Question 2.2
Interactive media allows for choice and control on the part of the reader/user. What problem does this raise for self-regulation? What, if anything, does this suggest about designing interactive narrative?
The basic premise is that a story needs to be structured as an entity, such that whether it is told in chronological order or not sequential as in a flashback scenario, whatever transformation through events or existents, it has to still be well formed. → SELF-REGULATION. Basically, to do this the discourse and story within the narrative structure needs to prove its purpose somewhere and relate back to the narrative somehow. → RELEVANCE. Therefore, unrelated elements that do not contribute to the transformation are irregularities. See Moviemistakes revealing incongruence in movies where a car or camera was spotted in LOTR.
In interactive media where the reader/user takes control of the wheel, self-regulation is difficult. Halfway through a difficult Prince of Persia battle I can decide that I want to commit suicide to return to an Auto-saved point and retry. Although it is illogical for the hero to impale himself deliberately, this “ill-formed” narrative is possible under gameplay. And then there are cheats… Ahem…
Maintaining a logical narrative flow would be problematic in interactive media as a result of the presence of another actor in manipulating it according to his or her fancy. Self-regulation is possible though, if the new media designer places restrictions to ensure some form of control is maintained by the story even after granting the user/reader some leeway. Thus the challenge for game designers is to make game interactive enough to be engaging, yet not enough to render the narrative illogical and banal. In Neverwinter Nights I can customize my character to be evil, good-looking, and deadly in melee combat but the game does not allow me terribly much choice in making him/her having an extra mole on the right butt cheek, liking chocolate ice-cream, and inwardly a good person who only acts evil. In dialogue, I have 3 choices to choose from in answering someone's question. However, these choices were constructed by the programmer and I only have, essentially, 3 responses from an infinite number of sentences I can otherwise construct in reality. My choices are really predetermined! So that is why in most games there is no choice but limited choice. What a paradox…
Interactive media allows for choice and control on the part of the reader/user. What problem does this raise for self-regulation? What, if anything, does this suggest about designing interactive narrative?
The basic premise is that a story needs to be structured as an entity, such that whether it is told in chronological order or not sequential as in a flashback scenario, whatever transformation through events or existents, it has to still be well formed. → SELF-REGULATION. Basically, to do this the discourse and story within the narrative structure needs to prove its purpose somewhere and relate back to the narrative somehow. → RELEVANCE. Therefore, unrelated elements that do not contribute to the transformation are irregularities. See Moviemistakes revealing incongruence in movies where a car or camera was spotted in LOTR.
In interactive media where the reader/user takes control of the wheel, self-regulation is difficult. Halfway through a difficult Prince of Persia battle I can decide that I want to commit suicide to return to an Auto-saved point and retry. Although it is illogical for the hero to impale himself deliberately, this “ill-formed” narrative is possible under gameplay. And then there are cheats… Ahem…
Maintaining a logical narrative flow would be problematic in interactive media as a result of the presence of another actor in manipulating it according to his or her fancy. Self-regulation is possible though, if the new media designer places restrictions to ensure some form of control is maintained by the story even after granting the user/reader some leeway. Thus the challenge for game designers is to make game interactive enough to be engaging, yet not enough to render the narrative illogical and banal. In Neverwinter Nights I can customize my character to be evil, good-looking, and deadly in melee combat but the game does not allow me terribly much choice in making him/her having an extra mole on the right butt cheek, liking chocolate ice-cream, and inwardly a good person who only acts evil. In dialogue, I have 3 choices to choose from in answering someone's question. However, these choices were constructed by the programmer and I only have, essentially, 3 responses from an infinite number of sentences I can otherwise construct in reality. My choices are really predetermined! So that is why in most games there is no choice but limited choice. What a paradox…
posted by aileen @ 11:54 PM
1 Comments:
At 4:33 PM,
alex said…
Yes, this is a very interesting paradox - that games seem to give you control, but in fact they very much restrict your actions... often its the illusion of control that's most important, not actual control...
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