ABSTRACT<\/p>\n
GAME FICTION<\/p>\n
Jason Christopher Rhody, PhD, 2010
\nUniversity of Maryland, College Park<\/p>\n
Directed By:
\nAssociate Professor, Matthew G. Kirschenbaum,
\nDepartment of English, University of Maryland, College Park<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Game Fiction\u00e2\u20ac\u009d provides a framework for understanding the relationship between narrative and computer games and is defined as a genre of game that draws upon and uses narrative strategies to create, maintain, and lead a user through a fictional environment. Competitive, ergodic, progressive (and often episodic), game fictions\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 primary goal must include the actualization of predetermined events.\u00c2\u00a0 Building on existing game and new media scholarship and drawing from theories of narrative, cinema, and literature, my project details the formal materiality that undergirds game fiction and shapes its themes.\u00c2\u00a0 In doing so, I challenge the critiques of narrativism levied at those scholars who see a relationship between computer games and narrative forms, while also detailing the ways that computational media alter and reform narratological preconceptions.\u00c2\u00a0 My study proposes a methodology for discussing game fiction through a series of \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcclose playings,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and while not intended to be chronological or comprehensive, provides a model for understanding narrative and genre in this growing field.<\/p>\n
Chapter one, “Defining Game Fiction,” locates video games within the larger context of computer-mediated narrative design, and interrogates the power structure of reader to author, consumer to producer, and media object to its user. I articulate a framework for approaching computer games that acknowledges a debt to previous print, cinematic, and ludological forms, while taking into account computer games’ unique ergodic and computational status.\u00c2\u00a0 Chapter two, “Paper Prototypes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d examines the principles of game fiction in three analogue forms: the choice book, the board game, and the tabletop role-playing game.\u00c2\u00a0 My third chapter, “Playing the Interface,” theorizes the act of narrative communication within the ludic, multimodal context of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 Chapter four, “Data, Set,” posits the game quest as analogous to the database query in Adventure<\/em> and StarCraft<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 Much like data exists in a database, requiring only the proper query for access, narrative exists in game fiction, shaped by quests through fictional settings.\u00c2\u00a0 Chapter five, “The Game Loop,” argues that the grammar of user input within the game loop shapes the player\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s relationship to the character and, in MediEvil<\/em>, the subsequent themes of redemption.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ABSTRACT<\/p>\n GAME FICTION<\/p>\n Jason Christopher Rhody, PhD, 2010 Directed By: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Game Fiction\u00e2\u20ac\u009d provides a framework for understanding the relationship between narrative and computer games and is defined as a genre of game that draws […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-525","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/misc.wordherders.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/misc.wordherders.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/misc.wordherders.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/misc.wordherders.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/misc.wordherders.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/misc.wordherders.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":619,"href":"http:\/\/misc.wordherders.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/525\/revisions\/619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/misc.wordherders.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
University of Maryland, College Park<\/p>\n
Associate Professor, Matthew G. Kirschenbaum,
Department of English, University of Maryland, College Park<\/p>\n