Abstract:
Video games are the newest and fastest-growing visual mediums today. Their creation has led to
new concepts of storytelling and put the audience at the heart of the action by allowing them to
have control of their character’s actions. The development of downloadable content, colloquially
known as DLC, can further the narrative and character arcs of each main title game. Recent years
have shown, however, that game developers have forgone innovation in their DLC in favor of
surface-level additions to games, much to gamers frustration. In this paper, I break down the
various types of DLC used in the video game industry and highlight the importance of my selfdefined
Lore-Progressive DLC. Through the analysis of the games The Last of Us (2013),
BioShock 2 (2010) and Fallot 4 (2015) – as well as their respective DLC’s Left Behind (2014),
Minerva’s Den (2010) and Far Harbor (2016) – I use narrative framework analysis to explain
how DLC can be used to enhance a main title’s narrative and game world.
