BIROn - Birkbeck Institutional Research Online

    Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author

    Hammond, S. and Pain, H. and Smith, Tim J. (2007) Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author. In: AISB '07: Artificial and Ambient Intelligence, 2-4 Apr 2007, Newcastle, UK.

    [img]
    Preview
    Text
    9955.pdf - Published Version of Record

    Download (6MB) | Preview

    Abstract

    The question motivating this review paper is, how can computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn- ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory, and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional question driving research in interactive narrative is, ‘how can an in- teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?’ This question derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that, as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency. Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip- ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based on Brecht’s Epic Theatre and Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed are reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in- teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences
    Research Centres and Institutes: Moving Image, Birkbeck Institute for the (BIMI), Brain and Cognitive Development, Centre for (CBCD)
    Depositing User: Administrator
    Date Deposited: 16 Jun 2014 12:50
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:11
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/9955

    Statistics

    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    1,062Downloads
    6 month trend
    684Hits

    Additional statistics are available via IRStats2.

    Archive Staff Only (login required)

    Edit/View Item Edit/View Item