The stories are analysed using six parameters. The first five are suggested by Bizzocchi [9] for considering narrative models in games: storyworld, character, emotion, interface and micro-narrative. The last combines plot and action, highlighted by Ryan and Hannah [10] in their description of challenges for modelling narratives in human-computer interaction.
The three stories relating to the site are independent, taking place in the same story space but set in different centuries.
They each concern the mysterious death of a person connected with Woolwich Arsenal. Information is gradually revealed as the player collects clues. In some ways, BWTG was like a classic murder mystery game, with players taking the roles of detectives, each trying to solve the puzzles before the others. From another point of view, players resembled a mobile audience, following the actors around the location in an outdoor theatrical production.
The three stories relating to the site are independent, taking place in the same story space but set in different centuries.
They each concern the mysterious death of a person connected with Woolwich Arsenal. Information is gradually revealed as the player collects clues. In some ways, BWTG was like a classic murder mystery game, with players taking the roles of detectives, each trying to solve the puzzles before the others. From another point of view, players resembled a mobile audience, following the actors around the location in an outdoor theatrical production.
1. Storyworld
Kevin Walker comments, in his article “Building Narrative Trails in Museums” [11], that it is very difficult to measure what people learn as they wander round physical spaces, but in any case, the emphasis of the work was not educational but rather collaborative and community-building. Montola, Stenros and Waern [12], referring to spatially expanded games and local history, claim that: “... the most powerful tool for telling a location-based story is through the authentic physical space...” In the BWTG, the storyworld became a very strong component of the gameplay, conforming to Henry Jenkins’ ideas about spatiality [13], although he is primarily referring to invented virtual space. Key information was already embedded in the location. The site is by the Thames, thereby offering important contextual information and clear associations even though the area has changed beyond recognition since the days when it was a working ordnance depot, military centre and munitions factory. In addition, there are many plaques around Woolwich Arsenal, describing historical events that took place, while the museums also provide a rich source of material. People were encouraged to enjoy and explore their surroundings – sculptures invited interpretation, proximity to the river helped give an idea of the story space and exhibition pieces were evocative.
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| Students preparing the location |
The BWTG required us to plant extra clues, such as chalk marks, arrows and laminated chunks of the narrative, which corresponded to a direct manipulation of the environment in order to enhance the players’ experience. These physical markers can be seen as game affordances. Markus Montola [14] points out that pervasive games blur the boundaries of what is real and what is imaginary, breaking out of Salem and Zimmerman’s [15] metaphorical “magic circle” that traditionally defines the play space for a game. This phenomenon becomes more complex with regard to the voices of the characters, described in the following section.
2. Character
Novelists are free from any imperative to be truthful, but the writers of location-based games in educational sites such as museums may need to include a “fiction” warning in order to be explicit about the nature of their work, something that is the antithesis of “TINAG” [16]. In this case, the ghosts’ voices were written with the intention of revealing through their words their characters and the kind of world they inhabited. The format (short monologues) left no room for exposition, but the limitations also provided simplicity and clarity.
Propp’s 1926 [17] deconstruction of folk tales to reveal the principle plots and characters is being used today by game designers to help develop computer-generated agents and storylines. The stereotypical characters that occur in folk tales are instantly recognisable. Their attributes are already well known and we know how they will react in a given situation, therefore making them easier to model. Retrospectively comparing the construction of characters in the BWTG with Propp’s stereotypes, we could associate them as follows: the hero is the player; the villain is the person responsible for someone’s death; the prize is discovering the solution to the mystery; the authority figure and dispatcher are the game system; the magical helper and the donor are ghosts providing information. It could also be argued that from each player’s perspective, the other players in a competitive multiplayer game correspond to false heroes.
These links may be consequential in a future version of the interactive stories. Not every story is a heroic quest like Campbell’s Hero’s Journey [18], although character story arc remains an important component of narrative.
3. Emotion
On the other hand, good fiction aspires to generate emotional responses in the reader, and Ernest Adams [7] suggests identifying emotional goals such as: “suspense, surprise, pathos, caring or nurturing, affection, constructive achievement, triumph, comedy, irony...”
Perron [19] describes a different kind of emotional response that he calls “G emotion”, meaning the reaction experienced during gameplay. This is related to the challenge involved in playing and whether the player is being successful or not. Both these types of emotion are considered in the discussion on Deployment and Feedback.
4. Interface
From players’ point of view, the game system was realised as a collection of “spirits” from the past, who communicated with them using SMS. Clearly this in itself was ironic and contributed to the players’ awareness that they were part of a constructed experience. No-one expressed anxiety about malign spirits hiding in the location. Players were initially given a sheet of instructions and used their own phones to interact with the game using text messages.
Other than an evocation of “ghosts in the machine” [20], the idea of the spirit world engaging with you via text messages on your mobile phone lacks the drama that, for example, a GPS-induced hologram might create. However, design constraints included the technical capability of the players’ handsets and the cost to them of joining the game. We wanted to try and ensure that everyone would be able to participate, which meant interacting with the game as well as receiving data. Development using text messaging was an affordable and achievable option.
Other than an evocation of “ghosts in the machine” [20], the idea of the spirit world engaging with you via text messages on your mobile phone lacks the drama that, for example, a GPS-induced hologram might create. However, design constraints included the technical capability of the players’ handsets and the cost to them of joining the game. We wanted to try and ensure that everyone would be able to participate, which meant interacting with the game as well as receiving data. Development using text messaging was an affordable and achievable option.
5. Micro-narrative
In my opinion, the micro-narratives were the ones that took place around the location, between the players within their teams. We did not attempt to capture or analyse this information and can only state that it was reported as being positive.
6. Plot and Action
Ryan and Hannah [10] point out that action distinguishes narrative from other kinds of writing, because the story continues through time and there are causes and effects.
For writers of fiction, plot usually revolves around the development of a story arc. As well as being a key component of the overarching narrative, main characters typically have personal story arcs that involve them gaining some insight over the course of the story. Traditional theatre is formal in its application of this principle, dividing a play into a discrete number of acts, each with a characteristic purpose. Aristotle [21] was one of the first to articulate rules for dramatic structure, stating that every story should have a beginning, middle and end, contemporarily invoked as: Setup, Confrontation (action) and Resolution. A variant is the five act play, defined by Freytag [21] thus: Exposition, Rising action, Climax, Falling action and Dénouement.
For writers of interactive stories, Adam [4] distinguishes between the plot of the story – comprising dramatically significant episodes linked by causality – and the plotline. In IDS, each player has an individual plotline, which is their personal path through the story, because it may be part of a branching network or it may be computer generated. A brief analysis of the texts returned from players to the system (Spirit World) showed that teams had different plotlines, as they progressed through the storyworld.
The BWTG was a semi-theatrical production, with sets on location and a script (with imaginary actors). The size of the space was a complicating factor. There was often a significant distance to walk between the location of one clue and the next, with optional coffee breaks. This meant that building tension was difficult if not impossible. Another important consideration was the apparent lack of resolution. The story endings were left intentionally open, so that players could make their own decisions about the culprits in complex scenarios. The idea that the game would be provocative piece to encourage reflection in players was not part of the original specification, but evolved as the historical research was undertaken.
For writers of fiction, plot usually revolves around the development of a story arc. As well as being a key component of the overarching narrative, main characters typically have personal story arcs that involve them gaining some insight over the course of the story. Traditional theatre is formal in its application of this principle, dividing a play into a discrete number of acts, each with a characteristic purpose. Aristotle [21] was one of the first to articulate rules for dramatic structure, stating that every story should have a beginning, middle and end, contemporarily invoked as: Setup, Confrontation (action) and Resolution. A variant is the five act play, defined by Freytag [21] thus: Exposition, Rising action, Climax, Falling action and Dénouement.
For writers of interactive stories, Adam [4] distinguishes between the plot of the story – comprising dramatically significant episodes linked by causality – and the plotline. In IDS, each player has an individual plotline, which is their personal path through the story, because it may be part of a branching network or it may be computer generated. A brief analysis of the texts returned from players to the system (Spirit World) showed that teams had different plotlines, as they progressed through the storyworld.
The BWTG was a semi-theatrical production, with sets on location and a script (with imaginary actors). The size of the space was a complicating factor. There was often a significant distance to walk between the location of one clue and the next, with optional coffee breaks. This meant that building tension was difficult if not impossible. Another important consideration was the apparent lack of resolution. The story endings were left intentionally open, so that players could make their own decisions about the culprits in complex scenarios. The idea that the game would be provocative piece to encourage reflection in players was not part of the original specification, but evolved as the historical research was undertaken.
