Today in 2015 the game industry grows and games become more advanced. This leads to that the ways interactive media such as games portray their narrative are also improving. Therefore we chose to examine what factors affected how five experienced gamers viewed the narrative in the game Dear Esther (The Chinese Room, 2012) the first time they played it. The investigation used stimulated recall in order to collect data and the data were analysed with the help of the EPP methodology. Our study showed there was a diversity in how the game’s narrative was perceived and that a number of factors affected the interpretations of the narrative. These factors were organised in four categories: exploration, feeling and atmosphere, player experience, and identification with the player character and theories around the narrative. A fifth category evaluation of the storytelling, described the player’s thoughts about the way the narrative was told. Our main conclusion was that the factors affecting the way players perceived the narrative of the game varied much depending on who played the game and what their regular experience of games were. For example some were more affected by environment and monologue while others was more affected by earlier experiences of how games used to work. The respondent’s perception of the game narrative were also affected by their own thoughts and theories around the narrative and what might have happened. We could also see there were several different thoughts and opinions on how the narrative style of the game worked and three participants thought it worked well.

Idag 2015 publiceras fler och mer avancerade spel än någonsin tidigare. Hand i hand med denna utveckling borde också utvecklingen av de narrativ som spel kan berätta gå. Därför undersöker vi i denna uppsats vilka faktorer som påverkade uppfattningen av narrativet i Dear Esther hos fem spelvana personer som tidigare inte spelat spelet. Undersökningen gjordes med hjälp av stimulated recall och data analyserades med hjälp av EPP-metoden. Vår studie visade på en stor spridning av upplevelserna och en mängd faktorer som påverkade upplevelsen av narrativet. Dessa faktorer delade vi in i olika kategorier. Dessa var Utforskning, Känslor och stämning, Spelarvana samt Identifikation med berättarkaraktären och teorier kring narrativ. En femte kategori kallad Värdering av berättartekniken beskrev hur spelarna uppfattat spelets berättarteknik. Den främsta slutsatsen vi kan dra är att de faktorer som påverkade hur respondenterna uppfattade Dear Esther och dess narrativ varierade mycket beroende på vem som spelade. Vissa av respondenterna påverkades mer av omgivningar och monologer, medan andra påverkades mer av sin egen vana och insikt i hur spel bör fungera. Alla påverkads dock mycket av sina egna tankar känslor och teorier kring vad som en gång hänt. Vi kunde också se att det fanns olika tankar och åsikter angående hur berättartekniken i spelet ansågs fungera och tre av respondenterna ansåg att det fungerade bra.