Videogames e a narrativa seriada : quest como ferramenta para a construção de mundos

Abstract

Historically, quests where frequently used by players, which empirically analyzed and systematized them with the intention of revealing the inner structure of games. After that, there was a need to address them as the primary object of study, observed by the academy. Therefore, the narratives through quests in MMORPGs was choosen as the object of study, specifically how the stories are told using quests in World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment, 2004), identifying both the main structural and functional characteristics of storytelling, which allows a differentiation between various types of quests. The aim is to demonstrate that the narrative through quests in World of Warcraft is different from other structures and that the fragmented structure of quests is presented as a form of serial narrative, which allows the construction of a fictional world that is broad and deep at the same time. The analysis of narrative structure within complex systems such as virtual worlds of MMORPGs allows not only to review the way we understand the relationship of the narrative with videogames, but also can expand the way we understand the very act of storytelling.