Amusement Games
Story and Interactive Entertainment
Story and Interactive Entertainment
When you hear someone mention interactive entertainment, what comes to mind? If you have ever played video games as a child or if you have been to the movies, you might have come across terms like action games, puzzles, card games and so on. However, what does this term really mean and how do we define it?
Interactivity can refer to anything from card games, to board games, to role-playing or any kind of interactive entertainment where the player's actions actually affect the game itself. More commonly, interactive entertainment has been used to describe computer games, or any other kinds of multimedia interactive entertainment where the activities and outcomes are entirely user driven. For example, movies, television shows, interactive books, etc.
So, just how do we make the distinction between interactive and other kinds of entertainment? As previously mentioned, it is very important to keep the interaction between the players central. This is because storytelling works differently than other kinds of interactive entertainment. When you create an interactive book or movie, you still need to make the plot points and the main characters central, because without these plot points, there will be no story, no drive, no motivation and no strong character.
So how do you define interactive entertainment and how do you make it distinguished from other forms? The difference between a story and a video game, for example, is that you could say that the player's experience of the story is influenced by the plot, the consequences of the plot, and so on, whereas the case with video games is that you are playing a virtual dog in a virtual environment. Therefore, while you can easily influence the plot and the driving of the story in a game, you cannot actively influence any of the other factors of that game world, unless you want to mess with the world created by the programmers. This is one of the fundamental differences between story and video game world and it underlines the importance of storytelling and of course, the importance of innovation in the case of video games as well.
The next step is to make sure that the interactive entertainment has a strong central character. For example, if you want to drive the plot in Gone Home, then you need to make sure that there is a strong central character and you also need to indicate that character's emotions. However, you do not need to specify every single detail of the central character; you just need to indicate that certain events are going to take place and you need to indicate when those events are taking place, so that the player knows what is happening.
Does this mean that it is not possible anymore to tell a story and to have a plot in interactive media? Certainly not, but you have to use the medium of writing and you have to specify a plot and you have to make sure that the plot is very clear. That is the difference between a story which is told through text and a story which is told through graphics. When you get into the details of the plot, which is again another very important thing, you will see that many people find it difficult to understand the game, but they also find it easy to understand the plot. If you follow these rules you will be able to play Gone Home and to enjoy the fun that is associated with this fantastic interactive entertainment.
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