So if narrative can serve as geography, then density can serve as dramatic climaxes or arcs.  Or should it be topography that provides arc?  I think density.  We are accustomed to thinking of narrative in terms of events.  Density of locations correlates more closely with the singular nature of events.

I think the key to interactive narrative, in games or interactive fiction, lies in geography. We are used to the notion of traversing and exploring space. Exploring linear narrative is less intuitive, even counter-productive. But by configuring story as geography exploration becomes possible.

One fateful day some game designer asked the question, “Why would someone keep playing through all of these impossible levels I just dreamt up? They’d have to be crazy to keep playing simply to inscribe three initials on the top of a list?” From this question was born narrative games. Loose narratives became a way to frame progress through a game and gave players a reason to keep moving pieces around a board. Games intertwined their fate with story. This opened video games up to a new sense of emotional engagement and raised in many the hope for new forms of interactive storytelling.

However, mixing story and play engendered several problems. Tying a game to a story cripples the open-ended experience of play. Games are about the player’s choices. Stories are about the teller’s choices. To try and reclaim the feeling of an open-ended experience, designers developed a brand of open-ended storytelling based on geographic exploration. Many envision these games as storytelling frameworks, rather than strict linear stories. The player crafts the story for the character, producing a different tale each time they play. Sid Meier helped pioneer this form in 1987 with his game, Pirates!. The player sails freely about the Caribbean looting or trading as she sees fit. (more…)