Constraining Interaction to Create
Emergent Narrative
Greg Costikyan
CEO, Manifesto Games
Before 1973...
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People would have looked at you funny if you
said something like “games are a story-telling
medium.
Chess? Monopoly? Candyland? Or even
Afrika Korps?
In 1973, two things happened
Colossal Cave:
...and Dungeons &
Dragons:
“Interactive Fiction”
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Colossal Cave was considered “Interactive
Fiction” from the start...
Though interaction is limited (few viable
actions at each location)
And as fiction, it’s not that interesting.
Later games in the genre work better as
fiction (e.g., Tom Disch’s Amnesia)
Interactive Fiction
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Text adventures no longer a viable
commercial genre—but they live on as a
hobby/literary movement (see
www.ifcomp.org)
Graphic adventures declining in popularity,
but some still appear
Leads also to “action/adventure hybrids”
(e.g., Psychonauts, Fahrenheit)
RPG
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Boom in tabletop RPGs in the 70s
Direct inspiration for computer/console RPGs (e.g.,
Richard Garriott’s Akalabeth, the precursor to the Ultima
series, was based on his D&D campaign)
Indirect inspiration for MMOs (via MUDs)
Leads to LARPs
In 21st century, spawns the “indie RPG” movement of
experimental RPG design
Still commercially both in tabletop & digital games
Cultural Clash over Role of Story &
Games From the Start
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In 1977, the Game Manufacturer’s
Association (collection mainly of tabletop
wargame & RPG publishers) adopts the
name “adventure games” for its field (over
the objections of wargame publishers who
prefer “simulation game”)
Every GDC (and before it, CGDC)
conference has had talks debating the role of
stories in games
...and Continues
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Today the biggest debate among game
scholars is between “narratologists” (who
view games as a form of narrative) and
“ludologists” (who maintain they must be
viewed as formal systems)
No end in sight (despite by calls by some,
e.g., Janet Murray, for a truce)
Basic Problem:
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There’s a central conflict between the
demands of story and the demands of games
Stories are linear. Though they can leap
about temporally, they are experienced the
same way every time.
Games are non-linear. Though they are
experienced over time, game sessions are
different each time.
From Story to Game
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You can put most games on a continuum
from “story-with-minor game” to “game-withvestigial story attached”.
Cortazar’s Hopscotch
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Two Paths.
But really just a play with time
(Proust/Remembrance of Things Past,
Joyce/Ulysses, Vonnegut/Slaughterhouse Five)
These are hat-tricks—not going to see a genre of
Hopscotch novels
But still interesting: This is the minimal branching
narrative (one decision point)
More game-like than a typical story, but still a
long way from a game
Hypertext Fiction
Robert Coover, Eastgate Systems,
afternoon: a story (Michael Joyce)
 Multiple choices at each node, netlike narrative
 Generally not a predefined resolution, instead
strives for the reader to have an epiphany after
exploring enough of the narrative
 But… not necessarily a good way to tell stories…
 And… no goal, aimless browsing—not a good
game
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Gamebooks
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A/k/a “Choose your own ending” or
“which-way” books
Fighting Fantasy
Branching narrative, sometimes rudimentary game
system
Lots of dead ends (but at least one ‘win state’)
Basically the same as hypertext—follow a link to the
next bit of text…
Solitaire Adventures &
Paragraph-System Boardgames
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Solo Adventures are similar
to gamebooks, but use the
more complicated rules of a
tabletop RPG, thus more
potential outcomes
Para-System: Boardgame,
leading to occasional short
gamebook style adventures
with resolution. Tales of the
Arabian Nights.
–
Considerably more
replayable
Dragon’s Lair
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Arcade analog to
gamebooks
Two paths at each decision
point, one leads to death.
Popular when introduced (1984) because the first
game with cinematic-quality visuals…
But sequels failed, because this sucks as a gameplay
concept.
Text & Graphic Adventures
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More free-form: Not predetermined paths, but limited
game spaces until new ones are opened (beads on
a string concept)
Free combination of game objects within spaces
Not that different from a gamebook, except that the
‘text’ can respond interactively to you—new paths
opened/items available
Graphic Adventures
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Characters (but limited decision-tree interaction)
Cut scenes (but when overused, kill gameplay—e.g.,
Tex Avery: Overseer)
At best, this is a happy compromise: Compelling
story, entertaining gameplay (e.g., Grim Fandango)
All games are structures—but graphic adventures
quite constrained—necessary to ensure excellence
of story
PC/Console RPGs
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Ultima, Final Fantasy, Zelda, etc.
Intimately tied to story, but far more freeform on a moment-tomoment basis.
Often multiple ways to overcome obstacles
Some choice of spaces to enter
Character growth
But one (or a handful) of outcomes, story experience not much
different from player to player.
PC/Console RPGs (con’t)
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PC/Console RPGs still highly dependent on
story—but a greater degree of freedom—
more “gamelike”
Limited repeat playability because tied to an
essentially linear story
MMORPGs
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Large-scale environment, thousands of players
Sometimes a “story of the game,” but players have no
impact on outcome—linear story irrelevant to gameplay.
Mini-stories in the form of quests.
Since the game goes on forever, and it is hard to allow
players to meaningfully impact the world, real story is
impossible.
MMORPGs
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To add story, you need to bring the game to a
conclusion: A Tale in the Desert…
Or allow real changes to the world (but hard to do in
a multi-server environment)
These are “story settings”—but have almost lost the
connection to story in exchange for becoming good
social environments as well as good games.
Tabletop RPG
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Game system very similar (sometimes identical) to
PC/Console
--but vastly more freeform: since there is a GM, players
can do anything he deems physically possible.
While there are “adventures” (=pre-written stories),
most GMs create their own stories for their friends.
Tabletop RPGs
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True ‘roleplaying’ for the first time—showing
off for friends.
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(“Roleplaying” in MMORPGs is bogus, because
no possible impact on game outcomes… )
“Stories” are created through play, and for
participants, can be if anything more
powerful than the ones they receive through
interactive media…
Tabletop RPGs
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…but are invariably dull as hell if told to nonparticipants (expedition write-ups suck).
Many RPGers don’t give story a second
thought: more interested in roleplaying,
problem solving, or character advancement
(the Blacow player types).
The Continuum
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Thus, you can view the continuum between
story-with-minimal interaction (Hopscotch)
through the game-with-some-storyconnection (tabletop roleplaying) as an
attempt to find compromises between the
highly linear nature of story and the
inherently non-linear nature of games
Constraining Gameplay
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I used to think that was all there was—there
was only one dimension along which
“narrative games” could lie...
But maybe a better way of thinking about it is
that to tell a satisfying story, gameplay must
be constrained to ensure that story does
emerge....
And reducing gameplay to interaction within
“beads on a string” is only one way...
“Embedded Stories”
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Multiple stories embedded in
the game—each linear, but
encountered by players in
different orders, thus improving
replay value.
MMO quests.
“Paragraph-system boardgames.”
True of some (not all) console/PC RPGs
Beads on a String—
But Multiple Paths Within
Each Bead
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Asset development for digital
games is expensive—hard to get away from
“beads on a string”...
But you can allow multiple ways to solve
each problem—and multiple ways to shape a
character (fighter, sneaker, hacker)...
And multiple outcomes (victories of different
game factions).
Ending the MMO
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The “never-ending”
MMO with multiple shards essentially cannot
permit players to shape the overall arc of the
story, if any.
But if you end the game, you can. ATITD has
two possible outcomes: the players
accomplish the tasks necessary for Pharaoh
to triumph over the Stranger, in 1 year of
play—or not.
A Tale in the Desert (con’t)
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And high degree of player freedom during
that year.
Commercially risky—you lose a big piece of
the player base with each game end.
But artistically worthwhile.
My Life with Master
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Narrative arc is explicitly
fixed (the villagers will
destroy Master).
Game explicitly played in scenes with
beginnings, middles, ends.
No dierolls for individual actions; actions are
unconstrained.
But a die-roll is made to determine whether
the player “succeeds” or “fails” in this
scene—and he must roleplay the results.
...The Constrained Narrative RPG
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In other words, the game specifically
constrains the players to an explicit
narrative...
Which can, however, vary greatly in detail
from playing to playing.
And unlike traditional RPGs, the burden of
storytelling is shared among players and
PCs.
The “Narrativist” RPG
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More generally, a new breed
of experimental “Narrativist”
RPGs work to share the way
the story is shaped among players and GMs
E.g., Ron Edwards’s Sorcerer, in which all
players have paranormal powers, which they
can use only by unleashing their inner
demons—always at a steep personal price
Not so much “games as stories”—but “games
as theater”
Gamist-Narrativist-Simulationist
Theory
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Evolved by Ron Edwards and other
participants at The Forge
Attempts to few RPG gameplay as motivated
by a desire for accomplishment (gamism—”I
want more EP”), a desire for exploration and
verisimilitude (simulationism—”that’s not
realistic!”), or a desire to participate in a
compelling story (narrativism).
Bartle & Yee Player Types
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Interesting overlaps with the Bartle (achievers,
explorers, socializers, killers) and Yee (relationships,
immersion, grief play, accomplishment, leadership)
player types...
But the motivation behind GNS theory is mainly to try
to understand how to design games to shape
narrativist gameplay
...And it all ultimately boils down to figuring out what
set of constraints on gameplay allows for a high
degree of player freedom, and forces the emergence
of a coherent narrative.
Can This Be Done Digitially?
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It’s hard to see how (most) GNS-inspired
games can be modified for use in digital
media... Since they depend (as all tabletop
RPGs do) on the creativity and flexibility of a
live gamemaster (and live players)... But...
Constraining One Place is Okay if You
Free Up Somewhere Else
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From this, we can learn at least one
important thing: You can impose strong
constraints on gameplay (e.g., determine in
advance the outcomeof a scene) if you free
up player action in other spheres (no die-rolls
for success/failure of individual actions) thus
giving players the sense that they still have
freedom of action within the system
How Else Can We Constrain Gameplay
to Force A Narrative to Emerge?
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Worth thinking about.
We need to get away from “beads on a
string”—I think we’ve basically rung the
changes on what can be done with that
approach.
Approaches to consider...
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Breaking the narrative into discreet chunks
that can be encountered in multiple orders
Having more chunks than will be
encountered in a single play-through, so
there are still surprises with repeat play
Imposing a defined arc on the narrative
(beginning and ending fixed) but allowing
high degrees of freedom in between.
In General...
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Conceive of gameplay and story as discrete
entities, and look for non-traditional ways for
them to interact with each other.
Finding different ways to grant players
“freedom of action” while working within a
constrained narrative—or ways of
constraining player freedom in one area
while freeing it in another to produce an
emergent narrative
References
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Colossal Cave: www.rickadams.org/adventure/
Interactive Fiction Competition: www.ifcomp.org
Graphic Adventures: www.adventuregamers.com/
Dungeons & Dreamers, Brad King & John Borland,
McGraw Hill-Osborne Media, New York, 2003
The Forge: www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/
Game Manufacturer’s Association; www.gama.org
Janet Murray’s DiGRA 05 talk on
narratology/ludology:
www.lcc.gatech.edu/~murray/digra05/
References (con’t)
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Hopscotch, Julio Cortazar, Pantheon Books, New
York, 1987 (originally published in 1966 as La
Rayuela)
Robert Coover:
www.brown.edu/Departments/Literary_Arts/coover.ht
m
Eastgate Systems: www.eastgate.com
afternoon: a story:
www.eastgate.com/catalog/Afternoon.html
References (con’t)
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A Tale In the Desert: www.atitd.com
My Life With Master:
www.halfmeme.com/master.html
Sorcerer: www.sorcerer-rpg.com
GNS Theory: www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/1/
Bartle player types:
www.mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm
Yee player types:
www.nickyee.com/facets/home.html