Transforming Game Narrative through Social Media: Studying the Mass Effect Universe of Twitter

This study examines how fans of the Mass Effect video game series used Twitter as a participatory narrative medium, treating character accounts for figures such as Garrus, Tali, Joker, and Saren as a collaborative storytelling space. Drawing on a textual analysis of 215 tweets from eight such accounts, the authors find that the accounts overwhelmingly adopt a first-person, present-tense character voice, with roughly 89 percent first-person and 69 percent present-tense usage. The dominant mode of engagement is interaction with other participants: about 82 percent of tweets addressed other Mass Effect accounts, while only 6 percent engaged non-Mass Effect accounts, indicating that the narrative was directed at fellow players rather than spectators.

The research characterizes this activity as improvisational and conversational rather than a mere echo of the games. Authors balanced in-game canon against their own creative intentions, and roughly 81 percent of sampled tweets were conversational exchanges. The study identifies recurring difficulties, including sustaining a consistent character voice and history, managing narrative time on a platform not designed for storytelling, and resolving paradoxes such as characters who died in the games continuing to post. Twitter's open-ended, conversational structure, the authors argue, compels collaborative construction of coherent character narratives through shared history.

The work also extends to counterfactual storylines, multiple competing accounts per character, and transmedia connections through YouTube, Formspring, and wikis. The authors conclude that game designers should regard players as committed community members, and that tacit tolerance of fan-generated narrative, as Bioware practiced, extended engagement and the story's lifespan beyond the game itself. Future titles, they suggest, should anticipate social media interaction and support players in engaging with story content on those platforms.