Here's my two cents on this matter, because I, like Jeff, feel this is an interesting concept and a valuable page.
In literature, a "narrator" is a character through which the events of the story are experienced. For example, Jack Ryan is a narrator in Hunt for Red October, as is Captain Ramius. They are telling you the story through their thoughts and experiences.
In film, a "narrator" is a voice outside the events of the story that provides additional insight (usually from a certain character's perspective) on what is being shown on the screen.
Note how these two definitions are radically different. We can see that what a narrator does is dependent upon the medium through which the story is being told. What a "narrator" is in a video game is necessarily different from either of the two above definitions.
In video games, a "narrator" is a source of information that the player must trust to gain understanding of the events or mechanics of the game. Obviously, the player needs to trust what he or she experiences through the player character unless informed otherwise (if the player character has been hypnotized, for instance, the player knows that what they are experiencing through the player character is untrustworthy, so should not really be included in this article, I feel), so the player character is one of the game's narrators. Also, any character that provides vital information to the player (usually by providing it to the player character) that the player must trust to advance in the game is a narrator.
In BioShock, for instance, both Atlas and (to a much lesser degree) Dr. Tennenbaum provide necessary information to the player character on the mechanics and the context of the game, they are both narrators.
In Portal, instruction on how to proceed through the game, and the context for everything the player experiences, is provided by GLaDOS. It (she?) too, is a narrator.
In Crackdown, the player receives context on the game world, instruction on game mechanics, and information on in-game missions from The Director. He is a narrator.
Before I wrote this post, I had a negative reaction to the idea of Al-Mualim as a narrator of Assassin's Creed, but on actually articulating this definition, I see that because he provides the game's objectives and is the main source of context for the story (at least for the 1191 portion), he does indeed fit it. Lucy and Vidic are also lesser narrators of the modern-day portion of the game.
In summary, a narrator in a video game is anyone who answers any of these three questions: How do I navigate/manipulate the game world? What objective do I need to fulfill to complete the game? What the hell is going on around here, anyway? The more questions a character answers, and the more often that character does so, the more of a narrator that character is.
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