The One True Dave

Hello All!  I am currently working on a chapter to be included in an anthology on player agency within video games.  Mine has a definite theatre guy/post-Aristotelian bent to it – with a generous sprinkling of affect theory to boot.  Here’s a sampler (below).  Of course, I am still working on it but if you have a couple cents to share inspired by my introduction, feel free to comment!  Oh, and share my blog with others!!!

The Illusion of Agency and the Affect of Control within Video Games

“There is a distinction between playing a creative role within an authored environment and having authorship of the environment itself” (Murray 152).

True control over the narrative of a game implies input in the creation of the narrative itself.  To the player, however, the feeling of having input in the game story – narrative agency – is an illusion akin to suspension of disbelief in theatre.  The audience/player wants to believe their actions matter within the game environment and have “real” impact on the outcome.  On some level the theatergoer knows they are actors on a stage.  Likewise, the game player knows every option available within the game narrative has been predetermined.  The illusion of agency for the player, however, is the affect of being in control, of becoming immersed within the game story and environment, of becoming emotionally invested in the outcome of the story.  A sense of having agency within the game – control over events and narrative choices that matter – inspires emotional and affective investment and a willingness to immerse.

Just as not all styles of theatre demand the same intensity of suspension of disbelief – for example: farce, melodrama, realism, musicals, and image-based theatre (among many divergent styles) all engage a very different set of conventions and standards of plausibility for the audience – and so too, not all games are equal in that respect.  Games of emergence like Go, Chess, Civilization, and Star Craft are rife with ludic elements, permutations of the game play are immensely varied and the inclusion of narrative is secondary.  These games seem to function better with a critical distance from the narrative that seems almost Brechtian (except without the Marxist ideology in most cases) to aid in the calculation of strategy. This is in opposition to games of progression where story is stressed over game rules. Games like first person shooters (FPSs) and role-playing games (RPGs) require ludic systems to shape how the player interacts with the game world but their narrative elements are essential in that they: a) create empathy for the avatar, b) encourage immersion into the game world, and c) give a sense that the player’s actions and decisions matter on a deeper, affective, level.  Narrative provides why the actions matter. Game scholar Michael Mateas says “agency is a necessary condition for immersion” (26) and as game designers have been striving to create deeper immersion, I will isolate some of the strategies to create, if not true agency, then its affect.