Narrative Time in Computer Games - Duration

Karin Wenz, Assistant Professor of English, University of Kassel

According to Genette, duration does not refer to the reading time of a single reader, but to the time a single  event needs. We find variations in the speed of the narrative in relation to itself and measure effects of acceleration, deceleration, stasis, and ellipsis. As the time of the events in a computer game is dependent on a player's performance and not on the written space an author assigns to it, duration is not a given entity.