NAQQAL’S GIFTS:
THE AFFECTS OF EXTERNAL DYNAMICS ON COMPUTER GAMES

Traditional story tellers of Middle East known as Naqqal’s are known to change the fate of their story characters dependent upon the gifts they get from the audience. (And, 1985) Thus, the cause-and-effect relations in their stories do not base entirely on the internal dynamics of the story as the classical western narrative tradition. Gifts are external dynamics affecting the story world, yet they are a part of the Naqqals story experience.

A very similar experience can be observed in electronic-real estate sells in games like “Project Entropia”; or “virtual item stores” for games like WOW or Star Wars Galaxies. In these examples gamers use their real-life economic power to change the fate of their virtual characters.

Another example of external dynamics affecting the story world can be observed in the use of cheat codes. Created by the computer game designers or by the gamers themselves cheat codes create an influence on the game from outside of the rule-system which creates the game. They break the rules, they chance the rules or they add new rules in to the designer’s world.

Cheating (especially in multi-player games) is often criticized by game scholars (Kimppa and Bissetti, 2005) and gamers for ethical reasons. It is even considered to be banned from game analysis methodology (Aarseth, 2003). And some scholars see cheating or buying virtual items as a reflection of real-life social rules in to the designer’s world (Kuecklich, 2004).

Yet cheating can also be seen as an alternative way of experiencing and especially “exploring” the game world. “Ghost” and “flying” modes in a 3-D game can give the gamer the opportunity to cross the designer’s borders and illusion of a complete and immersive world. Opportunities created by cheat codes or game “secrets” opened by cheat codes can create new experiences for the gamers.

This paper will try to discuss the relation between game world and cheating: Does cheating destroy the game experience, or can it be seen as a part of the game experience like a Naqqal’s gifts, or does it create a new experience for the gamers?