[MUSIC] Far from merely providing descriptive background or ornamentation for the primary action for the story, spatial reference helps constitute narrative domains. What does he mean by, constitute narrative domains? Wayne. >> I think he means the world of the story. >> Yeah, I mean I think that he's suggesting that the setting is actually creating, the possibility for that story. >> So, do story worlds, always play the same kind of role in every mode? How, how do they work in video games? Don. >> Well, I think in video games, the setting may be even more important than terms of the idea that one wants to be immersed in any universal world, so things like graphics and, and music and sound effects that could be considered descriptive elements of the game as opposed to or alongside plot-based elements. Are the, are very, very key in terms of, feeling like, there's a coherent world, in front of us. >> Yeah, yeah. >> Video games, take this element of story world and raise the stakes. Video games can turn setting, space into a pleasure all into itself. >> Yeah, it's interesting you say that because when you get a, game like Minecraft, you don't actually have chunks generated, until you go explore them. Which not only makes the game different every time you play it, but it makes, the terrain actually a huge part of your game play. >> So, let's look at the entire scene from Tolkien again. The sun was now high, and and it shone down through the half-stripped branches of trees, and the lit path with the bright patches of light. There stood the trolls: three large trolls. Strider walked forward unconcernedly. It is broad daylight with a bright sun, and in any case. You might have noticed, that one of them has an old bird's nest behind its ear and it's daylight. Why is that significant? >> Because trolls turn to stone in daylight. >> Everybody knows, trolls turn to stone in daylight. Here is an aerial view, of the game scene, focusing on the bird's nest on the shoulder. This image brings up, a radical capacity of gaming that's not shared, by written text or by sentiment. And that's, the player's ability to manipulate the camera. Now every game allows you to do this in somewhat different ways. Sometimes you have more control, sometimes you have less. If Peter Jackson wanted to show you, the bird's nest. He would have had to have given the view, and none other. How does this change the feeling? >> It adds an element of discovery, to the unfolding of the narrative. In terms of like one would have to find this bird's nest. It doesn't, it's not simply presented, in front of, right in front of you and, moreover, if you've read the book or seen the movie, it's something you can look for specifically. >> Well, you can't look for birds' nest if you've seen the movie because the birds nest is not in the movie, it's in the book. You're, but not in the movie, we'll see it in a second, Jackson Hank was the same really different. >> We also have an element where we have, camera control of being able to switch the mode of narration, that we're experiencing in the game and I think particularly with video games and camera angles because we're used to watching cinema. This shift in narration based on the camera position, is really, obvious to us. >> Yeah and liberating. >> Right. >> You know, I, I've noticed that you often like to play in first person mode with the camera zoomed all the way into the, character's head. >> That's a bad habit [LAUGH] >> If it's a habit, I don't know if it's bad or not. And you know, the older the shoulder camera angle that IâÂÂd tend to use. So, the ability to control the camera can be really empowering because you have a sense of freedom, as a player and it really changes your entire relation to space, in narrative, this becomes your space in a sense. Now, that's an illusion because you can only move, where the game designers have allowed you to move. You can only take your character to the borders of the game and you can only see in the ways they've enabled you to see. But, it all storytelling [LAUGH] is illusion, the different modes create that, different kinds of illusions through their control of space. [MUSIC]