Jeff howard quests design, theory, and history (bookfi org)

This book's achievements include a history of quest computer games and quest narrarives, as well as a summary of classic literary theories about questS; an analysis of newer games wim mo

QuestS

Ed i torial, Sales, and CU5tOmer Service Office

A K Peters , L td

888 Worcesln Stree t , S ui te 230

WeUes]<y 1vtA 02482

www ~lers.com

Copy r ight e 2008 by A K Peters, lid

All rights reserved No pan of th e mater ial protected by this copyright nOlice

may be reproduced or utiliud in any form, decrronic or mechanical including

photocopying recording o r by any inf ormation stonge and retriev:al system ,

w i mout wrinen permission from me copyright owner

Library ofCo o81 ' a Ca taloging - in - PubLi ca tioo Data

To my parents ldmar and Melissa tio ward

111t Characurs of dIe Quest 67

NPC (rwaoll and Dialorue Tras l'

4· Objects 77

711t Objects of ehe QUest 77

Desiminr Quest Iwns 89

A.The NWN2Toolset lSI

B Sir Gawain and d,e Gran Knfl(ht 161

It is often modest beginnings that lead to something imponant It cu·

tainly seems like a little thing, a quest Everybody has an idea of what

a quest is And yet going deeper into its meaning can serve [0 bridge

some of the deeper gaps in the study of new media As Howard is aware,

quests arc a way to "play" literature that can combine the interpretive

and configurative functions (in Aarseth's terms) and avoid exclusionist

and often unproductive debates Howard goes beyond the utilitarian and

most common view of quesu, dwelling instead on their symbolic and

meaning-charged possibilities, thus offering a way to teach both literature

and new media to those who move effortlessly between print and digital

worlds

This is one of those uncommon books that build bridges between alien

disciplines Howard is a true Renaissance man in these electronic times He

merges his knowledge and love of literature with his emhusiasm for com·

pUler games and the unexplored possibilities of the new medium Human

intellcctual activity has a common base, be it expressed in me form of poems

or computer games, and Howard shows us some of the mOST STunning

con-nections between the old form of quest literature and me new challenges of

gam"-This is a book for humanists, who will find a refreshing new relevance

to meir field It is also a book for digital meoriSts, who will be interested in

how me old can tell Wi something aboU[ the ncw Computer game designers

will learn how TO make better use of symbolism and allegory to improve me

emotional impact of, and give a deeper meaning to, mdr quests Other qUC5t

meorisu have talked of "mcaningM

in general, but Howard analyus just what

"meaning" could be, what kinds of meaning there arc, and how these kinds of

meaning are valuable in different ways

This book's achievements include a history of quest computer games

and quest narrarives, as well as a summary of classic literary theories about

questS; an analysis of newer games wim more challenging structures than the

ones studied up to now; a convincing discussion of the importance of space in

relation to quests; and descriptions of the different kinds of quests Espttially

valuable arc the book's practical applications, in which quest components arc

carefully described and then tested in the accompanying exercises The book

also reprints portions of old texts, Sir Gawain and th~ Gl'un Knight and TIN

Fam~ Quun, which will help the reader understand th~ historical legacy of

quest literature

I am convinced that the study of the theories proposed and th~

comple tion of me exercises in this book (try to make your own Holy Grail!) will fu16l

Howard's goal of giving teachers and students"a set of strategies for designing

meanmgful aaion," a worthy aim in th~ rimes of bad design and drought

of the imagination

Dr Susana Tosca

Associate Professor

IT Unive~ity of Copenhagen

This is a book about quem A qUe§t is a journey across a symbolic, fantastic

landscape in which a protagonist or player collects objects and talks to

char-acters in order to overcome challenges and achieve a meaningful goal This

definition draws upon (h e work of both new media theorists like £Spen

Aars-cth and Susana Tosca and literary critics like Joseph Campbell and Nonhrop

Frye However, my definition is unique because it seeks to bring together

literary and new media theorizations of the quest in a way that can allow

de-signers to create: benee games A quest is a middle: term, a conceptual bridge

that can help to join together many two-pan or "binar{ pairs that arc ofr:en

considered separately in new media and literary studies These include:

•

•

•

•

game and narrative

gaming and literature:

technology and mythology and meaning and action

In terms of games and narratives, quests ar~ on~ way of resolving th~ debare

b~tween "narratologists," who see games as stories, and "Iudologists," who see

games as rule-based simulations But this debate is starting to wind down,

with som ~ factions suggesting that the argument never acrually took place

because it was always the product of misunderstanding and vague

terminol-ogy.1 This book joins the growing consensus that games and narratives are

not fundamentally in conRict and can complement each other

When we view games and narratives as complememary, we will find

three rdated terms in the discussion of quests:

• quests

• quest games

• and quest narratives

Quests take place in betwttn games and narratives, as well as within games

and narratives Stories about quests, known as quest narratives, constirure

an ancient and well-known literary genr~ In these narratives, a quest is a

structure in which a hero embarks on a journey to attain a meaningful goal

Quest narratives include heroic epics like Thr Odyssry medieval romances

like Parzivai or Thr Qllm for tht Holy Grail, and Renaissance allegories like

Thr Farnt QIlWU Well-known critics of myth and literarure ha~

theo-rized quest narratives as a universal or ~archerypal" structure, such as Joseph

Campbell's "monomyrh" of the heto's journey or Northrop Frye's idea of the

quest as the defining suucrure of romance More recent narratologists and

literary critics, such as Wayne Erickson in Mapping fht Film ' , QU«n: Qunt

Structum and tht World of tht Poem and Piotr Sadowski in Tht Knight /)" His

f ,

(

e

Qum have ext~nded understandings of th~ spatial and temporal pam:rns of the quest through sophisticated r~ adings of particular narratives

There is also a shorter but heavily influential history of games that feature quests or "quest games, ~ extending from early adventure games like

me Kingi Quat series up umil role-playing games l ik~ TJu Eki" Scrolh IV : Oblivion and World ofWaTrTiJfi In these games, a quest is an activity in which players must overcome challenges in order to reach a goal When players suc-cessfully swmount the challenges of a quest and a c hiev~ its goal, the players'

actioru bring about a seties of events that may comprise a narrative in th ~ process But quest games and quest narratives are not entirely separate Be-

cause readers of literature have to work to actively interpret a story, there are game-like eI~ments to quest narratives

Because game designers sometimes draw upon me conventions of quest narratives, ~Iements of que$[ narratives have also influenced quest games For example, the early histoty of tabletop role-playing games and computer role-playing games drew substantially on the work ofJ R R Tolkien, a professor

of medieval literature and languages who modeled his own quest narratives

on the med.ievalliterature mar he studied Game designers ohen cite Joseph Campbell's ~ hero's journey" as a pattern for meir &2ffles The relationship be -

(Ween quests, quest games, and quest narratives can be visualized as the Venn diagram below, with ~quest l?lTles~ and "quest narratives" forming twO circles with one overlapping ponion in the middle that stands for "quests."

In addition to the usefulness of these three terms in connecting games and narratives quests have even more theoretical and practical potential I O

help reconcile: meaning and action So far , the: theore:ticallite:rature: on quem

has revolved around a supposed conRict be:rween meaning and action bur I argue: this conflict is illusory In my theory quests can be: used to unify both

Narratives

Fiprc I The CM:rlappin8 n:luionship of quests quest pn!e5 and q~ Darnllivcs

·

meaning and action Meaning is at rhe heart of qucS( games and if is a form

of meaning that is much closer to literary traditions than other game gentes Quests a r e 300m action (hat is mc.aningfuJ to a player on [h e levd of ideas, personal ambitions benefit 10 society, spiritual authemidry This is wh.at s('u

them apan as an especially rich and imponant gaming activity Garners and theorists do not talk about a ~ques[" to gobble all the white dors in Pac-Mil"

or to take out the trash in Thl Sims, just as literary critic W H Auden insistS that th e search for a lost bunon i s not a quest Instead , designers and players discuss quests to save Prin cess Zdda achieve all me virtues of me Avatar in rhe Ultima games, or close the gate,,; to the heUish plane of Oblivion in Th( Eldlr Scrolls IV: Oblivion

The meanings of quest games emerge from sITaregic actions, but these actions h ave thematic, narrative, and personal impl i cations Salen and Zim- merman hav e e10quencly called for ~mean in gful play" as me primary goal

of game design, hur their definition of meaning involves receiving feedback from a system t h at makes the outcome of one's choices srrategica.lly intel -

ligible (37) In addition t o thi s dis ce rnible feedback I argue mat designers

ca n produ ce meaningful action, as well as helping to bridge t he gap belWeen games and narratives, by drawing upon strateg i es derived from quest nar- ratives, such as medieval romance and Renaissance allegory In pani c ular

designers can benefit from the tradition of symbolic co rr espondences that erates in these narratives, in which every space, characte r , o bj ect, and action stands for another idea in a comp l ex array of interrelationships To function

op-in games, these correspondences should emerge from fun gameplay, d ered through th e player's strategic actions und ertaken to ove rcom e challenges and achieve goals

iscov-These principles have educational implications both for how we [each literature through games and how we teach aspi ring game d esigners to de- sign qu ests As an exerc i se I advocate tran sf orming quest nar ratives into quest games through the construction of design documents and the usc of construction setS, s u c h as the Aurora Tooim and Thr Nrorrwinlrr Nights 2 Toolsrt Many of the exercises in this book challenge: readen t o d o precisely this While such exercises arc useful in pcdagogic.alterms this does not mean that all quest games must or shou ld be based on works of literature Litent)' quest narrat ives pr imar ily ofTer a set of strategies for making more meaning - ful quest games and quest games present an array of tools for making literary interpretation both interactive an d goal-oriented

Tran s forming narratives into que st games allows stu d ents to s« that meaning is produ ced by cognitive and imaginative activity rather than pas-

sively consumed In other words readers shape the meaning of a text in the

Quilts : Dtrign Tko? Itnd History in Gltmr< Itnd Namm ' ws

way that both designers and players shape the outcome of a game This goes slighdy against the position of many game theorists and gam e designers such

as Zimmerman, who argues that t he int e ra c t iv ity of readers who imerpr e t

a book differently is distinct from the imeracrivicy that allows a player to change a game (158) This book seeks to bridge th e gap b e twe e n th ese fwO types of imeractivity, or what Espen Aarseth calls the "interpre[alive~ and

~configura t ivc" functions ( 64 65 ) At the same time, I want to allow vidual players and readers the right to c hoos e the imerpreta ri ve goals that rhey pursue a cco rdin g to their own sense of belief and value, rather than s ugg es t- ing that a book can mean anything or tha t a game has to be pure si mulation without meaning

indi-In terms of bridging i merpr e r arive and game- l k e inten.crivicy, the est ancestor to my own project in lite rary th eory is Jero m e McGann 's ~Ivan­

clos-hoc Game ," as theorized in RAd i ant Ttxtualiry McGann i s an ac co mpli s hed Romanti cist and textual studies scho lar who invented this exe rcise, dedicaTed

to showing students how they c an ~transform" o r "defo rm" the imerpretadon

of a lit e rary work within the rules pr ovided by the author McGann 's work

is brilliant , but h e does not talk much about the actual historical tradition of video gam es, whi c h means rhat h e has to reinvent the whee l of game scholar- ship He also is nor interested primarily in having students design games and has instead design e d a predominantl y text-based game for th e m Without working video games and game design theory as models, the Ivanhoe Game docs nor have panicularly goal-oriented gameplay It is primaril y a meta- phor-a highly intelligent application o f rhe co ncept of games That has little relationship to any particular ge nr e of e xisting digital games Somewhere in the middle ofSalen and Zimmerman's meaningful play and Jerome McG a nn 's creative ~transformatio n ," there is a gap between game design and literary hi s- tory that r e mains 1 0 be filled QuestS are one WOly of filling it

Who I s lhis Book for ?

This book is intended for a broad range of audiences, all of whom can take something useful from each of its sect io ns

• As a bridge-bu ilding text, il belongs in the too lkilS of both

hum anities scho l a rs and independent designers

• New media researchers can benefit from the analysis and modi

-fication of th e theo r ies of quest n a rrat ives

• Humaniries schol a r s and prof esso rs , su c h as literature teachers

wanting to bring compute r-assisted instruction in to thei r room in an innovative way, can benefit from the book ' s combi-

class-nalion of lit~rature, garne:s, and practical classroom Gttrcises Such professors might consid~r using this book in a class on th~

relationship berw~n narrative:s and games where it would

work well as a practical and accessible textbook This book include:s many tutorials and exttrcises for use with Ihe Aurora

Toolset, which can be purchased with the role-playing g:am~

N~rwinur Nights for fifteen dollars or Jess

• Independent designers sedcing to create new, innoV2dv~ que:st

game:s can benefit from Ih ~ theoretical arguments and tutorials which present useful skills in the a ccessibJ~, user-friendly Aurora toolset

-Because th~ audiences for the book are varied I have tried 10 keep ov~rly obscure theory 10 a minimum, relegating postmod~rn ideas about language and interpretation primarily [0 footnoles Similarly, I have provided histori-cal background on both quest games and quesl narratives, assuming that a reader who knows the acronyms for role-playing terminology may not know the plot of Si r Gawain and th~ G r un Knight and vice versa When de:signers

scholars, and students share knowledge of their respective disciplines and col

-laborate on focused unified projects the results are likely to help everyone

involv~d

After a genera! introduction to th ~ theory and history of quests this book

contains four chapters about four aspects of quests, each consisting of twO

subsections The chapters discuss four Iheoretical components of quests:

• spaces;

• objects;

• actors;

• challenges

For each theoretical subsection, there is a corresponding section describing

a practical skill associated with this aspect of th~ quest, with accompanying exercises and suggestions for the use of particular technologies for designing

aspects of quests These four practical sections arc:

• level design;

• quest-Item creation;

• NPC and dialogue construcdon;

• event.based programming, or ~scripcing "

QwstJ: Dnip Tbnry aNI Histo" j" Gamn a",/ NamlliWf

Understanding the meory of the spaces of the quest can improve the tice of level design, and understanding the role of objects in quest narra-tives and games can help one to craft interesting treasures as goals or rewards

prac-of one's queslS Studying NPCs leads to bener quest dialogue, and ing the centro challenges of queslS leads to better gameplay in the form of

know-• •

scnpnng

These correspondences are deliberate, since a key purpose of the book is

to build bridges berween the theory of literature and games and the practice

of game design, bOlh independently and commercially There is a tendency

on the pan of many game designers to view theory skeptically because they consider it to be divorced from practice, like Chris Crawford's diagram of a fracrurcd pyramid in which a base of ~ lnt erac tive Storytelling" is separated from a broken-off'tip contemptuously labeled MAArseth Isic) et all {sic]" (74) Crawford's argument is that game designers often do not think that theory

can help them to make a bener producr-an accusation that is frequently leveled against theorists of the ludology/narratology debate Yet I would re-spond that designers do not bc:nefit from ignoring the meory or history of

quest games or qUCSt narratives, and they may even lose OUt significantly by being forced to reinvent the wheel of quest design struggling with a design

problem that has already bttn solved in the hinory of quesr games or quest

narratives

Some game designers might suggest mat undeTSlanding the "meaning"

of quests is not important to design, but this objection overlooks a fundamental aspect of quest design: the audience of role-playing games and adven-

-ture games A player who goes to a game store and sderu a role-playing game

or an adventure game over a shooter or a simulation is likdy to already have

an investment in an epic experience Supporting this idea, Chris Bateman

in 2/- umury Gamr DrJign offers an audience-centered approach to game design that draws upon extensive quantitative research of audience prefer-

ences to classify marketable games, including three overall genres categories of~quest , n ~s trategy," and ~si mulation n "Quest" games include the genres of adventure and role-playing games, suggesting that these rwo genres arc link«i

by a shared ccntro activity A5 Bateman argues

Ihe- Ie-rm quest aceuratdy describes the- core value- of the- games grouped

hefe- AJl lell Siories, and due- 10 the- nature- of the- medium, the-se stories

te-nd toward ~ the epic (with more- intimare stories bC"ner suiting action

gamo) Pbyc-r! cxpc-et the-ir quesl games 10 lut many hours of play, so

no t iu are often wide- in K.Opc- (264)

From Bateman ' ~ pcr~p«t i ve a.\ a successful designer who has done substan

-tial r~r c h into Kif-reported audience preferenccs, many garners prefer a

•

sweeping, epic experiena that can be S t be described as a "quest game," which

includes a variety of mote commonly used genre labels such as ~ advc:ntur c:

game" or " RPG " One ('xample: of a quest-based RPG mat has benefited from irs designers' consideration of the meaning of quests is NtvnwinUT NighlJ 2

The ragiine "everything you do has a meaning" points toward the rdevana

of meaningful acrion in a commercially successful RPG This is a ddibcr2[(' mark et ing strategy geared IOward the id ea that pla ye r s of quest g am e s buy

th eir gam es on th e basi s of m e aningful qu ests.! S u c h pla ye r s want a game: (0 give them a sens e: th at theif pla y i s parr of an epic storyl i ne with consequences

that will affect a simulated world positively or adversely These players will

co ntinu e (0 appr ec iat e: their favorit e qu es t form s, whcm e r kill qu es ts or fetch quests , but they will also grav i tate [award games mat us e mesc: forms or om-

ers in new and int eresting ways

Notes

I Gonzalo Fr a!ica mak a this argument in " Ludo logists Love Storics, Too : NotCli from

a D e bat e That Nev er Took P!ace~ ( Frasca , 20 0 3)

1 Moreov e r , reviews of N~int" Nig/m 2 have s ugg es t ed that the va rie cy and i n

gc-nuicy of quCStS a!i well as th ei r i nt egrat i on into a n en~ing storyline is a se ilin g point

of the game For e xample , the Gam es po t r ev iew argu Cli that M Th e qUClit d esign is

intercs tin g and usually fits wdl with i n the COntex t of t h e Story Th e re arc som e quests

t hat just r eq uir e you to find or deliver a cenain item , but [he rcquirrd qucsrs 2Te

usually much mor e in volved than that You'lI be as ked t o do everything from savi ng

d amsels in distress to a nswering riddles and even acri ng as 3 rrial a norn ey ~

Quests dS a Bridge B etween Games and Narratives

As Jesper luu] explains in HalfRtal: VirUo Gt1m~J b ~ twrm Rraf Ruks and Fic

-tional Wor/dr, some s c holars of video games hav e written about the concept of

the quest as one attempt [0 resolve a long and biner conflict between ~ narra­

wiogis[SH and ~ludo[ogists." In game studies, narraw]ogislS argue that g2J1les

can be analyzed as narrative s, whereas ludologim (from th e Latin luddrr ~[O

play" ) insist that ga me s s hould be stu di e d for th e features that are distin ct ively

related to play, such as rules and simulation Whjle the definitions of both

narrative and gam e are highly contested by both camps , these' rhcoriS(S r e nd

(0 define a narrative as a sequence of causally and dramatically connected

events that a r eader follows i n rime I n com r ast, a game i s a se t of rules fo r

inte ractive pl ay Juul writes:

As an attempt at bridge-building befWe en the open structu r e of gam es

and the closed structure of 5tories, the concept of q/UstJ has bcen

pro-posed by Ragnhild T ronstad, Espen Aarserh, and Susan ToSCI Quem in

games can actuall y provide an imeresting [)'pC of bridge befWeen game

rules and game fi ction in th a t the games ca n co main predefined

sequenc-es o f events that th e p l ayer then has to actualize or effec t (17)

Ju ul concisely de fin es the differen ce betwee n a qu es t an d a narrative by

focus-ing on the iss ue of pe rformati ve activity , which requires the player of a game

to cause events to occ ur through effo rt rathe r t h an passively obse rv i ng as

these events unfold

Rather tha n dispensing with the events of narrative altogethe r , as many

r adicalludo l ogists propose , J u ul suggests that a game can be interaaive and

contain a Strong S tory if th e player must e na ct its events T hi s quality of

quests can be m ore accurately ref e rred to as "e nacrmentH rath er than " inte r

activity " i nteractivity m eans that a play e r can c han ge aspects of a sim ulated

world , which respond s to her act i ons int eracriv ity ca n r es u lt in what Henry

J enkins calls "e m e r gent narratives," s uch as th e co nver sations that a c han c ter

has with another character in Tht Sims (128-29) i nteractivity is a prereq

-ui site of e na c tment but is not suffici e nt to produce it , because enaame nt

r efe r s not ju st to random c hanges created by the pla ye r i n a simu l ated world

but rathe r to th e ove r coming of spec ifi c c h a lleng es that results in p art i cular

events Enac tm e nt requires active, goaJ-di r e<: ted e ffon , often i n the form of

balancing l ong-te rm and s h ort- t e rm goals

I n "Quest Games as Po st-Nar rativ e Discours e," Aarseth d e fines a quest

in a way that highlights enactm e nt as we ll as t he movement throug h space

and t he id en tificati o n of a player with a virtual id entity , o r ~ avatat " He writes

2

that "a pla~N vatar mUSt mo ve through a landscape i n o rd er t o fulfill a goal

whil e mastering a se ri es of chal l cnges This ph e nomenon is called a quest" (368) Aarseth is one of the l ea ding proponents of ludology and is famous

for having vehemently opposed the use of~narratology " 10 analyze games as SlOries Iklieving mat massively multiplayer online role·playing games such

as Ewrqum cannot b e und e r stood as s tori es, yet faced with me popul arity of some acrion-adv entu r e games that do seem to hav e a s trong story Aarseth opts for th e int e rmed iary a c tivity of me quest

tiara"! Dtfinirions of Qy<5tS

In COntrast to many bUl nO( all lu do lo g i slS, I argue that a search for

mean-ing is not analogous but rather intrinsic to th e design of qu es t s because of the lit erary history of qu es t narratives and the ir associati o ns with religion

and mythology As Tosca acknowledges, "The idea of [the) quest as a search with a transcendent meaning (as in ~q u est for the Holy Grai ") is part of the

~ryday use of the word and no doubt has some influence in the way players

and designers look at them" (sec 4 1) The word qum etymologically comes

from the Latin word quma" meaning "to seek." This definidon suggests a goaI-orienred search for something of value Tk O:iford Engl iJ h Dictionary

c.orrobor.ues this explanation in one of its definitions of "quest": a "search or pW'Suit, made in order to find or obtain something." A related dennition

of quat gestures back toward its origins in "medizval romance," in which a

quest is "an expedition or adventure undertaken by a knight to procure some thing or achieve some exploit."

As these definitions suggest, questS in games were influenced by a long tradition of quest narl1l.tives, ranging from Homer's Thf Odym:y to [he me-dleval romances of the Holy Gl1I.il, formalized in Joseph Campbell's "hero's

journey" and Northrop Frye's anatomy of the "quest romance." Susana Tosca observes the relevance of the genres of epic and romance as well as that of Jo-seph Campbell's hero's journey to the "background" of quest games, though

sm: hl1l.clccts the question of how closely the literary and gaming 1I1I.ditions

can be related, arguing primarily that such theories are "not pointless" to

the uudy of gamt:S However, she views Campbell's pattern as either "tOO general" to be analytically useful or as incidental to the main thread of her in-

quiry Yet I would argue that these patterns must have explanatory usefulness specifically relevant to games because they are part of the historical origins of games, and game designers themselves acknowledge their inAuenee Tosca's claim is insightful but deserves further development, since a more detailed and forceful statement of the relationship between the literary tradition of

/nrrorluction 3

quests and their operation as a gaming activity would allow the quest concept

to fulfill its bridge-building function more effectively

Moving Past the ludology and Narratology Debate

QuestS take their place in an increasing consensus that games and narratives can work productively together, allowing us to move beyond the debate ~­

tween ludologists and narratologists Theorists and designers alike agree that there can be transformations back and forth between games and narratives as weU as many intermediate forms in between the cwo categories The idea of adapting material from narrative to game and back again is rapidly becom-ing well-accepted in the academic srudy of new media and literature, as can

be seen in the transition from the anthology First Pn-son to its sequel StroM Prnon Moving past the contentious ludology versus narratology debate that characterized the first volume and the first wave of game srudies, many of the essays in the second volume discuss ways that designers have based games upon stories (including Tht Namt of tht Rou, Lovecraft's Cthulhu mymos, and many other franchises) The title ofJames Wallis's essay, "Making Games That Make Stories, ~ sums up just how closely intemvined these cwo forms are currently understood to be There are many strategies for adaptation rep-resented in Srcond Pason, in which computer games become collectible card games and novels become board games

Perhaps especially intriguing is the editors' decision to single out twO

writers of narratives on the various types of games and adaptation in the book: Tolkien (for his "quest structure") and H P Lovecraft (for his Cthulhu mymos) The fictional worlds ofTolkien and Lovecnft can accommodate both quest games and quest narratives offering examples of transformations

in both directions We do nm have to speculate on whether quest narratives can be transformed into quest games strictly as a pedagogical exercise, be-cause this transformation has been successfully achieved many times in both directions

For example the fictional universe of H P Lovecraft's ~Cthulhu mymos" has generated many narratives written by other authors as well as many games Aumors and designers have transformed several of the rales

(some of them like "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadam n themselves quest narratives) into games Lovecraft·s fiction forms the basis for the rules

of the tabletop role-playing game Call of Cthu/hu, which gives rise to many possible questS, including scenarios/modules and computer games like Call of

Cthulhu: Dark Comas of tht Earth Similarly, the quest narratives of fantasy writers) R R Tolkien and Fritz Leiber inAuenced the rules and worlds of

D.aguJlls .",J Drat!'ns; iat(:[, Margaret Weiss and Trac(:y Hickman adapt(:d scvual play sessions of DungMns and Dragons into the Dragonkmu trilogy This trilogy in tum ba:ame a rule-book, which was part of th(: inspiration for

W Dragonlanc(: Adv(:ntu['(:S modding group to creat(: mods in the Dragon

-lance univt'rsc: using the Aurora ToolSC!t

Quc;st3 GamtS and Inruprttodon

As the d(:bat(: be:rween the ludologisrs and th(: narratologists dies down, many game throriSts and gam(: designers increasingly focus on meaning and inter-pretation as c:e:nual to game design and narrative Salen and Zimm(:rman call for "meaningful play ~ as the overarching and c(:ntral goal of successful gam(:

design In Unit Op",ations , Ian Bogost incisively challenges Aarseth's standing claim that readers and game players engage in two distinct cognitiv(:

long-activities, or ~ functions " Aarseth argues in C yb",trxt that the dominant function of non-qbenextual literature is interpretative, in which [(:aders d(:t(:[-

-mine implied meanings of a book or imagine its events and charact(:rs diff(:r

-ttltly Aarseth suggests that the dominant function of cybenexts, including games, is configurariv(: USC!rs reconfigure the elements of a simulation, as

~n thc=y mak (: strat~ c decisions about th(: d(:pioym(:nt of resources within

pression unit o pt'Tations " (ix ) Bogost asserts that these "unit operations" can

be studied and interpreted critically in t(:rms of the ideas about society that thq express, consciously or unconsciously, and that an awareness of these

opeiuions can in turn (:ncourage more expressive game design Bogost t(:nds

to focu.s on mod(:rn and contemporary texts, in part because he is im(:rested

in ways th.u games can comment on cont(:mporary political ideology rather than in anci(:nt mythology or the Western canon of quest narratives Nev-

~ , he eloquently argues that ~ we must also make room for imetive strategiC! mat remain faithful to the configurative properties of games"

rpr(:ta-(J08) Hi! point remains mat games and literature can me(:t at the issue of

interpretation

In contra.u to BagOSt'S disct(:te ~ units " rh(: quest is a featur(: of game·

play and narrative' that is both "progressiv(:" and "systematic," twO qualities

Introdurtion 5

that he denies to uniu (3) The configuration of a reader in a quest narrative and a <Juest game is defined by being ~g oal ~o rient e d ~ This emphasis on goals often includes sequences of objectives in which there is some choice, such

as the order of a rtain optional quests or whemer ( 0 undenake a side quest

The portions of the game engine and interface that keep track of quests are often called the game's ~ quest system." This system fre<Juencly consists of a main quest as well as many side quests, yet the variety oflocaliz.c:d actions that players can perform while completing quests might still be re:garded as "unit

"

opera[Jons

The tlistory and Theory of Quest Narratives

The argument about the intersection of interpretative and configurative

meaning in games and narrative is not JUSt a meoretical one Indeed, under~ standing the theory of quest games and quest narratives is closely intertwined with issues of design and his(Ory By studying the history of born quest narra-tives and quest games, designers can benefit from "paradigmatic~ examples of quests especially well-constructed, innovacive quests that can inspire their

own designs This inspiration is more than emotional encouragemem that

such achievements arc: possible &amples of excellem games and narratives

in this genre provide designers with a set of strategies for building meaning ~

lUI quests There are four classic theorists whose work can help designers to understand me history of quest narratives:

• Joseph Campbell;

• Normrop Frye;

• W H Auden;

• Vladimir Propp

Campbell, die Hero's JourneJf, and Quesrs

The designers who work with the quest note its resemblance to the "Hero's

Journey~ as described by Joseph Campbell in Th, HtrO with a Thousand Faas

and popularized by Christopher Vogler in Th, WriursJournry Many game

designers embrace the hero's journey as a potential srructure for games

be-cause it is effective in creating a compelling storyline mat will morivate going play Authors of books on game design who are also practicing game designers have praised Campbell's strUCture: in detail as a model for construct-

on-ing games These authors include Glassner in Inuractiw StoryuiJing, ings and Adams in Gamr DrJign, Novak in Gamr Drvrlopmrnt EssrnriAls and Dunniway in "Using the Hero's Journey in Games" (Glassner 59 66, Novak

Roll-6

116-17 Rollings and Adams 93-111) For Campbell, this journey conS li ·

rul es a protagonist's quest to overcome various obstacles and enem i es with the

help of mentors in order to gain a mystical reward which she can then bring

back [0 benefit her sociery

Campbell's \949 book Tht HtTO with a ThoUJnnd Fam contains a

schematic oudine of a ~ monomyth " of the ~he r O'$ journey," consisting of a mreefold structure of ~separation, initiation, and return." Campbell writes,

"A hero vc:nrurC:$ forth from the world of common day into a region of super

natural wonder: fabulous fo r ces are there encountered a n d a decisive victory

is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power

to bestow boons on his fellow man " (3 0) While Campbell's formula is usc

-ful in understanding th e stages th at many qu~ting h~nxs pass thr o ugh , a

"jou rn ey~ i s not sy nonym ous with a qu~t Rath~r , a "jou rn ey" is th~ spatial mov~m~nt and t~mporal duration ~ ntail~d by a quest I

As a sru d~m of mythology and spi rituality as w~n as a devot~d

Jung-ian , Campb~n r ~g ards thi s narrativ~ as archerypal , underlying all cu ltur es

becaus~ it ~xp res ses a tran sc endent psychological and spiritual truth T h ~ usefuln ess of the qu ~t structure oft~n exists in t~nsion with th~ postmod~rn theoretical ass umpt ions of many ga m e researchers , who ar~ sk~p ticalt oW3rd

tran scendenc~ and me " grand narratives " that symbolize i t For ~x amp l~, To

-sca acknowledges the practical association of the quest with narratives about

transcendence and mythic apocalyptic e pics about "savi ng [h e world" while expressing theoretical distrust of this assoc iation S he writ~s that " th ~ word

qu est evokes the dr~aded great narratives, and maybe that i s why we should

be arefu l wh~n using it, alt h ough it see m s [ha t, at leas t in the gam~ design

field , it has co m e to stay " (sec 4.1)

Whil~ many game designers and theorists cit~ Campbell's " hero 's jou r ney- to discuss the lit~rary o rig ins of the qu es t , Campbe ll actually addresses

-this concept more dir ec tly i n his lat ~ w rit ings and lectures on th~ qu es t fo r

the H oly Grail The roots of the hero's journey a r e i n Campbell's study of

the Anhurian cycles and grail leg~nds, which wer~ th~ tOpic of his master's

thesis While h~ persuasively argues that t h e hero's journey is a c r oss-cultural,

arch~typal p at t e rn r unning th r ough the myth s of many co untri es, th ~ Gra.i l

l egend off~rs a particularly complete and ri c h templat~ for h~roic deeds that Campbell re turn s to in h is late work Crtativt Mythology the last volume of

his Tht Mas/a o/God series For Campbell, the Grail quest emblematizes the Wem : rn searc h for an individual path in life that manifests itself in t he pur-

posiv~ striving o f the free will (564)

This ca pab iliry of ~ach playe r to make cho i ces about the unfolding of

a natrativ~ in accord with hu own sense of self is only li teral ly possible in a

7

quest game, bU! it i s the valu e that i s most d ee ply al the: h e an of quest narra ~

dir ec tly in his b ook Cmu;lIr Myrh owgy, F or Ca mpbell , th e quw for the Grail

is ultimately a symbolic narrative of a deeply individualiS!;c search to follow

the prompt i n gs of one ' s i nn e rm os t s elf, exc:rcisf!d through c onSiant s tr iv in g

w i thi n s ociety H e sees t h e slOeies of the Gra il as " the: firsl s h ee rly

individu-a li s t ic myth o logy i n the hi s lOry of t h e h u m a n ra ce: a m yt hol ogy of quest inwardly ffimivated-directcd from within ~ (553)

AI the d eepes ! l evel, th ese are t h e aspects of play e rs thoU can also be:

e n c ouraged through qu es t game s, whi c h all o w individual playe r s [0 strive toward the: goals that arc most relevant to theiT own values and beliefs as

readers and players As Campbell explains, "The Grail here, as in the later

Qum r, is the symbol of supreme spiritual value It is :Hlained, however, nOi

by renouncing the world or even current social custom, bur, on the contrary,

by participation with every ounce of one's force in the century's order of life in the way or ways dictated by one's own uncorrupled heart: what the

mystics call the Inner Voice." ~ Part i c ip at i o n with every ounce of one's force~ suggests unswerving effort to reach a goal of self expression and self-improve-

ment This is an enterprise that we can only admire in one of the knights

searching for the Holy Grail but which we ca.n cultivate in ourselves through gammg

It is imporrant for designers to undustand the distinction between the

hero's journey and Campbell's late work on quests in order to avoid using Campbell in rigid, mechanical, and monotonous ways The "hero's journey"

as Campbell theorized it in 1949 wu a ~ mon omyt h ft_ a single three-pan pattern that Campbell believed to extend across the most diverse myths from

differem cultures When Campbell speaks of a "quest" in his late work, he

is referring to a specifically Western emphasis on different individuals' search

to realize their own unique selves The "hero's jo urney ~ is always the same,

but every quest is different-a shift in emphuis that Campbell illustrates through the moment in Thr Qum for thr H oly Gra i l al which each knight

deliberately sets off alone into the forest at a point where there is no path

When some designers express wariness with the hero's journey as a mooel

for narratives in garnes, they arc responding to a popular misconception of

Campbell's theories that emphasizes the monomyth over the individual mul·

tiplicity of creative queSts If the hero's journey is applied unimaginatively every game will follow the pattern of S tar \%oN and Thr L o rd oftlJt Rings If

quests arc created wilh an eye toward the emphasis on individuality found in

Western medieval romances, then they ca.n be u idiosyncratic and original as the players who embark on them

8

Northrop F'1J e

JUSt as Camp~I1's writings help to establish a historical relationship berween

the journey and the quest through its roots in medieval romance, Northrop Frye's Anat o my ofCririrism offers a rigorous lerminological disrinClion among

the u laled lerm! of ~ r o m a n ce.~ " ques t ," and ~ adven[Ure n For Frye the "

ro-mance" is the genre:, or "mythos," that both contains the quest and is contained by it in its overall structure Frye writes that "the essential element

-of plol in romance is adventure which means that romancc is naturally a sequential :md processional form hence we know i l better from fiction than

&om drama" (186) Adventure is not synonymous with romance but rather

supplies its content and this content ukes me fo rm of a sequence

For Frye the quest is the climactic episode in a series of adventures

dis-cinguisht'<! from minor ev~nts by i s size and centrality At the same time the

quest is also the formal principle by which the romance is structured, wi

th-our which it would only be a sequence of adventures Frye concisely sum

-marizes " W~ may call this major adventure the element that gives literary

form to the romance, the quest" (187) Frye explains "The complete form

of the romance is clearly the successful quest, and such a completed form

ius three main stages: the stage of the perilous journey and the preliminary

minor adventures; the crucial struggle, usually some kind of battle in which

either th~ hero or his foe, or both, must die; and the exaltation of the hero" (I87) Frye's structure, like Campbell's, has three partS, but Frye collapses the

second of Campbell's stages n nitiation") inro the first stage of his schema

Frye also ends the quest at the conclusion of Campbell's second stage directly

after what CampbcU would call the hero's greatest battle or "ordeal," and his subsequent "apotheosis: or elevation [0 divinity

W H lIudtll

A third theorist of quest narratives worth considering in conjunction with

Campbell and Frye is W H Auden, the famous modernist poet and critic

whose 19G1 essay "The Quest H e r o~ is both a literary analysis of quest nar

-ratives and a review of J R R Tolkien's Tht Lord oltht Rings Auden argues

that the enduring popularity of quest narratives is due to their "val dity as a

symbolic description of our subjective personal experience of existence as hi

s-torical" (82) While this definition can sound intimidating Auden is simply

arguing that human l ves closely resemble the pattern of a quest because of

the way that we experience our day-to-day existence as a sequence of major and minor goals with an uncertain outcome in which we struggle wi h good

and evil impulses

9

Auden concedes that in terms of our "o bje c tiv e" Jives , most of us are nor heroes on long journeys through spa« becau~ our jobs k~p us in one pla« but rhe ways that we c hang e over time mak e our li ves Kern l ik e epic

journe ys Auden does not r ely on Jungian a r c h ery pes bUl a n a n appeallo an imaginadv e way of looking at every day life in a way that helps us (0 make

sense OUt of it through the e pi c SlorytdJ i ng of a STO ry s u ch as Thr Lord of thr Rings Aud e n's argume nt w o u l d therefore bt" a u sc ful answe r to s k ep ti cs who might d oubt the wonh of c ompu t er g:ames becaUSt' of their co nnection s to fantas y w o rld s li ke that ofTolkie n Aud e n's a rgum e m might i mpl y ( though

he wrot e l ong b ef ore the a dv e nt of computer ga m es) that s uc h games can be:

relevant to human life p rec i sely becaus e they are delvin g int o 2 l o ng literary tradition rhat r~aches a peak of mode:rn popularity in Tolkie:n whe:re: it is th~n taken up by design~n of table:top role:-playing games

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp's 1928 M orpholo gy ofrhf Folk Tnlr is one of the: fim rigorous analyses of narratives involving questS Using Russian formalist theories of narratology, Propp breaks down the: co mpon~nt pans of folktales and their

possible combinations For Propp, a tale: is a sequence: of rigorously d~finc:d

transformations by which ele:me:nts arc: f«ombine:d according to suict rules

of substitution and linkage:, much like: the: grammar of a languag~ Th~ m~nrs combint'd in a folk tal~ arc: a set of recurr~nt characte:n, or '"dramatis personae:, ~ who perform Mfunctions," or prototypica.l actions such as giving a talisman or t ~sri ng the: h~ro In particular, Propp discusses one: type: of main characte:r that he: ca.lls the: "qu ~s ting h ~ro,~ who e:ngages in a qu ~st in order to fulfill a pereeive:d lack in his life: or that of his f.lmily The character fulfills this

ele:-lack by seeking out a wondrous "objccl." Propp's rone and method arc: sci

en-tifically d~rached , focusing on patterns found objcctively in the dara of a vast

collection of folk tales His Strength as a throrisl is his awar ~ness of the many

possible rc:combinations of funclions in a diuying array of tales Although his version of quest narraTives anticipates that of Joseph Campbell and Frye,

his description of th~ tales is less philosophical and more: concrete:

Narradve 5UIICOIrts 8tcomeActividts in Games

What Campbe:1l and Frye understood as a Slructure operates as an activity in quest games Campbell's unified "monomyth" bc:oomc:s the "main questM

in

a complex quest syste:m of intersecting, forking and shifting ~s id~ quc:sts ~ The balance of main queu and side: quests resolves potential rension bc:t'A"eC'n the multiplicity valorized by postmodern rheories of new media and (h~ unit),

10 Qums: lnlign, Throry, lind Hisrory in Gam~ and Namu;WJ

implied by an ancient "monomyth» or "grand narrative." Tosca's wariness

regarding "grand narratives" that associate quests with transcendent meaning stems from this tcnsion between postmodern media and ancient sou rce mate- rial, which can be surmo unted by a dose examination of the ways that game designers themselves address the issue

Designers of quest systems extend Campbdl's middle phase of tiation~ and Frye's "m inor adventures" in order to put the primary focus on player action , and they repeat th e "sepa ration-initiation-return" pattern itera- tively to allow for prolonged, varied gameplay In th is respect, quest sys tem s differ from Vogler's Tht Writtr's Journey, which simpl ifies Campbell's pattern into a relatively rigid three-parr structure that d escr ibes and generates un in- ventive HolI)'\vood films Instead, designers of quest systems compl i cate and enrich Campbell's structure , awakening the lat e nt potential for variety and activity in Campbell's sou rce material 2 By understanding how qu est games function, lit e rary critics can also reexamine narratives, from ancient ep ic to

"ini-m edieval romance, as potential "quest systems" because they have always plied the possibility of goal-oriented imaginative action

im-Authors of quest narratives always sought to encourage these activities but w e re limited by the oral and written media available to them These authors could create only the potential for activity, since readers or listene rs might or might not imagine themselves acting within the authors ' fictional world or changing everyday actions in response to quest narratives Digital games requir e players to actualize this potential through goal-oriented acrions

in simulated space Qu e st narratives and quest games are not identical (as Barry Atkins suggests in his ch apter on "Tomb Raid e r as Quest Narrativ e "

in Morr Than a Gam r), nor are they irreconcilably diff e r e nt (as Aarseth im

-plies in his antinarratological analysis of "Quest Games as Post-Narrative

Dis-course~) Rather, quest narratives and quest games clarify and illuminate each other, so that the most contemporary, technologically sophisticated games offer insights into the most ancient narratives and vice versa

The History of Quest Games

The history and theory of quest games rakes up where the work of Joseph Cam pbell and Nonhrop Frye leav es off, making literal a potential for in - tcractivity that was always present in quest narratives The work of J R R Tolkien, an accomplished medievalist who produced the first modern trans- lation of the romance Sir Gawain and th r Grun Knight, converges with the

ea rly tablerop role-playing to produce quests in adventure games, the first and second generation of computer role-playing games, and MMORPGs More-

II

over, a shift away from random puzzles and hack-ancl-slash gamepJay toward

an increasing emphasis on (he underlying meaning of quests appears in me

evolving careers of pioneering designers like Richard Garrion and Robt:ru Williams

Designers' concern with the meaning of quests does not sdJ copies of the earliest quest games, like Killg 's QUtft lor Ul tima I but ir does help in

marketing the huer insrOlllmen[s in these series, as well as recent innovative

quest games like N tv tfwinur Night s 2 Educational game dcsigners as well as

independent designers with an emphasis on innovative gamepJay could learn

from these historical pam:rns by foregrounding meaningful questS from the

beginning of the design process Moreover, designers can follow the examples

of Garrion and Williams by ddilxrardy drawing on literary source

mate-rial that is at the root of quest games bUI easy 10 forget when narratives and

games are seen as in conflict rather than complementary A5 in most fields, an awarenes.s of the history of game design keeps practitioners of mis crafr: from having to reinvent the wheel, saving them both time and money

TablUfJp RoIc - Pla,/fnrGamts: Dllnywns and DrOfOlIs

As Tosca argues, the history of qUCSt gamcs is strongly rooted in ~ta ble[Op" or

"pen-and-paper" role-playing games, in which re:ferees called "dungeon ma,s

ters" or ~game masters" guided players through adventures using rulebooks,

dice, and imagination to calculate the outcomes of players' actions With mis

background in mind, the history of qucsu in games might be said to begin in

1974 with the publication by Gary Gygax and David Arneson of Dungrons and Dragons , the first massively popular pen-and-paper role-playing game

The precursor to Dunglom and Drag om was the WllI strategy game maiL whose large-scale battles were closer to a r~ - tim e strategy video game than the dungeon crawls that we associate with the game today As Schick argues in Hao;c Worldr and Erik Mona clarifies in "From the Basement to the

Chain-Basic Set: The Early Years of D ungt om 6-Dragonr ," David Arneson expanded

on Gygax's rules for group combat by creating a campaign organized around

single players exploring a dungeon beneath a cascle (Schick 18-20 Mona

26)

The idea of the quest recurred in Dungtom and Dragons as a unit of gan1ing activity around which role-playing sessions could be based although

the word ~sce nario " or "modulen was often used to refer to the paper books

that contained stories and guidelines for game masters to usc in these

ses-sions However, the module writer David Emigh did write a raoun:e for game masters called TIN Qum, billed as "a design guide book for the imagina-

12 Qunn; Dnil'" TlmJry and Hutory in CalOw a"d NamJlivrs

ri ve fanrasy game r eferee" th at dr aws on " t hemes commo n to a n cient myt h ,

m edieval r omance an d m ode rn fantasy" a n d "guides t h e r efe r ee to w a r d d

e-signing morC' c:xciting role playing scenarios." Emigh provides a bibliography

o f myt h olog i cal and lite r ary so ur ces f o r const ru cti n g engaging quests, a d

vo-cat ng Campbell's Masks of God series over Thr Hn-o with a Thousand Fam

an d p r esenting a r ich variety of q u est types from Celtic, Arthu ri an a nd Norse

The reference to "modern fantasy" highlights the undeniable influence

of J R R Ta lki e n o n tab l ecop role-play in g, along wi th t h at of many othe r

fanrasy authors cited by Daniel Mackay as evidence of his historical "equation"

for me genesis of the games: uFanrasy Literature + Wargames :0 Role-Playing

Games~ (17) However, the awareness of [he literary sources of ~myt h " and

~ m e d ieval romance" suggests that there was some awareness of a broader

rra-dition of quest narratives among game masters Indeed, Gary Gygax himself acknowledges me inspirational value of a variety of literary sources, including

mythology, in the appendix of Masur of thr Gamr, where he includes several such works in his ideal l st of a ~ Master's Library" (172-73) Gygax also cites

Joseph Campbell's Thr Hrro with a Thousand Fa m as a useful text for game

masters, because this text summarizes the structures of heroic adventure

un-derlying D u ng to ns and Dragons Gygax explains that "although I was totally

unaware of it at the time, H most of (he elements of the heto's journey were

"included in me thesis of [he DUNGEONS & DRAGONS work, the first

role-playing game created" (16 6 )

Text - B as ed fn wa w v e Fi ctio n s: A dventur e and la rk

Building upon Dungrons a n d Dragons, [he second step toward quests in video

games was the (ext-based interactive fiction called Advmtuu, whose history

has been chronicled in detail in Nick Montfort's Twirl] L i ttl t Pasrag tJ : An

Ap-p roach to lnuractivt Fiction and in Dennis Jen's "Somewhere Nearby is

Co-lossal Cave: Examining Will Crowther's Original 'Adventure' in Code and in

Kentucky H Crowther completed his first version of AdvtnNt r t in 1975, based

on his sessions playing the pen-and-paper Dungtons and Dragons as well as

on his real-life explorations of Mammoth Cave Players explored a sim

ula-lion of this cave, collecting treasures and solving puzzles by typing two-word

commands, such as "go north" and "examine rock." In 1977, Don Woods

expa n d~ d upon Crowther's version, combining it wi h fantasy elements drived from Tolkien to produce a larger game called Coloual CaVt Advmtuu,

e-which in turn gave risc to many variant games on the networks that preceded

the Internet

13

In the :micl.: ~ In[cra c (ivc Fiction," Anthony Niesz and Norman Hoi· land argue that the qucSl is the central underlying motif of most interactive

fiction They argue:

In gen e ral , th e s tru cture is the Que s t Th e reader-hero set S out along

a series o f roads or passagewa ys or room s (one h as to s ket ch a map to

hav e any s ucce ss al all with these games) , S he meets various helpeD

or adversarie s: enco unters obstac le s, aid s o r treasures; and find s dead

ends or, more lik ely that she has left somet h ing several s tages ba c k

that she now need s (115)

N i esz and H olland's gcnera.l izat ion about IF o riginat es in pan from the

car-ly date of their article, wrinen in 1984 whcn classic IF like the Adwnl'll"

variams and the Zor/t series drew heavily on the quest motif High fantasy,

swords-and-sorcery senings were' very common in early intcractive fierion, which ~ v~ ntu ally branched out into many other genres as well as the gc:nre~

bending experimentations of today's inde~nd ent interactive fiction On~

might also argue that the earliest interactive fictions tended to ~ "scavenger hunts" as much as quests, in which players often collected items and solved puzzles with littl~ sense of an ultim a t~ goal contatualiud in narrative

Nev~rthdess , Niesz and Holland's focus on the quest as a primary

mo-tif in IF is valid in that many classic and contemporary interactive fictions, from Zork to Graham Nelson's Curm, are structured on a player's movement through a symbolic environment in order to achieve a me.aningful goal Of

p.ardcular note is Brimffonl : Thl Dmlm of Sir Gawain which was based on Arthurian legend Writer J.ames Paul cre.arively tl"3nsforms dements of Sir

game, using strategies to increase the immersion and interactiviry of this n.ar ~

r.ative such as sctting the game within a dre.am and allowing for the explora~

t on of diff e r ~ nt paths and locations not included in the story-cycl~ (such as the inclusion of UITO, the hell of poet Willi.am Blake's writings) Similarly,

Roben Pinsky locates the worlds ofimeraclive fiction in the Mstandard Gothic furniture of dwarfs, swords, torches, and dungeons," suggesting his awareness

of th~ literary origins of inter.active fiction in (h ~ Gothic representation of the middle ages as a fairy-talc realm of swords and sorcery Interactive fiction passed (his motif on to the early graphical adventure games, action-.advenrure games, and r o l ~-p la yi ng games th.at it influ~nced (3)

Graphical AdvenOlrt GameJ: Kim( s Quest

Graphical adventure games (h~n arosc out of in(~rac tive fiction, including

company founded by her and her husband, Ken Williams A.5 the annotated

first King's Qum, subtitled Qum for thr Crow n was produced in 1983 for

the IBM PCjr followed by a re-rdease in 1984 for the IBM PC and the

Tandy 1000 A Sl:ric:s of seven sequels King's Qllm II - VIII followed thc:

original, spanning 1985-1994 For the: sake of comp.uing the evolution of

King 's Qum with OIher quest games the dates of these sequels arc a~ fol

-lows: King's Qllm II : Romal/cing fhr Throl/r (1 985) Khlgi Qllm III: To rtr;r

is Humnn (1986), King's Quest IV : 71Jr Pl.'ril.s of Roul/II (1988) King s Q ur s l V: Abull cr Mnkrs tiJr Hum Go Yo nd a (1990) King 's Qllm VI : To H,i, Is HII -

man (1992) King's Qllrsr VII : J1Jr Prinerlrn Bridr (1994) and ""ing s Qllrst

VI/I: Mask 0/ Eurniry (1998), As Roberta Williams acknowledges, Woods and Crowther's CO/OJJtl/ Cnv, Advmtllrr was a key inAucnce on tht, original

King 's Qllm game In Ruse! Dcmaril's Hi gh SCOtt: 71" !/fmtr.lud Hi s tory 0/

EI,ctron ir G all/n, Willilms explains, "Colossal Cave ch'H1geJ my lifi: lowe a

lot to Will Crowther" (1.14) Like Ad"rllt,,,r King's Qum rt'quiml the player

to manipulate: the avatlr of a knight, Sir Graham through a simulated fairy

tale environment, solving puzzles in order to colll'ct three freasun."s 10 save the:

fairy-tale kingdom ofDaventry

Kingi Qum foregrounds the role of thc: quest in this game since it

con-(extualizes Sir Graham's actions within an overaTching set of goals motivated

-dom The tone of the visuals and action in King's Qllr s t is playful rather than solemn yet a chivalric fairy-tale narrative motivate.'S Sir Graham's adventure

Indeed Roberta Williams witS quite consciously mining the same folk tales

that Vladimir Propp studied, as she suggests when she explains, ~ I was

think-ing about a fairy tale advemure wilh lost treasures giantS leprechauns a

gingerbread house a troll bridge, guessing a gnome's name" (7) A.5 in Propp's

folk tales, King 's Qur s t and its sequels revolve around a glme character

moti-vated to embark 011 a quest by the lack of desired object or person, including

both magical items and in King's Qumlland V, a bride JUSt as Propp argued

that this ~ I a c k " drives "seeker-herocs" roward an adventure that will fill this

lack so Roberta Williams punningly entitled the fifth game in (he series Ab ·

snter MaIm fIJI.' rtrart Go Yondrr (Propp 34-35)

In:l pattern that later repeated itself in Richard Garrion's design of the

Ul t ima games, Ihe sequels increase: the degree of coherent narrative baclmory and meaningful action As Williams hersdf emphasizes in her introduction

to King's Q u rst VI in the manual ro the collecrion '" wanted to get away

from just putting together a jumble of puules in some sort of meaningless quest; you should have a clear scnse of what you're doing and why, with some

"

emotion behind il

M

C ~O ) Williams C Tt'JIt.g thi5 meaningful : I C l io l1 in KiIJ.(s

QU tit V I by using C li I-SC~' Il ~'S and mu s i ' hi giw Slk-Cificity : Hld poign:UK}' 10 a

fairy-talt· romance in which thl' pr o t ag misl IIlU S I rt' S(Ul' :I l' riu c l 'sS in a (OW!." !

Th e gamep l ay of Kill , ( i QIlI'it V I ''rJ S r nr i dlC'( [ r Jlh l'r Ih :l l1 ~ lo\ \ ' (-J J ow n by

th= na r rative d ('lllc nt s ro :s uhin g i n a ri c hl , imnl ('r.;iv(' s l ur )' 111 :1( rn o ( i' - a lcd

p J: yers (0 explo l e ,h i ' gallll:s multiple (·ndings optional pu 1 ks and side·

•

n arratives

!!a io ll - Ad\,cllwr e GOnl('s : A(/\ ' OIwrt ( Acar i 1(00) alld

1111! L Cl{lJI d of I dth}

AI ,hi' s:J1Ilt: lime Ih:1( ' I ue sts wen: becomi ng : 1 SI:Ipl,' ofC RP Gs, snlllf · , ea rl y

consoll- aC l ion - a d vC IlIU( (, g :ull cs hegan 10 in c orp o r.lI c 'l uCM : 1 ( l ivi l ), eilhe r

co n c urr c n d y <l r ill rc s pull S(' to ea r lier RI'C s 77Jt' (, ~ 111/(, /JniX" Uri/ d t f C lt plains ,h'l( W ~ m ' n Rohiucl(, 1111: (bignl'r of dK' 197H A!.lri 2600 J.::UIlC Ad -

-"ttll 1Irt' ori~iJ1 :Ill)' i llIl'nJed it 10 be : 111 ad" pt al ion of 1 hl' t I'XI-h:sed i n ter~ct i ve

fiction Ad,'o m//'(' Rubin("11 n mtr:lSts tilt, trt"aSlIre.- IHlIlt of Ihi.\ gallll ' with

the !.lues! of his gt3phieal Ad"t/lfllrr whcn IIC wr i ! c.~ Ihat ~ wl)("re.-;/;~ the.- goal

of thl' original t("Xt g:III1C Advcnture was treasure.- g>uhe.-rillJ.:' ,he video goamc

Advcnture is Jdinoo :L~ a qll l'~ 1 One singlt, treasur(', ,he Em:halllClI Chalice,

mU ~ 1 be- 1000led :md brough! home Thus, Ihe tuol Ohjl-cts mUM (;ontribute

somehow (0 the overall goal of the quest" (6' )'1) Rohinell Sl't'S Ihal the difrer

ence berween a !re3surc hunt and a qUCS! is th:H each barrier 1 : 1ll overall goal requires an object tU surmounr i , which a n in lurn require alloll1("r objcel,

creating a proliferation of ~s uh-go als, ~ In Rohill('II's dC!iign, the rdatiol1!ihip be-rwccn main quest and side quesl w:u beginning 10 solidify, k 711t G a mt

Drs ign Rtnd" sugg('su, Ad"m/ul'l' was an influence 0 0 bOlh Ihe f ,rgind 0/

aida and th(' Ultima games

After ,he Alari 2600 version of AdW:lllllft , the Ltgtl/d 0/ Ztt""l series

brought the quesl into the genre of action-lIdvcnrun: Slimes, This franchise began in 1986 with the original Tht Lrgmd o/ZAdn, which Batcm n iden-

tifies as the "nucleating game~ of the Yaclion dventure genre.H This series

increased Ihe amoulll of fasl-paccd action i15soci rc:d wirh Ihe quest, requir

ing thill play(,fS be :IS dept in wielding Link's sword 35 in Ihe navig2lional

abilities to move through dungcom While many of the Zelda gamo fcalUre

2n ovcrarching main quest 10 save Princess Zelda, defeat Gannon or Gallon

-dorfi:, 2nd recover the pieces of Ihe Triforcc, they also break Ih i~ quest up

infO managea.ble pans, The mosl cclebtalcd insuJlmcnt in the Zd dil series, the 1998 Ocariruz o/7imt, f(' tures a Hqucsi SliltuS" screen Ihal rcgUolers one's progress in [he quest through [he collection of Yspiritual medalliom."

16

Compuw Role -PlOffitlf' GamtS

A pam:rn of evolution similar to that in adventure goame appears in the

his-tory of early computer role - playing games, whi ch bc:gan as te c hni c al

repro-ductions of hack - and -s lash dungeon ex ploration from Dungeons and Dragons,

out of which some examples of meaningful action could appear As Matt BarlOn argues in hi s article ' 'The Hi story of Early Compute r Rol e- Playing

Games Part I : Th e Early Years (1980-1983) ," one of the earlie s t CRPGs was

a dir«t adaptation of Dungeons and Dragons for the computer mainframe

called dnJ Barton sees the e m erge nce o f a ques t with a narl1ltive [ram('work

as central [0 me development of the gcnre, since "Perhaps most important

dnd fealUrcd a story and a quest-kill the dragon and fetch the Orb ~

Following the sanered appearance of this genre on mainframes, the

comput e r rol e- playing gam e began to develop in several co mpeting series,

including Ultima a nd Wizardry Th e s e games often a dapted th e mechanics

of Dungrons and Dragons, so m e tim es as a strict " dung eon c rawl" and at other

times in conjunction with the explo ration of a l arger outsi d e world ott explains that the confluence of Dung r ons and Drag onJ.) R R Tolkien ,

Garri-and the compmC'r inspired h is game, com b ining th e sa me se t of influences

as William CrowmC'f and Don Woods w it h a grap hi cal i nt er face and mor e

char.ta e r and story intens ive ~ e p l a y Garr io tt del ib e rat ely mark eted the 6rst co mmercial prec ursor to Ultirrut, ent itled AR alttbtrh, as both inspi r ed

by and surpOlSSing Adwnrurr, as the tagline on its co ver s ugg es t ed: " Beyond advC'nnue lies Akala.brrh " Akalabrrh was published in 19 80 , follow e d by the 6rst Ultirrut in the same year

The first Ultima trilogy was composed of standard battle s with sters, dungeon crawls , and treasure see king derived from Dungrons and Drag- ons , but Ult i ma IV- Qursr of tht Avatar combined the conce pt of the "qu e s t ~

mon-wim a complex M vinue system," a c oh e rent backstory, and ethical and sp tual impl i cations to the gameplay In Demaria 's High Seorr, Garrio u himself

iri-makes me distin c tion be twttn the C'aIly Ul t ma s an d Ulti ma Nb as c:d on a

shift from his e arly d evelo pm en t of programming skills t o an im erest in an

underlying narrative : M Ul tim a N is s pe c i al al so, bec ause , jf you think of the first three as 'Richard learns to program ,' Ultima IV was wh er e I learne d to

tell a Slo r( ( 122) The Ul tima games grew in sophis ti cation, introducing [he

dilemmas of fundamentali sm and cu ltural intoleran ce that co mplicate any

Mv irtue system " The nin e installme nt s in the s ingle- p l ayer Ultima se ries (not

co unting numerou s exp~nsjon packs) an d th e int e rmediary seri es of Ultima

Unwworld Im cd from 1 9 80 until 1999

Conc urrc nrly with th e U ltima se ri es, Andrew G r eenbe r g and Robert Woodhead dev eloped th e W i zardry series, who se fir s t in stallme n[ was also

17

published in 1981 as Wizardry 1: Proving Gro unds of th ~ Mad Orn:rlord The eight official Wiznrdry games and mulliple spi n-offs were produced between

1 98\ and 200 I The original dungeon cra wl s in this series f ea tured n:mdard

felch qu em for the magical amulet of Werdna and, loner, [hI! pieces of the armor of the Knigh t of Diamonds Later insullmems in this ~ ri es began

(0 introduce slig htly mot e c ompli cat ed sce narios , involv in g the asse mbl y of

twO adventuring parties of opposing ethical alignments to restore a cosmic balanc e

A second generation of single-player role - playing games featured more open-ended world s as well as multiple int e rrelated side questS managed

through a "jo urn al" of pending and completed [asks given by NPCs Baldur's Gau (1998) and Ntwrwinur Nights (2002) born took pIau in the ForgO(-

ten Realms ~c tion of the DungtDnJ and Dragom universe, while the Eid"

RPG universe called Tamriel Based on the highlights of Barton's "History

of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 3," the games that garner the highest praise from critics and the most vehement fan populariry as "cult classiC5~ in-tegrate the immersive gameplay of a well-designed engine with the narrative

context that incrnses the meaning of playds actions In a bold move, Banon pronounces &lduri Galt l! Hrhe finest CRPC ever design e d ~ and backs up this evaluation with the criteria or "good stories, fun characters, meaningful quests, high-stakes combat, and an intuitive interface.H

The culmination of Batton's three-part history thus revolves around a game with "meaningful

quest<;" seamlessly woven into its gamepJay and storyline, Barlon

reempha-sizes that the most high-qualiry games, regardless of the time period in which

they wefe produced, conjoin solid gamepJay with a narrative that gives iliis action meaning As he eloquently puu it,

Geeting it right involva more than juu having an outstanding engine;

5ignificam craft is involved in creating a compelling Story [hat makes the

player's actions meaningfuL The best garna (Curu of t hr AzUl'( Bonds

Baldur's Garr /1, Pumrscapr: To'1IIrrl1) offer far better rewards than JUSt

experience points and gold coins

One crucial feature of this time period of game development is that the most

meaningfuJ games are not always the highest sellers

As with any art form, there is a div e r~n ce berwren what Banon iden

-tifies as the dumbrd-down action gameplay of the hugely popul:u DiflbkJ

and what he dubs [he "cult classic~ of Pi4nNcapr: Tormmt (1999) Barton argues that the mrtaphysical and moral thematic implications of this game

are pr~ isely what makes it beloved by a core linbase, delighted by a game that "really gt't the player thinking dttply about mora l iry~ Ihrough the c~

18 Q,omu : /)nip TMOry "nJ Hi s t o ry in G.mn ImJ Nllmlt i/KJ

arion of "an interactive Infim a · As quest games malUrecl, they began ro

splil slightly into vastly popular hack-ancl-slash games and more sophistic.ated

games that gamer critical pn.ise and enough of a fanbasc to ~ classics This

division might well resemble the current split be[Wcen commc:rcial buster MMOs and experimental action-adventure rirles like Too Hunlfm and

block-As sass in 's C"rd While the more complex games are still quite commercially viable an independent or educational designer is well advised to know her audience and market accordingly finding a niche similar to those of Plant I-

t ap : Tormmt These games increasingly complicatro the model of a single

quest found in the: scenarios of Wiwrdry and mov('cl IOw a rcl a complex

inter-relationship of multiplt sidt qUtSIS This shift pavtd tht way for massively

multiplaytr onlin~ rol ~ -pla yi ng games (MMORPGs) co mpo ~ d of thousands

of c ollabor a [ iv~ qu~S( s

Massive}lj MIi/tip/OIjer Online Ro/e - P/OIjinr Games

T h ~ lat~ nin~tie s wim~ ss ~d the decline of the graphical adventure game

the continuance of single-player role-playing games in fewer quantiti~s but

greater sophistication and the rebirth of quests as an inexhaustible gaming

activiry in massively multiplayer online role-playing games; o n ~ of the earliest and mosl popular ones was entided Evrrqu~u There is a cominuiry between

single·player role-playing games and MMORPGs in that one of the first of

this genre was Ul t ima Onlinr created by GarriOH and set in the same world

qu ~ St occurs most prominently in the ride of the highly popular game

Evrr-qum published in 1999 and designed by Brad Mcquaid Sieve Clover and

Bill Trost The abiliry of multiple players to play al once for an indefinite period of time reduced the emphasis on a single "main quest" with an under-

lying stOryline in favor of multiple proliferating tasks that would have been

~ s id e quests·' in a large single-player RPG Th ~ o nlin ~ as~C I of the game also

encouraged t h ~ design of quem which r ~q u ir~d t ~ am s of players to complete,

shifting away from th~ solo play (or a si ngl ~ player's conlrol ov~ r a parry) rhat had characterized s in gl~-p l aye r RPGs

of ~ p os t.narrativ~ t discourse and a game that emphasizcs simulation over

somc:thing of a generalization Quests in contemporary MMORPGs, such as

the hugely popular World of War t rajt , sometim ~s do culminate in vast "raids"

c ompri~ed of hundreds of players hacking and slashing their way into an emy ca.o;tle On the olher hand W orld ofWarcrafi and b"q um /I do comain

en-~ qu (:'!; 1 lines" of related quem, of len enriched by undtrlying narrative coment

and so m e times by meanin g For ~xamp l ~ rh ~ shaman qU CS t lin ~ in World

of Ware raft involv~ s " rit~ s" of ~ach of the four el ~ m cnts designed to initiat~

a prospect i v~ s h a man imo th ~ my s t e ri es of his natu ral ~nvi r on m~m , whil~ helping him t o ac cumu late ex~rie n ce po i m s a nd the ~ t otems " t hat wi ll give

him his sha mani c s ~lls H~nce, the stru C tur es of in i ti ation f o und in

Camp-bell which involv e a mn s itional rite of pa ssage a ssoc iated with mythological

quest narr atives, can r e app ea r in th e most popular of MM O RPGs, d

epend-in g u po n a p la ye r 's c hoi ce of class and imag ina ry flIce In addition , as R V

Kelly argue s so m e q uestS i n MMOs a r c k lore quests, " wh ose pr i m a ry motiva

-rion is [0 un c over th e mythologies and political i ntrigu~s tha t co nstitur~ th~

backs[Ory of a the game's sim u lated world (32) Becaus e of the frequency of

s u c h lo r e quests, many MM O RPG playe rs c it ed by Kelly regard thei r e xperi

-~ncc as a form of co llabOfllt ive an d imefllctiv~ s[O rytellin g (7 0-71) Hi

s[Ori-ca ll y s peakin g, while MM ORPGs t~nd t o esc hew a si ngle ep i c " main quest "

and 10 e mpha size c on s t ant, c oojX f1I.t i ve action, the r e i s no predefined r easo n

why th ey cou ld n o t integ r at~ meani ng and a c ti o n

The c r i ical stud i es of th ~ "q ucsl " a re inc r eas i ngly bce om i ng more t han JUSt

a midd le ground between game and narrative , but rath e r a focus on t h e rela

-tionship between m e aning a nd a c tion, r evo lving around th e i ss u e of

signifi-ca n t gameplay The o r e ti c a l and pedago gica l unde rs tandings o f the quest will in crease if we e xamin e further the issue of m ean ing i n quests , exten din g

t h e idea of m ea nin g beyond se mioti c indications of fun ct i on t o th e m a t ic im

-plications Fo r Tronstad, "(0 do a quest i s to sea r c h for the meani ng of i t " ( Tronstad 2001) H oweve r , Tr o n s t ad's u sc o f"m ~ aning " is primarily func -

t i o nal rather than themati c in t h a i it is c on ce rn e d with s i gns as indicato r s of

a game objeer's func tio n ra t h er than w ith the id eas assoc iated with it H ence,

she a rgu es t h at wh en a p laye r finds a new object, s h e mu s t ~ dttode its sig

-nifican ce in r ela ti o n (0 the que$[ , to com e close r 10 th e qu est's so l u t io n " In

ot h e r word s, if a play e r discovers a k ey, the ~mea ning " of thi s ke y is that th~r~ will b e something for it to ope n , s uch as a c h est I f the player then di scovers

a sword in th e chest upon ope nin g it, this s w o rd might have th e ~ mcaning~

th a t a d ragon mu st be foug h t an d sl ain

Th is co n cep t of m e a n in g ig no r es th e po ssibil iry of d cc~t themati c

sig-nifi c an ce, in whic h the pla ye r must enac t n o t on l y eve nt s, but also ideas and

in sights Tron stad doc s a r g u e that the motivati o n for th e qu es t is the M prom _

ise of meaning," but she al so arg u es that que m mu st w it hh old Ihi s meani ng if th~ y ar ~ to keep t h ei r Sl atuS a s quest s S he expla in s that k qu es l S a r c promi s ing

th e ir solution, p romising m eani n g But as m~ ani ng is also the death of the

ZQ

quest it is frequently breaking this promi~ in order to prolong the questing

experience." By swing up a false binary between meaning and acrion, Te

on-scad overlook.!; th e idea thar players can enact meaning if the clemems of the

quest have d\cmaric impl cnions that arc revuled through play

Because Tronstad's focus on m eaning i s str ictly functional, she views th e

movemem from quesr to narrative as unidirectional and unrepealable Thw, she argues th at " th e paradox of questing is rhat as soo n as meaning is reached,

the quest Stops functioning as qu rs t Wh e n meaning is found, [ h e quest is

history _ It cannot be done again, as iI is simply not the same experience to

solve a puule quest for the second time ~ This analysis is true only if mt"an

-ing is conceived of in the milirarian manner that Tronstad suggests It is true that once a pl ayer has dete r mined what c h est a key unlocks, the m ea ning of

the key ceases to be inte r es tin g in subseque nt p la ying sessions However, if the key has grear er, mulr ivalent al l ego rical and sy mb o li c co nn otations, th en

th ese might be produ c tively and enjoya bly enacted multiple times by d if~ ferent playe rs, as m ey deepen mei r undemanding of this meaning or seek a diffe r e nt interpretation

T he p erfo rman ce of the qu es t multipl e times would result in the pr o~

du ction of more r ichl y d eveloped or differ ent constatives Conversely, the constatives of literary narrative s can be transformed into qu ests, which h as

m e advantage born of making lit era tur e int eract iv e and of bringing deep e r

symbol i c meaning to the actions of the quest Tosca raises (h e possibility that

literary narrativ es can in spire qu es t S but temporarily brackets t he issue, not

-iog mat ~ thi s is more a questio n of adaptation from one medium to another,

and as such i s beyond th e limits of this p a p er.~ At the same time, s h e does

raise a series ofinterest ing questions about t o what extent such an adaptat io n

would recrea te the book ' s ~S t ory- world ," its evenrs, o r be a " thema t ic adaptll ~

tion" of th e work

The ~t h em ali c adaptatio n " possibility highlights the importance of

meaning in questS, the feature that Tosca explores l e:l.St in her c rit icisms o f

existing qu em and h er suggestions for new ones Tosca's stude nt s c r i ticized man y existing q uests in games fo r being " too l n ea r, boring r e p e titiv e , and unrelat e d to the character' s ' physical ' and emo tional development " In re ·

s pon se to these cri tiques, they created questS that were nonlinear and

emo-ti onally involv ing and had s u rprisi n g plo t rwi sts While these ar c posi tive

pedagOgical accomplishments a key aspec t of interesting qu es ts i s nor ju st emotion o r surp ri se b ut rather meaning , something th at Tosca acknowledges but dots nOI expand upon in her s tat eme nt th a t uthe quest o r mission format allow~ for a conte xtualization o f the game's actions in a mo re or les s m e aning -

ful story " This rai~ 5 the qu es tion s of how to make quests m ore m eani ngful

I " trw/un i lln 21

rath ~r than l ess a n d h ow to anal yze th ~ w ays t hat both d es i g n e rs a nd pla} ~rs

c r~ ate and e n act me a n i ng, B cca u s~ 5 p ac~s a nd o b jects i n work s of li te ratur e

ar~ oft~ n aI ~a d y m ~'a t ~d b y crit i cs as h aving d~ n sc: po te nti a l mea n ing qu em

b ased o n these n arra t ives can in h erit th ese m~a n ings o r com pl ica t ~ an d c h al*

l e n g~ th ~ m , D~5ig ni ng a qu es t based on a wor k o f l t ~ra tur e i s i t s el f an a ct

of inl'~rp r ~ t atio n by w h ich the designe r conside rs ho w a pl aye r will ~ na c t a

m ea n ing or ra n ge of poss ib l~ m ~ani n gs availab l e i n a t~x t ,

In TwiJry Littlr PaJjag~, Mo n t f o n o ff ~rs a n excd l e n t ~ xamp le o f h o w

p la ye r s ma y e n ac t th e m es in gam es in hi s a n al ysis of An d r e w P lo d cin's a

-peri me n t al in t~racr i ve fic ti o n So Far Mont f o rt arg u es tha t ~ th e w o rlcin gs o f

th e I F w orld an d t he t h e m es o f So Far m u s t be e na c t ed , , , fo r th ~ i n rerac *

t o r t o mak e p r og r ess ~ (210), M o n t f o rt i s di sc u ss in g a text- b ase d ga m e in

w h ic h th e solutio n s of p u ules r equi r e th e pl aye r to bot h un cove r a nd a c t

O U t a theme of rela t ions h i p s th at a~ " so cl ose: t o b u t $0 far from ~

perfec-t i on by m ov in g various items ( l k e t h e tw O PO S t S of a gate o r tw o radio a ctive

b ricks) into pr ox imi ty w it h out al lo win g rh e m to t ou c h M o ntf o rt 's e xampl ~

i s re p resentative o f a la rger tra dit io n o f games t ha t conjo in m ea ni ng an d

ac-t i on in gam~ p lay n.the r than pu tti n g t h e m in co nfl ict, i nclud i n g bot h earl y

r o l e-p l a yin g ga m es lik e Ulti m a I V mo r e rece nt ones l k e Thr Eldrr Scrolls , and

e x pe r i m ent al ac ti o n - a dve n tu r e gam es l ike Thr I n digo Prophrcy Ra t h er than

h aving to " b rcak ft

th e p r o m ise: o f mean i ng i n or d er to m ai nt ai n ' t h e interes t o f

t h e ques t , t h ese g am es have re pl ay value pr ecisely beca u se fu lfill m e nt o f t h e ir

ch a ll e n ges al lo w s pl aye r s to c ont e m pla t e nu a n ces of th e m atic impli ca ti o n

th r o u gh th ei r ac t ive effo r t ra th e r th an t hr oug h passive spect u ors hi p in s uch

a game, th e d ista n ce be tw ee n Aarsc: th ' s "i nt e rp re t ative~ a nd " co n figura ti ve"

fun c t io n s d i mini s h es, as d oes t he d iff'e r e n ce b e tw ee n th e " i nt e rpr etative i nt e r act i vity" t h a t Z imm e rm a n associ at es with lite rary narr a ri ves a nd th e ~ex pli c it

-i nt erac livi ty ~ th a t h e am ibutes t o games (Zim m er m an 158, Aarset h Cyb mrxt

64-65)

M ea ni ng ful gam es c hall e n ge Aarset h 's c r i ti c i s m of narrati ve* b asc d ad

-ve ntu re games beaUS(: of " th e l mi t ed r es u lts t h ey a c h iev~ ( poor 10 non *

cxis l ~ nt c h arac t eriut i o n , ex tr e m ely de r iva t ive ac t io n p lo t s, a nd , wi se l y , no att em pt s at m eta ph ys i cal th e m esf ( Aa rset h "Q u es t Ga m esM 3 6 7) O n th e

co m rary, m a n y games co n ta in ri c h a nd d y n a m ic c h a r ac t e ri u ti o n , exci tin g

y et m ean i ngful gameplay , a n d a co u rageo u s e n gageme n t wit h m ~ t a ph ys ica.l

t he m es that is al l th e m o r ~ c ompell i n g because th e p l a ye r is i mm ersed i n th ~

id eas r at h e r t h an a passiv e spec tat o r o f t he m , Ap p recia tin g th ese q u a liti es

al-lo w s bo th t h eo re t i cia n s a nd d es i g n ers t o lea rn fro m t h e a rti stic a ch i C'V(' m e n lS

of man y gam es th a t fea tur e qu es t S, as wdl as f r o m th e hi s t ory o f qu es t narra

-tiv es that ena b l es the se a cco mpli s hm e nts ,

QWJl$; Dnign Thrury arul HiJr()ry in Gamtf a J NarmtiwI

A Sptarum of QutStS

While there are questS in a wide variety of games they fall along a spectrum

in which narradve predominat es at on e e nd and action at the other Games

at the extreme ends of this spectrum are marginal cases, and a game that i s too far toward one end may not contain quests at all but rather related forms of

gameplay and narrative For example, point ~an d ~dick advemure games with

a heavy narrativ e component but little action are at the extreme narrative end

of the spectrum Ar m e other e nd , massively multiplayet online games f ea~ rure a profusion of quests but very littl e narrative , resulting in constant action

that has little meaning

Henc e MMOs fall on the "action~ side of the spectrum of quests In these e xtremely popular games, such as Evtrqutst and World of Ware raft, mil~

lions of players can participat e simultaneously in a vast, simulated world with

many tasks However, the e mphasis on social int erac tion over the

single-play er experience causes me "main quest" to disappear, resulting in a liferation of side-quests These side-quests may contribute ro an overarch- ing set of mem es as Jeff Kaplan (a l e ad quest designer of World ofWarcraji)

pro-suggestS they do How eve r the journey of a hero through a series of trials

whose completion allow him to bring a meaningful item or insight back to his society is often absent The "theme" of World ofWarcraft is neverending

war between racial factions, a bleak scenario that is not particularly conducive

and Etnmll DarJmm occupy this center These games conjoin varied, e nerge[i~

cally active gameplay with a powerful commitment t o a long literary tradition

of narratives about characters striving toward meaningful goals However, there is nothing inherently fixed about these genres or these examples An MMO could in theory conjoin gameplay and narrative to produce meaningful

action, and some designers are striving toward this ideal For example, gtons and DuamtrJ describes Ri c hard Garriott's attempts to combine the vir~

Dun-tues of single~player and multi-player games in Tabulo Rasa, an MMO where individual c hara c t ers can be at the cente r of a gripping sto rylin e even while

they int e ra ct with thousands of other s ubscrib ers (King and Borland 252)

The spectrum of quests constitutes a respons e to Aarseth's qu es tion, "Are there quests in all kinds of games?~ In the most abstract sense of "goa l ~o ri­

toted activitio, " [her e can be quests in mo s t kinds of games, but the tasks in

/t/l7wiuction 23

certain genres of conte nt and gamepJay mor e closely fit the criteria of quests

than others Theoretically, there might be quests in arcade games from the

1 980s, in combat games, in sports games, or in Right simulators However ,

these are marginal examples, fitting some of the c riter ia of quests well but

o th ers only l oosely If one classifies games into genres based on th ei r ~e·

p l ay, quests primarily appear with al l their c r iteria intact in adventure games,

action·adventu r e games, role·playing games, first person shooters, su rvival

horror games, and massively multiplayer on lin e games (MMOs)

If game gentes are classified by content, such as the game's setting, back

Story, and visual appcarance, then designers and players most often use the word "quest " ro des c r ibe tasks in adventure games and r ole playi ng games

tha t take p lace in fantast i c, med i eval, or mythological sett in gs Designers of

othe r content genres, such as action games Set in urban enviro nm entS, as is

the Grand Thtfr AUlo series , or martial arts action games like Ninja Gaidm,

rend to use the word ~mission" to refer to tasks that must be accomplished ro make the game progress The structure of these mission systems is similar to

the quest syStems of role·playing games like Oblivion, consist in g of a main

~plodine" or " story" comprised of various missions, along with a multitude of

side missions Designers and players onen use " questS " rather than "missions"

to describe the t asks in fantastic genres because the con not at i ons of the word

evoke knights in medieval tomanccs rather rhan gangs t ers or ninjas The word "quest" also implies that something more meaningful is at stake than stealing a car for the benefit of one's ga n g or assassinating a rival clan leader

Like quest games themselves, the initiation that occurs in games runs

a spectrum from more to less meaningful In an MMO such as World of WaTmlfi, this initi ation derives almos t enti rel y fro m the achi~ements of one's character, registered in the powe r t o destroy enemies as well as one's wealth

and collection of valuable possessions While Kaplan observes that the World ofWa rcrafi designers do make quests in order to encou rage exploration of a

simulated world, players primarily gain a se n se of personal achievement and

a geopolitical familiarity with the fictional realm of Azeroth by playing the game for extended pcriods of time Urrle is al stake in the ultimate hilure or

s u ccess of one's quests , which at best will gain a tempora ry victory for one's

race in an ongoing war In this se n se, there is no Ymain quest " in Wor/.ti of WarcTafi, but rather a proliferation of side que5tS whose meaning is the strict·

Iy personal satisfaction of possessing a 60'h.I~e1 characte r with an expensive suit of enchanted plate mail

In contrast ro World ofW arcraft, the quest designers of Oblivi on them·

se lves create a noge of quests that occ up y a var i ety of positions along a spec trum of m ean ing and action They display an awareness of these varying

Q lln rs; iPlign 711«1ry and HUlo,};n G' lm n lI"d Na"aliwl

lin e, a series of quests about the player's attempt to gain m embe r ship into an organization of sc holarl y wizards and to asce nd through it s ranks Th e first

seven quests give the p l ayer access to the arcane university by way of le tter s

of recommendat i on, in imitation o r parod y of the conte mpo rary academy

Th ese tasks are fetch quests (recover a srolen staff, lost ring, or rare book), kill

qu es t S (des troy a rogue mage) and sma ll dungeon crawls (find an exiled mage

twists in narrative and gameplay, as when the search for a lost "ring of

bur-denn a t th e bottom of a well requires a harrowing magical voyage underwater,

whi ch soon t urn s into a quest to investigate the evil actions of the insane quest-give r who sent the player on this doomed errand in t h e first plac e On the whole h oweve r , th ese early questS are rdatively trivial, i nvolving small- scale local conflicts w ithin the guilds of parti cular cities

How ever w hen a player has co mpleted these quests they open up

a new serie s of stages in t hi s "quest line.n The quest-giver of this line, an archmag e named Raminus Polus, cont r asts the ea r lie r and the later quests

ones Referring to the petry mot i vations behind many of the early quests,

h e r emarks, " You have no doubt seen much of the wo r st the guild has to

of-fe r ft but adds "y ou are now ready for more meaningful tasks." The tasks are

~ more meaningful" in part b ecause they allow opportunities for initiation in

th e sense of advancement through the guild, w ith a whole new sequence of leveled titles such as Kassoeiate." "ap pr ent i ce" "journeyman," "ev oker," and Mconjurer ft These levels r epeat the paTiern of init iati on th r ough overall levels and individual s k ills in Oblivion whi ch also allow the player ro move from

n ovice th roug h a pp re mi ce and journeyman and eventually ro maste r eve r , Raminus Polus is comras tin g the early qu ests with the late quests pri - marily because the laner ones r eveal and alter a large-scale confl i ct with i n the guild, i n which a group of ev il magicians seek to revive the forbidden pr act i ce

How-of necromancy This overarching narrative e m erges f om the complet i on of the later quests, whic h are s imilar in gameplay (they remain fetch ques t s and kill s quests) but more elaborate and engaging in terms of narrative T h e

N pes within Oblivion and {he designe r s of the game set up a scale of value

in wh i ch exc i ting gameplay is a necessary but not a s uffi c i ent component o f a

'Three Types of Mecming- in Quests

Meaning i s a highly co m p l ex term {hat has man y facets in gam i ng, all of them

connected hya se nse (Jf valuab l e s ignificance that complemen t s the ple as ur e

25

of a c tion for its own sake, The iilt'nry critical ~ nsc of "meaning" as a meme

or idea co nv eyed symbolically through a work of literatu r e is an important asp«t of meaning in qu est games but is only one rype of meaning I f a playe r

fcds thai a quest that she undertakes is a worrhwhile expenditure of time and effort rath e r [han an unrewarding c hore , then thi s qu est has meaning to me

player

The r e art at l east thrtt different ways in which quests can ~ ful, with several SU0C3tt'gories and ways in which these types of meaning can intersect and complement each other

meaning-Meaning can refer to :

• the impact of the player 's accomplishmenlS on and within a

simulated world including

achieving gmller power in Ihis world and undersunding

of its lore, in gaming [C'rminoiogy as al('Vding up" and in

mythological term s as " initiation ";

changing the sh:tpe of the landscape;

- a1rering the political and monl balantt of the game world; _ changing the player-avataI's relarionship with her compan-

ions or other NPu;

• a narrative backstory that conveys emotional urgency by

reveal-ing why the player-avatar is performing an action and what

ef-fects this action will have;

• expressive, semantic and thematic meaning: ideas symbolically

encoded within the landscape, objects, and challenges of the quest and enacted through it

Players' uncovering of thematic meaning through the completion of a quest

can somet mes entail literaJly deciphering a S«~f messa~ in a puzzle Mo~ often, however, the world itself is the puzzle The ways that different players

go about completing quests "reconnguresH

these meanings allowing pla~rs

to experience them in many ways

This enactment of meaning is potential and metaphorical in quest narl'3tives but actual in quest games In narratives about questS, characters perform d«ds that have meaning, often allegorical For example TM Qunt

for tiN HoI] Grlti/follows a pattern in which a knight's perfonnanct" of a series

of complex actions is followed by an explanation of the spiritual significantt

of each pan of these actions by a wise ngure, such :IS a monk This explana

-tion is usually complex yet blunt in its delivery as when a monk QYS to Sit Galahad, ~Si r, you asked me JUSt now the meaning of the mysteriow taSk you fulfilled, and I will gladly inform youH (63) In a postmodern namui~