The following is my original depiction of the story structure of
video games in general. This was presented at the Hypermedia '96
conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. While this was rough in format,
many of those in attendance agreed that this structure was what made the
games so addictive. In fact, a trainer in charge of admistering computer
based instruction (CBI) remarked that it was the lack of this type of structure
which made it so boring, and partly why his employees found the CBI so
hard to stay attentive to. This has since undergone revision, but
I think that it is useful sometimes to see the origination of an idea.
There are three basic parts:
The Chainsaw Game Story Structure
The 2006 Colorful Poster Version of the Theory,
created by students at SUNY Potsdam
