INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE: MECHANICS OF STORY

WK 2: Story Model - Monomyth

9/4/2013

EDIT: Here is the information about Kal Bashir's monomyth work that we briefly looked at. I recommend you all spend some time on his very informative (if slightly hard to navigate) website - and if really interested in going all in be sure to subscribe to his daily email! http://www.kalbashir.com/

Below is the main monomyth video similar to the first part of the one watched in class, but with more information and a very clear summary of the theory as he has updated it for modern storytelling. Great stuff!

Discussed the work of Aarne-Thompson and Propp and their various Folk-tale classification systems. Check them out here:

http://oaks.nvg.org/folktale-types.html - a very good summary and catalogue of the ATU system.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Propp - the wikipedia summary of the Propp Formalist approach.

AND FOR FUN:

- very cool Proppian "fairy tale generator" card game! (D3 anyone?) http://www.atlas-games.com/product_tables/AG1001.php

- An interesting twist you may watch - unlike LOST where (some claimed) the flashbacks were tedious and contrived "characterization", these flashbacks are like a delicious family reunion of the characters you grew up loving and hating. http://beta.abc.go.com/shows/once-upon-a-time

We finished up Fantasy and talked in depth about the hero's journey concept and what it means. Focus on Campbell's "Hero With a Thousand Faces" and case study was "Lord of the Rings."

Campbell Monomyth on Prezi

1 Comment

Gary Hardee

9/10/2013 10:08:25 pm

I got a lot from James Overstreet's lecture. Very good, so if you haven't watched it, I recommend it.

Now a question: I am interested in reality-based interactive storytelling. My background is as a journalist. i have this idea for an interactive narrative game based on a Wall Street Journal article published several years ago about a Mexican drug kingpin named Joaquin Guzman Loera, aka El Chapo. The story was a fascinating tale about the freedom with which El Chapo operated in northwestern Mexico. I'd like to design a multiplayer game -- not an MMO, just multiplayer -- that communicates the experience the Mexican drug wars. My thought is that many people would never read a WSJ story but might play a game that explains what it's like to be in El Chapo's world -- either as an innocent bystander, a Mexican narc, or El Chapo himself.

I'm good at doing the real-world research and thinking in linear narrative terms. I'm not so good at thinking in terms of player-guided narrative and gameplay. I'd love to hear ideas from others about how this storytelling experience could be translated from newspaper story to multiplayer game. All ideas welcomed. Thanks.

WK 2: Story Model - Monomyth

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