The Power of a Narrative: Breaking the Juvenile Stereotype of Gaming

in gaming •  7 years ago  (edited)

Narrating a Task vs. Narrating a Goal


On my last post about MtG, I recounted my proud recent moment of making it to the quarter-finals of one of my first professional Magic tournaments. I ultimately flopped out in the Top 8 due to my short-sightedness. Above all, I learned the valuable lesson that success is oftentimes (if not always) determined by whether you control a compelling and strong narrative. If I don't have projected story of how I'll navigate the field or trump my opponent, I most likely will not be able to come out on top.

  • Source: DVS Gaming

I'm very much a goal-oriented person and I'm realizing more and more that establishing ambitious destinations help you establish the steps needed to reach that destination. This applies to professional goals but also small hobbies and personal initiatives. It easily breaks down to simple comparisons.

  • Working 9-5 vs. Reaching for a powerful promotion
  • Learning 10 new Japanese words a day vs. Preparing conversational abilities for your next vacation trip to Tokyo
  • Exercising 4 times a week vs. Preparing a beach body to impress a new date

In each of these comparisons, I always gun for the 2nd option/mentality. Having a long-term goal always gets me out of bed faster in the morning. Knowing where I want to end out on top makes climbing the steps a more compelling experience.

Designing in a Narrative


So what does any of this have to do with a silly little trading-card game?

Even I, until a few years ago, never re-thought of Magic the Gathering past my middle-school years. I assumed that it was equivalent to Pogs or Cat's Cradle – hobbies that are usually confined to a certain age or trend's lifespan. Terms like “Magic” associated with dragons, wizards, goblins, vampires, gearhulks, spells, and mana energy are almost seen as some juvenile or delinquent pastime.

And yet, why do we hold “traditional” games like chess or poker to be more adult-like? Is a game more mature if it's boiled down to technical numbers and pure abstraction? Or because it looks more minimal?

This might be the most crippling stereotype of gaming and gamers, that the narrative, visual, or thematic elements of various games are some willy-nilly distraction. However, when we take an example like Magic: the Gathering, we find that the narrative quality is what provides such technical and skillful depth.

  • Source: The Emerald

There are a total of approximately 15,000 unique MtG cards ever printed and that number grows by the hundreds every few months. That means that there is more variation and more permutations than in any other physical or video game every designed. The possibilities for cards and their synergies are actually limitless since Wizards of the Coast prints novel cards and abilities all the time.

How do they maintain sanity and commitment? With layers and layers of narrative built over two decades.

Each illustration, theme, and story allows the incredibly diverse pool of choices to be woven into different narratives that players use to compete with. They bring about synergies and strategies, of which completely innovative ones appear all the time. What Richard Garfield conceived in the 1990s has blossomed into an incredible ecosystem of choices and approaches to the game.

  • Source: Geekify Inc.

What do you think? How important is narrative in the hobbies/sports/games/jobs that you take part in? Is narrative designed into it (by you or someone else) in any way?

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The only bummer with Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone, and other games like that, is that they're designed to suck up your time.

Due to the rate of how fast cards come out, you have to spend 10-20 hours per week just to maintain basic knowledge of the game. WIth chess you can walk away and come back a year later and the game is the same - Magic forces you to constantly engage.

Even though the game is great, I find it hard to fit it into my life as an adult for that reason. However, I 100% with you that the game itself is worthy of respect.

That is absolutely true, it's both a time and resource sink to get to a certain level. My first few months were absolutely consumed with anxious preparation for even basic-level play. But I have found that even though the learning curve is steep, it plateaus off quickly and all the new sets aren't nearly as daunting depending on the format.

It definitely is a sacrifice in many ways to maintain this form of gaming. Video games can easily be chucked after a few dozen hours but the competitive and social grind of MtG is definitely unforgiving. The more interesting comparison I've come to make is in relation to sports hobbies. We rarely calculate the number of hours and amount of resources over the long run when it comes to weekend tennis or fishing, yet even competitive and goal-oriented gaming is discriminated as a distraction...

I agree... this is one of the reasons I stopped playing Yu-Gi-Oh! Altogether.

I love Android Netrunner although I don't play as much as I wish I could, because the cards come out at a set pace, and no booster packs are required to get cards - so, no randomness! You just buy the expansions as they come out.

It's one of the best games I've ever seen for tying in its narrative/theming with the actual gameplay mechanics as well - heavily cyberpunk themed, and for example, when you take 'brain damage' you reduce your max hand size, but when you take enough brain damage to make you go below 0, your runner 'flatlines'.

글을 정말 잘쓰시는것같아요 좋은 예도 적절히 잘 써주시고
작가님이신가요 ???

오케이자님! 작가 아니고 이 게임을 좋아하는 사람이여서 글 잘 썬거같습니다. 고맙습니다.

아~ 영어라 무슨소린진 몰라도 마이클 케릭터가 얻어터져서 보팅누르게됩 ㅎㅎㅎㅎ

땡쓰 형님. 영어 스터디 잘 되갑니까?

what? ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 하고는 있는데 아무래도 내년에 유학가야할듯 ㅋㅋㅋ

오... 매직 더 게더링 유저셨군요! 전 해본적은 없지만 ㅎㅎ ^^;; 포커 같은 카드 게임과 트레이딩 카드 게임을 비교하신 것이 참 재밌네요. 포커는 네러티브가 없지만 매직더 게더링 같은 카드 게임은 내러티브가 있다... 그런 면에서 유희왕 같은 게임 보다는 매직 더 게더링이나 하스스톤이 더 매력적이긴 한 것 같네요. 저도 한참 트레이딩 카드 게임을 했던 적이 있는데 실력의 한계를 느껴 접어버렸습니다 ㅠㅠ 여유좀 생기면 다시 도전해보고 싶네요 :)

저는... Jace, the Mind Scuptor에게 고통 받은 기억만 가득합니다...

Resteem it and upvote

I played Orders & Chaos Duels, I'm sorry for my work and the difficult social and economic situation of my country Venezuela. I congratulate you because you also have a good story, you do not miss the thread of the article.

I didn't play MtG before, but I played a similar game (maybe easier? I don't know) Yu-Gi-Oh!! It takes a lot of time but I use the task oriented approach while playing (Next Move vs Win.. yeah I suck). and the goal oriented approach while making a deck (Better Deck vs Next Card).

This post made me think about my way of daily life a bit.


Since you talked about Narrative, and you look interested in Magic/fantasy... I'm writing a short fantasy story, I'll probably publish it on steemit next week, wanna give you a link to it when I do?

You’re definitely correct that setting up an aim is the key. The tricky part is though being able to stay “in now” when you’re doing the actual thing. For instance when your aim is to be promoted, while doing the work for it you shouldn’t be thinking about the future promotion, but rather on the actual stuff you’re doing. That is part of the mental toughness I’ll be writing about in the future.