Narrative, Storytelling, and Games for Behavior Change

In serious games, much attention is put on game mechanics, and with good reason. The rules that define a game are ultimately what is often used to cause the desired outcomes or “phenomenon of interest” (Briggs, 2006). However, there is clear room to explore the effect of premise and within that, narrative or storytelling as a tool used as a layer of the game (Winn, 2006). In fact, a key take away from this week's reading is that more research is needed on the optimal use of stories and fantasy within games for health behavior change (Baronowski et al, 2008).

In fact, research makes it a point to show that in games with the objective of increasing physical activity, whether the game had a narrative component or no narrative component made a difference in whether the game sustained positive outcomes for more than a few weeks (Baranowski et al, 2008).

From my experience, storytelling adds a very specific element that is desirable in game play.

A story has conflict. As I told my students, you have a protagonist who wants X. However, Y gets in the way causing conflict. This begins a plot and thus a story. If the protagonist wants X and gets it without conflict, we are not interested. For example, Tom wants date Cindy. He asks her out and she says yes. This is not a very interesting narrative. However, if Cindy is not interested in Tom and Tom must try to win her heart, we are interested in finishing the story because now there is conflict. We do not know if Tom will get the girl or how he will try to win her heart.

Another component significant within the context of narrative is characterization. In a health game context you can create a protagonist who is also needing to make the health behavior change. This character then models how to make the change and deal with consequences, a component of Social Cognitive Theory (Baranowski et al, 2008). This type of character is called a dynamic character, meaning that they change during the course of the narrative. This type of a character should be present in good storytelling, according to several creative writing workshops I attended during my time at Ohio University. Personally, as people are dynamic, I believe it is easier to identify with this type of character. Hope Lab's ReMission used the concept of narrative and a dynamic character in order to make certain desired outcomes more compelling. “In one level the in-game patient has skipped his chemotherapy doses, and as a consequence, Roxxi's chemo-concentrating blaster misfires periodically,” (Tate et al, 2009). The character and the player must learn that skipping chemotherapy doses causes negative health consequences.

What both Baronowski et al and Tate et al do effectively is present the social and behavioral science contexts for why narrative adds effectiveness to games for health. Discussions of Social Cognitive Theory and Self-Determination Theory illuminate some possible reasons why storytelling is a positive feature. There is room for narrative theory and narratology to provide additional insights into why it can provide powerful fantasy and emotional experiences—why stories capture our attention and motivate us to finish listening, reading, or even playing them. Also, there is work done on how over time messages about social change, behavior change, and knowledge are built into stories.

What strikes me in the additional reading I sought out this week is the emphasis on the term “fictional world.” Is it truly world creation that is the defining factor of a powerful experience—a behavior changing experience? Many researchers say that computer and video games are set in fictional worlds, a narratological space (Thon, 2006). I want to leave with a quote from one of the two texts I bookmarked to review this week:

"By aesthetic convention fictional worlds can be denotationally void for as long as they are meaningful and relevant and allow us to relate our own life experiences to what goes on inside them. After all, the fictional world is presented to us as a probable alternative and not as a replica world in which we ourselves exist; in short, it is a virtual, a possible world."

(Meister, 2003)

Works Cited

Baranowski, T., T., B., Thompson, D.I., & Baranowski, J. (2008). Playing for real: Videogames and stories for health-related behavior change. American Journal of Preventative Medicine, 34(1), 74-82.

Meister, J.C. (2003). Tagging Time in PROLOG: The Temporality-Effect Project. Retrieved September 17, 2010 from http://www.icn.uni-hamburg.de/print/333

Tate, R., Haritatos, J., & Cole, S. (2009). HopeLab's Approach to Re-Mission. International Journal of Learning and Media; 1(1):29-35.

Thon, J.N. (2006). Toward a Model of Perspective in Contemporary Computer Games. Retrieved September 17, 2010 from http://www.icn.uni-hamburg.de/print/344

Winn, B. (2006). Design - Play - Experience model Retrieved September 17, 2010 from http://moonsrock.org/eclipse/tc830/winn-dpe-chapter.pdf