topical media & game development
research directions -- narrative structure
Where do we go from here?
What is the multimedia computer, if not a new medium?
To close this section on multimedia authoring,
let us reconsider in what way the networked
multimedia computer differs from other media,
by taking up the theme of convergence again.
The networked multimedia computer seems to remediate
all other media.
Or, in the words of
[Hamlet]:
convergence
(p. 27) ... merging previously disparate technologies of communication and representation into a single medium.
The networked computer acts like a telephone in offering one-to-one real-time communication, like a television in broadcasting moving pictures, like an auditorium in bringing groups together for lectures and discussion, like a library in offering vast amounts of textual information for reference, like a museum in its ordered presentation of visual information, like a billboard, a radio, a gameboard and even like a manuscript in its revival of scrolling text.
In [Hamlet], an analysis is given of a great variety
of computer entertainment applications,
varying from shoot-em-up games to collaborative interactive role
playing.
[Hamlet] identifies four essential properties that
make these applications stand out against the entertainment offered
by other media, which include books and TV.
Two key properties determine the interactive nature
of computer entertainment applications:
interactive
- procedural -- 'programmed media' ...
- participatory -- offering agency
All applications examined in [Hamlet] may be regarded
as 'programmed media', for which interactivity is determined
by 'procedural rules'.
With agency is meant that the user can make active choices
and thus influence the course of affairs, or at least
determine the sequence in which the material is experienced.
1
Another common characteristic of the applications examined
is what [Hamlet] calls immersiveness.
Immersiveness is determined by two other key properties:
immersive
- spatial -- explorable in (state) space
- encyclopedic -- with (partial) information closure
All applications are based on some spatial metaphor.
Actually, many games operate in 'levels' that can be
accessedonly after demonstrating a certain degree
of mastery.
Networked computer applications allow for incorporating an almost
unlimited amount of information.
Some of the information might be open-ended, with storylines
that remain unfinished.
Closure, then, is achieved simply by exhaustive exploration
or diminishing attention.
multimedia authoring
Coming back to the question what the 'new medium',
that is the networked multimedia computer, has to offer
from the perspective of multimedia authoring,
two aspects come to the foreground:
multimedia authoring
- narrative format
- procedural authorship
The narrative format is incredibly rich,
offering all possibilities of the multimedia
computer, including 3D graphics, real-time sound,
text. In short, everything up to virtual reality.
But perhaps the most distinguishing feature
of the new medium is that true authorship
requires both artistic capabilities
as well as an awareness of the computational
power of the medium.
That is to say, authorship also means
to formulate generic computational rules for telling a story
while allowing for interactive interventions by the user.
Or, as phrased in [Hamlet],
the new cyberbard must create prototypical
stories and formulaic characters that, in some way,
lead their own life and tell their stories
following their innate (read: programmed) rules.
In section 8.3
and appendix C, we will present
a framework that may be used as a testbed
for developing programmed narrative structures
with embodied agents as the main characters.
(C) Æliens
04/09/2009
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