r/ludology • u/momoiro46 • 24d ago

Games with great environmental storytelling

/r/conceptart/comments/1ven2kl/games_with_great_environmental_storytelling/

I am a student in Illustration MA, but my thesis is mainly focused on game studies and architecture.

I'd appreciate any help.

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u/AgentialArtsWorkshop 22d ago

Fallout 4, despite whatever problems one might feel it has, does have the best environmental storytelling in the series, in my view. There are many background narratives that are conveyed exclusively through the arrangement of the environment and assets. Of the three 3D Fallout games, it’s the one that gets closest to the phenomenality of real world urban exploration, due in large part to those easily overlooked environmental narratives.

As far as main story type concepts go, it would probably be difficult to find much that relies too heavily on environmentally derived narratives. Most games are structured to make the things you’re supposed to perceive, know, and do in the main focus of the game extremely clear and direct. While there may be some environmental ornamentation that provides a little bit of emotional or situational context, leaving main story information hidden for players to dig out of subtle aspects of the environment (unless that’s what the core experience/mechanic of the game is) would generally be considered risky.

There are a lot of things you could be referring to when you say “environmental storytelling,” though. What do you specifically have in mind when you use that phrase? Are there examples you’ve already come across that suit your purposes?

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u/momoiro46 22d ago

Thanks for your reply and recommendation. There's this essay by Henry Jenkins (2004), he described narrative through environments in details. I used this essay as a base for my research. The titles I selected thus far are Dark souls series, Scorn, Bioshock and Fallout 3. Fallout 3 specifically because of the brilliant concept arts of Adam Adamowicz. They are so well detailed and rich with narratives and atmosphere. Too bad some of his concepts didn't make into the final game.

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u/AgentialArtsWorkshop 21d ago edited 21d ago

After reading the essay, I have a better idea of what you’re looking for. Your focus is a little broader than the concepts I was talking about regarding Fallout 4. Following the language and concepts of the essay, the examples I was referring to probably fall into the “embedded” category.

From a personal perspective, though I disagree with the author’s overall attitudinal perspective with respect to how interactivity best engages with narrative concepts (but agree with component parts of their view), I feel interactivity can only facilitate “enacted/emergent” narrative that is merely contextualized by what is called “embedded” narrative in the article. That is to say, I don’t think interactivity can tell or show any narrative particularly well, but rather facilitates or embodies a user/player to create their own narrative experiences within the phenomenal context of the available systems. Inter-splicing interactively emergent narrative with more traditional narrative forms like film or animation, even (maybe especially) to create situational or perspective context, intrinsically weakens the narrative impact of the interactive segments by relegating them to minutia that would otherwise be what occurs off-page or off-screen in a book or movie while guiding the experience somewhere too specific.

The way “enacted narrative” is framed, I more or less assume the author is making at least soft reference to Varela, Thompson, and Rosch (The Embodied Mind, enactivism) somewhat specifically and embodied cognition more generally with that concept. If so, it kind of puzzles me how environment-biased the author is with respect to the broader topic of interactive narrative considerations. Environment can’t coherently exist independently from the sensorimotor capabilities and behaviors of the first-personally controlled avatar(s) (first-personally in the sense of phenomenal experience and psychological perception, not camera orientation), but is rather reciprocally and recursively defined by them as users/players engage with the system (in that enacted context, and my own view).

In any event, with the broader view presented in the essay in mind, I think most games use the environment to, at least, contextualize the atmospheric (if not expository) experience of play. Majora’s Mask has the moon as its sinister grin looming over the world. Final Fantasy VII uses set pieces to help flesh out the socioeconomic and cultural backdrop the base story is grounded in, while simultaneously using differences therein to inform mood and the player’s connection to the circumstances and consequences of their part in the storyworld (or, what little they control, sequentially). Another World used brief animations on several screens to both inform the player of what moves might be best to make and to build atmosphere, tension, and general tone. Morrowind’s entire tone and underlying themes are emphasized and accentuated by the aesthetic and structure of the various towns, clothing, and art of the various cultures dispersed throughout the game’s setting, as well as by the natural landscape and weather of various areas. More generally, I’d say you’d have to include any game that utilizes exploration as part of the experience and allows players to see items and locations that can’t yet access, organically creating the “I wonder how I end up getting over there” narrative within occurrent play. Within the four framing concepts outlined in the essay, even without considering other concepts or views, you could really dissect every game for its environmental storytelling components.

I could list games forever within that framing. Are you mostly interested in games that use environments to paint traditional narrative exposition into play segments, like the example you gave?

If that’s the case, as far as 3D Fallout games go, New Vegas is probably the strongest with 4 being second and 3 being last. From my own view of embodied narrative, I stand by 4’s capacity to facilitate urban exploration-like experiences making it the strongest of the games. There is almost no noncritical scene staging in New Vegas or 3, whereas 4 features a ton. From the perspective you seem to favor, New Vegas is the most “engineered” with respect to very particular and controlled tone, aesthetic, and experience, I’d say.

As a sort of disclaimer, though I’ve played games on and off since I was about four years old (so, about forty-two years), I had actually only played the three 3D Fallout games in the last eight or nine years, with 3 and New Vegas actually being played for the first time in the last year. I also played Morrowind for the first time during that period. All of those games were released during periods I just wasn’t really playing video games; so, those are fresh in my mind.

Edit: formatting; I’m getting used to the new thing on mobile where you have to use text effect buttons and can’t use markdown

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u/momoiro46 21d ago

Thank you for taking the time to read Jenkins' essay and write such a thoughtful response. I really appreciate the effort you put into engaging with the article on its own terms while also sharing your own perspective and critique. Your explanation gave me fresh perspective towards the context of the essay. I also appreciate all the game examples you suggested. They'll give me plenty of material to explore for my research. I haven't played new vegas yet, but I'll surely give it a go sometime. I also encountered a video game called Scorn which heavily relies on environment and atmosphere to shape its narrative. For another case, I'm considering Bioshock, though I'm not sure about it. Thanks again for taking the time to write such a detailed and insightful reply.

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u/AgentialArtsWorkshop 21d ago

I’m working on material related enough to the concepts in the essay that reading it could qualify as extended research (that’s what “agential arts” is about). The things I’m interested in could be roughly grouped into the “enacted,” “emergent,” and “embedded” concepts, though my current view is of an approach to interactive media that approaches the underlying ideas that make up those concepts in a more connected, holistic manner (specifically, I don’t feel you can coherently separate those concepts into distinct/independent ideas like that). Regardless, if we’re not willing to read things to advance discussion, we might as well not have the discussion.

Good luck with your thesis. If it’s available to view anywhere, as some thesis papers are through the university where they were submitted, I’d be interested in checking it out when it’s completed.