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ERIC Number: EJ987346
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2012-Oct
Pages: 12
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0270-4676
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
"Mass Effect 2": A Case Study in the Design of Game Narrative
Bizzocchi, Jim; Tanenbaum, Joshua
Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, v32 n5 p393-404 Oct 2012
Digital games have matured substantially as a narrative medium in the last decade. However, there is still much work to be done to more fully understand the poetics of story-based-games. Game narrative remains an important issue with significant cultural, economic and scholarly implications. In this article, we undertake a critical analysis of the design of narrative within "Mass Effect 2": a game whose narrative is highly regarded in both scholarly and vernacular communities. We follow the classic humanities methodology of "close-reading": the detailed observation, deconstruction, and analysis of a text. Our close-reading employs a critical framework from our previous work to isolate and highlight the central narrative design parameters within digital games. This framework is grounded in the scholarly discourse around games and narrative, and has been tested and revised in the process of close-reading and analyzing contemporary games. The narrative design parameters we examine are character, storyworld, narrativized interface, emotion, and plot coherence. Our analysis uses these parameters to explicate a series of design decisions for the effective creation of narrative experience in "Mass Effect 2", and by extension, for game narratives in general. We also expand our previous methodology through a focused "edge-case" strategy for exploring the limits of character, action, and story in the game. Finally, we position our analysis of "Mass Effect 2" within contemporary discourses of "bounded agency", and explore how the game negotiates the tension between player-expression, and narrative inevitability to create opportunities for sophisticated narrative poetics including tragedy and sacrifice. (Contains 6 figures.)
SAGE Publications. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A