Author Archives: Steve

Politics and Interactivity

Interactivity is an interesting and volatile issue. I’m excited because Chris Crawford’s Storytronics seems close to realization and hopefully some revelations along with it. My connection to the idea of an interactive story–where resolutions may be affected by reader protagonists–is spatial in the sense that people can arrange their world at small and large scales. We interact with the world at several levels: psychologically, cognitively, emotively, and kinetically. Some experiences are passive, others more agressive in terms of imprinting ourselves onto surfaces. I consider building a wall as an intensely un-interactive, whereas building a conversation, exchanging gifts, or sharing an experience are highly interactive because in these three cases I am in the presence of agency with which I must negociate.

If the stones fall, they don’t laugh at my broken fingers. How about being chased by hornets? They have minds of their own, right? Obviously a person can’t stand their ground and reason with them. These are really passive or reactive situations in a context of interactivity as a means of describing the affective quality of experience. But this may also be a distinction among technologies. A book-based novel can be manipulated, but it’s protagonist, Arthur, for example, cannot be undone from the book. In the book, we experience the story by exploring it, and that’s exactly what we should be doing with it. The right novel can change the reader. In this case, the meaning of the book or its interpretive depth (our cognitive interactions) has nothing to do with its proportional interactivity. Does interpretative depth depend upon the apparatus?

I wonder if this has anything to do with systems of politics and governing. Democracy, broadly speaking, would appear to have a high degreee of interactivity since people can directly shape its outcome, whereas a totalitarian system would have low degree if confined to the definition offered above.

Test Goes Public

This weblog, dedicated to course material and conveyance (at least thus far), is now in the workable stage with feeds entering the sidebar and information content continually being added. I’m finding the theme somewhat confusing with staggered subject clusters, hindering contrasts between link and headings, and just odd dynamics between paragraphs. It’s not what I like in terms of presentation, but for now it must do till more design time can be put into the complete package.

Goals

What is it with psychology, especially as it relates to team sport. On Friday, Mexico goes 0/0 against Angola. In the first 15 second of the match Mexico nearly scores. From then on, for the next ninety minutes, the match is as flat as the bottom of a tire. My favorite match of the World Cup thus far was the 1/0 win by Germany over Poland. In this match, 90 minutes of round, intense play flash by and Germany scores a goal in the final minute or so.

So it calls for what ifs. What if Mexico had just slowly moved into play. And so forth.

I remember beginning a tennis match and heading toward the net. I prep. The ball’s perfect. A low, mistimed lob. I figure I’ll slam the ball so hard it’ll bound and go over the opposing fense. Instead, I cream it into the net tape with a big slap. From then on, I can only think how that net cheated me out of an easy point. I fret about such a stupid decision. Could have simply eased the ball over for a solid point, perhaps up 30-Love. Keep my mind on things. Problem is, one point like this can decide the match either way: it gives me momentum if won. Lost, it gives the opponent wiggle room.

It happens all the time. It’s like setting the tone early in a story. Such a thing can shape the players on a team, as it shapes character. The team itself takes on the tone, the theme, the oppressiveness of squint vision, a negative zone where everyone waits in hush. “My legs are a little tired,” says a player. “Mine too,” another answers. Neither say what really hurts, neither hints at what’s really going on.

I still kick myself for missing that overhead. I still blame the net.

3ks and Goals

Susan Gibb informs me of her three thousandth post on Spinning. That’s lots of writing. We are a writing culture. I love her sidebar lists, too.

By the way, Mexico’s goals today against Iran were positiviely surgical, from Bravo’s first ankle slide to Zinha’s head shot.

Beautiful to watch.

Design Bits

Just tried out this bit from Infinity and was astounded by the difference in quality from another I own. I practiced the routing on a piece of soft wood and the bit–six tools in one–sliced through the stock like butter. It’s big, sharp, and much heavier than my wife’s cell phone.

Comparisons are instructive here. One bit may struggle through the wood because it isn’t balanced enough or heavy enough, while another, about the same cost, reflects another kind of thinking, strategy, and study. Thousands of years of thinking can be reflected in that one object, including the physics of rotating objects. Machine thinking is an important human quality, especially if it respects the thinking potential of the user, not just his or her motions through space. It makes no difference whether it’s software, saws, buildings, or a national policy or law.

Yes, the bad guy is dead. The design of that destruction, however, leads where? Perhaps unforseen mistakes of aim.

Scripting Space

A space, perhaps a corner of a room, is significant for what you can do with it or in it. For example, you might think of any activity as a degree of freedom.

Let’s say it’s making rice. First you need water and something to put it into and something to heat it with. You need a pan, rice, water, and heat. Two cups of water per cup of rice. Fill a pan with a little less that two cups of water. Fill a cup with a little more rice. If the rice is parboiled you can go about twenty minutes. I do mine with a small palm of salt, a dash of pepper, and a couple of sprays of olive oil. Jasmine rice. Nutty, fluffy, and dry.

The directions on a bag of rice never work well because conditions matter and change. Gas heats differently, for example, and the pan–thin or thick bottomed–affects the outcome.

In IF, as John will attest to, cooking rice or tea makes for interesting thinking about degrees of freedom that require method, as in putting together a film. Even the lightest footprint of work demands a plan, plot, purpose, and nuanced adjustments.

Let’s make some tea. It’s not really that easy.

In any physical space, such as a game or digital adventure, it seems to me that options must be physical–you can’t think an option or wish a way out. The way out is a physical entity. But you could think about an option of programming and development that initiates as a reaction, like a cell kicked into action with an electric jump.

You could start with a hall. If you move down the hall, a language could react to that action, a language behind that monitoring the potentials, a listener and a builder. If one moves down a hall, allowed as a starting point, perhaps a few doors may be in order. The prescripted “you,” touches the door and the program builds something from libraries. “You” open the door. What’s there?

Dreamfall and Story Scripting

There are some very nice scripted story sequences in Dreamfall. Zoe Castillo, the protagonist, finds herself in a watery region of Arcadia. She traverses bridges to the edge of a wooden landing and sees a flare rise. A few moments later she catches two people on another far platform. She shouts, “April.”

The point of view in the adventure shifts to April Ryan’s. A conversation on a platform. April loses the argument and makes her way to a familiar friend, who provides her advise. She tells April that a messenger has come from Marcuria. April wends her way to make the meeting and walks to the edge of the predisclosed place. A flare goes up. She turns to find Kian, the assassin.

The POV shifts to Kian’s. He sees a flare go up. He finds April’s friend, who informs him that “The Scorpion” is available. He makes his way to the meeting place and there meets April.

As Kian and April speak, you can see Zoe traverse a far boardwalk, come to a stop, watch. Suddenly, time makes sense. Space and time square. Very nice.

I enjoyed this POV shifting. It made for an interesting pace, eased tension, and provided opportunity to wonder about the role of time in the developing story. Often I’d kick back to another point of view with a better idea about context. This POV shifting didn’t compromise suspense or suspension of belief.

This scripted plotting, however, came with a cost to a sense of shaping the story by player choice. While involved in Dreamfall, I had to give in to the fact that I walking through a controlled set of paths. Once you leave Zoe and go to April, Zoe is lost to you. April, Kian, and Zoe are embodied by “you.” “You” move April and Kian “sometimes.” “You” move Zoe all the time since she is the protagonist.

Sequences such as the one described above can be scripted without having to worry so much about degrees of interactivity. Dreamfall is what I would classify as “low-level” interactivity but the story and character interaction is strong enough to make things interesting. Thus Dreamfall often feels like digital movie, novel, and adventure genre. The rises in action and eases in tension also have the feel of digital theater and can be quite touching.

I enjoyed Zoe as a character. She begins as a fairly normal college-aged young woman properly gizmoed out and ready to face the world with her “mobile.” She finds herself in a tough spot and grows into the story and keeps going (if “you” keeps at it).

Dreamfall worries about story not so much with interactivity. Story itself is also creatively technical.

Dreamfall and The Sense of Inside

I’ve worked a little way through Dreamfall and it has R Tørnquist written all over it, a subtle sensibility of choice about what is and isn’t important to establishing a flow and feel in a world of vulnerability. There are new elements here: more control over the protagonist, a speedier interactivity, and darned good atmosphere.

I’ve had a few situations where combate was required. Imagine a Kate Walker who can launch some kicks and block the antagonist’s punches, and who feels bad about having to “knock a person out.”

Traffic

This article in the Courant. comes as no surprise. But cause can be tricky. (And the slow load is a metaphor for more of the same.)

I’d suggest that a lot of the traffic issues in Hartford have to do with the issue of work, geographical scale, road type, and a whole mess of other potentials.

Much more to learn here.

What’s Coming

Already looking to the Fall. What’s to come for Contemporary Literature:

Moore and Lloyd’s V for Vendetta
Luis Fernando Verissimo’s Borges and the Eternal Orangutans
Shelley Jackson’s Patchwork Girl

Look for posts to come on New Media preps. But look for an emphasis on system spaces and architectures of experience and a new course in the works called Digital Narrative, whose content I’ll be exploring this summer.