Dramatic Elements: Blog 1: Intro's & Definitions

I chose Dramatic Elements as to me it’s one of the most important ingredients of a game, the one which if the game was without it would fail.

Within Dramatic Elements there are a lot of questions to explore…

Why do gamers connect to games?

Why do gamers like playing a game over and over again?

Why do digital games now have so much following and interest?

The answers all lie within Dramatic Elements.

Ok so what are Dramatic Elements? Well let’s imagine a world without them, in film for example…

This is a story void of any dramatic elements and you can see how dull it is. Dramatic Elements give a digital game, its life and soul. They are what places a player in the world (be that a literal of figurative world) that the game designer has created, dramatic elements makes a player emotionally invest in a game and care for the outcome. I don’t think anyone would care too much what would happen to 0001 or 0011.

Let’s talk a little about the history of digital games. So were there always dramatic elements in games?
In a way, yes. Even the very first games like Spacewar, Asteroids and Space invaders had what is called a ‘framing’ narrative. A basic premise that the player is given

- Spot the narrative? It's not easy.

In Asteroids that framing narrative is that you are a defending earth from asteroids and similarly in Space invaders you are a ship defending Earth from an alien attack.
Some early games, such as ‘Zork’ were entirely text-based and though the dramatic elements and narrative were not there visually, there was a lot of backstory in the game which grounded the player in it’s fictional world. It had a strong premise and like Asteroids, who’s premise was simple it made the gameplay meaningful.

So what is premise in terms of digital games?
Well, premise in digital games, is the same as premise, movies, books and any other media. It’s composed of five elements…

• Time – When the game takes place.
• Place – Where the game takes place
• Character – Who is involved in the story of the game
• Objective – What must the protagonist do?
• Action – What stands in the protagonist’s way?

Let’s take a game like Capcom’s Resident Evil for example…

Time = Modern day
Place = A mansion in Racoon City, a small town in the US