What do stories in games have in common with political narratives? This book identifies narrative strategies as mechanisms for meaning and manipulation in games and real life. It shows that the narrative mechanics so clearly identifiable in games are increasingly used (and abused) in politics and social life. They have 'many faces', displays and interfaces. They occur as texts, recipes, stories, dramas in three acts, movies, videos, tweets, journeys of heroes, but also as rewarding stories in games and as narratives in society - such as a career from rags to riches, the concept of modernity or market economy. Below their surface, however, narrative mechanics are a particular type of motivational design - of game mechanics.

Beat Suter (PhD), born in 1962, works as lecturer and researcher in game design at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and manages GameLab and Game Archive. He has a PhD in literary studies. René Bauer, born in 1972, studied German philology and literary studies, biology and computer linguistics at the University of Zurich. He works as lecturer, researcher, and head of master education in game design at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK). Mela Kocher (PhD), born in 1972. After publishing her dissertation in 2007 on aesthetics and narratology in video games, she spent two years on a post-doc project at the University of California, San Diego. Today she works as senior researcher in game design at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).