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Towards a Theoretical Framework for Interactive Digital Narrative

  • Conference paper
Interactive Storytelling (ICIDS 2010)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 6432))

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Abstract

The emerging artistic practice of interactive narrative in digital media marks a profound departure from traditional narrative. The application of traditional narrative theory for interactive narrative is problematic, since the affordances of digital media challenge many underlying assumptions of theories related to non-digital media. This paper proposes a theoretical framework for interactive storytelling, which addresses these concerns by foregrounding system (the digital artifact) and process (the user interacting with the system) over the product-centered view of legacy media. On this basis, protostory, narrative design, and narrative vectors are proposed as new terms to more adequately describe the structure of narrative in interactive digital storytelling. This move is also relevant for practical design given the influence theoretical concepts have on concrete implementations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Literature, Communication and Culture, Georgia Institute of Technology, 686 Cherry St., Atlanta, Georgia, USA, 30332

    Hartmut Koenitz

Authors
  1. Hartmut Koenitz
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot Watt University, EH14 4AS, Edinburgh, UK

    Ruth Aylett

  2. School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot Watt University, EH14 4AS, Edinburgh, UK

    Mei Yii Lim

  3. School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, EH 14 4AS, Edinburgh, UK

    Sandy Louchart

  4. Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Freyung 6/6, 1010, Vienna, Austria

    Paolo Petta

  5. School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 85 Fifth Street NW, 30308, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Mark Riedl

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© 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Koenitz, H. (2010). Towards a Theoretical Framework for Interactive Digital Narrative. In: Aylett, R., Lim, M.Y., Louchart, S., Petta, P., Riedl, M. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6432. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16638-9_22

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-16638-9_22

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-16637-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-16638-9

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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