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The Complexity Analysis Matrix

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Interactive Storytelling (ICIDS 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 13138))

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Abstract

This paper outlines an approach to describing complexity representation in interactive narratives, in order to understand and evaluate how narrative serious games and similar forms might scaffold cognitive reduction of complexity. We adapt Yoon et al.’s media-agnostic framework for complexity learning to the interactive narrative context. Using the userly text model, we distinguish between first-order (observing) and second-order (enactive) subject positions and the distinct types of knowledge that they afford. The resulting matrix allows us to comparatively describe three components of a complexity triad - complexity in the (story)world, in the artefact and in subjective understanding. This makes it possible to assess and compare differences between the complexity representations within each component and thus evaluate complexity reduction as a function of the distance between the complexity representations within the artefact and within the subject. With this matrix, we begin to address the challenge of interactively narrating complexity as a problem of learning effectiveness, integrating insights from narratology, complexity theory and the learning sciences.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The encoded storyworld is similar to Koenitz’ protostory [25], and differs in its internal abstractions, since the userly text model attempts to also account, through the added strategic abstraction level, for the instantiation of non-narrative discursive strategies and for the potential of a text to shift between different discursive strategies (for example, from chronological recitation to stream of consciousness) in response to patterns of user input. This aspect is particularly relevant for complexity representation in a post-PC landscape because it allows for a description of how different interaction models might be coupled with one encoded storyworld, not just within a single artefact (shifting strategies, but now of interaction), but also across distinct artefacts (as could be the case in a transmedial implementation).

  2. 2.

    See [30, 31] for different takes on double hermeneutics in games and [32] for an extended discussion of double hermeneutic circles and spirals.

  3. 3.

    Visit [14] for further resources, including a filled-out matrix describing the serious training game Mission Zhobia [34].

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant from the Dutch Creative Industries Fund.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Utrecht University, Muntstraat 2a, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Noam Knoller

  2. HKU University of the Arts, Nieuwekade 1, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Christian Roth

  3. &Ranj Serious Games, Lloydstraat 21-M, 3024, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Dennis Haak

Authors
  1. Noam Knoller
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  2. Christian Roth
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  3. Dennis Haak
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Alex Mitchell

  2. Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Mirjam Vosmeer

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Knoller, N., Roth, C., Haak, D. (2021). The Complexity Analysis Matrix. In: Mitchell, A., Vosmeer, M. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2021. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 13138. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92300-6_48

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92300-6_48

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