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409 Quest Narrative Ragnhild Tronstad In traditional terms, a quest narrative is the written or spoken account of a heroic journey undertaken in order to attain a specific objective. In the course of the fi journey, the hero will be faced with challenges, the overcoming of which becomes a source to his or her spiritual and intellectual enlightenment. Quest narratives are often inspired by popular myths, for example, the legend of the Holy Grail. In an influential study originally published in 1949, entitled fl The Hero of a Thousand Faces, the American mythologist Joseph Campbell identified a set of structural charac- fi teristics applying to a particular kind of myth that he named the monomyth. The monomyth is structured as a quest narrative describing the mythical protagonist’s journey from the known into the unknown, followed by his return as a transformed and enlightened being capable of bestowing his society with beneficial powers or gifts. Inspired by fi the French ethnographer Arnold van Gennep’s work on rites of passage ([1909] 1960), Campbell divided the hero’s journey into the three stages Departure, Initiation, and Return (Campbell [1949] 2004). Arguably, the monomyth as described by Campbell represents the archetypal quest narrative that can be identified in a vast number of myths and fi stories, both historical and modern. Within the context of digital media and textuality, however, the concept of “quest narrative” takes on a slightly different meaning, relating to the phenomenon of “quest- ff ff ing” in early text-based and contemporary graphical computer games. Computer game quests can be considered a form of interactive storytelling, combining game mechanics with elements of narrative (see interactive fiction, interactive narrative). The relationship between game mechanics and narrative in computer games is complicated and has often been debated by game studies scholars. While many games provide their players with a narrative experience, the “storytelling” of games is often conducted in a radically different manner than the storytelling of noninteractive media such as litera- ff ff ture and film. In order to identify that which distinguishes games as a storytelling me- fi dium, some game scholars have chosen to focus on the differences rather than the simi- ff ff larities between the media, arguing that games are not straightforward narrative, but rather performative media (see performance). From this theoretical perspective, a quest narrative is considered only potentially present in the quest as performed and experienced by the player, as a sequence of events that may be realized and retrospectively contemplated in the form of a story after the player character’s accomplishment of the Q 410 Quest Narrative quest (Aarseth 2004; Tronstad 2001, 2003). This understanding corresponds to the traditional definition of a quest narrative as an after-the-fact story construction, separate in fi time and space from the quest itself. Quests in computer games take many different forms, from shorter missions requir- ff ff ing that the player character fetch or deliver an object, or slay a number of low-level monsters (see NPC [nonplayer character]), to long, adventurous journeys that may take days or weeks to complete, combining different types of challenges such as combat, ex- ff ff ploration, puzzles, and riddles. It is therefore important to specify game and game genre, as well as type of quest, when discussing the characteristics of quests and quest narratives in games. Compared with graphical computer games, text-based computer game genres such as interactive fiction (IF) and multiuser dungeons (MUDs) employ a diff fi erent tool set ff ff and must rely on other techniques to construct a game world and meaningful challenges for the player to engage in (see interactive fiction, MUDs and MOOs). While an interactive, textual interface may be less suited than a graphical one to represent in great detail the immediate spatial surroundings of the player character, it is a much more flex- fl ible and precise tool with which to perform complex rhetorical and literary operations. Thus, text-based computer games are able to support—and will often offer—more intri- ff ff cate quest narratives than graphical computer games. According to Faltin Karlsen’s comparative study of quests in the text-based MUD Discworld and the graphical massively d multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft, quests provide a distinctly more elaborate and meaningful player experience in the former than in the latter. Quests in World of Warcraft appear prefabricated: they resemble each other and t may be solved on routine. In contrast, Discworld quests are unique and renowned for their nontrivial challenges. Significantly...

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