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Digital Storytelling Susana Tosca IT University of Copenhagen

Digital Storytelling Susana Tosca IT University of Copenhagen. For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn. Narrative (narratology). Narrative fiction a succession of fictional events Causality is important, there is always time Distinction between story and plot (Forster)

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Digital Storytelling Susana Tosca IT University of Copenhagen

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  1. Digital Storytelling Susana ToscaIT University of Copenhagen

  2. For Sale: Baby shoes, never worn.

  3. Narrative (narratology) • Narrative fiction a succession of fictional events • Causality is important, there is always time • Distinction between story and plot (Forster) • The king died and then the queen died (story). • The king died and then the queen died of grief (plot). • Distinction between story (events in chronological order), text (discourse of telling) and narration (production-voice) (Genette)

  4. Story: events, characters, settings • Beginning/Middle/End (Aristotle) • Situation/Problem/Resolution (Todorov) • Functions of narrative (Propp) • The list: http://usp.nus.edu.sg/literature/theories/Propp.html • Characters presented through discourse • Characters have functions (Propp) • Settings vary in importance: from “set” to story world

  5. Digital Storytelling • Many forms: hypertexts, blog novels, experiments, computer game stories, interactive entertainment, alternate reality games • All are born and can only be experienced in the digital platform (interactivity, multimediality, etc.)

  6. Electronic Literature Collection Vol. 1 Vol. 2

  7. So what happens to linear plot in digital media? start start start

  8. Marie Laures interactive onion

  9. Ryan: Interactivity Internal Some computer games Classic adventure game holodeck Exploratory Ontological Choose YourOwnAdventure Hypertext The Sims External

  10. Today´s talk • Expansion of meaning: hypertext • Contraction of meaning: distributed narratives • Meaning + action: computer games

  11. hypertext Network afternoon

  12. hypertext

  13. hypertext afternoon, a story (Michael Joyce)

  14. hypertext afternoon, a story (Michael Joyce)

  15. hypertext afternoon, a story (Michael Joyce)

  16. hypertext some properties of hypertext • Hypertext users have to take action/decisions in order to advance through the text. • Hypertext lets users perceive processes instead of only finite results. • A hypertext's multilinear structure can be used to convey meaning. • A Pragmatics of links. (Tosca, 2000)

  17. hypertext the link - movements of meaning - lyrical quality to navigation

  18. hypertext my childhood days are gone, gone - My days of innocence are gone - My days of ingenuity are gone - My carefree days are gone

  19. hypertext my childhood days are gone, gone - My days of innocence are gone - My days of ingenuity are gone - My carefree days are gone mother’s death has taken all!

  20. distributed The Distributed Narrative (Walker 2003) Distribution of Authorship Distribution in Time Distribution in Space Distributed narratives don’t bring media together to make a total artwork. Distributed narratives explode the work altogether, sending fragments and shards across media, through the network and sometimes into the physical spaces that we live in. (Walker 2003)

  21. distributed authorship Fun to read? MUDs, MOOs Diego- Elves are wimps! I refuse to risk my life for you. Aradiel- Oh, bugger off, you do it for the money, not for us. Andune- Unless he apologizes I am not going anywhere. Julius- Apologize for what? The elves bit? Andune- Whatcha think? Julius sadly shakes his head. Diego caresses his axe provocatively. Don Diego- Make me, elf. Aradiel (OOC)- Oh, come on, sure you are not going to start with race again... Diego (OOC)- I’m a bloody dwarf, I am roleplaying. Andune (OOC)- It’s always the same, all because of that game where I killed you. Julius- Noble friends, let us not linger any longer... Aradiel leads Andune away from Diego by the arm and looks furiously at both. Aradiel- Can we move ON, PLEASE? If we don’t find the stupid maiden forget the next level, AND the gold.

  22. distributed in space Implementation, a novel

  23. Distributed in time

  24. Distributed! Cross Media

  25. game stories Creating worlds: what are games strongest at? Spaces and immersion vs retelling of stories

  26. game stories Creating worlds: what are games strongest at? Memorable characters

  27. game stories Player characters The strongest character: you Players “live” stories

  28. game stories Creating worlds: what are games strongest at? Atmospheres, feelings, strong emotions

  29. game stories Involved! Like the sunflower leaning towards the sun,So trivial is life.Let us retrace our steps,From which all this chaos derives.We have fallen,We have prospered.Among the distant suns we long to live,But do not realize the mistakes we have made.(…)Faith is what makes us stand united,Is what makes us survive.The nightmare is far from over.

  30. Reading Resident Evil Game reception process • Usability • Learning curve • Repertoire • Model Reader

  31. game stories Rethinking causality at the microlevel a quest (mission) is... for the designer a set of parameters in the game world (making use of the game’s rules and gameplay) that specifies the nature and order of events that make up a challenge for the player, including its resolution. a set of specific instructions for action, they can be as vague as a general goal (overthrow the evil king) or extremely precise (take this bucket to the well, fill it up and bring it back to me); after the quest has been completed it can be narrated as a story. for the player

  32. game stories Amnesia: The Dark Descent – the “vaccination” puzzle

  33. game stories Quest conclusions: structural • We can talk of a quest structure (designer’s plan) and a quest actualization (player’s experience) pure adventure games (progression) structure = actualization tellability (Ryan) ≠ actualization simulation and strategy elements (emergence) structure

  34. game stories Quest conclusions: semantic • We can talk of a quest meaning (designer’s plan) and a quest “reading” (player’s experience) adventure games (progression) structure = actualization The problem with MMORPGs ≠ actualization simulation and strategy elements (emergence) structure

  35. Bibliography - Tosca, Susana. 2000. “A Pragmatics of Links”. In Hypertext’00 Proceedings. N.Y.: ACM. - Tosca, Susana. 2001. “The Lyrical Quality of Links”. In Hypertext’01 Proceedings. N.Y.: ACM. - Tosca, Susana. Understanding Videogames. (With Jonas Heide Smith and Simon Egenfeldt Nielsen). London: Routledge. 2008. - Tosca, Susana. "Implanted Memories or the Illusion of Free Action". In Brooker, Will. The Blade Runner Experience. London: Wallflower Press. 2005. -Tosca, Susana. "Transmedial worlds - rethinking cyberworld design" (with Lisbeth Klastrup). In Proceedings International Conference on Cyberworlds 2004. Tokyo, 2004.-Tosca, Susana"Reading Resident Evil: Code Veronica X". In Proceedings of the Fifth International Digital Arts and Culture Conference, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia. May 19 - 23, 2003. -Tosca, Susana. "The Quest Problem in Computer Games". In Proceedings of TIDSE 2003, Darmstadt, Germany, March, 2003. - Walker, Jill. Distributed Narratives. 2004 “Telling Stories across networks”. Presented at AoIR 5.0, Brighton, September 21, 2004 (http://jilltxt.net/txt/Walker-AoIR-3500words.pdf)

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