Narrative in games

Chris Crawford explains multiple features that are crucial when attempting to create a narrative. One of the first topics he addresses is the structure of the media.

The main topics that brings up is how the structure is placed and uses the itsy bitsy spider story to show them off. These topics are:

A protagonist
A conflict
A struggle
A moral
A resolution

These are all necessary components that are required in order to establish a strictly structured narrative.
This teaches the first lesson that is to follow the strict requirements for a story structure.

Games have a tendency to avoid this and as a result do not always have a powerful narrative.

The second lesson is that people are the most interesting thing ever and stories focus upon this. This reference does not have to be absolute, the person could be anything in a metaphorical sense. There are films that apparently 'revolve' around items but instead they are about the story of the person holding the thing, such as Frodo and the ring in Lord of the Rings.

There is always a conflict in a story, whether it is a major conflict such as a war or a minor conflict such as being late for a bus. Games are experienced in the simplest form of conflict which is violence.

Games also involve puzzles, however the third lesson is that puzzles are not necessary to a story.

Choices are an important and often a story is built up around the idea of the protagonist making the single key choice.

Spectacle is another method of telling the narrative, utilising exotic imagery to allow the viewers to enjoy the sight. Lesson number four is learned from here and that is how spectacles do not make a story.

Many forms of media focus on the image, and this is especially so in video games. This idea of visually thinking has conquered the worlds thinking. The lesson involved with this is that visuals do not dominate story telling.

Next up is spatial thinking and the idea of a story being told in the appropriate space. When describing distance it does not matter in relation to the drama, such as travelling for 'days'. In most stories this is not important to the viewer and this leads to the lesson that stories are told on a stage, and not on a map.

Dramatic time will not be the same as reality, often jumping forward or backwards in order to add to the confusion of the drama.