Middle ground Narratives

The start of the second half of the reading spoke about agency and transformation.  Transformation related to how many paths a person can take and giving the person a new experience each time.  But agency needs to take place, that is a sense of urgency (to me) that makes the player choose a path even though they could potentially choose a random path.  We talk a lot about Skyrim in class and even this topic relates to it.  Although it's up to the player to make their own story for the majority of the time, having an actual story line/story quest helps drive the player to move in a semi linear path.  I personally get too caught up in other activities though.  Players often times want to fee like they are progressing, so having agency is very important.

The rest of the reading discussed how the player experiences narrative throughout the game.  Sometimes there are cutscenes, with a lot of storytelling, and there are others where there is only text and clues around you that you can explore.  Somewhat like Gone Home.  It's up to you to figure out the story.  I personally like that idea, because some people might not be interested in so much storytelling.  For example, in MMORPGs, some players are there for the community and pvp aspects for the game, whereas there are a large group of players that are interested in the lore and immersion.  It's nice to have a good in between.