Storytelling in Video Games: The Narrative Models and How They Contribute to Different Games

Abstract

The digital development has broken the relatively independent state of traditional media, gradually placing different media into the same communication field, causing a wave of media integration and penetration, forming a cross media narrative landscape. Among them, electronic games benefit from the development of technology, possess strong inclusiveness and plasticity, and have diverse integrated interactive practices. With the increasing influence of electronic games in society, more and more people are paying attention to the narrative ability of electronic games. Based on different narrative techniques and forms of expression, electronic games have spawned many new types. This article mainly studies narrative theory and popular patterns in electronic games. From the initial concepts of hypertext and online text to the thriving gaming industry today, the development of storytelling has greatly promoted the growth of this industry. After the debate between narratology and linguistics, this article also provides a more detailed analysis of the four mainstream narrative modes: embedding, emergence, linear, and non-linear. This also includes more specific case studies on the series games Rusty Lake and Minecraft. This article integrates elements from different periods, providing direction for future research.