What’s the story of a basketball game? Gamification of narrative in VR/360
(A quick thank you to Jacquelyn Ford Morie for offering this idea during the Women in VR panel in Culver City. Thought I’d take a moment to expand.)
5 seconds left on the clock. She dribbles down the court, sweat beading across her forehead. Her team is down by 2, only four seconds left on the clock now. The crowd is roaring, chanting, waiting for her to make her next move.
Only three seconds left on the clock now…she has to make a decision. Should she shoot? Should she pass? Should she be the hero?
Let me stop there.
What I’m describing is essentially a story — but we all know that there really is no story in a basketball game. No one told our player that she could be the hero. No one orchestrated the fact that the game was going to be so close, that it was going to come down to the buzzer.
Yet every time we watch sports, we become invested in the story of the game. And for the most part, it follows the general structure.
Problem: someone must win the game.
Rising action: the first three quarters, each presenting a new challenge for each opposing team to face.
Climax: the final quarter, each team now giving it their all to win.
Falling action: a team has won, each player now giving a great exhale of either victory or defeat.
So let’s take this back to VR/360. Right now there’s confusion about how to best create story within the medium. Scripted content no longer works within VR— at least not in the traditional case. Since the viewer is experiencing a new form of reality, they expect narrative to reflect stakes organically rather than artificially.
This is why performances like ABC’s 360 video for ‘Quantico’ comes across as phony — there are no choices, no direct consequences and no real climax for the viewer. We have no invested interest in the outcome of the narrative — so we frankly just don’t care.
Watch for yourself.
Yea, there’s a story. But you’re not invested.
Instead, why not have the viewer choose what they want to do next and have to live by their decision. Games like ‘Papers Please’ come to mind to showcase a powerful mix of the gamification of story.
As in a basketball game, choices are made to organically (or mechanically, depending on your mode of thought) to create story structure.
In the game, you work as a border crossing immigration officer. You spend much of the game looking over credentials. If you let someone in with proper credentials, you make money. If they don’t, you lose money.
It’s a basic mechanic but throughout the game you’re left with the dread of not making enough money in order to feed your family back home. You’re in a constant rush to provide, and as day’s clock is winding down you’re rushed to make the final cent that could mean life or death for your family.
The game introduces no direct story to you, but by the end you’re completely invested in what you’re doing. You care about how much money you make, your family, and the well being of your country. And it’s all accomplished through mechanics.
We became the character and therefore organically became the hero. We created our own stakes — they weren’t forced down our throats. It’s the gamification of story.
It’s ideas like this that must make their transition to virtual reality and 360 video. If the creators expect us to become an invested character within the narrative, they must stop manufacturing and instead start gamifying.
Choice+Consequence=Story. It’s when these decisions are compounded that create stakes, that create powerful narratives, and create fantastic experiences.