Narratology of videogames (Case study: God of war)

Abstract

Full dependency on human interaction, has made video game different from other narrative media. Two major viewpoints on narratology of video game are: Narratological and Ludological; The first one emphasizes the importance of narration and the necessity of its existence in video games, and the latter puts a fundamental distinction between video game and the literary narrative. The main purpose of this research is to review and compare the most important challenges and perspectives on the issue of narratology in video games and also to dissect the narrative of the game “God of War 2018” based on the examined perspectives. The research was enforced by a comparative-analytical method, whose qualitative data were compiled in a documentary manner with theoretical framework of narratology as its basis. In order to achieve the goal of the research two main points of view on video game narrative were deliberated and thereafter three categorizations of video game narrative were scrutinized and God of War’s narrative was reconciled with each of them. With all that the article shows a holistic scheme of video game narrative, plus using it on a specific game.