Article Observations

10 observations from the article "Interactive Narrative and the Associated Technologies" by Jonathan Aird & Minttu Mantyen

  • "New forms of media have always borrowed from the existing ones"
    I thought this was quite interesting because when you think about it, all new things always do incorporate something which has been before, but just using it in different way
  • The article points out that a meaning of the story can depend entirely on how and where it is told, for example you could tell exactly the same story in a different way, in a different location & it's meaning would be completely different.
  • All new forms of interactive media, all seem to be heading towards the same goal - making it as close to real life as possible. Making things interactive gives the user similar choices to the ones they would have in real life, improving images, & sounds makes everything look more realistic.
  • The idea of having a different perspectives of the same story being played simultaneously is quite an interesting way of allowing the user to interact with a story, and also gives it another dimension as they are able to see things from a different perspective
  • It was interesting to realise that the new technology allowing stories to change is in fact basically going back to the old way of orally telling a story, & then altering how it would end based on how the listener was reacting, new technology is allowing the computer to take the role of a storyteller.
  • You never really think of Big Brother being a story, or narrative, but when you think about it, the program it's self is exactly that, telling you the story of what is happening in a house, which you can then interact with by voting people off.
  • Even though the author of the media may be trying to make it possible to do whatever they want, there are always subtle rules & things in place to prevent them going beyond the 'boundaries'
  • Characters in interactive stories work best when they behave as you would expect them to, because it is easy to then predict how the user will interact with them.
  • Artificial Intelligence, can only be as 'intelligent' as it is programmed to be.
  • Simple point and click 'interactivity' is becoming predictable and new ways of involving the user in the story are developing