Objects and Algorithmic Uncertainty in Video Game Narrative

ABSTRACT As Ed Finn argues, the defining trait of contemporary algorithmic culture is significant uncertainty—i.e., unpredictability—in how a computational system will respond to our input. This article explores how this type of uncertainty can latch onto semiotically represented objects in video game narratives. Objects in video games serve a variety of functions, which this article studies by distinguishing between the following cases: objects as part of the decor, objects as a solution to well-delineated puzzles, objects as a resource enabling story progression, and objects as a sign evoking narrative via environmental storytelling. Algorithmic uncertainty can complicate these categories in a way that elicits a range of emotional responses—for instance, the absurdity of classic point-and-click adventure games à la Monkey Island. The article offers a discussion of Immortality, a recent independent video game that, more explicitly and self-reflexively than adventure games from the 1990s, troubles the functioning of objects in a way that foregrounds their uncertainty and elevates it to a central mechanic of both ludic and narrative progression.