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Summary Interactive media and entertainment
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Interactive media and entertainment
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Samenvatting Interactive Media & Entertainment2020 - 2021
Zelfstudie
- The covered subjects will be taught based on insights from scientific literature (i.e. academic
articles and book chapters)
- Materials will be made available on Ufora before every lecture
- Process this literature in more detail, independently
o Opportunity to ask questions during class!
Les 1: Introduction
1.1 Introduction to interactive media and entertainment
Interactive media & The use of interactive platforms for entertainment purposes
Entertainment
Entertainment = A form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience,
that gives pleasure and delight
Forms:
Exhibition entertainment (e.g. amusement parks, fairs,
museums)
Live entertainment (e.g. comedy, theatre, opera)
(Mass) media entertainment (e.g. film & tv, music, literature,
digital games)
Can also have a serious purpose (achieving insight, intellectual growth)
and or be used for other, more pragmatic goals: advertise and promote,
teach and train, inform…
Interactive media = Media that allow for interactivity with the audience
inter: “between”, implying a two-way exchange
active: “doing something”, being involved/engaged in the
activity
Active relationship between the audience and the medium
content
Digital media!
Interactivity is one of two possible ways of relating to medium content: interactive media ↔ relating to it
passively = traditional media
= Profoundly different experiences:
Passively enjoying a form of entertainment: you are merely watching, listening, reading (+ making
connections in your mind, questioning things)
Interactively enjoying a form of entertainment: you become a participant, you can control what
happens, how the story unfolds, the choices that are made, ...
Interactive media is still very young, only coming into being in the mid-twentieth century with the development
of computer technology still growing and evolving
= Interactive media is a vast field:
Internet & social media
e.g. Rick & Morty game on Instagram: Rickstaverse: you can go through lots of different worlds by
clicking on the pictures; woman who buys Chewbacca mask; …
Mobile devices and apps
e.g. Disney Junior Appisodes, Angela (the cat who talks), …
Interactive tv
e.g. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch: you choose what happens to the main character
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,Samenvatting Interactive Media & Entertainment
2020 - 2021
Smart toys & Robots
e.g. Furby, Star Wars Robot
Digital games
Augmented & Virtual Reality
e.g. Pokémon Go, VR-games
1.1.1 Types of interactive media
- Cognitive interactivity
o Interpretative participation
o E.g. in story
- Functional interactivity
o Utilitarian use (ex. Tv remote control)
o e.g. TV remote control
- Explicit interactivity
o Exerting influence on shaping media content
o e.g. following hyperlinks, playing a video game
- Beyond-the-object interactivity
o Interacting with media outside the content itself (ex. Participating in fan culture)
o e.g. by participating in fan culture, fan communities, create fan art
1.1.2 Interactive entertainment: choice and control
Offers members of the audience two gifts:
The ability to control aspects of the medium content = agency (!!)
Agency, in turn, gives the ability to make choices and to see and enjoy the results of those choices
Each user in control of his own path through the material. Interactivity can’t truly be a mass audience
experience
o vs. movies, novels,… which show the same unvarying story time after time and to every
viewer/reader
1.1.3 Interactive media and the audience
The way one experiences interactive entertainment is so different from the way passive entertainment is
experienced that we rarely even use the word “audience” when we are talking about interactive works
Singular rather than plural, e.g. player, visitor, user
Because each user is in control of his/her own path through the material, interactivity can never truly
be a mass audience experience (vs. movies, novels, … which show the same unvarying story time after
time and to every viewer/reader)
1.2 Interactive media and entertainment: field and study
Field of communication sciences: increasing interest in interactive media and entertainment
- Digital communication takes over most areas of traditional communication
- Rise of new forms of interactive media
- Divisions with specific focus on interactive media and entertainment
o Communication and technology
Search about roles played by information and communication technologies (ICTs)
in the processes of human communication. CAT seeks to enhance theory and
methodology pertaining to adoption, usage, message content, communication
networks, effects, and policy of ICTs.
o Game studies
The study of games and the game experience offers opportunities for the study of
human communication, involving multidisciplinary approaches that merge the
disciplines of conventional communication studies and research, arts and visual
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,Samenvatting Interactive Media & Entertainment
2020 - 2021
design, cognitive studies, computer sciences, cultural studies, engineering social
sciences, health sciences, and information design.
o Information systems
Information Systems is concerned with information, language and cognitive
systems. Its central goal is promoting the development of general theories of
complex systems and quantitative methodologies for communication research
within a variety of domains. This focus brings together people with a wide range of
interests and specialties. Member interests include: studies of information flows,
the human interface with communication technology, and life in an information
society: cognition, including information processing of direct and mediated
communication and the construction of cognitive models; artificial intelligence
applications in language, logic, and reasoning; modeling and study of interaction
systems.
Research Areas
Multidisciplinary research field. There are 2 Important areas:
- Human-computer interaction
o Focus on the design and use of computer technology
Interfaces between users and computers
Mehods and theories with regards to:
Designing new computer interfaces + optimizing the design of existing
computer interfaces
o Learnability, findability, efficiency of use,...
Evaluating interfaces for their usability and user experience
Studying human-computer use and its sociocultural implications
...
- Media and entertainment studies
o Focus on the content, history and effects of media (here: digital, interactive media)
Psychological effects: negative (e.g. addiction, aggression) and positive (e.g.
problem-solving, meaning-making)
Motivations for media use
Identity/identification
Gender studies
Community building
Entertainment-education
Marketing
...
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, Samenvatting Interactive Media & Entertainment
2020 - 2021
1.3 Digital games
Virtual Environments “A digital space in which a user’s movements are tracked and
his/her surroundings rendered, or digitally composed and
displayed to the senses, in accordance with those movements”
For example: digital games, virtual worlds
Movement is tracked by means of keyboard and mouse,
game controller,…
Digital games - Interactive programs for one or more players, meant to
provide entertainment at the least, and quite possibly
more.
- They are an adaptation of “traditional game systems”, with
rules, player representations, and environments managed
through electronic means (instead of a limited board, we
can explore a virtual environment
Virtual world Computer-based simulated environments that (generally) allow
for multiple users who can create a personal character (i.e.
avatar), and explore the virtual world, participate in its activities
and communicate with others.
For ex: Second life, sims: people can do whatever they want
1.3.1 Digital games: interactivity
Digital games = the pinnacle (het hoogtepunt) of interactivity in a medium!
There are different types of interactive experiences that are possible within a medium, and
digital games are able to incorporate all of them
o Stimulus and response: the entertainment offers a stimulus and the user responds,
or the other way around
o Navigation: the user can move through the program in a free-form manner; he/she
can choose what to do
o Control over objects: the user can control virtual objects
o Communication and exchange of information: the user can communicate and
exchange information with other characters (human- and computer-controlled)
o Acquisition: the user can collect information, virtual objects or assets, can upgrade in
status, ...
o Narrative: the user can participate in a fictional narrative
o Creation of an avatar: the user can create an avatar to represent him/her in the
interactive environment, including e.g. its physical appearance, personality traits,
and skills
1.3.2 Digital Games: profitability and popularity
Digital games are becoming increasingly important in people’s lives: they are now the most profitable
and popular form of entertainment...
Largest entertainment sector: gaming is bigger than it ever was; bigger than every other form
of entertainment
Best-selling, most lucrative entertainment products:
o GTA V
o Fortnite
o Candy Crush Saga
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