Astrid Ensslin builds upon this, explaining that "games have the potential to evoke multiple, individualized narrative scripts through world-building, causal event design, character development and other elements that players interact with the intention to solve problems and make progress".
[6] The origins of narratology lend to it a strong association with the structuralist quest for a formal system of useful description applicable to any narrative content, by analogy with the grammars used as a basis for parsing sentences in some forms of linguistics.
[7] In 1966 a special issue of the journal Communications proved highly influential, becoming considered a program for research into the field and even a manifesto.
[8][9] It included articles by Roland Barthes, Claude Brémond, Gérard Genette, Algirdas Julien Greimas, Tzvetan Todorov and others, which in turn often referred to the works of Vladimir Propp[8][9] (1895–1970).
[11] The former is mainly limited to a semiotic formalization of the sequences of the actions told, while the latter examines the manner of their telling, stressing voice, point of view, the transformation of the chronological order, rhythm, and frequency.
Many authors (Sternberg, 1993,[12] Ricoeur, 1984, and Baroni, 2007)[13] have insisted that thematic and modal narratology should not be looked at separately, especially when dealing with the function and interest of narrative sequence and plot.
It also includes the study of videogames, graphic novels, the infinite canvas, and narrative sculptures linked to topology and graph theory.
[14] However, constituent analysis of a type where narremes are considered to be the basic units of narrative structure could fall within the areas of linguistics, semiotics, or literary theory.
[16] These cyberdramas differ from traditional forms of storytelling in that they invite the reader into the narrative experience through interactivity i.e. hypertext fiction and Web soap The Spot.
Sometimes used interchangeably with hypertext fiction, the reader or player plays a significant role in the creation of a unique narrative developed by the choices they make within the story-world.
[19] The narrative structure or game-worlds of these cybertexts are compared to a labyrinth that invites the player, a term Aarseth deems more appropriate than the reader, to play, explore and discover paths within these texts.
He establishes a connection between the physical form of something and the language used to describe that something which breaks the structural code that many other theorists base their research on.