نقش عاملیت کاربر در شکل‌گیری جهان بازی‌های رایانه‌ای بر بستر داستان‌گویی چندسطحی در روایت‌های تعاملی

In recent years, video games have emerged as a powerful narrative medium that extends far beyond entertainment. Especially with the rise of nonlinear and interactive storytelling models, user agency has become central to how game narratives unfold, develop, and conclude. This study investigates the structural logic of multilayered storytelling in video games, focusing on how player agency is embedded into the narrative architecture. In contrast to traditional linear storytelling, where the player merely follows a predetermined path, contemporary narrative games increasingly position the player as a co-author of the story. These games are designed not only to react to the player’s decisions but to allow those decisions to reshape the game world and the narrative itself in significant ways. Adopting a qualitative, interpretive approach, the research analyzes a curated sample of narrative-driven video games spanning multiple generations of development. These games were selected through purposive sampling, based on their ability to implement branching narratives, meaningful choices, multiple endings, and reactive world systems. Data collection involved textual and structural analysis of in-game narrative mechanics, decision points, story arcs, and player interaction models. Rather than testing predefined theoretical assumptions, the research relied on inductive reasoning, allowing conceptual insights to emerge from detailed gameplay analysis and comparative interpretation. Narrative phenomena were studied across multiple dimensions: decision-making systems, character relationships, identity customization, and narrative consequences. The study identifies multiple interrelated dimensions through which player agency is structurally activated in narrative video games. Key dimensions include narrative branching and meaningful choices, where decisions lead to alternate storylines or endings; narrative feedback and systemic reactivity, where the game world and story evolve in response to the player's actions; relational agency, involving dynamic character relationships influenced by dialogue and moral decisions; narrative identity customization, allowing players to shape their in-game persona in terms of gender, values, and ethical orientation; long-term narrative consequences, where early decisions produce significant effects in later stages; and cognitive engagement in narrative dilemmas, prompting players to reflect on complex, value-laden choices. Building on these findings, the study proposes a conceptual model for analyzing agency in interactive narratives, structured around three core levels: narrative action, where players make direct choices within the story; narrative feedback, where the system acknowledges and responds to player choices in a structured way; and world reconfiguration, where player decisions actively reshape the narrative world, including its social, ethical, and environmental structures. This study demonstrates that player agency in narrative video games is not an incidental design feature but a foundational narrative mechanism. The proposed multi-layered framework captures how games embed agency within multilayered storytelling structures to generate personalized, dynamic, and immersive narrative experiences. The findings provide a theoretical contribution to the fields of game studies and interactive narrative design, while also offering a practical tool for analyzing, evaluating, and developing future narrative games. The research invites further inquiry into the balance between narrative coherence and player freedom and suggests that future studies explore agency implementation in emerging technologies such as virtual reality and AI-driven narrative systems.