introduction multimedia
[] readme preface 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 appendix checklist powerpoint resources director

talk show tell print

research directions -- narrative structure

 Where do we go from here? What is the multimedia computer, if not a new medium? To close this section on multimedia authoring, let us reconsider in what way the networked multimedia computer differs from other media, by taking up the theme of convergence again. The networked multimedia computer seems to remediate all other media. Or, in the words of  [Hamlet]:

convergence

(p. 27) ... merging previously disparate technologies of communication and representation into a single medium.

The networked computer acts like a telephone in offering one-to-one real-time communication, like a television in broadcasting moving pictures, like an auditorium in bringing groups together for lectures and discussion, like a library in offering vast amounts of textual information for reference, like a museum in its ordered presentation of visual information, like a billboard, a radio, a gameboard and even like a manuscript in its revival of scrolling text.

In  [Hamlet], an analysis is given of a great variety of computer entertainment applications, varying from shoot-em-up games to collaborative interactive role playing.  [Hamlet] identifies four essential properties that make these applications stand out against the entertainment offered by other media, which include books and TV. Two key properties determine the interactive nature of computer entertainment applications:

interactive


All applications examined in  [Hamlet] may be regarded as 'programmed media', for which interactivity is determined by 'procedural rules'. With agency is meant that the user can make active choices and thus influence the course of affairs, or at least determine the sequence in which the material is experienced.

Another common characteristic of the applications examined is what  [Hamlet] calls immersiveness. Immersiveness is determined by two other key properties:

immersive


All applications are based on some spatial metaphor. Actually, many games operate in 'levels' that can be accessedonly after demonstrating a certain degree of mastery. Networked computer applications allow for incorporating an almost unlimited amount of information. Some of the information might be open-ended, with storylines that remain unfinished. Closure, then, is achieved simply by exhaustive exploration or diminishing attention.

multimedia authoring

Coming back to the question what the 'new medium', that is the networked multimedia computer, has to offer from the perspective of multimedia authoring, two aspects come to the foreground:

multimedia authoring


  • narrative format
  • procedural authorship
The narrative format is incredibly rich, offering all possibilities of the multimedia computer, including 3D graphics, real-time sound, text. In short, everything up to virtual reality. But perhaps the most distinguishing feature of the new medium is that true authorship requires both artistic capabilities as well as an awareness of the computational power of the medium. That is to say, authorship also means to formulate generic computational rules for telling a story while allowing for interactive interventions by the user. Or, as phrased in  [Hamlet], the new cyberbard must create prototypical stories and formulaic characters that, in some way, lead their own life and tell their stories following their innate (read: programmed) rules. In section 7-3 and appendix platform, we will present a framework that may be used as a testbed for developing programmed narrative structures with embodied agents as the main characters.
[] readme preface 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 appendix checklist powerpoint resources director
eliens@cs.vu.nl

draft version 1 (16/5/2003)