Open-world games have revolutionized interactive storytelling, with cross-media narratives becoming a key feature. These narratives span multiple platforms, enhancing player engagement and deepening the narrative experience. While cross-media storytelling is well-explored in traditional media, its application in open-world games remains underexplored, particularly in how player agency and temporal-spatial dynamics influence narratives across platforms. This study uses case studies of The Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2, applying qualitative methods including content analysis and comparative research to examine how these games evolve narratives across different media formats. The study finds that The Witcher 3 uses branching narratives shaped by player choices, while Red Dead Redemption 2 focuses on character development through episodic missions. Both games use time and space to influence the story, with The Witcher 3 offering flexible timelines and Red Dead Redemption 2 linking time to character arcs. This research advances the understanding of cross-media storytelling in open-world games, offering insights for both game developers and scholars interested in interactive narratives and media convergence.
Li Haoran (Wed,) studied this question.