Narrative structures of RPGs II - the dungeon and the village

I have already written about the common structure of RPGs (role playing games) and interpreted it as a narrative of growing up in an earlier post. As I reflected further on the topic I realized that an analytical distinction between two levels of narrative would be needed:
- The macro level narrative is the one we would normally think of, it is the way the story unfolds during the whole of the game and is composed by notable events. It is analogous to a narrative in a written piece of work and can be analysed in the same way. It is also the narrative to which I have devoted most of my attention in the first post.
- The micro level narrative are the ways the player interacts with the game. I am not referring to the immediate interface like joysticks or keyboards and the way in which they are connected with actions in the game. It would not be appropriate to equate the interface to narrative, this would be analogous to equating the structure of a book (composed of pages that need turning) to narrative structure. What I am referring to with the term micro level narrative are the actions the player is expected to perform to advance in the game. This narrative level differs from the macro in several notable ways:
1) it does not unfold during the whole game, it's units are smaller and are repeated throughout the game. In fact every game has an essentially unfinished character since these smaller units can be added ad infinitum without influencing the macro level narrative (note here the difference with a structuralist theory of language, where smaller units are combined to form larger ones).
2) it is not composed by notable, but by routine events. We learn nothing new from each successive event after we have figured out the pattern (for example: keep shooting/hitting/stabbing the enemy until he/she/it is dead) and it is exactly this pattern that is the bearer of meaning, not each individual event.
3) it has a hierarchical structure. In RPGs on the lowest level there are fights with specific enemies, on a higher level there are dungeons, and even on a higher level there are worlds.

Interesting enough in RPGs these two types of narration are assigned special places. This naturally does not mean that one type of narrative can ever exclude the other, but one can have a stronger role at times. The place for macro level narratives is the village (it can also be some other form of friendly refuge like a house or castle). Here the characters take a break from fighting and talking becomes the dominant action - talk in which crucial elements of the macro narrative are revelaed. This of course does not mean that the micro level narrative is not present - it is just that the content of the interactions with the others becomes far more important (as opposed to the mere act of killing).

Here is an example of a "village" from the game Chrono trigger. We can see the hero and the heroine along with a pendant that will become crucial for the unfolding of the narrative. Singular events and characters have individual meaning for the narrative.

The place of the micro narrative is the dungeon. Here the macro narrative is almost frozen, the heroes continue battling ever same foes, sometimes they encounter a new and stronger opponent (which is then added to the stock of opponents) and in the end they fight the boss of the dungeon (the strongest opponent in the dungeon). Commonly acquisition of special objects is required to navigate the dungeon (most often keys).

Example of a "dungeon" from the same game. The specific foes here do not have any individual significance, they are just specimen of a genus. It is the pattern that is important. Note that the interface has also changed (we can see indicators of health and magic power of our heroes).

The binary opposition between village and dungeon is noticeable, but going further into this topic would transcend the aim of this post and I will let the structuralistically inclined reader continue this train of thought by herself.

The question that needs to be asked is whether this new level of narrative is specific to interactive media. This is not entirely the case and I would like to illustrate the point in the case of Kafkas Process. The novel might be divided into three parts. The first part is the arrest, the third is the execution, everything in between is the unfolding (or rather not unfolding) of the process. Of course the church chapter must be treated separately, I believe it must be interpreted as a lens in which the whole of the novel is condensed - only viewed through this lens does the whole makes sense - but this is also not something that I intend to probe into very deeply. Suffice it to say that the present illustration (and the fact that it is an illustration excuses this omission) will analyze the narrative structure without paying attention to this self-referrentiality. Now we can compare the structure of the core of the novel with the micro level narrative in computer games. They are similar in that they are composed of routine repetitive events that have no individual significance but are rather just manifestations of an imminent pattern and it is only this imminent pattern that is noteworthy. Bureaucrats in the process are always somewhat shabby, they never understand the functioning of the court but are confined to their function, courtrooms are always dirty, dusty and suffocating, K. is always just as much in the dark as he was before, his helpers always seemingly well-meaning but in the end just as clueless as he is. Just as enemies or dungeons and worlds in a video game, chapters in Der Process can be added ad infinitum - the pattern is given and can be weaved without end.

Therefore it seems that the type of micro narrative I have analysed in computer games is not something new and specific to them. This does not mean there is nothing new to this phenomenon. What is noteworthy and specific is the sheer quantity of the phenomenon. While we can find earlier examples of this type of narrative, they are exceptions, while in computer games the presence of the micro narrative is rule. The other specificity is the linking of micro and macro level narrative. We can not find the specific interlinking of micro and macro that is characteristic for video games in Der Process, nor am I aware of any other work of art that would fit this structure.

How do we explain this specific interlinking of micro and macro in computer games? I believe it is strongly connected to the fundamental principles of new media and to what members of the Frankfurt school referred to as the mythical character of modernity. But that is already the topic for another post.