Computer Games, Fictional Worlds and Transmedia Storytelling: A Narratological Perspective

Abstract

New and evolving forms of medial narration and transmedia storytelling pose a profound methodological challenge for narratological approaches within literature and media studies. While some narratological concepts such as character, event or fictional world seem to apply across the media, they do not necessarily apply to every medium in exactly the same way (Ryan 2004; 2006; Thon 2009; Wolf 2005). It is, for example, generally acknowledged within computer game studies that many contemporary computer games are set in fictional worlds often expanding beyond the games themselves (e.g. Jenkins 2004; 2006; Juul 2005; Ryan 2006; Thon 2007). But while the conventionally distinct media of the novel, the film and the computer game may all present fictional worlds, these worlds differ in significant ways that cannot and should not be reduced to idiosyncrasies of individual texts (Ryan 2004: 33). Situated in the context of a more comprehensive research project in the field of transmedial narratology, the present paper discusses the medium-specific ways in which the gameplay of the real time strategy game WARCRAFT III: REIGN OF CHAOS (2002) and the massive multiplayer online role playing game WORLD OF WARCRAFT (2004) is enriched by and contributes to the transmedial presentation of the fictional world of WARCRAFT.