Exercise 9: Narrative Architecture

Eskelinen argues that in Jenkins’ argument, he has neglected the many and important differences between narrative and games, such as the rules, the goals and the possible presence of other players in the games. He regards Jenkins’ study of media as ‘repetitive’ instead of ‘comparative’, implying that Jenkins is merely extracting the narrative components in games and thus rationalise his argument, instead of regarding narrative and game as separate entities.

Nevertheless, Jenkins, in his preparation for his core argument, has already noted the importance of the fact that games and narratives are separate entities, and although they may overlap with each other, the interaction is of different forms and degrees. Specifically, he concedes that not all games tell stories, though many games have narrative inspirations. He also admits that the experience of playing a game could never be replaced by mere telling of the stories. More importantly, he argues that formal narrative analysis needs to be revamped when it is put in to the analysis of narratives embedded in games. That leads to his core arguments on narratives in games, using the novel perspective of spatiality and game space.

I do not agree with Eskelinen’s dismissal of Jenkins’ approach. Although he is a self-declared ‘ludologist’, I think his understanding of narrative and narrative structure is still based on the formal narratologist, which Jenkins has replaced by spatiality in his approach. From the beginning, Eskelinen uses David Bordwell’s definition of narration as "the process whereby the film's sjuzet and style interact in the course of cueing and constraining the spectator's construction of the fabula." This definition is based on film, a linear narrative, and emphasises more on the author ship of the narrator/director, as the words ‘cueing’ and ‘constraining’ imply. This definition of narration, when extrapolated to games, would certainly exclude the other components of the game which would allow room of ‘play’, as it implies that narratives are self-contained.

However, Jenkins’ approach of spatiality and environmental story telling has transcended the theory of linear narratives and encompasses the ‘rules, goals, the necessary manipulation of equipment, and the effect of possible other players for starters’ mentioned by Eskelinen as well, because the game space is essentially the virtual place where the player perform actions while constructing the narrative. In fact, gaming and narration occur almost simultaneously in this space and they become inseparable. From this point, Jenkins’ model of evoked, enacted, embedded, and emergent narratives are derivatives from the perspective of games space, instead of merely applying narrative theories into the game as argued by Eskelinen. Thus, I do not agree with Eskelinen’s dismissal of Jenkins’ approach.