Strategies for Game Narratives

Here are a few examples of the ways that game narratives can be constructed. They are not mutually exclusive.

• Game as Narrator: The events of the game are the literal events of the story, with leeway given to accommodate the player's competence (if, for example, a part of the game must be repeated altogether, not just revisited, the previous attempt is dismissed as inaccurate). In this strategy, players' actions in the past must be acknowledged by the state of the game.
  
• Game as Reader: The events of the narrative are set in stone, and the events of the game take place as a loose imagining of how the unspoken details may have been the same. This is similar to the Game as Storyteller strategy, except that the players' actions may be disregarded by the narrative, the state, or both if they contradict the narrative.
• Player as Author: The major direction (rather than the minute details) of the narrative are determined in response to the players' actions.
  
• Game as Author: The narrative is determined as a consequence of the interaction of game mechanics with each other, in a manner perhaps influenced but not controlled by player actions.
• Player as Character: Player controls or directly influences the actions of a single entity in the narrative, and all other entities are beyond that player's control.
• Player as Narrator: Player controls the context in which several narrative entities interact, but may not directly control the actions of any.