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Bibliography: " Game Design as Narrative Architecture" (2004) by Henry Jenkins


Jenkins, Henry. 2004. “Game Design as Narrative Architecture.” In First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game, edited by Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan, 118–30. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

In this article, Jenkins examines games less as stories than as spaces ripe with narrative possibility. He list downs the characteristics of games as defined by current Ludology versus Narratology debates such as: (1) not all games tell stories but they do have narrative aspirations, follows genre entertainment and previous narrative experiences; (2) narrative analysis need not be prescriptive; (3) games should not be reduced to the experience of a story; and (4) if games tell stories, they are unlikely to tell them in the same ways that other media tell stories for games as a medium, specifically, is what distinguishes them from other narrative traditions. He also lists down the problems and limitations within the current game study discourses, often pointing out how there is too much emphasis of the narrow model of narrative structure or that they operate within too limited understanding of narration; focusing on the aspirations of the storyteller and less on the process of the narrative comprehension; assumptions that narratives must be self-contained rather than understanding games as serving specific functions within a new transmedia storytelling environment; and that discussions only deal with questions of whether whole games tell stories and not whether narrative elements might enter games at a more localized level.

In response, Jenkins asserts a need for a discussion of the game design, particularly on spatial stories and environmental storytelling, stating that games may more fully realize the spatiality of these stories, given a much more immersive and compelling representation of the narrative world. Environmental storytelling creates the preconditions for an immersive narrative experience in at least one of four ways: (1) spatial stories can evoke pre-existing narrative associations; (2) provide a staging ground where narrative events are enacted; (3) embed narrative information within their mise-en-scene; and (4) provide resources for emergent narratives.

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