Narrative Design and the Psychology of Emotions and Immersion in Games

Metagame Book Club: Game Studies. "Narrative Design and the Psychology of Emotions and Immersion in Games" by Sherry Jones. Published: Nov. 16, 2015. Last Updated: Jan. 19, 2019.

**This page was first published on the Metagame Book Club.

Image Source: Motorcycle Scene from the game Sleeping Dogs.

Welcome to Week 2!

Welcome to the second week of Track 1: Games & Psychology! This week, we are examining the relationship between narrative design and the psychology of emotions and immersion in games. Narrative design is a discipline of creating the architecture/mental model of a game world through the written text. The narrative designer role comes into the spotlight when media scholar Henry Jenkins argues that game design is about creating narrative architecture. When examining narrative design through the lens of psychology, we are interested in understanding how narrative design can affect the player’s emotional states and sense of immersion when playing a game.

Upon first hearing the term, many players might reduce narrative design to creating game cutscenes (which some players dread). In reality, narrative designers serve an important role in game development; they write/design the narrative architecture that depicts the size of a game’s storyworld, and create the existents of that storyworld.

Image Source: Examining Objects Scene from the game Silent Hill.

Image Source: Sky Scene from the game Final Fantasy XIII.

Furthermore, to express the logic of a game, narrative designers would create for the game either a linear narrative (a narrative structure that follows chronology) or a nonlinear narrative (a narrative structure that does not follows chronology). The designer's decision to create linear or nonlinear narratives depends on how much interactivity with the game story that the player should experience. Game developers use the narrative design document to keep in mind how expansive or limited the game’s storyworld is, and understand the logic of how one would navigate between different parts of the map.

Before showing a narrative design example, I want to emphasize that the terms “narrative” and “story” do not refer to the same things (see Interactive Fiction articles published for previous book club sessions). The term, “narrative,” refers to the structure of a story, whereas the term, “story,” refers to the content, such as events and objects, that exist within the narrative structure. Here is an example of my narrative design writing that depicts a story world’s structure and its existents:

Sample Narrative Design Text (Spatial Narrative)

“The Hastings Mountain is located 20 miles northwest of the Galia Castle. Three roads exist between the castle and the mountain: Lind road, Poesi road, and Wake road. Out of the three roads, Wake road is the longest road to travel given that it curves around many, massive, moss covered rocks and ancient Laurel trees, each of which is several feet in girth and height. Although Wake road takes the longest time to travel, the journey seems rather safe for travelers, who may encounter a few small animals on the way, such as the gentle Udinger cats and wild Natva toads that lurk in the trees. Available flora are Laurel tree berries, Seid mushrooms, and small Bumen bush nuts, all of which are safe for consumption. Possible dangers to the traveler could be the Natva toads that carry toxins on its skin enough to kill a person within hours upon touch. If the Galia traveler chooses to travel by Wake road to get to the Hastings Mountain, he/she should be able to get to the destination relatively unscathed.

Poesi road is the shortest road of the three roads available. It takes the traveler directly to the Hastings Mountain given that Poesi road is paved on desert land area with few rocks or trees as obstacles. However, many dangers lurk on this road, such as the Mecku flowers that are full of poisonous spikes on its branches and petals, the desert Yetti that hungers for water and flesh, and the Oblivion monster that aims to take all travelers with it into the void. Both the local flora and animals pose dangers to a novice traveler. A traveler not well equipped with weapons and skills might fall victim to the dangerous desert dwellers.” (Jones, 2015)

The above example offers a brief glimpse into what narrative design is, a discipline for creating mental models of game worlds and its existents. Please note that the focus of this week’s reading is on the affective quality of narrative design, rather than on the various narrative design techniques (which are far too complex to be covered within a single week’s discussion).

Image Source: The World Scene of the game Portal 2.

Again, we will be reading a combination of open access (OA) academic journal and current news articles to help us understand the relationship between narrative design and the psychology of emotions and immersion in games.

Enjoy the readings! Onward~

-- Sherry Jones (Track 1: Games & Psychology Facilitator)

See end of page for the recorded live streaming video of this week's readings.

What is Narrative Design?

[2005] [PEER REVIEWED] Romes, Renata. “The Design of Narratives as Immersive Simulation.” Digra. 2005.
[2002] [PEER REVIEWED] Jenkins, Henry. “Game Design as Narrative Architecture.” Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Paul Harrigan eds. First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. MIT Press. 2002.

Narrative Design and the Psychology of Emotions and Immersion in Games

Welcome to Week 2!

Sample Narrative Design Text (Spatial Narrative)

See end of page for the recorded live streaming video of this week's readings.

What is Narrative Design?

Psychology of Immersion and Presence of Games

Psychology of Emotions of Games

Psychophysiology, Embodied Mind, and Emotions in Games

Recorded Live Streaming Video (Review of This Week's Readings)

Games and Psychology Series Playlist (Fall 2015)

Narrative Design and the Psychology of Emotions and Immersion in Games

Welcome to Week 2!

Sample Narrative Design Text (Spatial Narrative)

**See end of page for the recorded live streaming video of this week's readings.**

What is Narrative Design?

Psychology of Immersion and Presence of Games

Psychology of Emotions of Games

Psychophysiology, Embodied Mind, and Emotions in Games

Recorded Live Streaming Video (Review of This Week's Readings)

Games and Psychology Series Playlist (Fall 2015)

See end of page for the recorded live streaming video of this week's readings.