
  thing You can impose strong constraints on
  gameplay (e.g., determine in advance the
  outcomeof a scene) if you free up player action
  in other spheres (no die-rolls for
  success/failure of individual actions) thus
  giving players the sense that they still have
  freedom of action within the system

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How Else Can We Constrain Gameplay to Force A
Narrative to Emerge?

• Worth thinking about.
• We need to get away from beads on a stringI
  think weve basically rung the changes on what
  can be done with that approach.

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Approaches to consider...

• Breaking the narrative into discreet chunks that
  can be encountered in multiple orders
• Having more chunks than will be encountered in a
  single play-through, so there are still surprises
  with repeat play
• Imposing a defined arc on the narrative
  (beginning and ending fixed) but allowing high
  degrees of freedom in between.

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In General...

• Conceive of gameplay and story as discrete
  entities, and look for non-traditional ways for
  them to interact with each other.
• Finding different ways to grant players freedom
  of action while working within a constrained
  narrativeor ways of constraining player freedom
  in one area while freeing it in another to
  produce an emergent narrative

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References

• Colossal Cave www.rickadams.org/adventure/
• Interactive Fiction Competition www.ifcomp.org
• Graphic Adventures www.adventuregamers.com/
• Dungeons Dreamers, Brad King John Borland,
  McGraw Hill-Osborne Media, New York, 2003
• The Forge www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/
• Game Manufacturers Association www.gama.org
• Janet Murrays DiGRA 05 talk on
  narratology/ludology www.lcc.gatech.edu/murray/d
  igra05/

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References (cont)

• Hopscotch, Julio Cortazar, Pantheon Books, New
  York, 1987 (originally published in 1966 as La
  Rayuela)
• Robert Coover www.brown.edu/Departments/Literary_
  Arts/coover.htm
• Eastgate Systems www.eastgate.com
• afternoon a story www.eastgate.com/catalog/After
  noon.html

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References (cont)

• A Tale In the Desert www.atitd.com
• My Life With Master www.halfmeme.com/master.html
• Sorcerer www.sorcerer-rpg.com
• GNS Theory www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/1/
• Bartle player types www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.ht
  m
• Yee player types www.nickyee.com/facets/home.html