A Study On The Narrative Aesthetics Of Electronic Game

In this Internet era,with the constant development of electronic games,they bring people new life experience and create a new model of people?s communication and interaction,and their narrative skills get further enhanced.Under this circumstance,the narrative of electronic games has become one of core topics discussed by game scientists and narrative theory researchers.Based on the previous academic achievements,this thesis comprehensively and deeply analyzes the narrative aesthetics of electronic games.This thesis firstly reviews the debates about the narrative of electronic games,on this basis,and analyzes the narrative aesthetics of electronic games in four parts.Chapter one introduces the generating model of the story in electronic games;chapter two discusses the narrative angle of electronic games;chapter three focuses on the narrative time of electronic games;and chapter four systematically describes the space narrative of electronic games.Details are as follows:Chapter one: the "manipulation" of story generation and the publicity of subjectivity".In electronic age,electronic media brings increasingly strong interaction and manipulation.For electronic games,its story generation depends on players? manipulation and choice,which is indicated in three aspects that the development of the story in games has various choices,the generation of the story in games itself originates from the interactions between players and game system or other players,and players even can edit and design the game story by their own.Narrative relies on players? manipulation,which brings emerging narrative and differentiation narrative.This emerging and differentiation make story of games be close to the complexity and authenticity of life,thus in a sense breaking through the dramatization,typification and simplification of life brought by the traditional narrative.The manipulation in story generation publicizes subjectivity,which exactly is modern ideology.And this choice and the publicity of subjectivity influence traditional novels,and in internet time-travel novels,history is becoming a story that can be chosen,changed and told by subject at will.Chapter two: the basic types and switching of narrative angles.In electronic games,the importance of “watching” is highlighted,and the narrative angles become crucial.The plot angle generating in electronic games is similar to internal focalization in the traditional narrative.Specifically,this plot angle can be divided into first person,second person and third person.Apart from plot angle,there are another two angles in electronic games,namely,player angle and realistic angle.These angles also promote the development of the story of games and generate vital story experience.The switch of windows on computer makes the switch of angles in electronic games more free and frequent,and this constant switch highlights the multithreaded mode of the story and presents the paralleling and co-existence of life.The multi-angel of electronic games and its switch have a profound impact on traditional narrative,like online game novels.Chapter three: the narrative time of electronic games.For the order of narrative,the chronological order of the traditional narrative can be changed at will,but this situation is greatly restricted in the electronic games.With the factors of focusing on playing and the generation of story decided by players? manipulation,games let the manipulation of games and development of story have synchroneity,so it is difficult to change the chronological order of the narrative.For the time interval of narrative,in the electronic games,there are lots of scenes,at the same time,and acceleration mode of time,thus forming different time intervals.For the frequency of narrative,electronic games emphasizes more on repetitive narrative.However,this is different from repetitive narrative in traditional narrative.When the emerging of narrative of electronic games resets the narrative,the story itself also resets.At the same time,electronic games brings the reversibility of time.To a certain extent,the repetitive narrative of electronic games can achieve cognitive mapping function called by Jameson,meanwhile,it also affects the narrative skills of traditional narrative,like internet renascence novels.Chapter four: the space narrative of electronic games.The traditional narrative emphasizes the time,and narrative and humanities always intend to value time and neglect space.The space narrative has been emerging.The narrative of electronic games presents many space elements,reflecting on three aspects,namely,the world template as the background and space of story of the games,the map as the narrative structure of games and the copy as the feeder plot of games,all of which profoundly affect the traditional narrative,like internet novels.Through the analysis of the above four parts,this thesis draws a conclusion that from the “reader” of traditional narrative to “player” of electronic games is the important transformation of story into electronic games.In 20 th century,western literary theorists have been attempting to change the passivity of reader of traditional narrative and give full play their subjectivity,which achieves a primary breakthrough in the narrative of electronic games,and the “play” of “players” is exactly similar to “frolic” in the texts they emphasizing.In the meantime,conversely,the narrative of the electronic games also profoundly influenced the traditional narrative.