Left: A screenshot from Champions of Norrath, a CRPG used in my research. In computer-based RPGs, players have a visual world to interact with rather than an imagined on in tabletop RPGs. Middle: Players engaged in a tabletop RPG. Right: Results of a study of communication in tabletop RPGs. The figure shows the use of dramatic additions in the communication of players of tabletop RPGs. In these games, players act, enact and embody fictional characters and use game rules to form collaborative storytelling in a complex manner that has yet to be clarified. Modeling this process is of direct use in designing interactive storytelling systems.
Role Playing Games Role Playing Games (RPGs) form one of the core genres of games, and are found across a variety of formats from tabletop to digital environments, physically embodied to mobile and even enhanced/augmented reality. Despite the immense variability between games that have been assigned the label “RPG”, they are all, one way or another, character-based games, and thee game characters evolve and change throughout the playing activity. The character-centered concept of RPGs has proven highly portable between different media and hardware platforms, and widely popular among both eastern and western cultural spheres. Role-Playing Games have historically been left relatively unexplored outside the games-, simulations- and education industry. Studies of these games – irrespective of whether they are single-, multi- or massively multi-player – and of how they are affected as they are transported between different formats, e.g. tabletop to a digital environment, are rare. Additionally, within games research empirical studies of games and how the participants play them are infrequent. These two factors combined mean that what is known of RPGs primarily relates to game design, supplemented by a valuable but limited amount of theory developed within the RPG industry and hobbyist circles. This leaves a hiatus of knowledge and a substantial amount of questions to be addressed in an empirical context, which generally deal with fairly basic features of RPGs, e.g.: How do these games operate? What happens when you transfer RPGs from one format to another? How are the collaborative stories of multi-player RPGs formed? Addressing these and other questions will go a substantial part of the way to establish a more coherent understanding of RPGs that reaches across game formats, which will in turn facilitate further study- and development of RPGs within and across gaming platforms. Within the past few years, powerful drivers for such research and development have emerged, not the least the general motivation for expanding the market for digital RPGs (notably MMORPGs). Another key driver has been formed via the realization that tabletop RPGs form one of the best examples of collaborative and interactive storytelling systems in existence; additionally, the operation of Non-Player Characters (NPCs) in these games is of interest in agent-based systems. Jointly, these aspects of RPGs are generating interest in them as a source for insights applicable to interactive storytelling systems and the next generation of interactive entertainment, e.g. digital interactive drama. My research work centers on several features within the larger theme of RPGs: How they operate, are played and affected by medial transfer, this thesis is focused on the multi-player variant, although single- and massively multi-player forms of RPGs across tabletop and digital media are also considered. Within The overall thematic umbrella of multi-player RPGs, and in the context of empirical game research, my work is focused on exploring how these games are played and the factors impacting on the gaming experience, across tabletop and digital formats. Due to the lack of existing research to form the base for hypotheses forming, the work is designed to a large degree to be explorative in nature. Where possible, however, hypotheses based from RPG theory and design practices have been developed and tested. The core research goals can be summarized as follows: 1) The game process: Establishment of a model for the game process of multi-player RPGs that is applicable across formats. Such a model provides a joint basis for describing and studying RPGs across formats (media), and in the current study is a necessary framework for the other thesis components as these are aimed at different details of the game process and the players that control it. 2) Storytelling in RPGs: Examination of how collaborative storytelling operates in multi-player RPGs, and to a more limited degree LARPs and MMORPGs, and how the game format impacts on the tools available to the participants in affecting the game storylines. Critically synthesizing the available knowledge into a coherent framework for describing and modeling the storytelling process is a necessary first step on the way to deciphering the complex interactions that underlie the collaborative storytelling (and gaming) process of tabletop RPGs and digital RPGs. 3) Creating a model for how time operates in RPGs: Computer games are inherently linked with the concept of time. It takes time to play a game, time has a definite place in our understanding of the gaming activity and time is an important factor in the design of computer- as well as tabletop games. Game time is therefore a key consideration to address in the context of this study, as it is a means of understanding what happens in a game, and how the game and player(s) interact and how the game is experienced. 4) Communication: Development of a system for studying the verbal and text-based communication between the game participants and utilize it to examine the way that verbal language is utilized in RPGs and how/if the game format impacts on the way players communicate. Verbal communication in multi-player contexts is a subject that has received limited empirical attention, and it is therefore not clear what inter-player communication in such games is used for except in the general sense. Understanding player communication (and player interaction more generally) aids the understanding of the gaming process and the social function and social rules of gaming, e.g. how people play RPGs. 5) The gaming experience: Examination of the factors that impact on the gaming experience across tabletop and digital formats. As RPGs are adapted to different formats, potentially the factors influencing the gaming experience also change. Studies of the drivers of the gaming experience from the perspective of the players are however uncommon, if not rare, and even more so for multi-player games. A variety of variables could plausibly be expected to impact on the gaming experience in RPGs, e.g. age, gender, previous experience with the game format, the game characters the interaction between the players and previous experience with the game form; however whether these are equally important to the gaming experience across RPG formats has yet to be studied. On a similar note, there have been very few studies of how presence (the feeling of being transported to another reality) and immersion (the feeling of being engaged with the playing activity to the exclusion of the real world) is affected when RPGs change format. 6) Players and characters: Examination of the way that RPG players utilize their game characters and how the game format impacts on this use. Anecdotal evidence from tabletop RPGs point towards immersion in the game character being an important driver in ensuring a positive gaming experience, however, there is less evidence as to how different character features impact on their use in digital games. Similarly, there have been no studies of if and how the way that game characters are utilized by the players varies across game formats.
A general model for information access and flow directions, as well as play spaces in multi-player PnP RPGs. The GM is in this model placed with full data access to all game elements, i.e. the players, the characters and all information pertaining to the game scenario (the blueprint or storyboard which the GM use to develop the game narrative). The individual players have access to a more restricted set of data, for example their characters, the game rules and some knowledge of the fictional world setting. Each participant (players and GM) have their own subjective play space, formed because events in the game are perceived differently by each participant. In contrast, the shared play space is composed of the communication between the participants, which is accessible by all. The entire game is framed by the shared game space, which is more or less comparable to the magic circle of Salen & Zimmerman (2004). The meta-game contains all communication pertaining to events outside the shared and subjective game spaces, i.e. talk that is not related to the gaming activity. Note that this model would be equally applicable to a CRPG, however, the GM could in this case be either human or a game engine.
For more information about my research, please see any of the below publications (more publications available in my CV), or contact me. Communication in Multi-Player Role Playing Games – The Effect of Medium. [full text PDF]Ghost Worlds – Storytelling and Consequence in MMORPGs. [full text PDF]
Personalizing the player experience in MMORPGs. [full text PDF]
Role Playing Games – Analysis Across Two Media Platforms. [full text PDF]
Control and Communication in Live Role Playing Games - review and implications for MMORPGs. [full text PDF]
Making Magic! Enhancing PnP RPGs With Computing Technology. [full text PDF]
The Game Master. [full text PDF]
