transmedia zurich: narrative and story structure in games and media

Transmedia Zurich

June 27th 2013Colab Zurich

Mark Melnykowycz

Narrative and Story Structure in Games and Media

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Story

Narrative

• Story, a recounting of a sequence of events*• An account of imaginary or real people and events told for

entertainment: "an adventure story"**

• A narrative (or story) is any account that presents connected events***

• A spoken or written account of connected events; a story: "a bare narrative of the details"**

*Wikipedia**Google dictionary***Oxford English Dictionary (online)

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Horrible Definitions

Those were...

...what about humans, empathy and emotions?

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Society

Emotions

Know

ledg

eStory

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Shared emotions help form the fabric of society

...storytelling is a vehicle used to combine emotions and information

...and communicate those feelings and information in a structure which gives us comfort or instills feelings of fear,

optimism, etc.

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Emotions

Memories

Connections

Structure

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Storytelling gives emotional context to our linear lives

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Birth Death

Physical time is linear

Emotional memory is non-linear

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Story

Connect current events to good feelings from the past

Play out emotions we can’t explore in reality

Hope in the future and our confidence to meet challenges

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Die Hard...makes me feel good about my chances of surviving a

dramatic terrorist attack

...statistically it will probably never happen, but I’m sort of mentally prepared if it does

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How are Communication Patterns Evolving?

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Trends

M2M Devices

Device Fragmentation

Evolving Communication

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Evolution of Communication

Face to FaceWeb

Static HTMLBlogging (active HTML)Instant Messaging

Email

Social Networks

Location ServicesWritingPrinting

Copier

TelephoneMobileSMS

MMS

Fragmented Lines

Push/PullTransmedia

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Story Structure

What is traditional story structure?Does it conflict with our fragmented communication

patterns?

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Many different models of story structure for different media

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The Basics

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Hero Villain Conflict17

ResolutionTransformationChallenge

Over-coming extreme odds...to succeed in the end

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http://www.musik-therapie.at/PederHill/Structure&Plot.htm http://wandertones.deviantart.com/art/Standard-Story-Structure-178276496

Linear Story Structure

Rising drama to an apex with essential plot points

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Joseph Campbell

“Campbell explores the theory that important myths from around the

world which have survived for thousands of years all

share a fundamental structure, which Campbell

called the monomyth.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces

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THE HERO IS INTRODUCED IN HIS ORDINARY WORLD

THE CALL TO ADVENTURE

THE HERO IS RELUCTANT AT FIRST

THE HERO IS ENCOURAGED BY THE WISE OLD MAN OR WOMAN

THE HERO PASSES THE FIRST THRESHOLD

THE HERO ENCOUNTERS TESTS AND HELPERS

THE HERO REACHES THE INNERMOST CAVE

THE HERO ENDURES THE SUPREME ORDEAL

THE HERO SIEZES THE SWORD

THE ROAD BACK

RESURRECTION

RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR

The Hero’s Journey

http://www.cs.uu.nl/docs/vakken/b2go/docs/hero_journey.pdf

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Why is the Hero’s Journey structure so popular in movies and media?

Fairy Tales, mythsStar Wars, The Matrix, etc.

Do we like it because we expect it and are conditioned for it?

Is it inherent in our minds and DNA?

Does it hold us back in life? Must we be chosen to do great things by someone else?

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Games and Story

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GamesConfront a challenge

Understand your progress

Play

Interactive with the world

Interact with other players

Actions have consequences

Conquer small quests

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MetalStorm

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G.I. Joe storyline

I love playing MetalStorm because I saw Top Gun and played After Burner a few times in the 80‘s and liked G.I. Joe.

Live out the emotions of a fighter pilot risk free

MetalStorm

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http://www.slideshare.net/gbanga/transmedia-and-mixedreality-gaming

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Thank You Colab Zurichfor hosting!

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Mark Melnykowycz@americanpeyoteidezo.chLostinreality.net

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