As in music, the meaning of interactive applications is determined, not only by its sensory appearance, but to a high extent by the structure and functionality of the application. This observation may, also, explain, why narratives become more and more important in current video games, namely in providing a meaningful context for possible user actions.

In this chapter, we take an interactive game-model extended with narrative functionality as a starting point to explore the aesthetics of interactive applications. In section 12.1, we will introduce a model for interactive video games, and in section 12.2 we will present a variety of rules for the construction of narratives in a game context. Finally, in section 12.3, we will characterize the notion of meaning from a traditional semiotics perspective, which we will then apply in the context of games and interactive multimedia applications.