Abstract
This chapter delves into the pedagogical power of storytelling (The story factor: inspiration, influence, and persuasion through the art of storytelling. Basic Books, New York, 2001). It encourages the reader to tell the story of the system by choosing an element or elements within the system to serve as a protagonist(s). The chapter discusses both conventional and unconventional plot and character development by exploring ways video games have exploded narrative possibilities. By finding leverage points within the system, the reader then branches the narrative by exploring alternative paths the protagonist(s) can take. Building on Turkle’s (The second self: Computers and the human spirit. Simon and Schuster, New York) groundbreaking work about how people relate to technology, this chapter also explores how to create a game story and characters that foster empathy, motivation, and immersion.
Truth, naked and cold, had been turned away from every door in the village. Her nakedness frightened the people. When Parable found her she was huddled in a corner, shivering and hungry. Taking pity on her, Parable gathered her up and took her home. There, she dressed Truth in story, warmed her and sent her out again. Clothed in story, Truth knocked again at the villagers’ doors and was readily welcomed into the people’s houses. They invited her to eat at their table and warm herself by their fire.
– Jewish Teaching Story
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- 1.
According to the New York Times, 37 witnesses heard and/or saw Kitty Genovese being stabbed to death in Queens in 1964, yet not a single one of them called the police to report the crime while it was happening. Psychologists label this the bystander effect: the more bystanders there are, the less likely one of them will take action because each one feels the responsibility is spread among all bystanders and therefore feels less compelled to take action.
- 2.
“I found particular pleasure in such systems as the differential gear, which does not follow a simple linear chain of causality since the motion in the transmission shaft can be distributed in many different ways to the two wheels depending on what resistance they encounter. I remember quite vividly my excitement at discovering that a system could be lawful and completely comprehensible without being rigidly deterministic” (Papert 1980, p. vi).
- 3.
Jesse Schell (2008) even predicts that the avatars we create may “be passed on to children and grandchildren, giving our future descendants a strange connection to their ancestors” (p. 370) much like a family crest.
- 4.
As a teacher I have found that putting the spotlight on the messages students receive by asking, “Why do you think that?” instead of the student himself or herself generates a much more productive discussion.
- 5.
This can pose difficulties with the English language (and with other languages). It can also challenge our own internalized gender distinctions. I remember having difficulty following a short story that used gender-neutral pronouns because I couldn’t visualize the characters. To counter society’s primacy on gender, my wife and I left gender intentionally vague resulting in our children using gendered pronouns interchangeably until they were four.
- 6.
When I say being a “god,” I do not necessarily mean playing “God.” I simply mean putting the player in a position to control all the various aspects of your system. For example, we are “gods” to our bodies and control what we eat and when, how we exercise and when, what toxins we are exposed to, etc., but clearly we are not “God.”
- 7.
In Greek mythology, Proteus is a sea-god who can change shape.
- 8.
I learned this the hard way when giving my students some backstory for the high school students they would role-play. I was deriving these backstories from high school students I taught. I listed on one of the index cards “this student has killed someone else.” My wife delicately pointed out that I probably should not have someone play the role of a murderer.
- 9.
Cosmopolitan, or Cosmo, is a magazine in the United States that is known for having personality tests and other self-quizzes.
- 10.
The fact that Snape could kill Dumbledore to make you think “ok, he really was a bad guy after all” and then have it turn out he was a good guy all along I think was literary genius!
- 11.
“Wolves (dog ancestors) don’t have nearly the range of facial expression of domesticated dogs. Dogs appear to have evolved this ability as a survival skill. Dogs that could make the right faces could capture our empathy, and we, suddenly feeling their feelings, became more likely to take care of them” (Schell 2008, p. 123).
- 12.
An avatar is a computer character controlled by a real-life person. An agent is a computer character who is programmed to respond in various ways.
- 13.
From Sheldon (2004, p. 189).
- 14.
I do not want to diminish the importance of simulations. Boston medical personnel simulating medical emergencies before the marathon bombing took place meant the amount of time taken for decision-making was greatly reduced as it had been predetermined which types of injuries would go to which hospitals, ways to transport patients had been worked out, and so forth. These prior simulations led to lives being saved.
- 15.
I would argue, though, that any alternative reality derives from our reality. Can humans create something truly original, i.e., not derivative from anything else? There is a scene in the movie Star Wars where the characters are in this liminal space, a bar on the edge of the universe where the patrons are bizarre and rough-looking creatures. However, a closer examination of these aliens reveals that they are all just mash-ups of various animals: an elephant trunk here, armadillo face there, and so forth.
- 16.
“I played Liar’s Dice with some school-age kids recently, which is a completely abstract dice game. They liked the game, but after a few rounds, one of them said, ‘Let’s pretend we are pirates playing for our souls!’ which was greeted with enthusiasm all around the table” (Schell 2008, p. 263). In a similar vein, my children are playing a game that begins with a cut scene of aliens landing on earth. In the first level, they have to get one of the aliens through a series of mazes by giving it instructions using arrows. When they were three, my twins determined on their own that the point of getting “Blue Fuzz” through the mazes was so he could find his friends even though nowhere in the game does it say this. I just hope this is how it turns out, otherwise, my children will be very disappointed and sad for Blue Fuzz.
- 17.
This challenges the old notion that grades should reward students who achieve something the fastest or the easiest or within a certain time period and instead introduces a performance-based model where the assumption is that every student will eventually be able to achieve a skill and should be rewarded for doing so, regardless of how long it takes.
- 18.
Some gamers may pejoratively call this “railroading,” i.e., forcing players to go down a certain path. Although this can be a way teachers can ensure all students learn the required material, it is good to keep in mind balancing free play and directed play.
- 19.
Lee Sheldon (2004) provides an example of game players complaining about the lack of story in EverQuest , while the game designers countered that the players just hadn’t discovered it yet.
- 20.
According to Schell (2008) the writers of The Matrix , are said to have used Vogler’s book as a guide.
- 21.
B.F. Skinner found in his studies on operant conditioning, or influencing behavior through a system of rewards and punishments, that after associating a reward with a behavior, offering that reward after a random number of times was the most optimal way to maintain that behavior.
- 22.
From a practice in Greek tragedies where a god or goddess would enter the stage by a machine (a crane or a trapdoor) in order to resolve the conflict at the end of a play
- 23.
Jenkins (2004/2006) calls Choose Your Own Adventure books “lifeless [with] mechanical exposition” (p. 671). Perhaps this is true in comparison with today’s video games, but they certainly offer the reader opportunities to direct the narrative in ways other books do not.
- 24.
According to Barab (2012): “Simply providing critical decisions . . . within a story . . . seems to foster commitment to the activities in ways that narratively immutable curriculum does not . . . [as] students’ responses . . . involved audible gasps when they witnessed the consequences of their choices” (pp. 317–323).
- 25.
Several novels have been written so that the reader reads about the same event from different perspectives (Instance of the Fingerpost by Pears and As I Lay Dying by Faulkner are two examples).
- 26.
This parallels the process Ito describes in her observations of how youth engage with digital media—they start “hanging out” or observing how others behave in a space; then they start “messing around” or trying things out; then they “geek out” or specialize in something (Squire 2011, p. 47).
Suggested Reading: Nonfiction
Jenkins, H. (2004). Game design as narrative architecture. In N. Wardrip-Fruin & P. Harrigan (Eds.), First person: New media as story, performance and game (pp. 118–130). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Papert, S. (1991). Mindstorms: Children, computers, and powerful ideas. New York: Basic Books.
Shaffer, D. W. (2006). How computer games help children learn. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
Sheldon, L. (2004). Character development and storytelling for games. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Simmons, A. (2001). The story factor. New York: Basic Books.
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Fiction
Any of Edward Packard’s Choose your own adventure series (these books have branched narratives).
Faulkner, W. (1930/2013). As I lay dying. Toronto, ON: HarperCollins. (This novel has the same events described by different characters)
Gaarder, J. (1991). Sophie’s world: A novel about the history of philosophy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. (This novel teaches the history of philosophy through story)
Pears, I. (1998). Instance of the fingerpost. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group. (This novel has the same events described by different characters)
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Appendix: Story Quest Worksheet *
Appendix: Story Quest Worksheet *
Topic: ________________________
Possible Protagonist | ||||
Story of system through Protagonist’s eyes | ||||
Possible Goal of Protagonist | ||||
Possible Conflict/Obstacles/Constraints | ||||
Potential Backstory—either text or storyboarded, highlight just the parts absolutely necessary for the player to know at the beginning of the game, if any | ||||
Branching—redo story using sticky notes and drawing lines to depict branched narrative as a flowchart | ||||
NPCs | Name | Function | Description | |
Suggested Story Quest Rubric
Quest | “Wow! I mean, I think this might work.” (3) | “Hmm, this is acceptable.” (2) | “I need more convincing.” (1) | “Go back to the drawing board.” (0) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Story Quest | Compelling storyline and characters likely to help students achieve game goals | Clear how plot ties to learning objectives | Basic plot described but unclear how it relates to learning objectives | Story is unclear |
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Kellinger, J.J. (2017). Game Face: Telling the Story. In: A Guide to Designing Curricular Games. Advances in Game-Based Learning. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-42393-7_4
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