Ambiguous Roles of the Player in Video Game Narratives: The Case of Undertale

Abstract

Narrative has long evolved beyond the textual form it is traditionally associated with, finding representation in other media such as movies, comics, and video games. Despite the innovations it brings to the concept of narration, video games, being an invention of relatively recent years, have yet to be studied extensively in the academe, which creates the necessity to explore its various aspects further. This paper analyzes how traditional understanding of a consumer (reader, viewer, player) is challenged in choice-based video games as exemplified by a renowned indie game Undertale released in 2015. The study is performed by selecting instances of player-story interaction and analyzing them based on existing narratological frameworks. Specifically, the concept of narrative levels developed by Gérard Genette, as well as the recently developed field of transmedial narratology, are used to identify how the player transgresses the narrative levels of the game. The analysis has shown that the game’s medium challenges traditional ideas about the consumer’s position and establishes the player as an ambiguous figure that performs multiple roles at the same time during the gameplay. The choice-based progression of the game offers significant insight into how a player's role extends to a participant with their own agency, ultimately serving as the protagonist and partial narrator of the story. Ethical implications that appear with this theory have also been discussed, primarily drawing on how Wayne Booth’s implied author behaves in video games. Ultimately, the paper shows how Undertale uses its game mechanics and narrative design to create a unique form of consumer engagement that differs from textual form of narration.