Ab(Sense) of An Ending: Telos and Time in Digital Game Narratives more

One of the complex problems facing computer game studies is the analysis of the many possible endings (‘becomings’) of a computer game. Is the shape-shifting narrative, which emerges in different instances of gameplay, analysable at all? Of the many narratives that are possible, which ones are actualized? Furthermore, when we consider the computer game narrative, we find in it permutations and combinations of the same narrative - so how far, if at all, is each instance of gameplay a different narrative? These are obvious questions that are important for players and researchers alike and yet these issues have not been addressed adequately in recent game studies research.  This paper will briefly survey the current positions on the nature of endings in computer games before moving on to a more complex theoretical reading of the non-teleological qualities of these games.  The replayability of computer games, especially from previously saved points in the game, complicates the structure of the game-narrative. That different instances of gameplay usually have different outcomes has become a commonplace in game studies. Yet when it comes to treating the game as a story, the question of game-endings is still a moot point. Can a story have many endings, and if so, then does it still remain a story?

This paper will analyse computer game endings in terms of Deleuzian ideas about multiplicity as well as Manuel DeLanda’s  discussion of the ‘manifold’. Neither Deleuze nor DeLanda write about computer games, yet, the idea of the variable number of dimensions (as exemplified also in the rhizomatic narrative network created by computer games as described above) seems to describe the variable pathways that game narratives usually take. Ian Bogost’s recent book Unit Operations (The MIT Press, 2006) adds an important theoretical angle to the discussion by pointing out the key role that Alain Badiou’s interpretation of Deleuzian multiplicity has in describing the gameplay in computer games. The paper will engage in a discussion of current ideas in game studies such as Bogost’s concepts together with the work of key theorists addressing the problem in other contexts. It will examine how a study of computer games can benefit a range of theoretical debates on actuality and virtuality. Simultaneously, it will also come to a more theoretically complex understanding of gameplay and its processes. Finally, based on the above discussion, this paper will draw upon Deleuzian conceptions of  difference and repetition to establish whether the narratives that emerge from the various gameplays are different or merely tautological. In doing so, it addresses a key debate in game studies and at the same time will link it with wider issues in critical theory and cultural studies.