CHOICE AND CONSEQUENCE:
THE EXPLORATION OF ROLE-PLAYING VIDEO GAMES AS A UNIQUE STORYTELLING MEDIUM

December 2020

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**SPOILER ALERT: Major spoilers for Far Cry 4 follow.

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Research Question: To what extent do role-playing video games, such as Ubisoft’s Far Cry 4, create a unique narrative experience?

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Introduction

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While video games may not be a traditional topic choice for a literary analysis, they are quickly becoming a standard in modern society and it is important to consider what their role is in the world of literature today and what their role could be in the future. Specifically, the role-playing video game genre opens up several new opportunities for storytellers, which inspired the research question: “To what extent do role-playing video games, such as Ubisoft’s Far Cry 4, create a unique narrative experience?” Unlike traditional mediums of literature, such as novels and plays, role-playing video games (RPGs) allow the audience to become active participants in the story. To tell this story, RPGs use a combination of player-controlled gameplay and uncontrolled “cutscenes”. Player-controlled gameplay allows the player to control how their character interacts with the game’s virtual world. This can include participating in objective-based missions or exploring the large open-world that many RPGs offer. Cutscenes, on the other hand, are short videos that take control away from the player and briefly tell the story in a way that is comparable to film; they place a heavy emphasis on the game’s narrative elements rather than the tactical aspects. The player of an RPG follows the game’s storyline from the perspective of the game’s protagonist, controlling their actions and making choices on their behalf. In this role, the player has the freedom to interact with the game’s world and characters however they choose. Players become active participants, with the power to control and choose between multiple narrative paths and a more personal investment in the events that unfold.

Far Cry 4 is a first-person shooter video game, which was released by Ubisoft in 2014. The game takes place in the fictional country of Kyrat, where a civil war is underway between a rebel group called the Golden Path and the Royal Army, led by the king of Kyrat, Pagan Min. The player assumes the role of Ajay Ghale, an American who was born in Kyrat and who has returned there to scatter his mother’s ashes. As he enters the country, Ajay is caught up in a conflict that breaks out between members of the Golden Path and the Royal Army. However, he is quickly rescued and recruited by the Golden Path’s two leaders, Amita and Sabal, who explain that Pagan Min is a cruel and tyrannical leader. Ajay realizes that he will be unable to scatter his mother’s ashes until the Golden Path retakes Kyrat, so he agrees to help the Golden Path dismantle Pagan Min’s dictatorship and take control of the country. 

Far Cry 4 is being examined because it exemplifies the traits of the role-playing game genre that inspired the research question. The player’s significant interactive role in the game allows Far Cry 4 to create a completely unique narrative experience for each player, which is impacted by several factors. Firstly, the events of the game as created by the developers, which allow the player to make several choices within the framework of what is possible in-game. Secondly, the player’s personal narrative, which involves the player’s unique interpretation of the game and its events, as well as their decision-making process. Finally, the themes and motifs of the game, which are more impactful than those in traditional mediums due to the interactive nature of the game and the high level of player engagement. 

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Pathways: How Player Choices Impact Narrative Events

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RPGs typically include several types of “missions”, which have objectives that the player must complete to progress in the game. For the most part, players can complete these missions in whichever order they choose and using whichever strategies they prefer, as long as they meet the requirements of the given mission. While these choices may not significantly alter the overall plot of the game, they still allow the player a considerable amount of agency and increase their engagement, as the player must be thoughtful and strategic in the way they progress through the story. As Lee Feldman writes, “the sheer inclusion of divergent content dispels the necessity for storytelling to follow a strict sense of temporality” (Feldman 6). The inclusion of a large open-world gives the player the freedom to explore Kyrat and discover its diverse locations and secrets, allowing them to approach the story from whatever angle they wish. This is something unique to narratives within the video game format. 

Far Cry 4 also gives players several important choices within the main storyline of the game, which have narrative consequences and greatly impact the story’s direction. These often take the form of “Balance of Power” missions. Ajay must work with Amita and Sabal, who are constantly fighting over the best way to lead the Golden Path. In Balance of Power missions, the player is given a situation and must choose whether to support Amita or Sabal’s plan for dealing with it. Based on this choice, the player only experiences the narrative events that align with the plan they selected, which has a significant impact on later missions, as well as the narrative as a whole. Like traditional mediums of literature, the player can only follow a single narrative path that has already been written; the main difference is the element of interactivity. As interactive technology becomes increasingly prevalent in society, there is a “need for this same level of interaction within the narrative world” (Feldman 4). Without input or participation from readers, traditional literature cannot address this need. In contrast, although there are a finite number of pathways presented to the player of a video game, “having the player affect the direction of the story is exactly what makes unique narrative experiences” (Feldman 5). One example of this is a choice of how to deal with opium fields held by the Royal Army. Sabal asks Ajay to burn the fields, while Amita asks him to capture them for the Golden Path, and the player must choose between the two unfavourable options. Burning the fields will leave Kyrat without any natural resources and will damage the economy, while capturing the fields will turn Kyrat into a drug state and is — as Sabal puts it — “morally bankrupt”. The player’s choice defines the unique story they experience. 

Another example of how the player’s choice in Balance of Power missions results in a unique narrative experience occurs in one of the earliest missions in the game. Players must choose between Amita’s mission, which prioritizes obtaining important intel, or Sabal’s mission, which prioritizes the lives of his soldiers and defending a Golden Path camp. In addition to its effect on the plot and tone of the narrative, this decision has visible ramifications in a later mission. During this later mission, Sabal invites Ajay to participate in a short pilgrimage at a monastery. The player’s earlier choice results in completely different character dialogue depending on the mission they chose. If the player chose Sabal’s mission, Sabal embraces Ajay enthusiastically, calling him a “champion” and praising him for following in his father’s footsteps. However, if the player chose Amita’s mission, Sabal asks if the intel was “worth it” and blames Ajay for the deaths of his soldiers. He tells him that the “right choice was obvious” and coldly suggests that he perform the pilgrimage to “educate” himself. Once Ajay completes the pilgrimage, the player’s earlier choice has an even larger impact on the story’s plot. If the player selected Amita’s mission and retrieved the intel, the player receives a warning from Amita before an attack on the monastery begins. This gives the player time to prepare defences before enemy combatants arrive and an advantage in the mission. However, if the narrative follows the plotline of Sabal’s mission, the player is without this intel and the attack comes without warning, completely shifting the tone of this event. Balance of Power missions have an obvious impact on the game’s narrative because they give the player a choice between two missions, resulting in different objectives, plot points, and overall tones. They have consequences on both the player’s gameplay and cutscenes shown to the player, even after the mission has ended. 

In addition to Balance of Power missions, the player has other major choices to make. For example, Ajay must face several antagonists throughout the game before his final confrontation with Pagan Min. After “defeating” these characters, the player often has a choice between killing them or sparing them. In one story mission, Ajay breaks into the compound of one of Pagan Min’s generals, Paul “De Pleur” Harmon. The player’s objective is to capture De Pleur and deliver him to the Golden Path. However, once the player loads him inside the getaway car, they can either drive him to the indicated location or destroy the vehicle, killing De Pleur inside. In addition to its immediate effect on character dialogue, this early moral decision contributes to the development of the player’s character and has an impact on the tone for the remainder of the game. 

One of the most significant choices with an impact on the narrative and character development comes later in the game. The final leader of the Golden Path, Amita or Sabal, is determined directly based on the player’s decisions throughout the game. Before the player’s final mission of confronting Pagan Min, the player’s chosen leader asks Ajay to execute whichever character did not become the leader. As the player travels to the indicated location, they must decide whether to obey orders and kill an old ally or disobey orders and allow them to escape. In addition to contributing to Ajay’s character and providing a defining moment within his character arc, the player’s choice here dramatically impacts the theme of the narrative, potentially shifting the story to centre around themes of obedience to authority, personal morals and rebellion, or even vengeance. 

Players are unaware of how exactly their decisions may affect the rest of the game’s storyline, but there are clear consequences of their actions on the narrative, both in gameplay and cutscenes. The player’s interaction with the game serves as a crucial part of the narrative’s development. They are given the freedom of choice; in-game opportunities to interact with characters, explore the world, affect the narrative, and “view the outcomes of their actions, expected or otherwise” (Feldman 28). This interaction is why the element of choice is so significant to the narrative experience. The player becomes a “co-creator” of the story; and in examining that story from the reader-response theory perspective, the player’s experience becomes a “valid interpretation of a video game’s plot” (Feldman 2). Unlike traditional forms of literature, their experience goes beyond simply following one dictated pathway. It is based on the player’s unique series of decisions, which result in the specific narrative path they wish to experience.

Personal Narratives: How Players Tell Their Own Stories

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In addition to the various opportunities to make impactful choices, the player’s experience of an RPG is also affected by their own personal narrative. In his master’s thesis on the topic, Andrew Turley called this a “player‐generated narrative” and described it as the player telling themself stories “by either fashioning them in totality or filling in the gaps left by the game” (Turley 48). It consists of the elements of the story that the player determines through their interpretation of and response to the actual events of the game. This narrative will be unique from player to player, as their interpretations and responses to the game will be guided by their personal beliefs, values, and biases. They are, essentially, creating their own versions of the story in their minds, based on the information given to them as well as aspects of themselves. This, perhaps more than the actual game itself, is what gives the story its meaning; something that is different for each player. 

The fact that Far Cry 4 has multiple determinate plots and endings is significant because the player is responsible for making choices that determine those plots and endings. Although certain plot points will indeed occur regardless of what the player chooses, simply having the ability to interact with the game allows players to create their own meaning. This aligns with reader-response theory which, in traditional literature, argues that the reader’s own experience is more important than the text itself in creating meaning. Applying this to RPGs, “significance is derived from a subjective level, unique to the individual undergoing the experience”, so it does not matter whether outcomes are predetermined, instead, “it is the interaction between player and game that matters” (Feldman 13). The decisions that players make throughout the game, allowing narrative events to occur, are based on the player’s personality, past, beliefs, morals, and biases, as well as their interpretations of the game’s narrative. By creating personal narratives, players experience a story that is based not only on in-game elements, such as plot and character, but also their interpretation of those elements. Because this is an entirely personal interpretation, each player’s experience of the game’s narrative is unique. 

For example, an empathetic player might choose to side with Sabal during early Balance of Power missions, convinced by his concern for human life over Amita’s prioritizing of the value of intel. However, as the game progresses and it becomes increasingly evident that Sabal’s values align more with blindly following tradition than a real concern for the people of Kyrat, Amita’s more logical perspective, striving for the greater good, may become convincing enough for the empathetic player to switch sides. Regardless of which side they take in the end, this type of player might feel betrayed upon learning that neither leader was entirely honest and do terrible things with their new power. In contrast, another player might not care about either side’s perspective. Based on their personal decision-making process, they may choose missions based on how simple they sound, how likely the outcomes are to benefit them in the future, or which option would create the most chaos within the narrative. 

When players are given the choice to kill or spare one of the antagonists, several player-specific factors might affect their decision and contribute to their personal narrative. Players might decide based on whether they personally consider a character to be sympathetic. De Pleur is unquestionably a violent and sadistic antagonist, but another antagonist, Noore, is shown to be desperate and forced to work for Pagan Min, even offering to help Ajay in his mission. A player who believes her violent actions are still unjustified may be more likely to follow Amita and Sabal’s orders to kill her. In contrast, a player who is sympathetic to her situation may choose to confront her instead. If the player does choose to spare Noore, the encounter ends with her killing herself after discovering that her family has been killed by Pagan. Because of the interactive nature of the game, a player who was sympathetic to Noore and made the personal moral decision to save her might be more impacted by the plot point of her death and more likely to generate personal meaning from it, compared to a character death read in a traditional, non-interactive narrative. A player who kills Noore immediately never experiences this encounter with her, and so is left with a completely different personal narrative of this event. 

Another factor that might influence a player’s decision-making process is their own ideas of justice. As discussed earlier, the player is instructed to capture and deliver De Pleur to the Golden Path. Depending on the player’s personal response to his actions, they may debate whether justice would be served through whatever punishment the Golden Path gives to him or whether they should take justice into their own hands and kill him. Another player may easily decide to follow orders, perhaps without questioning them, or because they believe that justice should not lie in the hands of individuals. Another player may not consider justice at all, and kill every antagonist without considering whether they “deserve” it or not. In each case, the individual defines their own narrative experience, shaped by the meaning they assign to the information they are provided. 

As he is the game’s main antagonist, the choice of whether or not to kill Pagan Min is particularly significant. Pagan Min’s character is defined by his cruel and violent approach to ruling Kyrat. As a result, the player’s experience of the narrative is largely defined by witnessing the effects of Pagan’s rule on Kyrat. Every mission they complete supports the Golden Path’s goal of retaking the country from the Royal Army, and this goal guides the player through their decision-making and creation of the narrative. However, during the final confrontation with Pagan, the player is faced with a difficult decision. Pagan is the only person who can help Ajay find the location where he was directed to scatter his mother’s ashes, and Pagan offers to help Ajay find this location. However, a player whose personal narrative has become defined by the goal of taking back Kyrat may decide that killing Pagan is more important, sacrificing Ajay’s initial personal goal of scattering his mother’s ashes. Alternatively, another player might be influenced by a personal narrative defined by the hope that people can change, or by values of trust, forgiveness, and sentiment. This player may be willing to risk trusting Pagan and choose to spare him, even after seeing everything he has done. This will allow them to complete the initial objective of scattering the ashes.

Just like any other medium of literature, the player of a video game is only able to experience a single narrative pathway in a single playthrough. However, not every player picks the same pathway, and the “experiential interplay of the text and the reader” (Turley 46-47) means that every player has a unique perception and interpretation of the narrative they choose. For these reasons, “video games do not tell one story or necessarily the same story for their readers” (Turley 47), because any gaps in meaning in the text must be filled in by the player. The role of the player is not simply a reader, but rather an active participant in the construction of the narrative they are experiencing. 

Impactful Themes: How Player Engagement Makes It Real

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The significant roles of player interactivity and a player’s personal narrative in the construction of the overall narrative allow for the themes presented in the story to be more impactful compared to traditional forms of literature. Themes can be presented in a very unique way, as video game developers can guide the player in a certain direction so that their actions directly support or highlight the game’s themes. The player’s involvement in the story then makes the themes more personal and meaningful, as they are a “prime contributor to the thematic discourse developed by the text” (Anderson 249). The player’s involvement in altering the plot and ending forces them into a “position of both awareness and action” (Anderson 248). Although most traditional narratives have author-determined character arcs that contribute to overall themes, RPGs have character arcs guided by the player that contribute to overall themes. For example, one of the major motifs of Far Cry 4 is morality. Being set in a country consumed by civil war, there is constant violence between the Golden Path and the Royal Army. When Ajay is brought into the conflict, he becomes somewhat of a hero and is largely responsible for the Golden Path’s newfound success. However, this success is dependent on capturing strategic locations and killing enemy combatants. Throughout the game, the player must embrace this violence and determine the best strategy for approaching missions; the best weapons to use, the best entry points, and the easiest way to kill entire troops of nameless soldiers. In these cases, there is no “peaceful” option. The player does have the choice of whether to kill or spare most major antagonists, and at first glance, it might seem that these major deaths are intended to be most indicative of Ajay or the player’s morality. However, the game casts doubt around this, muddying the idea of morality and whether the player has made the “right” decisions. Several characters point out how easy it is for Ajay to kill people. De Pleur likens Ajay to himself and implies that Ajay doesn’t care about the people he is helping, but rather that he just wants to kill. Although this is clearly a comment on Ajay’s behaviour, it is also a comment on the player’s. Players may settle into a rhythm of simply completing task after task, without giving much thought to the impact it has on Kyrat or its people. De Pleur points out that Ajay does not even know the names of many of the people he is helping, despite them being Ajay’s supposed motivation for the violence that ensues in each mission. This is true for Ajay, and it is also true for the player. This interaction raises the question of whether Ajay — and the player — genuinely act based on a desire to help nameless characters, or whether they are simply excuses to kill the “bad guys”. 

The final confrontation between Ajay and Pagan has a similar tone. When Ajay storms into the palace with a gun, Pagan asks whether he is speaking to the “son who returned to scatter his mother’s ashes'' or the “lunatic who has murdered his way to the top of [Pagan’s] mountain”. Again, the interaction asks the player to reflect not only on Ajay’s actions but on their own actions as well. It asks them to reflect on what their own motivation for reaching Pagan’s palace was, whether it was to achieve the initial goal of scattering the ashes or whether they have been distracted by the violence of Kyrat’s civil war, the anger and need for vengeance, or even the blind obedience of following Amita and Sabal’s orders. Traditional literature cannot have this level of personal engagement and reflection, so themes and motifs that target the reader are unlikely to have the same impact. There is a “form of consciousness that arises from the interaction the player has with the ethical dilemmas posed by the text” that is able to “create both the narrative and the thematic weight” (Anderson 250) within the game. By involving a player in the narrative and requiring them to make ethical decisions throughout their experience, those themes become clearly relevant to the player’s actions and therefore more personally meaningful and thought-provoking.

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Conclusion

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Through its high levels of player engagement and interaction, Far Cry 4 is able to provide players with unique narrative experiences. It exemplifies the aspects of the role-playing game genre that allow players to become co-creators of the game’s characters and storylines. RPGs give players in-game opportunities to make decisions and watch how the consequences of their actions impact the game’s narrative events. Based on their own personal factors, interpretations, and responses to the game, they are able to make these decisions and create a unique personal narrative that fills in any gaps left by the game. Finally, the motifs and themes presented by the game are highly impactful because of their direct relevance to the player’s actions throughout their experience. It is through these elements that Far Cry 4 is able to create a narrative experience that is guided by the player, which makes the story more personal and allows each player to come away with their own unique version of the story and response to its events and themes. For these reasons, it is essential to recognize the importance and relevance of RPGs as an effective and credible storytelling medium when considering literature as a whole, as this genre is a strong example of the importance of reader-response criticism. Interactive storytelling focuses on audience response and engagement, especially as a means to create unique narrative experiences for each audience member, which could potentially result in — for some individuals — an even more effective story than one presented in traditional literature. 

Works Cited

Anderson, Dustin. "Hemingway’s console: Memory and ethics in the modernist video game." Popular Modernism and Its Legacies: From Pop Literature to Video Games, edited by Scott Ortolano, New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018, pp. 247-262. Bloomsbury Collections. doi: 10.5040/9781501325144.ch-014.

Far Cry 4. Developed by Ubisoft Montreal. Directed by Alex Hutchinson and Patrik Méthé. Ubisoft, 2014.

Feldman, Lee. Player-Response On the Nature of Interactive Narratives as Literature. 2018. Chapman University, Master’s thesis. ProQuest.

Turley, Andrew C. Reading the Game: Exploring Narratives in Video Games as Literary Texts. 2018. Indiana University, Master’s thesis.