narrative and games

 this was taken from http://thegamedesignforum.com/features/narrative_in_games.html
If videogames can be art, how should we study those games which are artistic? There are games, like Tetris that are not intended to be art in the usual sense, and they can be studied simply as games, focusing on what game design ideas and programming mechanics make them entertaining. Other games, however, have elaborate scripts, voiced characters, and dramatic music; these are elements common to other forms of art like films or plays. Should people interested in studying videogame design use methods from these other forms of art, then? This is an old question that has been rattling around in discussions of videogames: should games be studied ludologically or narratologically? (Both are defined below.) Neither discipline is adequate. Whether or not videogames can be art, they must nevertheless have their own form of criticism that assesses them for what they are, not what other thing they are like.

 World of Warcraft is a  game heavily dependent on the depth and persuasiveness of its world; it has the benefit of being an ever-expanding world as well, with content updates and expansion packs. The first time through the game tends to be the best, from a narrative perspective. The structure of the quests (tasks with completion rewards) that guide gameplay are heavy on exploration, but often a bit short on variety, i.e. collect 10 quest items, for the millionth time. What makes these quests and dungeons compelling—at least the first time through the game—is that they are driven by a strong, interesting setting. One chain of quests in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion has the player flying up an impossibly tall tower on the back of a borrowed dragon. The gameplay isn’t particularly innovative; it is a series of fairly standard one-on-one fights. But the fact that these fights are taking place miles in the air in a swarm of mythical creatures, and that at the end of the quests players arrive at the throne of a demigod—that makes it considerably more fun. Every location that the player visits suggests another turn in the story: from the ancient, flash-frozen battlefield to the corrupted temple of another god, each reveals another twist in the dark narrative. The quests, for the most part, are all about killing X number of enemies and collecting Y number of items; the setting makes it captivating.

Greg Rutter comment
Some games require narrative while others do not. Tetris is one example for a game that doesn't need narrative because it is meant to be a very quick and simple game. the World Of Warcraft however needs narrative in there because it is a ever-expanding world and in order for them to add new continents and AI characters etc. there needs to be some sort of a story line in there to explain how these places/people where discovered. If there was a narrative for Tetris people may get confused and not want to play it again, where as for the World Of Warcraft if there wasn't a story line within the game there would be at most half the people playing it as there are today. Some gamers don't care about the story line within games but will still play games like World Of Warcraft for the social aspects of the game or just the thrill of facing stronger opponents as they progress but I would say at least half of the people that play this sort of game are in it for the storyline. The reason I think that at least half the people are in it for the story line is because when the story line made no sense, half of its active subscribers cancelled their subscription.