Any longtime Dr. Who fan accepts the fact that, from time to time, the good doctor changes his person, along with his costume and his attractive companion. This book explains how and why this happens, in any medium that continues a narrative for long periods of time.

The third in a series that explores contemporary mass media, games, virtual reality, and performance-oriented play, this compendium of essays and commentaries concentrates on the narrative and the relationships between role-playing and story. Essays--written by computer game designers, writers, directors, producers for series projects, and critics from the world of games and popular culture--explore how narrative is constructed and perpetuated in long-playing games, television series, virtual reality, and the like.

The content of the book combines thoughts about and analysis of games and narrative, along with their history. The mixed bag of essays includes, among many others, a discussion of the changes and discontinuities in the long-playing television show Dr. Who and a comparison between the narrative strategies of World of Warcraft and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Authors and editors connect the content of the book to topics discussed in their earlier books [1,2] that discuss other aspects of these genres.

According to the authors, “the three ‘Person’ volumes provide readers with a wide-ranging overview of how fictions are constructed and maintained in different forms of [present-day] media ... along with their debt to narrative and play strategies of earlier decades.” This book completes the series, and is a welcome addition to the earlier books, which have been used as texts at universities. In addition, researchers in popular media and professionals interested in the broader aspects of game design will find much of interest in this volume.