Environmental Storytelling, Ideologies and Quantum Physics: Narrative Space And The BioShock Games

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Zakowski Samuel
2016 DiGRA/FDG '16 - Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference of DiGRA and FDG

In this paper, I present a narratological approach to the BioShock trilogy of games. I look at three narratological levels as they relate to space. At the level of the storyline, a large part of the game revolves around the piecemeal construction of the narrative of the game space – the narrative of the player's avatar is developed alongside the narrative of what happened to the space he is moving through. At the level of the storyworld, the game space symbolizes ideological oppositions – many locations are appropriated as a way of opposing the dominant ideology of the game space. At the level of the narrative universe, I focus on the last part of the trilogy, which is, to a large extent, a story about the story and, hence, metaleptic. The player and his avatar move through many different storyworlds and storylines, all alike yet subtly different from each other.

 

Avatar Categorization

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Kromand Daniel
2007 DiGRA '07 - Proceedings of the 2007 DiGRA International Conference: Situated Play

The paper examines the various modes of designing video game avatars. The purpose is to establish an operational model for categorizing the avatars' design. Within a theoretical framework raised by Marie-Laure Ryan and Murray Smith I will establish two continua, which, merged together, lead to twin axes that can be used to describe certain archetypes in avatar design. This paper examines typical avatar design and provides theory for different design models.