Exploring how players use emergent narrative in strategy games

Abstract

This article explored how players were impacted by and used emergent narrative to make sense of their gameplay in the Total War strategy video game series. Two stages of qualitative research were undertaken: (i) a thematic analysis of 295 online forum posts; and (ii) 104 respondents to an online survey. The research followed a phenomenographic approach with analysis informed by undertaking the active story interpreter role. The thematic analysis found that 32 % of the posts contained emergent narratives of which 14 % were detailed, while a further 39 % of the posts expressed pleasure from reading these emergent narratives. Results from online survey suggested respondents developed emotional attachments to the generals and units they controlled in Total War video game, and that this emotional attachment increased their enjoyment of the gameplay (79 %). However, sometimes, due to these attachments, players allowed generals to ‘retire’ and idle in a settlement, which may have adversely impacted their strategic gameplay in a game genre that privileges long-term planning. Since players can derive pleasure in creating or reading other players’ emergent narratives, developers could further enhance players’ enjoyment of their strategy games by providing more resources and prompts to assist with their creation.