Talk:Narrative designer

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UPDATE: I've been able to remove the 'may have been coined' problem (see below) since it was pointed out that there is a book in 1997 that uses the term 'narrative design' in the context of writing books. The other notes below still hold true. ChrisBateman (talk) 08:28, 20 September 2014 (UTC)

Hi, I've updated this page since the information it contained was inaccurate, and I was able to find citations that better verify the actual history of the term. However, in so doing I necessarily introduce a factual error - the term 'narrative design' was in fact coined by myself (Chris Bateman) and Richard Boon, whose original job title at International Hobo sometime around 2000 was 'Narrative Designer and Script Writer'. However, under Wikipedia editing guidelines, this information is inadmissible since no public reference currently exists. I have instead suggested that it 'may have been created by Chris Bateman', since the public evidence supports this claim (you may prefer to delete this claim, it's hard for me to judge the appropriate course of action in this regard). If any future citation material emerges that will allow for the correction of this error, I will try and remember to return and correct this article.

Thanks to whomever it was who created this stub! It's great to see narrative designers recognised as a profession. ChrisBateman (talk) 12:27, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

Oh, forgot that I might need to include this warning: I am striving to make sure that Wikipedia's guidelines are always adhered to in my edits. ChrisBateman (talk) 12:39, 19 September 2014 (UTC)

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 28 May 2020 and 23 July 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): JCAW1.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 04:51, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

New Addition and Reference

I used the book Video Game Writing: From Macro to Micro as a reference, and it's the second citation if anyone is looking for it. The reason I mention this is because I was wondering does it seem like a good resource, as it does detail many of the responsibilities of writing for video games.Here is my bibliography so far, as well: User:JCAW1/Narrative_designer/Bibliography. Though it only has the one reference, I plan on expanding this list as time goes on, so I ask for your support. JCAW1 (talk) 00:30, 25 June 2020 (UTC)

Update

I am currently researching the world of narrative design outside of its application within game design. Its history rather overlaps with architecture, marketing and product design and there is no mention of this in the current Wikipedia article. Being a game narrative designer myself I have little to no knowledge about this so I have contacted the researchers of a 2013 paper on the topic. I am considering to split the topic of Narrative Design into its own Wikipedia entry based in this information. Rudolf Buirma (talk) 12:05, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

I have updated this stub to expand on the material based on my own experience as narrative designer and the related research on this topic. I though it important to add a variety of modern sources and to clarify the industry wide confusion about the definition of the role. Rudolf Buirma (talk) 21:53, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

References

Wipe?

Someone with no userpage just wiped most of the article with no stated reason, and his edits were misspelled. I have no idea if this was vandalism or what.

Anyway restored old and new versions of the article. Shinobody (talk) 04:01, 23 September 2021 (UTC)

Unreliable self promotion?

This article seems to be primarily self promotion of Stephen Dinehart as inventing the term and his ideas of it, though some basic research finds that the term was used at least a year before he "wrote the description" in the 2005 game Rifts: Promise of Power

Also it appears that the "Fracone" account with no write up is the origin of crediting Dinehart and only updates articles etc ready to Dinehart, so may very well be Stephen Dinehart himself. Seems to be a strong conflict of interest.

Wincenworks (talk) 01:32, 29 September 2021 (UTC)

References

Wiki Education assignment: Digital Rhetoric and Writing

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation–supported course assignment, between 17 January 2022 and 30 April 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Epitomeofadream (article contribs).

Wiki Education assignment: History of Modern Design

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation–supported course assignment, between 17 January 2023 and 5 May 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): EN2216 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: CaitlynRCooper, Roscoetherooster, ARyan9812, FallenCJ, Addison18?23.

— Assignment last updated by Antje Gamble (talk) 19:51, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

Wiki Education Assignment: Evaluating Wikipedia

Why is narrative design labeled as "low-importance" in the Wikipedia pages related to video game design? JoliSteffenauer (talk) 20:25, 10 September 2026 (UTC)

Welcome, @JoliSteffenauer. I'm probably not the best source of info about this (not very interested in the topic and only have the page on my watchlist as the result of a cleanup sweep adding "short descriptions" to all sorts of articles). But since this doesn't seem to be a high-traffic page and it could be months if ever before you get another response, here are some thoughts....

• This page is about narrative designers, as in the person who does the work -- not about the practice of narrative design. I'd guess that while narrative design is important, the occupation is lower importance. (Well, actually, the title suggests the person is what it's about, which is probably part of why it's tagged as low importance. However, the content is enough about the practice that it could justify a page move to narrative design if you or someone else wanted to propose one.)
• Additionally, the wikiproject this is tagged as low importance for is video games as a whole, not specifically the design or development of video games. Narrative designers are important to the production of video games, but not as central to the video game industry and culture as a whole.
• If you look at the history of this talk page, you'll see the assessment was added in 2009 and not updated since then. Which could mean the assessment is out of date and nobody's bothered to revisit it, or that everyone who's checked it since then thinks it's correct.
• You could look at other articles rated in importance for WP Video Games and see if you see any patterns.
• You might get more informed answers if you ask this question on the WP Video Games talk page.

Good luck with your assignment! -- Avocado (talk) 18:22, 12 September 2026 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: IM 380 Critical Game Studies

This article is currently the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation–supported course assignment, between 26 August 2026 and 16 December 2026. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): WolfArcher12 (article contribs). Peer reviewers: The Sparagmos.

— Assignment last updated by The Sparagmos (talk) 04:16, 11 October 2026 (UTC)