Abstract
In this paper we look at the role and a new definition for audience, participants and agency that can be used for analysis of Interactive Visual Narratives (IVNs). The definition of characters or actors from the semiotic elements of narrative studies cannot be directly used to investigate IVNs because, as interactivity comes to play, the actor could be the participant in the narrative or the agency that forms that constraints. Similarly, role of audience and author of the narrative changes based on the level of interactivity provided. In order to support our preceding premise, our analysis begins by looking at the influencing disciplines and building a conceptual model of digital agents that can play the role of actors in an IVN. Having looked at the role of actors and action in IVNs, we ensue our discussion on influencing applications and sample IVNs where the actors, their environments and the plot comes into play. We draw from the various examples examined to summarize the different approaches towards providing interactivity; narrative structure based on nodes and a simulation or an open-ended virtual world that contains procedure based narrative elements. We also try to distinguish the interactivity available at various levels and take a critical look at the role of author and participant. In conclusion we arrive at a new definition of Audience, Participant and Agency suitable to carry out investigation of the IVNs.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Mass Effect 2 is a sequel to the original Mass Effect. It was developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts. It was released on 26th January 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360, and on 18th January, 2011 for PlayStation 3.
- 2.
SimCity designed by Will Wright was released on 3rd October 1989. It was produced by Maxis a subsidiary of Electronic Arts (EA). The SimCity source code was released under the free software GPL 3 license under the name Micropolis on 10th January 2008 (http://www.simcity.com).
- 3.
The Sims was designed by Will Wright and was released on 4th February 2000. It was developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. In 2002, The Sims became the top-selling PC game in history and sold more than 6.3 million copies worldwide (http://thesims.com).
References
Krishna Kumar, S.P., Poovaiah, R.: On defining visual narratives. Design Thoughts 25–46
Mateas, M., Stern, A.: Architecture, authorial idioms and early observations of the interactive drama façade. Tech report CMU-CS-02–198, p. 32. Carnegie Mellon University (2002)
Mateas, M., Stern, A.: Integrating plot, character and natural language processing in the interactive drama façade. Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling and Entertainment. Darmstadt (2003)
Hoffmann, A., Iurgel, I., Becker, F.: Interactive drama and learning experiences. learning with digital agents—integration of simulations, games and storytelling. In: Digital Game Based Learning—Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium for Information Design, pp. 149–158. Universitatsverlag Karlsruhe, Stuttgart (2005)
Iurgel, I.A.: An authoring framework for interactive narrative with virtual characters. Ph.D. Dissertation, p. 196. Darmstadt: Fachbereich Informatik, Technischen Universität Darmstadt (2008)
Müller, W., Spierling, U., Weiß, S.A.: Scenejo. Interactive-storytelling. http://scenejo.interactive-storytelling.de/ (2005). Accessed 14 Aug 2012
Holweg, D., Schneider, O.: GEIST—Mobile outdoor AR-information system for historical education with digital storytelling. In: International Status Conference on Virtual and Augmented Reality, p. 8. Leipzig: Federal Ministry for Education and Research (2004)
Speirling, U.: Interactive digital storytelling: towards a hybrid conceptual approach. digital games research association’s. In: 2nd International Conference “Changing Views: Worlds in Play”, p. 11. Vancouver: Digital Games Research Association DiGRA (2005)
Pearce, C.: Emergent authorship: the next interactive revolution. Comput. Graph. 26, 21–29 (2002)
Bevensee, S.H., Dahlsgaard Boisen, K.A., Olsen, M.P., Schoenau-Fog, H., Bruni, L.E.: Project aporia—an exploration of narrative understanding of environmental storytelling in an open world scenario. In: Interactive Storytelling, 5th International Conference, ICIDS 2012, pp. 96–101. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, San Sebastián, Spain (2012)
Bura, S.: Stephane Bura’s mapping of IDN. In: Interactive Storytelling Symposium. Mountain View, CA (2013)
Koenitz, H., Haahr, M., Ferri, G., Sezen, T.I., Sezen, D.: Mapping the evolving space of interactive digital narrative—from artifacts to categorizations. In: Interactive Storytelling, 6th International Conference, ICIDS 2013, pp. 55–60. Springer International Publishing Switzerland, Istanbul, Turkey (2013)
Lindley, C.A.: Story and narrative structures in computer games. In: Developing Interactive Narrative, p. 27. Sagas/Sagasnet Reader, Munich (2005)
Aarseth, E.: A narrative theory of games. FDG ‘12. ACM, Raleigh, NC, USA (2012)
Abbott, H.P.: The Cambridge Introduction to Narrative. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2002)
Laurel, B.: Computers As Theatre. Addison-Wesley Professional (1993)
Crawford, C.: Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling. New Riders Games (2004)
Murray, J.H.: Hamlet on the Holodeck—The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts (1997)
Spierling, U.: Learning with digital agents—integration of simulations, games and storytelling. In: Digital Game Based Learning—Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium for Information Design, pp. 115–147. Universitatsverlag Karlsruhe, Stuttgart (2005)
Chen, F.: Towards a hermeneutic narratology of interactive digital storytelling. In: Interactive Storytelling, 7th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling, ICIDS 2014, pp. 125–133. Springer International Publishing Switzerland, Singapore (2014)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Radhakrishnan, K.K., Poovaiah, R. (2017). Audience, Participant and Agency: Need for Role Definition in Interactive Visual Narratives. In: Chakrabarti, A., Chakrabarti, D. (eds) Research into Design for Communities, Volume 1. ICoRD 2017. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 65. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3518-0_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3518-0_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-3517-3
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-3518-0
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)