Trying to counter the idea that video games have narrative, Jesper Juul (2003) emphasizes the significance of a challenging outcome, since any successful completion of a game depends highly on a player’s effort and attachment to the outcome. Although Henry Jenkins (2002) agrees with Juul in that not all video games have narrative goals, he asserts that games make use of narrative aspirations in the space of the game. Without stating that games must have narrative functions, Jenkins interconnects the ludic in game design and narrative features by looking at the use of artifacts and space navigation. While
Marie-Laure Ryan admits that few players retell their steps in the game, she also mentions that players assert authorship when they discuss their avatar’s decisions. Ryan’s models assert the relevance of narrative in games to present the reader with questions on the game developers’ reasons for providing realistic graphics and witty stories to accompany the game rules (Ryan, 2002). Combining the narrative and algorithmic aspects in games, Ian Bogost (2006) professes that a game’s unit operation, or action formed by a user’s interaction with a game’s formal mathematical based coding, also comprises of the game’s cultural
context, or story elements, and the player’s subjective experience of that game. A game’s procedural rhetoric, or the persuasive component in a game, uses representations of visual media to depict a cultural expression. While a player interacts with the game’s representations within a literal context, a player’s
subjective experience with a game allows for him/her to use the game as a metaphor for larger cultural meanings or to regard thematic elements in a game (Bogost, 2007).
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