The Performance of Interactive Narrative Experiences
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School of Media, Culture, and Creative Arts Department of Communication and Cultural Studies Techno-Historical Limits of the Interface: the Performance of Interactive Narrative Experiences Andrew Hutchison This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Curtin University of Technology June 2009 Declaration To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgment has been made. This thesis contains no material that has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. Signature: …………………………………………. Date: ………………………... 2 Abstract This thesis takes the position that current analyses of digitally mediated interactive experiences that include narrative elements often lack adequate consideration of the technical and historical contexts of their production. From this position, this thesis asks the question: how is the reader/player/user's participation in interactive narrative experiences (such as hypertext fiction, interactive fiction, computer games, and electronic art) influenced by the technical and historical limitations of the interface? In order to investigate this question, this thesis develops a single methodology from relevant media and narrative theory, in order to facilitate a comparative analysis of well known exemplars from distinct categories of digitally mediated experiences. These exemplars are the interactive fiction Adventure, the interactive art work Osmose, the hypertext fiction Afternoon, a story, and the computer/video games Myst, Doom, Half Life and Everquest. The main argument of this thesis is that the technical limits of new media experiences cause significant ‘gaps’ in the reader’s experience of them, and that the cause of these gaps is the lack of a dedicated technology for new media, which instead ‘borrows’ technology from other fields. These gaps are overcome by a greater dependence upon the reader’s cognitive abilities than other media forms. This greater dependence can be described as a ‘performance’ by the reader/player/user, utilising Eco’s definition of an ‘open’ work (Eco 21). This thesis further argues that the ‘mimetic’ and ‘immersive’ ambitions of current new media practice can increases these gaps, rather than overcoming them. The thesis also presents the case that these ‘gaps’ are often not caused by technical limits 3 in the present, but are oversights by the author/designers that have arisen as the product of a craft culture that has been subject to significant technical limitations in the past. Compromises that originally existed to overcome technical limits have become conventions of the reader/player/user’s interactive literacy, even though these conventions impinge on the experience, and are no longer necessary because of subsequent technical advances. As a result, current new media users and designers now think of these limitations as natural. This thesis concludes the argument by redefining ‘immersion’ as the investment the reader makes to overcome the gaps in an experience, and suggests that this investment is an important aspect of their performance of the work. 4 Acknowledgements My great thanks go to Ann McGuire, my supervisor for this thesis journey. Her advice has always been direct, powerful, challenging and productive. Her encouragement and understanding has also been a source of strength for me over the several years this project has taken. To my wife Karen. Quite apart from being a ‘PhD widow’ for almost the whole of our relationship, she has also endured two house renovations, produced two babies and suffered the misery and uncertainty of my life threatening illness during the course of this study. Words cannot describe the depth of my gratitude and admiration. The scholarship and camaraderie of the international community of researchers who make up the Digital Arts and Culture Conference series has been an amazing resource. They are a truly egalitarian, academically rigorous and totally cool gang of scholars, and they have inspired me. 5 Table of Contents Introduction................................................................................... 10 Background and Motivation ............................................................... 10 Value of this Research........................................................................ 14 Methodology....................................................................................... 16 Definitions .......................................................................................... 16 Limitations.......................................................................................... 19 Structure of the Thesis ....................................................................... 20 Chapter One: Literature Review........................................... 24 Interactivity and Performance ............................................................ 24 Narrative and Games .......................................................................... 27 Immersion........................................................................................... 30 Interface.............................................................................................. 32 Practice Perspective............................................................................ 35 Flexible Analytical Approaches ......................................................... 37 The ‘Holodeck Ideal’ of New Media.................................................. 39 Chapter Two: Methods ............................................................. 41 Structured Analytical Model .............................................................. 42 Modification of the Model ................................................................. 45 Reflective Analysis............................................................................. 49 Summary............................................................................................. 50 6 Chapter Three: Case Studies .................................................. 51 Adventure (1972 – 1976) ................................................................... 51 Afternoon, a story (1987) .................................................................. 60 Myst (1993) ....................................................................................... 66 Doom (1993) .................................................................................... 72 Osmose (1995) .................................................................................. 76 Half-Life (1998) ................................................................................ 80 EverQuest (1999 - current) ................................................................ 84 Summary ............................................................................................ 88 Chapter Four: Techno-Historical Limits ........................... 89 Defining ‘Game Aesthetics’ .............................................................. 90 Myst vs Doom .................................................................................. 91 Future Limits of Game Aesthetics ..................................................... 97 The Lack of AI, and Abundance of RI ............................................ 103 A New ‘Spectacular’ ....................................................................... 105 Summary .......................................................................................... 107 Chapter Five: Borrowed Technology ................................ 109 What Ever Happened to Virtual Reality? ........................................ 110 Borrowed Technology ..................................................................... 113 The Gulf to ‘Holodeck’ Virtual Reality .......................................... 117 Summary .......................................................................................... 118 Chapter Six: Comparisons .................................................... 119 Results of the Model Application .................................................... 119 Highly Realised ............................................................................... 122 Osmose – Highly Undetermined ..................................................... 124 Everquest - Significant User Contribution ...................................... 125 Ryan’s Notions of ‘Immersive’ ....................................................... 127 The Text Level as Interface ............................................................. 129 The Significance of Non-significance ............................................. 130 Summary .......................................................................................... 131 7 Chapter Seven: Immersion and Embodiment ............... 132 Visual Embodiment of the Reader/player/user ................................ 133 Behavioural Embodiment of the Reader/player/user ...................... 139 Inconsistencies in the Virtual World ............................................... 142 The Unfinished Works .................................................................... 147 Mimetic vs Immersive ..................................................................... 149 Summary .......................................................................................... 153 Chapter Eight: Immersion and Natural Language ...... 154 Immersion ........................................................................................ 155 A New Definition