A Functional Perspective on Narrative in Computer Games - Wolf Maul

felt demoted and passive until control was returned. Riven, for example, freezes play during
video sequences and animations (meaning that controls are frozen every time a door is opened
or some mechanism is in operation), and some of The Longest Journey’s dialogue and action
sequences, once initiated, can last for many minutes without the any chance for the player to
influence them.
Worse, at the end of the first chapter of Baldur's Gate, after the escape from the labs of
Irenicus, Imoen (who has to this point been under my control in all battle sequences) suddenly
attacks Irenicus and is imprisoned. Although the main plot requires this event, it caused an
inevitable suspension of my engagement with the fiction frame and reduced my sense of
agency for the remainder of the game.
To maintain engrossment with the fiction frame, the context should not only support
agency but also seem to be affected by it. The sense of having an impact on the virtual world –
that the context of play is sensitive to player-character actions within it – is the essence of
agency. Actions in the world frame have consequences, and actions in the fiction frame must
as well. Both micro-impact and macro-impact are essential.
Continued engrossment requires a perceivable impact of actions of the environment.
Micro-impact means that items taken should not reappear and broken items should not mend
themselves (without an adequate explanation). When a player-character returns to talk to the
same character more than once, the character’s response should reflect that.
The Longest Journey attempts to create a sense of micro-impact by having characters
respond differently the second time April approaches them. Unfortunately (and
understandably) the third time is generally the same as the second and reflects neither new
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