Last time I wrote about Story, Storyteller and Audience. Let’s continue…
Narrative - big word with many meanings attached to it. For me it represents everything which is part of the world of the storytelling act. Bits of information, some of them big some small, which present part of the world all this happens in. Things you can gather through your senses - sights, small detalis, places, objects, smells, feelings, sounds, flavors, textures; Thoughs relevant to the place the story takes place at, thoughts relevant now, then, in the future; relevancies of ideas, links in the imagination; people, animals, characters in general and the telling event itself.
In the technological world some say that the technological interface is part of the narrative too like a human storyteller. Before you agree or disagree - think for yourself:
Does a human storyteller feel to you as part of the world the story happens in as the telling evolves? Does a technological interface feel the same? Whether your answer was Yes or No, if you didn’t give the same answer to both questions, thay are not the same for you.
Why is narrative important? because it helps materialize ideas. If ideas don’t wear a shape or form, if there are no relevant details you can sense - an idea can not be passed on. Most of the details of the narrative will not appear in the final story but you need as many as you can get so your telling feels real even if you are telling fantasy. The audience of your story or game want to know you can see something and you want to make them feel that something is worth while looking at so they will let you tell the story - out of curiousity, feeling of adventure or something else to gain.
In the case of games - many parts of the narrative are in them for the player to discover and the more the better, especially if they are interesting and not that easy to find. One of the problems I see in games has to do with repetition of the narrative. For various reasons, not many games are well invested with narrative details but they are getting better. Still, if you are busy starting over in order to master a skill or a phase in a game, you are going to meet the same parts of the narrative again and again until you don’t notice them anymore. There is of course the possibility of loading a huge amount of narrative details onto the game and allow them to appear in random in relevant parts but then you are into new trouble - cost.
Because when you see a storyteller you can not see a fixed set of narrative details, when you listen your own imagination will bring up the parts of the narrative you need to see at that moment - no more, no less and with no cost what so ever. I find this to be one of the most amazing features of this art. Then, when you hear the same story some other time, you bring up the relevant details you need which might be very different from the first time.
The storyteller can choose to emphasize certain narrative details and fix them in your imagination - sizes, lengths, features - what ever - and they can choose differently every time they tell the story. What is important to understand is that the choices the teller takes are not accidental. I can compare this to editing a movie - details that are not necessary to create the drama - are cut out. If the story can do without them, they need not be there. This rule is true not only for the text but for other expression channels too - voice, gesture. I often see storytellers overdoing with those two. If you are, you are bringing into the story information that is not relevant to the drama. You want to do min. and allow the audience to do max. and that is a good enough reason for them to stay with you.
How is this relevant to game design? choose wisely and you might even save some money. You want to bring in those parts of the narrative that will do the most for your audience’s imagination.
so standing out is good for business - it makes people stop for a moment and think.
