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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillahirabbil’alamin, praise be upon Allah SWT that I have finally accomplish this skripsi. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to:
1. Dean of Faculty of Letters, Prof. Dr. H. M. Tadjuddin, M.A.
2. Head of English Department and my Guardianship lecturer, Dr. Juanda. Thanks to him, I can continue my study.
3. My advisors, Retno Purwani Sari, S.S., M.Hum. and Nungki Heriyati, S.S., M.A. Thanks for their kindness and patience in guiding me to write this skripsi despite all the trouble.
4. M. Rayhan Bustam, S.S., M.Hum and Nenden Rikma Dewi, S.S., M.Hum as my examiners.
5. All the lecturers and staffs in English Department, thanks for their knowledge and experience they have shared for years during my study.
Bandung, 8 August 2015
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B. Priority: Mars
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a. Conversation between Shepard and Diana
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c. Conversation between Shepard and Khalisah al-Jilani
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D. Normandy: First Visit
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APPROVAL
1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the study
From times to times, video games have been experiencing significant development since they were first created in 1958. The development started from simple games such as Pong and Spacewar! that had no complexity on their gameplay mechanism to the games that had complex mechanism, with narrative included, such as Watch Dogs and Assassin Creeds. Ahead of the 21st century, video games began to include the elements of narrative starting from simple to complex narration, and they required the player to decide on options provided carefully. Thus, because of the involvement of narrative, video games are considered as a new story telling medium; a significant perspective against ludologists who claims that video game is not narrative.
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that people need to lose themselves from the real world and the only way to do that is to create another world, another story, another universe; in other words, something that could immerse them. RPG is one of the genres that has a power to bring the player to their immersive word and immersive story. As a player, it is argued that video games always evolve through years to come, and that playing a game containing a story may serve the feeling of having purposes or goals, that is, not only to finish the game but also to discover the story of it.
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All three games have received critical acclaim for their storyline, characters, romances, voice acting, choices, and the depth of the galaxy. In fact, the third serial of the game has been considered as the best for its challenging gameplay, hard choices, and its story depth. Furthermore, the game has two moral options (Paragon and Renegade)1 that have been designed as the character’s response to every dialogue as a dialogue tree, and sometimes emerge in critical event as an option and will determine the game’s character ways of life, depending on the player actions in choosing these two moral options. Unlike the previous series of the game, when the options of choices and the stories are about information of the galaxies conflicts, in the third serial the player has to solve the conflicts by taking sides or bring peace to them. The result of these decisions could affect the flow of the story and its overall narratives.
Unfortunately, narrative in video games could not be studied traditionally because of their interactivity. Unlike reading a book or watching a film, in video games, the player can make choices during playing and those choices may affect the flow of the story in this game. Therefore, with the involvement of the player in determining the flow of the story, and how the game itself can persuade the player to take an action in the game, I discuss about how the narrative are formed and the factors that could affect overall narrative formation ofMass Effect 3.Jorgensen’s study (2010) has contributed on the fruitful video-games discussion. Her
1 Paragon is the morality scale through compassionate and legendary actions. Being a positive,
kind, and friendly player, during conversations and stories, will make the player more of a
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perspectives focused on game characters as a narrative device for its ability to provide information and the character’s backstory to the player. Different from her, this research focused on the process of narrative formation and the factors that can affect it.
1.2 Research Questions
According to issue narrative formation suggested, the research questions may be formulated as followed,
1. How narrative formation is formed inMass Effect3? 2. What factors affect the overall narrative in Mass Effect 3?
1.3 Objectives
According to issues of research questions suggested, the objectives may be formulated as followed,
1. to discover the process of narrative formation of Mass Effect 3; and 2. to identify the factors affecting the overall narrative in Mass Effect 3.
1.4 Significance to Knowledge
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negative comments, video games provide practices to decide options brought into the life, and suggest an idea of a simply medium.
1.5 Framework of Theories
Narrative in video games is argued not to be able to be analyzed by traditional narrative theories because of video games’ requiremet for player’s interactions. The possibilities of player’s abilities of determining the flow of the story in Mass Effect 3 depend on how the game presents the story to the player. Therefore, I use Future Narrative (FN), which was founded by Bode and next developed by Domsch, to analyze narrative formation of Mass Effect 3. According to Bode (Domsch, 2013: 1), the future is a space of yet unrealized potentiality and by allowing the player to enter situations that fork into different branches and to actually experience that ‘what happens next’ may well depend upon the player; to preserve the future as future is Future Narrative.
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7 CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW
Narrative started with every history of humankind, there have never been any people without narrative, everyone has his stories. Traditionally, Barthes in Mayr writing (2014: 5) viewed narratives have countless forms in the world. He also said that in that infinite variety of forms, narratives presented at all times, in all places, in all societies. Narratives are sheltered under the field of narratology. Ryan (2009: 289) describes narratology as a project that transcends discipline and media. She also said that one of the main attractions of narratives is independent of the medium in which they are presented. Abbott in Schenk writing (2013: 11-12) defines narrative as follows:
Narrative is the representation of a story (as event or series of events). Some scholars have argued that there cannot be a narrative without someone to tell it (a narrator), but this view would exclude most drama and film, which, though they present stories, usually do so without a narrator. Narratives consist of two main components: the story and the narrative discourse.(2008: 237)
Abbot’s argument indicates though film and drama usually present their stories without narrator, they remain narratives in certain level;they have “thestory”and
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In detail, Bizzocchi (2007:3) claimed that sequence of events is provided with a distinct function of each stage, and the order, timing and details of each step consume a deep thought of the authors. The stages themselves may be described as effective tools to create narrative works. In the process, the setup gives illustration of characters and the storyworld. Meanwhile, the complication brings a challenge to be solved in the resolution or climax phase which is clarified through the development – the long phase that control the way in which the storytelling presents; gives an idea how the protagonist works toward his goal. Finally, denouement offers a result whether loose ends or gracefully ends.
In academic circle, a perspective of cinema studies views film and drama provide a careful design of narrative arc as a powerful device for channeling and
guiding the audience’s experience of story, as Bizzocchi mentioned (2007:3). Focusing on the performance, Schenk (2013: 209) said that the film reel is not the defining marker of this narrative but their use of moving images.
Similarly, because of the involvement of “the story”, video games are
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(five) narrative components, they are, storyworld, character, emotion, narrative interface and micro-narrative.
In the point of view of narratology, video games may become a medium to tell stories, or it may be better explained, though the games do not necessarily involve story, story can add to the pleasure of gameplay (Bizzocchi, 2007:1). Since the games is interactive medium, however, a traditional analysis of narrative arc cannot be used completely to analyze narrative in video game. The interactivity in video games and its probability to change the narrative (openness) made Future Narrative, a subclass of narrative, be used to analyze the narrative of video games.
Considering the arguments mentioned, this research used Future Narrative as a grand theory, to analyze the narrative formation in Mass Effect 3. Multi-linear Story, Narrative Forms and Immersion are also used to support the grand theory. In the framework of anaysis, the research applied parameters proposed by Bizzocchi (2007). Finally, to give a fruitful ideas, the theories applied are described in the following sub chapter.
2.1 Future Narrative (FN) 2.1.1 Definition
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‘what happens next’ may well depend upon the us, upon our decision, our values, our actions and our motivation. In this sense, future narratives preserve and contain defining features of future time–yet undecided, open and multiple. Later, those future experiences are crystallized into actuality by virtue of their capabilities to do exactly what we call preserving the future as future. These
narratives are here called ‘Future Narratives’”(ibid). Adding to it, Domsch (2013) mentioned that Future Narratives do not operate with ‘events’ as their minimal
units. Pointed to his point of view, their minimal unit is rather at least one situation that allows for more than one continuation. He called this a ‘nodal situation’, or a ‘node’, for short. The node is the defining feature of FNs. Consequently, any narrative that contains at least one node can be called a FN. As the definition says; Domsch (2013) identified and explained a situation is nodal if it allows for more than one continuation, which means that the two continuations that are both possible from one point have to be different from each other. The state after the node can only be one or the other, not both at the same time, and they are mutually exclusive. Yet, from the nodal situation, each of these mutually exclusive states is possible to be actualized. Whereas all narratives can talkabout potentiality, openness or indeterminacy, these aspects are actually present in a nodal situation, they are staged by the structure of the narrative.
2.1.2 Multi-linear Story
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structures in computer games: Linear story, Multi-linear story and Non-linear story. Focusing on multi-linear story, Murray (1997: 30) defined it as a written or dramatic narrative that presents a single situation or plotline in multiple versions, versions that would be mutually exclusive in our ordinary experience. Closely observerd, Mass Effect 3 has a branching story, therefore it could be said that Mass Effect 3 has multi-linear story structure. Carlquist’s model visualizes the structure of multi-linear story as follow:
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doing the offers missions or quest being free. The game offers a lot of things to do and the player can select when and if he or she will do them. b) There is a main plot that the player has to follow. This plot involves many
choices, and depending on what the player does, certain ways are opened and others are closed. This is more linear variant of the structure. The player follows one road but the game itself contains multiple roads.
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it. He also said that a choice situation contains at least two different options. Former, the core requirement, also understood as the basic definition of nodal
situation, leads player’s awareness of being in a choice situation to be unimportant
for its being a choice situation, though in many cases used by games or other FNs that kind of awareness is provided. Later, it is a specific player choices. In video games, choice situations are both regularly recognizable and invested with some form ofmotivation–the player will be interested in the outcome of the choice and will expect one outcome to be better than another will. One might therefore further distinguish two special types of choices, the informed (or conscious) choice and the motivated choice. A motivated choice must also be a conscious choice, but not vice versa.
Domsch (2013: 114) said that one important aspect of choice is therefore how informed it is–that is, whether we choose based on knowledge or arbitrarily. Choice situations differ in the amount of information that is given about the consequences of the different options. Here are conditions of choice situation that Domsch described:
– No information: the agent has no reasonable knowledge about anything that might result as a consequence of the options.
– Incomplete information: the agent is provided with some knowledge about possible outcomes, but no certainty in relation to the probability of the outcomes, and/or the completeness of information about outcomes.
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Depending on the extent of information about the consequences of a given choice, the nature of that choice will differ and according to Domsch (2013: 115), the choice situations that are perceived as interesting in a structural sense provide only incomplete information. This means that there are conflicting arguments for and against each choice that might have probabilities, but no certainties attached to them. This either is experienced as a meaningful choice, where the player has to act according to probability (uncertainty) or has to hierarchise incompatibles. Some degree of information about a given choice seems to facilitate the feeling of agency, as agency is experienced as pleasurable especially when we are able to make meaningful decisions within the story/game universe. When a choice has to be made completely arbitrarily, there is only interactivity, but no (or a very low) sense of agency. In addition, the information provided is an important link between gameplay concerns and the fictional immersion by the player.
2.1.3 Modes of Operation
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2.1.3.1 Passive Forms
All passive narrative forms are in themselves experienced as passive and therefore identical to the media from which they are appropriated (film, text, audio), but they can, and usually are, contextualised in an actively nodal way, since they are forms in an actively nodal structure. There are two passive forms used in this research: Expositionand Cut scenes. The function ofExposition is to introduce the player to the fictional world and its properties, to provide information about the character that the player is going to play, and to introduce the main objectives of the game, though not all of these elements need to be present. TheCut scenespurpose is usually to provide narrative content presenting pre-scripted events, characters in characteristic actions, dialogues, or giving background information on the storyworld.
2.1.3.2 Active Nodal Forms
First, Player freedom in video games is always a negotiation between the
player’s input and the game’s input, and the same goes for the unfolding of a
game’s narrative, therefore, player actions is one of the active nodal forms. Second,Quick time eventsare pre-rendered video sequences that can be interacted with by the player. A passive video sequence will be shown to the player until a node is reached, which is indicated by visual prompts telling the player that she can now interact, usually by pressing a specific button. Finally, conversation
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is limited or disabled), but the player can still influence the course of the conversation. If it is not presented as part of a cut scene, it usually makes more than one dialogue option available for the player to choose from, thus creating what is commonly referred to as adialogue tree.
2.1.3.3 Dynamic forms
Since video games can be described not merely as actively nodal, but also as dynamic systems, they can contain forms that are experienced by the player as narrative but that are neither passive presentations (such as cut scenes or screen
text) nor dependent on the player’s own input (as is the case of event triggers). In
video games, in contrast to other games that cannot be classified as dynamic and that do not include real time into their rules, things can happen to or within the gameworld– and therefore affect the player character as part of the gameworld – without the player’s participation.
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controlled by the gamemaster. A non-player character in a video game is usually part of the program, and not controlled by a human, but through artificial intelligence (AI). Non-player characters are one of the most important actively nodal as well as dynamic narrative forms in video games.
2.2 Immersion
Video games created for one purpose, to give people a moment for their willing suspension of disbelief. According to Murray (1997: 98; 126), Immersion is a part of the components that characterize the multiform story. Immersion is
about “the experience of being transported to an elaborately simulated place”.
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19 CHAPTER III
RESEARCH OBJECT AND METHOD
In this chapter, I describe a research object and method including the techniques of collecting and analyzing data related.
3.1 Research Object
Narrative in video games is presented as narrative forms to influence and initiate the player actions.The player’s involvement in determining the flow of the
story could be affected by the choice he makes in dialogue tree provided –
triggered by the way on how the game narrates the story itself to invest motivation. Consequently, the involvement leads to the idea that video games offer relationship of narrative and interactivity. In other words, narrative maintains its role in the pleasure of game experience.
In various perspectives, video games involve “story” that plays in the interactive experience. Since the story involves interactive process, the understanding of the narrative role takes different conception. Considering that conception, the object of this research is a narrative formation forming the overall narrative of Mass Effect 3 with focusing on some factors initiating the final
narrative formation using Bizzocchi’s parameters. Applying specific research method, narrative formation ofMass Effect3 is analysed with adapting theories of
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3.2 Research Method
The method used in this research is descriptive, which allows having a full description of the research object in the form of data that have been selected based on specific phenomena. As Nazir (2003) remarked, “tujuan dari metode penelitian deskriptif adalah untuk membuat deskripsi, gambaran, atau lukisan secara sistematis, faktual dan akurat mengenai fakta-fakta, sifat-sifat serta hubungan antar fenomena yang diselidiki."
Related to characteristics of the method, the data are described, showing a dynamic process and impact to the storyline that are made by the player because of the interactive process. To optimize a systematic thought, the techniques of data collection and analysis are designed to view the framework.
3.2.1 Data Collection
It is widely believed that the procedure of data collection determines the validation of the data. In this case, the technique of data collection should meet the requirements of scientific method of collecting data to represent factual and accurate data presented.
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including objects and dialogues that support the description of issue proposed. The technique of data collection involves 5 (five) steps. The first step is I played the third series of the game and captured every cut-scene that related to the main story. In addition, I played the game with choosing straight options as Paragon in every dialogue tree that appeared in the scenes and capture it and choosing only the main missions. Then, I read every datapads related to the main story to see the information they provide. I also captured the history of the Mass Effect series that presented in codex to bridge the story gaps between Mass Effect 3 and its
To analyze the narrative formation, the collected data are analyzed using the narrative components, which are storyworld, character, emotion, narrative interface and micro-narrative.Domsch’stheories of future narratives, multy linear story and immersion are used simultaneously to analyze the process of narrative formation and to identify the factors that affect overall narrative of Mass Effect 3 game.
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23 CHAPTER IV
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter describes the process of narrative formation and presents the analysis of the factors that affect the overall narrative in Mass Effect 3. In tempting to take a position in the issue, some salient positions are published to reach the understanding of the role of narrative in the pleasure of game experience. First, since a game may involve “story” to add the pleasure of
gameplay, the games indicates narrative components – character, storyworld, emotion, narrative interface and micro narrative as proposed by Bizzocchi (2007). At the same time, the concept of immersion is seen as a dynamic process, the
immersion of “flow” suggested byCsikszentmihalyi (1990).
Concerning to those positions, the discussion may cover Bizzocchi’s
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forms of motivation. Meanwhile, emotion, narrative interface and micro-narrative are explored within development phase of narrative.
As RPGs, Mass Effect 3 clarifies its form of multi-linear story with beginning, middle and ending section. Beginning is the setup and complication, while development phase and resolution is in the middle section, and denouement is in the ending section of the story. At this point, it is argued that the middle section ofMass Effect 3 potentially influencing the ending may vary; depended on
agent’s choice in available options. The choice is identified as the investment of
motivation available in situation given (provided from starting to nearly ending). As a result, the situations, as a storyworld, described through text and visual graphics are provided in this research analysis to give illustration and mechanism how motivation invested in situations triggers the choice.
4.1 Process and Factors in Beginning: Prologue (Priority: Vancouver)
As mentioned, a storyworld described through text and visual graphics may invest motivation to introduce the challenge. Thus, in this section, a storyworld and characters are introduced through prologue to view how the narrative formation proceeded. In its development, the challenge is introduced to trigger the motive and emotion between the player and characters in the gameworld. Then, the following description may give details of the idea.
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into the story and the gameplay to build emotion; such as what is happening and what the player should do to complete the story. As prologue, this mission only gives information to the player about the condition they face in galaxy and how to play the game. This information is presented as story through sequences of cut scenes. There were no differences in information given to the player between the first play and the second play. Therefore,this mission’s analysis only shows about
the information provided by the scene.
These scenes told a story of incoming disaster to the galaxy. As an introduction, the story began with conversations between two admirals, Anderson and Hackett, about something that had happened to the colonies beyond the Sol Relay, when they were all gone dark all of a sudden. This conversation builds up the background story of the game and gives the player information of the initiated conflicts. The initiated conflicts later become the complication of challenge to be overcome.
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The conversations continued into a report that came from Commander Sephard years ago about a race that had only purpose to cleanse organic beings all over the galaxy every fifty thousand years. They just realized that the report was true and they only had a little time to prepare for defending the Earth from that legendary race. Then they decided to mobilize every fleet they had to defend the Earth and they could only pray for what would come next. The introductory story was closed by textual narrative that gives information, a brief history of the game world, to the player.
Images 4.1.1 through 4.1.2 describes the opening of Mass Effect 3’s story
as cut scenes using cinematic narrative supported with text. Its function is to introduce the player to the fictional world and its properties (human discovered that they are not alone and the galaxy is on the verge of extinctions). The cut scenes itself provides the narrative content, presenting pre-scripted events, and giving background information on the storyworld. Most games used cut scenes to
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present their storyworld to the player. These cinematic sequences also intended to trigger the players so they can be immersed by showing an advance visual graphics and by giving them the background story before they take control of the game, called as spatial immersion. To be immersed is to be interested, and obviously, the players will continue to play the game when they are interested, and the story will be progressed as the game played. The images tell the situations and the conditions of the gameworld, which there is something awful approaching the Earth, and humanity is under a siege. This information is shown to the players without their involvement as the agent. In other words, the players have no control over the scenes. The images of cut scenes shown above can be categorized as exposition, because it gives the players information about the main objectives of the game, which is to save the galaxy from the Reapers, and it makes appearance before the players play the game (introduction).
Video game expositions can use different modes of presentation, such as written text and graphic or cinematic narrative (as shown above) and the players almost cannot skip these introductory sequences or texts. They are closely related to the cut scene; the main difference is that they are not interrupting gameplay but preceding it. Therefore, the story in this section is build up by two modes of operation in presenting the storyworld to the players, namely through cut scenes andexposition, and both of them are included in passive forms for their nature of operation.
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Commander Shepard, who did not know about the galaxy’s condition, was staying in a room somewhere on Earth. A man called James came in to the room to inform Shepard that the defense committee wanted to see him. Soon he was puzzled by the crowded activity around him when Anderson came to pick him up. While heading to the defense committee, Anderson gave him the information about
something ‘big’ that was headed to Earth. Shepard guessed that the Reapers were coming and Anderson answered him that he did not know. At this point of conversation, a dialogue tree emerges and there were two options to be chosen, allowing the players to experience resolution as culmination of the struggles of the development phase. This dialogue tree cedes the players a share of control of interactive experience. It means that a critical degree of fine authorial control is lost.
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As provided, these two options consists Paragon and Renegade characteristics that may be selected to represent characteristic of Shepard as a main character:
Paragon : We should’ve prepared more. Renegade : I’m certain.
As focused character in this discussion, Paragon option was chosen. Then, the response to Anderson statement, Shepard said that Earth was not ready at all to face the Reapers and the discussion at the defense committee was a time wasting. Anderson gave him an understanding that they were only scared because they had not seen what Shepard had seen. The conversation continued the story of Shepard fighting Reapers couple of years ago and his experience could help Earth fighting the Reapers. As the conversation goes, they arrived at an office with an officer waiting for them. On the way to the defense committee, they met Kaidan. He greeted Shepard as if he had known him for a long time. This scenery gave James surprise and he approached Kaidan to confirm his curiosity if he knew Shepard.
Kaidan simply said, “Iused to”.
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chance to build positive relationship between the characters. Most conversations in the game are presented as cut scenes and some with a dialogue tree. Although the players could not interact within the cut scenes, the appearance of dialogue tree that interrupts the scene requires the players to interact with it. This interruption is recognized as quick time events and automatically changed the mode of operation from passive form to active form. Therefore, these scenes have three modes of operation: cut scenes, dialogue tree and quick time events. It also has two kinds of forms based on their nature, passive form and active form.
The story progressed to Shepard and Anderson arrival at the defense committee. They were consulting about the disappearance of the colonies beyond the Sol Relay. Shepard assured them that they already knew who was coming, the Reapers. The committee asked him about the way to stop them, and then he said that it was not about strategy or tactics, it was about survival. He also told them that the Reapers were more advanced than human, more powerful, more intelligent and they will never take pity on anyone. At this point, a dialogue tree emerged as the committee wondered if there was a way to defeat the Reapers, as shown in Image 4.1.4. There were two options:
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The option chosen resulting in Shepard statement that human had to stand together if they were going to have any chance to survive. The meeting was interrupted by a report of attack on Luna Base. They just realized that the Reapers had breached their defenses and Earth was under attack while they were discussing on a way to face them.
The scenes above give the players information about the Reapers strength known by Shepard. The information provided by the cut scenesanddialogue tree processed similarly with the previous section. The conversations that presented as cut scenes and a dialogue tree changed the course of their conversation based on the player’s actions. In these scenes, the players have opportunity to change the conversation between the defense committee and Shepard provided by dialogue tree shown in Image 4.1.4. The choice made by the players gives more motivation to them that the characters in the game should stand together to defeat the Reapers, in other words, the players gives hope within their conversation. The
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Reapers also make their appearance in the game within the scene and the scene provides visual information to the players about the devastations the Reapers brought for the first time, as shown in Image 4.1.5. This visual information also part of spatial immersion.
This information, provided by the cut scenes and dialogue tree as shown in Image 4.1.1 through 4.1.5, gives the players knowledge of the storyworld. The game mostly delivered the story by cinematic and conversation through cut scenes. The players cannot interact with the story as long as the scene progresses, except when the dialogue tree emerged as a need for the interaction of the players. The dialogue tree may change the course of the conversation presented by the cut scene depending on the player’s actions. The process continued during the game in progress. Therefore, the cut scenes and dialogue tree has an important role in telling the story and information about the game to the players.
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4.2 Process and Factors in Development Phase
As mentioned, development phase is the long phase that dominates the bulk of the storytelling, as the protagonist works towards her goal, by exploring emotion, narrative interface and micro-narrative provided by the scenes in missions. In this section, the development is shown by playing the missions twice to see the differences of information between the developments of the story. This
development phase also could affect the course of the game’s story, the phase is described as follows.
4.2.1 Priority: Mars
Following the Reapers attacks, Shepard commanded by Anderson was talking to the Council for a help. As he was departed from Earth by ship, Normandy, Sephard was ordered by Admiral Hackett to go to Mars. His mission was to gather the informationDr. T’soniabout something that could wipe out the Reapers, it was held in Mars’s Archives together with the researches about Protheans. In Mars, Sephard discovered that the facility was under attack by Cerberus.
In the next development phase, there were significance differences in gathering information of the storyworld between the first play and the second play when the players was playing this mission. Therefore, following analysis shows the differences of information gathered by the players; information that may
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4.2.1.1 Conversation between Shepard and Liara 4.2.1.1.1 First Play
In his way to the Archives, he found Cerberus chased Liara. He talked to her when the chased was over and informed her that he was ordered by Hackett to gather information about the Reapers. Fortunately, she knew about what was going on and how to stop the Reapers. She informed Sephard that she discovered a weapon that could wipe out the Reapers, but Sephard seemed could not believe about the discovery.
At this point, options emerged to be chosen by the players. There were three options available:
Paragon : Seems too good to be true. Renegade : Finally, some good news. Investigate : We’re just learning this now?
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As the first step to collect the data, a straight response as Paragon was chosen. The result of the response was Sephard statement about the weapon that he would believe it when he saw it. He asked Liara about the weapon, she explained that it was not a weapon but a plan of device, a blueprint; she also told him that Cerberus could be after the same thing with unknown purposes. The conversation ended when Cerberus attacked them.
This conversation provided by the scenes gives information to the players about blueprint of a device that could stop the Reapers and about the reason of Cerberus attacked the facility, although it was still unclear. Simply, the information motivates the game characters and the player’s emotion when accomplish the mission, whether they gain a form of victory or defeat. In this case, design strategies are managed to be applied; meaning the narrative interface designs narrative form. In the same time, the information gives a pleasure of story and experience of interaction through making a particular decision.
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4.2.1.1.2 Second play
As the second step to gather more data, replaying the game was chosen by choosing the additional options given in the dialogue tree, specifically the left center option.
The result of choosing this option is that Shepard told Liara that they had known
about the Archives for decades, then he asked her “why now?”She then explained to Shepard about the discovery that began when she got the data from Alpha Relay incident (one of Mass Effect 2 events). She had to do something about the data and, fortunately, Hackett realized it too. Hackett contacted and asked her if she could help him find a way to stop the Reapers. Her search led her to Mars and Hackett gave her access to the Archives also kept her updated onShepard’s status.
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her to spend a lot of time than to visit Sephard. At this point of conversations, an additional dialogue tree emerged as a response to Liara statement.
There were two options:
Paragon : You did the right thing. Renegade :Don’t worry about it.
As a Paragon’s response chosen by the players, Shepard explained that he was under house arrest and he could not do much to help her. As the result, Liara seemed relived after listening to Shepard explanation. At this point of
conversations, a dialogue tree emerges as a response to Liara’s declaration about
her work that was paid off and she found an overwhelming amount of data in the Archives. The options in dialogue tree returned to the options shown in Image 4.2.1.1 and 4.2.1.2. However, the additional option was no longer available because it was already chosen.
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In these scenes, the players have opportunity to control the course of Shepard and Liara conversation by choosing an additional option provided by dialogue tree. “Investigation” response chosen in Image 4.2.1.2 gives the players
additional information about Liara’s discovery. The conversation also progressed further to Liara intentions of visiting Shepard, as shown in Image 4.2.1.3, before it returned to the options that shown in Image 4.2.1 and Image 4.2.1.2. The difference was that the options presented without the additional option because it was chosen to gather further information about the event. These results show that when the players decided to choose an additional option, they could receive additional information or additional story from the conversation and it also
affecting the player’s perception of the story. In addition, the players would not receive that additional information if they decided to choose straight Paragon response. The decision to “investigate” taken by the players is part of epistemic immersion and in this case, it can be only gained by replaying the game, which is part of temporal immersion.
4.2.1.2 Conversation between Shepard and Illusive Man 4.2.1.2.1 First Play
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said because he had seen their solution, Cerberus troops were turned into monsters. Illusive Man said that they were being improved and this was what separates them, where Shepard saw it meant to destroy, he saw a way to control the Reapers power. At this point of conversation, a dialogue tree emerged.
There were three options:
Paragon : You’re deluded.
Renegade : Over my dead body. Investigate : You’re wasting time!
As the result of straight Paragon response, Shepard said that he had gone too far and the Reapers would kill them all if they did not stop fighting each other. In
here, Paragon’s motivation remain still; “we stand together” (dialogue tree 1.5).
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Illusive Man responded by saying that he did not expect Shepard to understand and certainly was not looking for his approval. The conversation progressed to Illusive Man warning about Shepard interference and ended with Shepard chasing the stolen data.
The conversation provided by the scene gives the players information about Cerberus real intention attacking the facility. According to Illusive Man, the Prothean data on Mars asrchive was the key to face the Reapers threat and he intended to control and harnesses their power than to destroy them as Shepard intended to. This information provided by the cut scenes and the dialogue tree gave the players opportunity to response to what Illusive Man said. Based on the
player’sresponse, the scene was progressed to another conversation between them to the point of resuming the game while the other options in dialogue tree were no longer available. This straight Paragon response only gave the players information about Illusive Man intention without showing his reason. The players could receive different information in this kind of dialogue tree by replaying the game as part of temporal immersion as follow.
4.2.1.2.2 Second Play
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information relatively differs when the players decided to choose the additional options provided by the dialogue tree, particularly the left center option, as follow.
By choosing the left center options, it led to Shepard question about Illusive Man motivation to control the Reapers while Earth was under siege. Afterwards, Illusive Man said that his goal had been, and always be, to use whatever means he had at his disposal to protect humanity. Shepard responded by saying that the Reapers was a means to an end, but Illusive Man thought otherwise and said that
this was not Shepard’s fight any longer and he could not defeat the Reapers even with the Prothean data. At this point of conversation, another dialogue tree emerged giving the players chances to change the course of their conversation.
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The options were a bit different from previous dialogue tree shown in the previous analysis.
There were four options:
Paragon : Then I’ll get help.
Renegade : Watch me. Charm : Help me then. Intimidate : Don’t count me out.
The “charm” option was chosen during this second play, the purpose was to get more Paragon bonus point as the reward. This decision resulted to Shepard effort in convincing Illusive Man to join him by giving him control of Illusive Man resources to stop the Reapers. Illusive man responded by saying that he knew that
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Shepard would do better than most, but the odds were not in his favor. More importantly, Illusive Man did not want the Reapers destroyed because he thought that he could dominate them, use their power, and harness their very essence to bring humanity to the apex of evolution. Afterwards, a dialogue tree emerged to the point of the first play options; the only difference was the additional option was no longer available.
This section shows that the story or the information given by the game to the players is depended on how the game was played by the players. The players decisions to choose either Paragon or Renegade response as their character’s morality resulted in different information in discovering the game’s story and these moral options filled the character reputation meter as the reward. The
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“Charm” and “Intimidate” options shown in Image 4.2.1.6 can be activated depends on the character reputations meter. As Paragon, every decision of Paragon response will fill the character reputation meter by Paragon as the character moral. This reputation affected a dialogue tree in certain conversation. In other words, it opened up another dialogue options that could affect the continuity of the game’sstory. As the result indeciding to choose “charm” option, the character was trying to do diplomacy than challenge towards his opponent. In addition, the conversation revealed Illusive man motivation behind his doing. The players could not receive this information if they did not decide to choose additional option as shown in Image 4.2.1.5. This information builds up the story as the players play the game and every decision can build different narrative received by the players. To sum up, the players as agent take control over narrative form. The game gave the players chances to choose different options when they replaying the game, which is recognized as temporal immersion.
4.2.2 Priority: The Citadel 1
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was there to tell Shepard information that the Council was expecting him, but they had to deal with their own problems and they apologized for the inconvenience. Bailey pointed at Udina’s office to meet them there and suggested to visit the medical center for Kaidan.
In this Mission, the players have chances to explore the place and try to interact with the NPCs. Either the players choose to explore and interact or to do the main mission, the story received by the players would differ. In other words, micro-narrative allows different narrative form.
4.2.2.1 First Play
For the first play, doing main missions is being a priority. Therefore, for
this section, heading straight to Udina’s office was taken. Unfortunately, Udina was not present but his secretary, she was there to pick Shepard to the Council’s
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millennia ago the Reapers wiped out the Protheans, who created the blueprint. At this point, a dialogue tree emerged as one of the Councilor asked him if he believed that the device could defeat the Reapers.
There were two options:
Paragon : I believe in trying.
Renegade : Do you have a better plan?
As Paragon response was chosen, Shepard said that he believed in something that Liara did and he said that this was the time for them to stand together. The fact that the Reapers would not stop at Earth until they destroy every organic beings in the galaxy was the only reason for them to work as allies. Unfortunately, the Council could not give Earth the military support as he requested because their own planet must come first and the meeting was dismissed. Udina, Earth’s
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The scenes described above gives the players information about the
galaxy’s state. The Reapers attack that spread all over the galaxy added problems for the character to gather helps. No one would help even though the character had tried to convince the Council by showing the device blueprint that could defeat the Repaers. This information also brought a hint about challenges that would come for the players within the game. Those challenges were to be discovered by the players through missions or cut scenes and every mission reveal the storyworld to the players. In addition, the decision to choose Paragon shown in Image 4.2.2.1, shows that the character chose to believe in what his friend said than challenging the Council to do a better plan, as Renegade would do. The decision also shows that Shepard is a trustworthy, wise and reliable man for his crew. In some case, by choosing this Paragon response, the players could strengthen the relationship between Shepard and his allies or crew.
The discussion with the Council was unsuccessful but fortunately, a Turian Councilor came to Shepard when he was talking with Udina in his office. The Councilor said that he could not give what Shepard asked but he could tell him how to get it. He said that if Shepard could get Palaven’s Primarch into the war summit, Shepard could gain one ally that had power to grant him the support.
The trouble was he did not get out of his planet’s system when the Reapers
attacked. This information shows a challenge to the players, to save the Primarch
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proceeded to the point of resuming the game, when the players could explore the Citadel or directly visit the Normandy to continue the mission.
4.2.2.2 Second Play
In this second play, despite of heading to Udina’s office, exploration was
taken to see the difference in story provided by the game. This exploration gave the players chances to interacts with NPCs and every NPCs have different story related to their personal story or to the Reapers attack, which is part of temporal immersion. The following are the examples.
4.2.2.2.1 Conversation between Shepard and Dr. Chakwas
Shepard could find Dr. Chakwas in the hospital and interact with her. Shepard seemed surprised when he found her in the Citadel then she said that she came as fast as she could when she heard Shepard escaped Earth in the Normandy and that someone was critically injured. They traded information regarding
Kaidan’s condition and she said that she wished she could have been on Mars to help. A dialogue tree emerged at this point of the conversation.
There were three options:
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The decision to choose “investigate” was taken to discover the story of Dr. Chakwas. As the result, Shepard it had been six months and he wanted to know about what she had been doing. She said that she had been good and fortunate despite the fact that she was working for Shepard, when he was working with Cerberus to defeat the Collectors (Mass Effect 2 event). She also said that she would have tried as an accessory if Shepard was judged to be a war criminal. Afterwards, the dialogue tree returned as shown in Image 4.2.2.2 without
“investigate” option. Therefore, Paragon response was taken to precede the
conversation and Shepard said that her place was in Normandy’s med bay, not some lab. She agreed to what Shepard said and would follow him if he say the word. Another dialogue tree emerged as shown in Image 4.2.3.3.
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There were two options:
Paragon : Welcome aboard. Renegade : Stay at the labs.
As Paragon, Shepard said that Normandy would not be the same without her. He also told her to bring her things to where Normandy was docked. She thanked him and disappeared from hospital when the game resumed.
The difference shown in this section is when the players chose to explore than to do straight main mission. Dr Chakwas, an NPC, could be found only by exploring the Citadel and by interacting with her. The players also could find her
backstory by choosing “investigate” option and her story is recognized as micro-narrative, because the players can only find this story by exploration. In addition, by choosing exploration the players could recruither as Normandy’s crew, while the players probably miss this chance of recruitment if they choose to do straight
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main mission. Obviously, the presence of Dr. Chakwas in Normandy can give different experience about the story received by the players when progressing the game.
4.2.2.2.2 Conversation between Shepard and Bailey
Another example is the conversation between Shepard and Bailey. The players could find his office near Earth Council office at the Presidium. A scene of a reporter harassing Bailey interrupted the play when the door’s office was
opened. Shortly after the reporter left the office, Shepard said that Bailey was keeping the peace but could not agree. Despite the higher pay grade, he said that he would rather be back on the street than facing political issue, while Shepard saw it as a move up. A dialogue tree emerged at this point of conversation.
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There were three options available: Paragon : Bear with it. Renegade : It’s a stupid game.
Investigate : Why take the job?
The same process was taken as the previous section. “Investigate” option was
chosen to reveal Bailey reason taking the job. He said that he could not say no to Udina, maybe Shepard would but he had to live in Citadel. He also said that he did not know why Udina picked him, could never understand politicians and he hated political business. Afterwards, a dialogue tree as shown in Image 4.2.2.4
emerged without “investigate” option. As Paragon response chosen, Shepard suggested him to not losing his edge because he might need it. The conversation proceeded to the point of resuming the game.
The process is quite similar with the previous section. The players could get information about Bailey backstory by choosing “investigate” optionjust like when the players interacted with Dr. Chakwas. The difference is the players could get another chance to interact with Bailey, while Dr. Chakwas disappeared after the interaction. This chance of interaction gives the players opportunity to dig more information related to Bailey. Image 4.2.2.5 shows a dialogue tree within the scene that initiated the conversation by interacting on it and there were two
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Image 4.2.2.5 Mass Effect 3 (Prologue)
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Therefore, “invesatigate” option is the only option that progress the interaction.
As the result, the dialogue tree branched into five interaction options that could be chosen by the players, as shown in Image 4.2.2.6. There were five options available: “The war”, “Citadel”, “Trouble?”, “Your promotion” and “Family”. Each option have different information and the players have the opportunity to discover all of them or by choosing only one option, either way, the information that players got is different. For example, if the players decided to choose every option, the players could know Bailey’s opinion about the war, Citadel recent
situation, troubles in Citadel, the story behind his promotion, and his family who were still on Earth when the Reapers attacked. However, the players will only have one information about Bailey if the players only chooses one option. These information is also recognized as micro-narrative because it gave the players a broader story happened in the storyworld.
4.3 Process and Factors in Ending: Normandy (First visit)
This section is the ending of the challenge initiated in starting up section. The challenge was to visit the Citadel to talk to the council in order to gather allies. The process of gathering the allies is described in development phase section and the challenge ends in this ending part. The details is described as follows.
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Normandy for the first time, in game’s term is called free roaming. The players can build relationship between Shepard and his crews; the players can also visit various planets in Milky Way galaxy through galaxy map. As the process of telling the storyworld is particularly same, which is provided by cut scenes or dialogue tree as narrative interface, therefore, this section only shows information that the players could get if they decided to build relationship between Shepard and his crews rather than doing main mission straightly. There are various NPCs that could be interacted by the players and the process of interaction is same as described in Citadel (second play), except for one. The interaction between Shepard and James is a bit different from others, as follows.
James could be found at fifth level, Normandy’s shuttle bay, and interact with him. James asked Shepard about the council meeting when Shepard approached him. Shepard said that the council was same as usual, noncommittal and unhelpful, but still wanted him to help them by rescuing a turian primarch from Palaven. James said that it was sound like fun because he was never been to the turian homeworld. Afterwards, a dialogue tree emerged as he asked Shepard why he came down to shuttle bay. There were two options:
Paragon : Thought I’d come say “Hi”.
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As Paragon response was chosen, Shepard said that he came down just to talk because he did not know about James personal record when they met. James
forgot about that and asked him to “dance” and talk at the same time. Another dialogue tree emerged as shown in Image 4.3.2.
Image 4.3.1 Mass Effect 3 (Prologue)
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There were two options:
Paragon : I’m game.
Renegade : Watch your tone, soldier.
As a friendly leader or Paragon, Shepard responded by saying that he could handle it. The scenes progressed into sparring scenes between James and Shepard. James said that Shepard sounded like his old CO, Captain Toni, who died with most of his squad protecting a civilian colony from a Collector attack. Shepard asked about the colony and James said that there were two conditions, it was either saving the colony or the intel they had about Collectors that could destroy the Collectors, and James chose the intel. Shepard felt sorry about that because James did not really need the intel for Shepard were out saving the galaxy by taking down the entire Collectors homeworld.
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There were prompts that could be interacted by the players within the conversation provided by the scene, a Renegade prompt as shown in Image 4.3.3 and a Paragon prompt as shown in Image 4.3.4. These prompts emerged separately with limited time to be interacted. Paragon prompt resulted in Shepard dodging James fist, while Renegade prompt resulted in Shepard hitting James. However, if the players failed to hit the prompt, James would hit Shepard. Either way, their conversation continued to the point of Shepard brought down James to the floor as Paragon prompt emerged and successfully hit. The sparring scene was ended when Shepard told James that he had to value his live because Shepard needed him to defeat the Reapers. Afterwards, James thanked Shepard for the talk
and the “dance” by calling him Loco as Shepard nickname. A dialogue tree emerged for the last time to give players chance to respond, as shown in Image 4.3.5.
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There were two options:
Paragon : Loco? I like that. Renegade : It’s “Commander”.
Shepard said that James could call him whatever he wanted as long as he remembered who was in charge, as paragon response was chosen. James responded by saying that he would not forget about that. The conversation ended and the players could resume the game.
By exploring, the players can get more information about everyting happens in the gameworld. This information, recognized as micro-narrative, adds knowledge and experience about the storyworld for the palyer. There are different ways to discover this kind of information, such as by opening the journal, datapad, oeverhearing NPCs conversations and interacts with the NPCs. The conversation between Shepard and James lead to another cut scenes that processed similarly with other interactions. The difference was the prompts that emerged in certain
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dialogue between their conversations, as shown in Image 4.3.3 and Image 4.3.4. These prompts is recognized as quick time events although it did not interrupts the continuation of their conversations, it could affect the scenes showed to the players depending onthe player’s abilityto hit the prompt on time, andShepard’s
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CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
Based on the analysis described in Chapter IV, narrative in Mass Effect 3 is multi-linear story for its possibility to twist the story. The narrative is formed with a beginning, middle and ending. In the process of forming the narrative, the player could not influence narrative in the beginning section, because the player can only affect the course of conversations through dialogue tree, while the information remains the same whether the player played the game twice or more. In the middle section, the player could influence the game’s story by choosing investigation options through the dialogue tree and by exploring the gameworld. The actions taken by the player in the middle or development phase could affect the ending section of the game’s story. The ending could be different for Mass Effect 3 has eight different endings.
The game itself presented the story through cut scenes, dialogue trees, NPCs and players actions when they play the game. The cut scenes, both by visual graphics and conversations, mostly deliver the information of game’s storyworld
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dialogue tree always emerged in conversations within the cut scenes to give the players opportunity to gain additional information about the game’s story and the additional information gained by the players adds their knowledge about the storyworld that affect the narrative received by the player. The players also can build emotional relation between characters by choosing options available in the dialogue tree. These characters also recognized as NPC (non-player character) and the players can interact with them while exploring the game. Both dialogue tree and NPC are recognized as narrative interface, while the additional information gained by the players recognized as micro-narrative.
The player’s actions and immersion are the factors that could affect the narrative received by the players.The game’s storycan be different depending on how the players played the game. The story received by the players during the game in the first time is different when the players decide to replay the game and choose different actions. As described in Chapter IV, the players who took straight Paragon response or did straight main mission while playing the game could not received additional information as the players who decided to choose exploration and interacted with NPCs, or chose “investigate” option provided by
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These actions taken by the player in this so-called sub grand mission could affect the following missions and the conclusion of the final battle against the Reapers, since Mass Effect 3 has various endings. The depth of the story, unique characters, the opportunity of romance and the intriguing conflicts between races are the game’s trademark that could leave memorable impression to the player.
These things also can affect the player’s judgment in decidingtheir actions.
5.2 Suggestions
NARRATIVE FORMATION OF MASS EFFECT 3
VIDEO GAME: A FUTURE NARRATIVE
SKRIPSI
Submitted to fulfil one of the requirements ofSarjana SastraDegree
ALI TOPAN RAMADHAN NIM. 63707742
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LETTERS
INDONESIA COMPUTER UNIVERSITY
BANDUNG
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CURRICULUM VITAE
A. Personal Identity
a. Name : Ali Topan Ramadhan
b. Place and date of birth : Bandung, 2 Mei 1987
c. Address : Jl. Dewi Sartika no.062 Palabuhanratu, Sukabumi 43364
d. Phone : 085721385109
e. Sex : Male
f. Citizenship : Indonesia
g. Religion : Islam
h. Hobby : Playing video games, playing music
instruments, singing, solving riddles and playing basket ball
B. Formal Education
No. Year Institution
1 1992-1993 TK Merpati Bandung
2 1993-1995 SDN Babakan Surabaya II Bandung 3 1995-1999 SDN I Palabuhanratu
4 1999-2002 SMPN I Palabuhanratu
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6 2007-2010 UNIKOM Bandung (Teknik Informatika) 7 2010-present UNIKOM Bandung (Sastra Inggris)
C. Informal Education
No. Year Institution
1 2004 Spirit English and Arabic Course at CLID(Certified)
2
Kursus Pembina Pramuka Mahir Tingkat Dasar (Certified)
3 2005 Computer Course (Certified)
4 Penataran TPA/TKA (Certified)
5 2007 Workshop on Video Editing (Certified) 6 Workshop on Design Grafis (Certified) 7 Pelatihan Penanganan Virus (Certified)
8 2008 Kuliah Bersama Teknik Informatika (Certified) 9 2011 Evaluasi Belajar Mengajar (Certified)
10 Seminar and Workshop on Copywriting (Certified) 11 Seminar and Workshop on Semiotics (Certified) 12 Seminar on Technology Information (Certified) 13 Seminar on Technology (Certified)
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17 Hari Sastra (Certified)
18 Character Building Training (Certified)
91
(2012/2013)
5
DECLARATION OF OWNERSHIP
I hereby certify that this skripsi entitled “Narrative Formation of Mass Effect3 Video Game: A Future Narrative”is honestly my own work. I am fully aware that I may have quoted some statements and ideas from various sources, and they are properly acknowledged in the text.
Bandung, 8 August 2015 The Writer
