The epistemic journey of the player as a unifying video game narrative structure

Abstract

The aim of this research is to explore a coherent and consistent way to articulate a video game’s narrative structure borne from its inherent properties. This study is focused on single-player, offline narrative experiences where the player and system alone are conjoined in the process of explication. Inspired by the primacy of the player, whose role is as catalyst, activator and recipient of meaning, this thesis posits that there is an epistemic structure of investigation, questions and answers that a player progresses through and cultivates in conjunction with the text. This structure can account for the accumulative and seemingly emergent process of meaning making over time, elements of engagement and the shifting notion of interpretation as authorship. Furthermore, there is a correlation in the foundational structure of the video game; an accumulative challenge structure where the player learns through a process of taxonomizing across utility and capacity before relating objects to each other.

These observations are supplemented and investigated through a process of exposing the epistemic arc in both narrative and video game play, both in isolation and as an integrated phenomenon. This process includes in-depth readings of Aristotle’s Poetics, questions of subjectivity and interpretation through the work of Gadamer, Sicart, Bogost and other relevant video game scholarship, and the fundamental principles of reading video games epistemically. This research is applied and illustrated throughout via select texts, which culminate in direct readings using the emergent characteristics and language tools of the outlined epistemic journey. This research forwards that this is a useful, cohesive and, despite utilising concepts from outside of video game scholarship, proprietary way to understand video game narrative even in its variability.

Date of Award	May 2023
Original language	English
Supervisor	Brian Dixon (Supervisor) & Murat Akser (Supervisor)