Interactive Narrative Week 5 Blog Entry 4

For this week I played Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy. The choices I made in the game resulted in branching narrative paths. The game has an embedded story with three possible outcomes at the very end. But when I played this game, one thing really struck me. At the very start of the game, right after the intro, I failed the game. I failed to escape the police man who went inside the men's room. I was then caught and the game ended there. Lucas then narrated that it was the end of his story. It really struck me because I found out that failing is one of the narrative paths I can take as a player. I can choose to end the story there and that's the story of Lucas. It made me feel that I have agency because I can end the story any way I want. I don't even have to reach the very end of the game. Of course this is only possible in certain situations but my actions do matter and have a big impact on the narrative of the game.

Choice situations can be either a-temporal or have a temporal dimension, which means that there might be a limited amount of time during which the options are available, or that – after a finite amount of time – not making any choices will produce an outcome that is different from the choice situation and that therefore constitutes a choice in itself. - Sebastian Domsch, Storyplaying (2013)

The game gives the player agency through choice situations. An example of this is when the screen splits into two. It prompts a situation wherein the player has to act quickly. The temporal dimension of this choice situation creates tension. The player can choose to act quickly or do nothing. As a player of the game, I am motivated to succeed so I chose to act quickly. Whether the player succeeds or not within the time limit determines the outcome. An example is when Lucas had to get out of the crime scene. I can either get caught and that's the end of Lucas' story or find a get away vehicle quickly and escape. After I succeeded at escaping the police, I felt like my actions prevented Lucas from getting caught and now I can learn more about the mystery.



References:


Domsch, S. (Author). (2013). Storyplay [Book]. Germany: Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Quantic Dream (Developer). (2005). Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy [Video Game]. United States: Atari Inc.