Clarifying Incoherence in Games

Authors

  • Hugo Dirk Hogenbirk Utrecht University
  • Marries van de Hoef Utrecht University
  • John-Jules Charles Meyer Utrecht University / Alan Turing Institute Almere

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5617/jpg.2653

Abstract

In this paper we will analyze the concept of incoherency that has been put forward by Jesper Juul in Half-Real (2005). Juul provides a paradigmatic example of an incoherency in the game Donkey Kong. The main character of the narrative, Mario, can die and subsequently reappear at the beginning of the level. However, when pressed to describe the narrative of the game, most players would not say that Mario ever died. The respawn is attributed to the game rules instead. Juul calls this phenomenon an incoherency of the game’s fictional world. We claim that the precise nature of the concept of incoherency is unclear, and that Juul's connection between incoherency and contradictions is incorrect. Furthermore, we argue that Wesp incorrectly identifies the concept with 'incompleteness' in his response to Juul (Wesp, 2014). Our clarification argues that what is noteworthy in 'incoherency' is not some aspect of the fictional world, like it being contradictory or incomplete, but how the player interprets the fiction. Subsequently, we provide an explanation for what underlies an incoherency by adopting the principle of charity (Davidson 1973). Lastly we discuss how a proper understanding of incoherency can help game designers and how it relates to ludonarrative dissonance (Hocking, 2009).

Author Biographies

Hugo Dirk Hogenbirk, Utrecht University

Undergraduate degree of Philosophy obtained at Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Undergraduate student of Computer Science at Utrecht University.

Marries van de Hoef, Utrecht University

PhD Candidate Interdisciplinary Game Research at the Department of Information and Computing Sciences.

John-Jules Charles Meyer, Utrecht University / Alan Turing Institute Almere

Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University,and Scientific Director at Alan Turing Institute Almere.

References

Media Sources

Dark Souls. (2011). From Software

Donkey Kong. (1981). Nintendo

Murder, She Wrote. (1984-1996). CBS.

References

Davidson, Donald. ''On the very idea of a Conceptual Scheme.'' In The Pragmatism Reader, edited by Robert Talisse and Scott Aikin, 286-298. Princeton, Woodstock: Princeton University Press, 1973.

——. Inquiries into Truth and Interpretation. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2001.

Giappone, Krista. "Self-Reflexivity and Humor in Adventure Games." Game Studies 15, no. 1 (2015). http://gamestudies.org/1501.

Hocking, Clint. “Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock: The Problem of What the Game is About.” In Well Played 1.0, edited by Draw Davidson, 255-260. Pittsburgh, PA, USA: ETC Press, 2009.

Juul, Jesper. Half-Real. Cambridge, London: MIT Press, 2005.

Malpas, Jeff. "Donald Davidson", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2015 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), 2015. http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2015/entries/davidson/.

Pavel, Thomas. Fictional Worlds. Cambridge, London: President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1986.

Polansky, Lana. ''Coherence and Dissonance.'' Sufficiently Human, 2015. http://sufficientlyhuman.com/archives/1006.

Thon, Jan-Noël. ''Computer Games, Fictional Worlds, and Transmedia Storytelling: A Narratological perspective'', In Proceedings of the Philosophy of Computer Games Conference, Oslo, 2009.

Vella, Daniel. "No Mastery Without Mystery: Dark Souls and the Ludic Sublime." Game Studies 15, no. 1, 2015. http://gamestudies.org/1501.

Wesp, Edward. "A Too-Coherent World: Game Studies and the Myth of “Narrative” Media." Game Studies 14, no. 2, 2014. http://gamestudies.org/1402.

Downloads

Published

2018-12-30

Issue

Section

Articles