Possible Worlds theory and its application to videogames

Dontnod Entertainment's episodic adventure video game, Life Is Strange got published for PC, PS4, PS3, and Xbox One in 2015. The nonlinear narrative line of Life Is Strange denotes similar narrative strategies employed by forking path narrative for projecting different possible worlds. Exploring the literary narrative potential of this video game can help to clarify the dispute between ludology and narratology. Benefiting from Ryan's theory of Possible Worlds, this paper displays the literary narrative potentiality of this video game. Based on Ryan's theory, a fictional work is considered as a universe that projects different possible worlds. Analyzing one of the major choices of the video game, the paper explains in what ways the player's decisions can alter the storyline. It concludes that the multi-layered narration of Life Is Strange allows the player to create different game worlds. The active role of the player in the process of narrating the story indicates that in Life Is Strange, literary aspects can play an essential role and form the core of the video game.

کلیدواژه ها:

Video Game ، Possible Worlds Theory ، Life Is Strange ، Narrative ، Fiction