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Transmedia Zurich
June 27th 2013Colab Zurich
Mark Melnykowycz
Narrative and Story Structure in Games and Media
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Story
Narrative
• Story, a recounting of a sequence of events*• An account of imaginary or real people and events told for
entertainment: "an adventure story"**
• A narrative (or story) is any account that presents connected events***
• A spoken or written account of connected events; a story: "a bare narrative of the details"**
*Wikipedia**Google dictionary***Oxford English Dictionary (online)
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Horrible Definitions
Those were...
...what about humans, empathy and emotions?
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Society
Emotions
Know
ledg
eStory
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Shared emotions help form the fabric of society
...storytelling is a vehicle used to combine emotions and information
...and communicate those feelings and information in a structure which gives us comfort or instills feelings of fear,
optimism, etc.
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Emotions
Memories
Connections
Structure
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Storytelling gives emotional context to our linear lives
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Birth Death
Physical time is linear
Emotional memory is non-linear
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Story
Connect current events to good feelings from the past
Play out emotions we can’t explore in reality
Hope in the future and our confidence to meet challenges
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Die Hard...makes me feel good about my chances of surviving a
dramatic terrorist attack
...statistically it will probably never happen, but I’m sort of mentally prepared if it does
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How are Communication Patterns Evolving?
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Trends
M2M Devices
Device Fragmentation
Evolving Communication
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Evolution of Communication
Face to FaceWeb
Static HTMLBlogging (active HTML)Instant Messaging
Social Networks
Location ServicesWritingPrinting
Copier
TelephoneMobileSMS
MMS
Fragmented Lines
Push/PullTransmedia
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Story Structure
What is traditional story structure?Does it conflict with our fragmented communication
patterns?
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Many different models of story structure for different media
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The Basics
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Hero Villain Conflict17
ResolutionTransformationChallenge
Over-coming extreme odds...to succeed in the end
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http://www.musik-therapie.at/PederHill/Structure&Plot.htm http://wandertones.deviantart.com/art/Standard-Story-Structure-178276496
Linear Story Structure
Rising drama to an apex with essential plot points
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Joseph Campbell
“Campbell explores the theory that important myths from around the
world which have survived for thousands of years all
share a fundamental structure, which Campbell
called the monomyth.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hero_with_a_Thousand_Faces
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THE HERO IS INTRODUCED IN HIS ORDINARY WORLD
THE CALL TO ADVENTURE
THE HERO IS RELUCTANT AT FIRST
THE HERO IS ENCOURAGED BY THE WISE OLD MAN OR WOMAN
THE HERO PASSES THE FIRST THRESHOLD
THE HERO ENCOUNTERS TESTS AND HELPERS
THE HERO REACHES THE INNERMOST CAVE
THE HERO ENDURES THE SUPREME ORDEAL
THE HERO SIEZES THE SWORD
THE ROAD BACK
RESURRECTION
RETURN WITH THE ELIXIR
The Hero’s Journey
http://www.cs.uu.nl/docs/vakken/b2go/docs/hero_journey.pdf
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Why is the Hero’s Journey structure so popular in movies and media?
Fairy Tales, mythsStar Wars, The Matrix, etc.
Do we like it because we expect it and are conditioned for it?
Is it inherent in our minds and DNA?
Does it hold us back in life? Must we be chosen to do great things by someone else?
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Games and Story
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GamesConfront a challenge
Understand your progress
Play
Interactive with the world
Interact with other players
Actions have consequences
Conquer small quests
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MetalStorm
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G.I. Joe storyline
I love playing MetalStorm because I saw Top Gun and played After Burner a few times in the 80‘s and liked G.I. Joe.
Live out the emotions of a fighter pilot risk free
MetalStorm
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http://www.slideshare.net/gbanga/transmedia-and-mixedreality-gaming
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