Narratives

Any game with a metaphor creates a narrative, as the changing state of the game represents change over the relationship between its metaphoric components. A designer who takes this a step further, and creates a specific story which is told by playing a game, rather than merely a scenario described by it, is employing a narrative metaphor. Storytelling conventions such as plot, characterization, theme, mood, et cetera can be used to improve the entertainment value of a game and to more distinctly establish its own theme.

A game master is often useful to heighten the dramatic impact of a game's narrative, since storytelling often employs characters' limited knowledge, and the presentation of this narrative can be further enhanced by the use of a computer for multimedia effects.

There are two widely practiced ways for a narrative to be a part of a game, and they are by no means mutually exclusive. The first is by creating a different scenario for each event in the story, typically represented as a challenge, and allowing the player to progress through the story by winning each scenario sequentially. The second is by establishing more open-ended, toy-like scenarios, in which the player's actions toward winning the scenario take the form of a story "written" by the player. The first approach may be called linear, while the second may be called interactive.

The essential elements of a narratively-driven game are largely the same as those of a narrative: some acting force with certain abilities, or a character; a motivation for that character; an obstacle which limits the character's choices, or conflict; and events transpiring which alter the situation, or plot.

The most common solution for corresponding the elements of stories and games is to give each player a role, or a single character with known motivation, the fulfillment of which creates a story by interacting with the other game elements. These elements are organized into patterns which require the role to overcome them, and the amount of influence which the player possesses over the specific method used to overcome them roughly corresponds to the extent to which the game's narrative is linear or interactive.

There are, naturally, other approaches. Games have been made in which the players are less characters and more narrators, and the characters and plot are the game elements with which players interact. Since a game is fundamentally the manipulation of a system, any way that a story can be written is grounds for the structure of a game.