Player perspectives to unexplained agency-related incoherence

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Anachrony in game stories causes incoherence, if the player's actions cause a future that differs considerably from the one already presented. Such game story quirk, if not addressed by design, causes an occurrence of unexplained agency-related incoherence (UARI). Current game studies literature views the issue as problematic. To study the significance and meaning of UARI to players, both anachronic and linear UARI-featuring games were developed. A grounded theory on the topic was devised upon 20 player accounts. Three main perspectives to UARI were identified: With anachrony, an acceptive-ludic perspective views the UARI as inevitable and natural. With both anachronic and linear game stories, an acceptive-diegetic perspective views the UARI as part of the story. With both anachronic and linear game stories, a rejective-logical perspective views the UARI as an unacceptable error in the game's causality.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInteractive Storytelling - 6th International Conference, ICIDS 2013, Proceedings
Pages156-167
Number of pages12
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Externally publishedYes
Event6th International Conference for Interactive Storytelling, ICIDS 2013 - Istanbul, Turkey
Duration: 6 Nov 20139 Nov 2013

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume8230 LNCS
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference6th International Conference for Interactive Storytelling, ICIDS 2013
Country/TerritoryTurkey
CityIstanbul
Period6/11/139/11/13

Keywords

  • Anachrony
  • Coherence
  • Game design
  • Games
  • Incoherence
  • Story.

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