How Does Restricted Narrative Affect Gameplay?
Suppose we have a narrative we want to convey, and we want to do it during gameplay, but we decide to restrict the means we have to express it — possibly by limiting it to a single type of media. Let’s examine some different ways games have dealt with this type of situation. In BioShock, narrative expression was frequently limited to the auditory channel, in the form of audio logs that the player would pick up and optionally listen to throughout the game. When narrative is limited to audio, it means that all of the other available channels remain open for communicating gameplay.
