A Functional Perspective on Narrative in Computer Games - Wolf Maul

particular frame and will normally result in memories sorted and distilled from play divided
into the separate frames.
Analyzing my results using modified perspective frames provided me with a context for
game narrative in which I was able to answer my questions: What is narrative in computer
games; How is it created; How does the player experience it; and How does it relate to game
play.
Findings
Game Description of The Longest Journey
April Ryan (player character) is a young woman who has recently moved to the large
futuristic city of Newport to study art at a local college. April seems normal enough, except for
the dreams and visions she has, which lead her on a quest to the pastoral world of Arcadia. On
her adventures she learns that Arcadia is the chaotic, magical counterpart to the world she has
been living in: the scientific, orderly Stark. As a ‘shifter’ – someone with the unusual ability to
travel between the two worlds – April begins to unravel the mystery that threatens both Stark
and Arcadia. In the end, she triumphs over the forces of greed and evil and restores the balance
between the worlds.
The Longest Journey has pre-rendered and fixed backgrounds that the player (through a
moving representation of April) can navigate by using the mouse to point to desired locations.
Mouseovers provide navigation information. A red eye indicates that a description of an area is
available (with a right click), while a red arrow indicates that April can travel in that direction
to a new area. Moving to a new area brings up another pre-rendered background of the next
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