Ben’s presentation on ‘live-action gaming’ and interactive narrative was great. The concepts discussed were really interesting and his explanations of real-world games were particularly useful as my group is currently planning to create an ARG for our final transmedia project. Below I’ll discuss some of the ideas Ben introduced to us…
Emergent Narrative:
An emergent narrative is one which can often be found in games of all variations. Many games don’t feature a pre-determined or scripted narrative, and instead allow players to forge their own stories and experiences through interactions with other players and the game’s mechanics and environments.
‘Open world’ and ‘Sandbox’ games quite clearly provide an ’emergent narrative’ experience. They don’t force players to follow any particular story, and instead they allow players to explore their digital environments in order to create their own experiences and personal stories. ‘Dayz’ is a game which fosters emergent narratives exceptionally well. Because it has no scripted narrative, players are given a great sense of freedom to explore, in turn allowing players to create immensely detailed and personal narrative experiences.
Emergent narratives can also be encouraged in real-world gaming. Through the examples he gave, Ben made it clear that the production of interactive games can also allow players to experience a range of customised/personalised narratives. I thought it was interesting to discuss the ways players can both ‘make’ and ‘find’ their own narratives within a game system.
For our transmedia project we are aiming to produce an ARG in which players can explore and interact with a detailed set of characters and events. We’re hoping that we can create an environment in which audience members can (to a certain extent) follow their own path and design a unique and personalised story experience. By creating a central storyline that’s shrouded in mystery and conspiracy, (and through developing a rich back-story) we’re planning to encourage our audience members to investigate the areas of our story which most interest them and therefore each player should be capable of crafting their own version of the story.
Giving players a new perspective of their reality:
Ben explained how ARG’s and other games which are set in the real-world can provide players with a new view of their familiar world. By creating game-experiences in everyday locations (such as Federation Square or a local park) players can be given memories which will arise whenever the player returns to that location. I think this ability to add colour and fantasy into someone’s ordinary world is something special, it’s certainly a thought-provoking concept to discuss and explore.
Given the fact that we’re currently planning to implement real-world activities in our transmedia project, this is definitely an idea worth thinking about as we move forwards.