The design of narrative as an immersive simulation

This paper proposes a concept of narrative as the design of an immersive simulation to be experienced by the interactor in a video game. We face this new narrative status as the reconfiguration of a creative process that was initiated in an attempt to generate, in the digital format, a certain concept of narrative inherited from the canonic cinema, but that, faced with the simulative nature of the video game format, was forced to take a different shape. To explain this concept, we draw a brief taxonomy of agency modes, that is, the diverse attempts made by different video game genres to turn the interactor into an implicated character into the game. We divide these different approaches into two broader genres: in one side, the character-oriented games, and in other side, the simulation games, and we try to point out the fundamental characteristics for each one. For the character-related games, we focus on the concept of Umwelt – as it was proposed by theorists Jacob and Thure von Uexkull, and defined here by Nöth as "the way in which the environment is represented to the organism’s mind and it comprises the scope of the organism’s operational interaction with its environment". For video games, we define it as the simulation of alternative environmental capacities that can be experienced by the player to the extend of giving her the sense of physical presence and immersion into a three-dimensional space. For the simulation games, we focus on the computational modeling of complex systems, based upon abstract theories and concepts, into a time/space simulative system to be managed by the interactor. At the end, we try to point out the emergence of a game format that combines features of these two generic modes of agency into the design of a narrative to be experienced as an immersive simulation. This concept of narrative is starting to gain the figure of a set of computational and semiotic procedures for modeling conceptual universes, in a systemic manner, generating dramatic, virtual environments to be inhabited by the interactor in a way only she can establish in each experience. In this new format, one fundamental notion guides us and defines the premise for game as a narrative form, that is the concept of agency as "the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices" (Murray, 2000: 126). In the case of the allegedly narrative video game, agency is what provides the interactor – the player– with the possibility of being a part of the story universe, making decisions as one of its characters. This is a scenario we oppose to the more common link made between games and narrative, the one that refers to the game’s theme as its story. "A game’s theme is nothing more than a justification for the games material: a rational explanation that establishes the setting and makes up the global motivation for the games iconography and the events that take place inside the game" (Darley, 2002: 237). What is important is the actual practice of the game, which implies a certain type of "kinesthetic acting" that becomes an end in itself (2002: 237). This "kinesthetic acting" allows agency to the player, turns her into an agent of both story and enunciation, and is the most fundamental characteristic of game. It defines game as a format, and is present in all of its genres, from the least figurative, with its essentially formal logic, to the highly figurative and more explicitly narrative kind. However, when this characteristic reaches the narrative milieu of figurative games, it seems to allow for a certain movement of emotional immersion akin to the one that defines canonic film, and this is what really seems to bring the two otherwise very different forms closer together. However, beyond emulating cinematic aspects as depth of field, shades and textures, it has become clear that the starting ground of presence in the game environment can only be fully implemented when our experience of contact with the objects and other elements of the game world can also be able to simulate aspects of that which we refer to being their behavior in the real world. This way, in the video game, the question of embodiment may become, beyond the main condition for the experience of being in the world, also the premise for a potentially sophisticated experience of alternative Umwelts, a change of point of view and physical abilities. Or else, beyond the implementing of different affordances (Gibson, 1986) both in the game environment and in its avatar and interface, it is the possibility of making our actual change of perception, through the embodiment of a character both physically and emotionally implicated in different contexts, that which turns the video game a potentially interesting narrative format. The act of being in the world can gather more meaning than just immersion, presence, navigation: what still separates game from the status of an artistic experience, more than a total immersion technology, to us, seems to be connected to the creation of semiotic systems capable of turning an immersive experience into a perceptive living experience under the motivations of a character with real dramatic power. REFERENCES DARLEY, Andrew (2002). Genealogia y tradicion: el espetáculo mecanizado. El declive de la narracion: el nuevo cine de espectáculo y el vídeo musical. Cultura visual digital. Espetáculo y nuevos géneros en los medios de comunicación. Barcelona: Paidós. GIBSON, James J. The Theory of Affordances. Ecological approach to Visual Perception. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1986. MURRAY, Janet. Hamlet on the Holodeck: the future of narrative in cyberspace. Cambridge: MIT, 1997. NÖTH, Winfried. Ecossemiotics

Tempos (pós-)modernos: a relação entre o cinema e os games

The problem of communication is approached through the confluence of epistemic reflection and analysis of empirical processes systematized in research that is concerned with mediatized Latin America in the Brazilian televised technosphere. The production of Bandeirantes, SBT and Globo television networks is presented in an order that expresses substantial aspects of its symbolic structuring, as well as the strategies of mediatic construction that organize it. The mediatic ethos is situated in the socio-cultural and historical contexts that define Latin America in its sociopolitical precariousness. At the same time the article highlights the cultural, theoretical and historical wealth offered by our paradoxical complexity of art, misery, joy, exploitation and future. Key words: games, cinema, cyberculture.Desafiando classificações, os games podem ser entendidos como jogos baseados em regras que permitem que o jogador entre num mundo virtual através da interatividade e da imersão e ali encontre narrativas cada vez mais sofisticadas, complexas e motivadoras. Neste sentido, a relação estética e de linguagem entre games e o cinema vem se estreitando à medida que o desenvolvimento tecnológico avança. O objetivo deste artigo é traçar um breve panorama da discussão atual sobre semelhanças e diferenças entre o cinema e os games, especialmente quanto aos aspectos narrativos e algumas mudanças de percepção que estariam em consonância com essas mídias. O artigo conclui que vem ocorrendo um forte processo de apropriação mútua (remediation) entre as duas linguagens que ainda está nos primórdios de suas possibilidades. Por essa razão, defende que os games se constituem em um novo campo de estudos interdisciplinares e que a investigação sobre a narrativa nos ambientes digitais ainda está em aberto, necessitando de mais pesquisa e debate acadêmico. Palavras-chave: games, cinema, cibercultura

Measuring The Impact of Narrative on Player\u27s Presence and Immersion in A First Person Game Environment

In the virtual environments (VE) literature, presence has been described as the feeling whereby an individual feels as if he or she is actually in the VE. In the videogame literature, the related concept of immersion is viewed as an effect facilitating player engagement. This thesis examines how narrative and graphics quality influence presence and immersion in a first person game. Three levels of narrative and graphics quality are used in an empirical study: text narrative with high quality graphics, no text narrative with high quality graphics, and no text narrative with low quality graphics. Results showed that there is a significant difference in players’ presence and immersion with rich narrative provided through text narrative together with high quality graphics versus no narrative and low quality graphics, and the use of text narrative results in greater presence and immersion than high quality graphics alone

Aristotelian philosophy applied to interactive virtual media: on the effects of transportation on the player and the practical applications of virtual realities

Virtual reality is a new technology that blurs the line between what a person feels is real and knows is fake; putting the audience ‘inside’ a piece of art, a new ‘world’ that we can experience (like real life) in a first-person perspective. This technology has come about through the development of interactive virtual media, the product of ‘the evolution of poetry’ that Aristotle discovered and explained. Poetry is something that can hold and transfer meaning, specifically it is anything that can offer or represent the ‘what it is likeness’ of a particular concept or truth, this is what I refer to when I use the term ‘Poetry’. The concept of blurring the line between reality and fiction, gives rise to ‘the paradox of fiction’ and has been a component of art from its conception. We lose ourselves in a myth, a book, a song or a play, and we have emotions about imitations of (fictional) events (even though they are fictional), this losing oneself into poetry is what I will term ‘Transportation’. Virtual realities achieve this and can make us feel like we are inside a piece of art, by fully taking control of our perspective (our experiences), by putting the control of the art’s direction in our hands, and importantly, by captivating our full attention. What effects could this have on us as moral agents or as social beings? Aristotle began art criticism in his Poetics, pioneering the philosophy of aesthetics and preparing philosophers for their own explorations of new mediums of art. I plan on continuing this work in an Aristotelian exploration of the use of interactive virtual media and the notion of transportation. Not only will I use the lessons learnt from Aristotle’s work in Poetics, but will also consider an Aristotelian Eudemian framework when looking at the moral concerns of such an advanced form of poetry and the inherent ramifications of the ‘habituation’ that comes with its repetitive use. Such media is often seen as an unproductive and even sometimes damaging pastime, I will argue that not only does all poetry teach us in many ways, but interactive virtual media has the potential to teach us the ‘what it is likeness’ of particular experiences. It allows us to practice and attain ‘know how’ types of knowledge, this will be crucial to my Aristotelian philosophical exploration, and the revelations about the possible dispositional attitudes that could be gained from said practice in virtual environments. I will back this up with a comprehensive explanation of recent revelations in cognitive science, proving evidence for the habituation mechanism and the importance of our implicit memory in our judgement making processes. I will conclude that interactive virtual media provides the perfect medium for transportation, which results in the accumulation of new implicit memories in the player (habituation), and said environments will be able to be utilised for a variety of applications, one possibly being the practice of virtuous activity (Eudemian ethics)

Media and culture : Machinima

Orientador: Hermes Renato HildebrandDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ArtesResumo: O presente trabalho toma como objeto de estudos um novo tipo de mídia digital, denominada Machinima. Do inglês machine (máquina) e animation (animação), Machinima é, conceitualmente, tanto um filme feito a partir de jogo eletrônico, quanto um processo de produção. A hibridização de mídias presente na arquitetura do Machinima constitui um novo processo criativo propiciado pelas ferramentas da tecnologia digital. Ao mesmo tempo, o Machinima pode ser pensado como um novo tipo de produção fílmica que nasce dos sistemas híbridos e complexos que propiciam novas poéticas e que convergem para a estética da interatividade, da incorporação e da imersão, palavras-chave das produções culturais que estão buscando tornar visível a articulação dos sujeitos com as linguagens maquínicas, próprias do nosso tempo. Tendo como base estudos que analisam as transformações da sociedade pós-moderna, o aparecimento de novos produtos culturais que afetam em todos os sentidos a sociabilidade contemporânea, esta dissertação parte dos seguintes problemas de pesquisa: a) em termos de sua produção, como se dá a relação entre o Machinima e os gêneros que estão na sua base: jogo eletrônico/filme?; b) quais os efeitos da hibridização de gêneros e de técnicas na arquitetura do Machinima? c) quais deslocamentos a tecnologia digital do Machinima provoca na produção fílmica? Para responder a essas questões, analisamos as técnicas de produção e o funcionamento do Machinima. Selecionamos, para análise, a série de Machinimas denominada Red VS Blue e investigamos sua imersão na cultura da convergência de mídias, sua narratividade e as relações estabelecidas entre técnicas cinematográficas e de jogo eletrônico. Assim, a partir das características configuracionais e do funcionamento desse objeto que une jogo eletrônico, filme, e novas mídias, investigamos a articulação entre mídia e cultura nas transformações das sensiibilidades da sociedade contemporânea.Abstract: This research investigates a new type of digital media: Machinima (the combining 'machine' and 'animation'), a new way of making films within a real-time virtual environment. Also, Machinima can be thought as a new product, which was born in the hybrid systems, providing new poetics and converging to the aesthetics of interactivity, incorporation and immersion - keywords which make visible the articulation of the subjects with the languages of the machine. Based on speeches that analyze the emergence of new cultural products that affect in every sense a contemporary sociability, this work part of the following questions: a) in terms of production, what is the relationship between Machinima and the genres that are in its base (electronic game / movie/animation)? b) which are the effects of hybridization of genres and techniques in the architecture of the Machinima? C) which are the changes that digital technology in Machinima provoke in filmic production?MestradoMestre em Multimeio

Le rapport à l'avatar, une expérience de consommation dans les univers virtuels : cas de Second Life

Les univers virtuels connaissent un essor important. L'engouement pour ces univers s'explique par l'originalité de l'expérience que les résidents y vivent et à laquelle ils participent. La présente recherche vise la compréhension de ce phénomène en le positionnant comme une expérience de consommation ludique durant laquelle les consommateurs découvrent des aspects de leur soi en interagissant avec les autres usagers. Dans de tels univers, le consommateur se choisit un personnage (un avatar) lui servant d'identité virtuelle. Les travaux en la matière considèrent que l'anonymat et la liberté de choix de cette identité virtuelle constituent des aspects très motivants pour les résidents. S'insérant dans le cadre d'une démarche exploratoire, l'objectif premier de cette recherche est l'étude des principaux facteurs qui influencent le rapport à l'avatar dans l'expérience de consommation des univers virtuels. En choisissant comme terrain le monde virtuel Second Life, une recherche qualitative a été menée ainsi qu'une analyse de contenu de données provenant de sources variées (individuelles et collectives, dans et en dehors de Second Life) à savoir quatre-vingts entrevues individuelles, trois entrevues de groupe ainsi qu'une observation non participante d'un blogue et de quatorze forums de discussion portant sur Second Life. L'analyse et l'interprétation du sens que donnent les sujets aux aspects d'eux-mêmes qu'ils décident de mettre ou ne pas mettre dans leurs avatars a permis deux contributions originales dans le domaine particulier de la consommation dans les univers virtuels. L'ébauche d'un modèle conceptuel regroupant les différentes composantes du rapport à l'avatar, les facteurs ayant une influence sur ces composantes et, enfin, leurs implications en termes de consommation. Par ailleurs, l'analyse de la distance consommateur/avatar a également conduit à la genèse d'une typologie identifiant trois profils de consommateurs (confusion, flottement et rupture) sur base du choix de l'avatar, des facteurs influençant ce choix et des implications en termes de consommation

Gamer-Generated Language and the Localisation of Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games

Video game localisation has received increased academic attention over the past few years. Despite the call for user-oriented research, few researchers have chosen to focus on issues that are central to end-user experience and its relation to the localised text. With the increased connectivity of gaming in general, and certain game genres in particular, gamers’ language use has become an integral aspect of the game experience. As a result, gamers have become innovative, creating and re-appropriating language, often using non-standard forms to coordinate their gameplay. This innovative and non-standard language, that I call gamer-speak, is the object of my research. In particular, the focus is on the gamer-speak generated by French gamers during group play of two localised Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs): World of Warcraft and WildStar. The main aim is to investigate the phenomenon of gamer-speak in MMORPGs and examine its significance for MMORPG localisation. I achieve this through a linguistic analysis and comparison of gamer conversations, analyses of localised texts and its original counterparts, and from survey data collected from active MMORPG gamers regarding their language use. In this thesis I devise an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological framework for the study of gamer-speak and its influence on MMORPGs which draws principally from Translation Studies and Games Studies. This framework is used to describe the salient features of gamer-speak generated by French gamers when playing the two MMORPGs chosen in the context of Polysystem Theory and Descriptive Translation Studies. The familiarity with and knowledge of French MMORPG players of gamer-speak is determined through surveys. I also examine localised MMORPG text, translated from English into French, paying attention to the role of gamer-speak. Finally, I address the social and cultural implications that gamer-speak has for the target audience of localised MMORPGs. This work adds to our understanding of gamer culture and has implications for game localisation and translation studies

El profesorado, eje fundamental de la transformación de la docencia universitaria

El Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación presenta en este volumen los mejores trabajos de investigación educativa, tras una minuciosa revisión por pares llevada a cabo por especialistas de diversas universidades. En esta ocasión, el director de orquesta es el profesorado, artífice de llevar la batuta en el proceso de transformación de la docencia universitaria. La obra consta de 46 capítulos, organizados en diversas temáticas: 6 aportaciones muestran Estrategias y metodologías enfocadas a la transferencia del conocimiento y resultados de investigación sobre docencia en la Educación Superior; 12 están dedicados a Acciones educativas innovadoras en la Educación Superior; 1 describe Experiencias educativas derivadas de la evaluación y de los indicadores de la calidad docente en la Educación Superior; 11 textos tratan sobre Metodologías innovadoras basadas en el uso de las tecnologías (TIC o TAC) en la Educación Superior; 11 trabajos están dedicados a la Innovación docente en la Educación Superior en torno a la educación inclusiva, accesibilidad, género y educación para el desarrollo sostenible; y 5 textos detallan Acciones de apoyo, orientación y refuerzo al alumnado para la mejora de la formación y de los resultados en la Educación Superior

The Design of Narrative as an Immersive Simulation

This paper proposes a concept of narrative as the design of an immersive simulation to be experienced by the interactor in a video game. We face this narrative status as the ongoing shift of a process faced with the nature of the video game format: in one side, the immersive nature of character-oriented games, and on the other, the simulative nature of god games and such. We believe the combination of these two features allows for the emergence of a new and promising narrative game format