Narrative Mechanics : Strategies and Meanings in Games and Real Life / Beat Suter, René Bauer, Mela Kocher

• Author: Suter, Beat
• HerausgeberIn: Suter, Beat; Bauer, René; Kocher, Mela
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Edition Medienwissenschaft
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (362 p.)

What do stories in games have in common with political narratives? This book identifies narrative strategies as mechanisms for meaning and manipulation in games and real life. It shows that the narrative mechanics so clearly identifiable in games are increasingly used (and abused) in politics and social life. They have »many faces«, displays and interfaces. They occur as texts, recipes, stories, dramas in three acts, movies, videos, tweets, journeys of heroes, but also as rewarding stories in games and as narratives in society - such as a career from rags to riches, the concept of modernity or market economy. Below their surface, however, narrative mechanics are a particular type of motivational design - of game mechanics.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Playing with Narratives -- Narrative Mechanics -- Narrative Patterns in Video Games -- Teaching Narrative Design -- The Narrative Role of Sound in Games -- Expanding the Narrative -- Mukokuseki and the Narrative Mechanics in Japanese Games -- Characterization and Emergent Narrative in Dwarf Fortress -- On the Evolution of Narrative Mechanics in Open-World Games -- Open-End Storytelling in Pinball Machines -- Mechanics of Inspiration -- Narrative Approaches in Contemporary Video Game Reviews -- Games, Politics and Society -- "We're not murderers. We just survive." -- QUIZ -- Ludic Meanders through Defictionalization: The Narrative Mechanics of Art -- If You Play It, Do You Believe It? -- Ball Games and Language Games -- Case Studies -- Florence -- The Last Guardian -- Murder at the Museum -- Even Missile Command Tells a Story -- Shave -- The Twitter Game -- Commander Kurz -- Authors