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Narrative (Classical vs. Game)

Story Structure:

This section will attempt to bring together two different ideologies, one being the style of narrative from classical literature (some of the first stories to ever be formally recorded in writing) and the other being interactive narrative for games, which is a relatively new concept.  The goal of this comparison is to try to get the best of both worlds, offering an interactive narrative that has the style of a classical story.

In narrative for games, there is a narrative structure which is more loosely defined than other media because of the interactive (and therefore unpredictable) nature of games.  The best measure of structure which is found in such an open ended medium is the intensity of the player's game experience.  The intensity of the narrative encompasses all elements of the player's game experience (tensions between characters in the story, difficulty of enemies, tempo of music etc.).  As the player progresses through the narrative, they experience varying intensity, which results in a more intense-feeling roller-coaster experience.  This concept is discussed in more depth at this article.  This concept is also discussed by Jesse Schell in his book, The Art of Game Design.  Schell makes notes that interest curves are fractals, meaning that the interest curve of the game as a whole has a similar shape as the interest curve for each section of the game, which has a similar curve for each level, which has a similar curve as each action the player takes towards completing each level etc.  This means that no matter how big or small any given element of the game is, the player's interaction with it will follow a similar pattern.

In this document game narrative will be combined with some of the classical narrative techniques.  The stories examined for this purpose are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.  The useful things that Asterion can take away from these works are stylistic motifs.  These include starting the story in medias res (in the middle of the story), having a parallel between the conflicts in heaven and on earth, large cast of varied characters, and temporal changes during narrative (flashbacks and foreshadowing).

Another literary tool for examining the original story of the minotaur is the hero's journey as described by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces.  The hero's journey is a plot structure that is loosely followed by many of the most famous stories, including the story of Theseus and the minotaur.  Campbell even cites this myth as a good example of the hero's journey in some of his descriptions.  For example, for the hero's call to adventure, Campbell says, "The hero can go forth of his own volition to accomplish the adventure, as did Theseus when he arrived in his father's city, Athens, and heard the horrible history of the Minotaur".

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