Category: Creative Practice & Strategy

The notion of closure in interactive narratives has been explored by, among others, hypertext-response theorist Jane Yellowless Douglas. In her paper, “How Do I Stop this Thing?”: Closure and Indeterminacy in Interactive Narratives, Douglas analyses the assumptions we make as readers and how we long for closure, even if the text doesn’t supply it:

Even in interactive narratives, we as readers never encounter anything quite so definitive as the words “The End,” or the last page of a story or novel, our experience of the text is not only guided but enabled by our sense of the “ending” awaiting us. (p. 40)

The idea of closure on the web is even more of an issue. Indeed, with the narrative expansion of worlds by producers as well as fans now, there is no such thing as closure of a storyworld anymore. But what about the author’s need for closure? I am on many social networking sites, I blog here and at other places and I must admit that I sometimes fantasize about not having a blog. I am always amazed when I meet people who don’t blog and try to remember what that was like. Bloggers sometimes go on hiatus, but they very rarely end. This is why I was quite surprised, pleasantly surprised, to see this note left on a blog I was chasing up an old link from Rob Coverfish:

 

I say pleasantly surprised because I sometimes would love to just close shop and because I had (thankfully) taken a screenshot of the article I was after, so there was no loss to my archives. Good on you Glark. May you rest in peace.

Reference: Douglas, J. Y. (1994). “How Do I Stop this Thing?”: Closure and Indeterminacy in Interactive Narratives. Hypert/Text/Theory. G. L. (ed.). Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press: 159-188. [pdf]

I just discovered through Ilya’s post a study of the Perception of the Presence of Brands in Second Life by CB News in partnership with Repères Second Life. It is an excellent study because it gives some spot on advice about brands in SL but also because it provides a snapshot of SL residents. Here are some of the findings:

The main thing learnt from the poll was that the presence of RL brands is perceived as positive by a great majority of Second Life residents: 66% believe that the presence of RL brands has a positive impact on SL, whereas 22% believe that RL brands have no impact on SL, and only 11% believe that RL brands have a negative impact on SL.

Some of the negatives about brands:

Continue reading “Major Study on Brands in Second Life“

As many of you would be aware, I wrote the section on ARGs & Academia for the International Game Developers Association Alternate Reality Game SIG Whitepaper. *whew! * I looked around far and wide to find academics and educators who are looking at ARGs and presented what was at the time a pretty comprehensive listing of people in the area. Since then there has been a great many more researchers who have either made themselves known or commenced studying ARGs. There has been more, however, educators who are looking at ARGs as a pedagogical device in secondary and tertiary education and the public sector. Because of the publicity around the whitepaper they joined the IGDA ARG SIG listerv, ready for conversation, sharing and advice…which is great. The list is unfortunately, not as active as it could be.

There are a few reasons I could posit, one being that there are soooo many people on the list that people feel reluctant to share to such a massive audience. Another reason is that the area is so new everyone feels a bit out of water. Who knows what the reasons are? What I do know is I receive alot of emails offlist from academics and educators wanting to talk and share. So, in the interests of facilitating some good academic exchange I’ve started another listserv for ARG Academic Researchers and Educators. I hope the list is seen as being complementary to the current SIG list and not a competitor since both can co-exist quite well. Indeed, the fact that more specialised lists are needed is a sign that the area is maturing. Hey, the new list may not even work as a conversation space either…but I hope it does…because I’m keen to share and hear other people’s thoughts and knowledge. So, without further delay, here is the link to signup to the

Alternate Reality Game Researcher & Educator List

http://lists.transmodiology.org/listinfo.cgi/argresearch-transmodiology.org