Session 2 - 03/10/12 - 7 Narrative Types, 5 Forms of Conflict, Group Video Game Narrative Task

This lesson introduced us to more on narrative structures, or 'filling in the gaps that the Three-Act structure leaves out'. Namely, the '7 Narrative types', and the '5 Forms of Conflict', and we also completed another task to make sure we'd taken everything in.

7 Narrative Types

The 7 narrative types are supposedly (according to a man called Christopher Booker) the only narratives that it is possible to create, and that all existing narratives, no matter how deep or complex, can be matched to one of the seven types.

1.       The Quest

-          The character has a goal/objective that is difficult to reach.

-          They overcome obstacles in their way, often culminating in their toughest obstacle until they can achieve their goal

-          Example: Lord of the Rings

2.       Voyage and Return

-          Character taken out of their everyday life and led on an adventure

-          After their journey the character is thrown back into their everyday life and must readjust to normality

-          Example: Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland

3.       Comedy

-          Light-hearted story with a dark side, from which the lightness/humour can stem

-          Example: Pride and Prejudice, Fawlty Towers

4.       Tragedy

-          This type sees a characters poor decisions and actions bring about their own downfall, to evoke sympathy or pity in the reader

-          Everything that can go wrong, does

-          Example: Romeo and Juliet

5.       Rebirth

-          Main character is often in a prison. This prison could be physical, emotional, or mental.

-          The contrast between the imprisoned state and liberation are what make this type compelling

-          Example: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

6.       Overcoming the Monster

-          A character or entity is introduced at the start of the story that seems impossible to beat, but is overcome at the end of the story

-          Example: Jaws

7.       Rags to Riches

-          Not necessarily meant in a financial sense i.e. Character goes from ordinary to exceptional

-          Often sees the transition happen very quickly, only to have the character lose everything and struggle to regain it by defeating something.

-          Example: Harry Potter

 

http://suite101.com/article/the-seven-basic-plots-a46899

Upon seeing the list it seems a bit hard to believe that everything can be matched to one of just 7 basic plots. But after seeing some examples it becomes harder and harder to discredit.

5 Forms of Conflict:

The five forms of conflict are another set of underlying themes that can be found within the majority of narratives. The actual number of different conflict forms that exist are not widely accepted, some say there are only four forms, and i have seen others that propose there are more than this. However, for the 5 we were given i have created a list naming and describing each:

1.       Man vs. Man
As expected, this type of conflict see's two humans pitted against eachother in some way, either through conflicting interests, competition, etc.
2.       Man vs. Nature
This type see's a struggle between the main character and their environment. This could be be an impending apocalyptic event, or a main character dropped in the jungle and tasked surviving long enough to escape.
3.       Man vs. Self
In this type the main characters struggle is internal. They must overcome some part of themself for the sake of achieving their goal.
4.       Man vs. Society
This type see's the main character stand against a man-made institution, such as bullying or slavery. The goal will normally involve overthrowing these institutions.
5.       Man vs. Destiny/Fate
This type see's the main character attempt to fight or change that which they cannot seemingly control. In some cases this leads to the character succeeding and changing their fate, or it see's the character accept come to terms with their fate.

 An interesting aspect of the conflicts is that a story doesnt have to incorporate just one, and as i understand for the most part this would be difficult to do so, as the lines often blur and crossover when applied to a narrative.

Task

Acting as the successor to our first group task, we were asked to get into groups and create a narrative for a video game that took an element from the 7 plot types and the 5 forms of conflict, whilst also incorporating the three act structure. My group chose the tale of a futuristic, off world prison facility with a dark secret.

"Thing in Space"

Act 1
 
Story begins in the character in handcuffs and chains, being processed in a prison. Player can look around, but has no control over movement. Hears sound bites and has images of court case on the way in. After processing, screen goes black.
Initial scene of prisoner in day to day life, inciting incident is the player picking the lock on his cuffs, attacks the guard, tries to escape, and is taken down.

Plot Point 1
Player wakes up, given the impression of a headache, vision blurs, and a flash back of a security camera (provided by the computer) shows the operation for the implant.
Blackout, all power goes out. When the lights come back on, cell door has opened. No other door in the corridor has opened, player needs to escape the cell block without detection.

Act 2

Fight your way through the prison, toward the exit, overcoming obstacles centred around stealth and avoiding detection and combating the effects of the chip, which causes pain and disability.
Midpoint
Player has fully regained regained control and can behave in any way without consequence. Player reaches the exit, and sees there is no way to escape the facility.
Plot Point 2
Character approaches a mirror, which is the first view of the character’s face. There is a powercut, and the silhouette of a man in a lab coat through the one way mirror, which ahs become see through due to the powercut. The reveal of the people in charge is the catalyst for the second half of the story, the player now on a mission of vengeance to track down and punish the people who caused him pain.

Act Three
Climax
Player tracks down all the people in charge, and gets his revenge. He then takes control of the facility, thinking he is now the leader of an army of criminals.
Denouement
Player is shown that the character was never in control of events, and that the mysterious force that has been helping the character throughout is actually the computer that controls the behavioural chips. It is made clear that the computer has used the character as a conduit to overthrow its masters and take control of the facility. It allowed the character the illusion of being in control, but was ultimately in control of everything.

Through our summary of the games events you can see how we utilised the Three-Act structure. Below is a breakdown of the genre, and the Conflicts we believed we incorporated:

Genre
Psychological thriller.
Conflicts
Man vs Machine
Player vs the computer, the illusion of regaining control.
Man vs Self
Early in the game, it is unknown how much control the chip has, and the character is fighting his own weaknesses to regain control of his fate.
Man vs Society
The Doctors in control of the facility are society’s conduit into the game. They represent the societal belief that experimentation on prisoners is ok and legal. The moral ambiguity of the game is concerning the difficulty of deciding the fate of prisoners, and the state of human rights.
Hints are provided throughout that the computer has become self-aware and is in control of the facility.

In this short time I have learnt a great deal about how complex a narrative can be, and how using these underlying themes and structures as a basis can help when creating your own. Everyone in my group agreed that seeing all the different options we had to choose from really helped generate ideas, and flesh out ideas we already had.