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Albert in Africa: online role-playing and lessons from improvisational theatre

Published: 01 July 2005 Publication History

Abstract

RPGs (role playing games) and improvisational theatre have some obvious similarities. Both require the participants to work together in real-time to construct dynamic narrative elements. Seeing communication in terms of ongoing narrative contracts is a well-accepted principle of improvisational theatre [Johnstone 1981]. The recipient of the offer can either accept the offer, block it, or a make counter-offer; and good improvisational theatre's golden rule is "never block an offer." This article describes a study of subjects engaged in a controlled online role-playing "encounter." The encounter is entitled "Albert in Africa;" the study draws on the previously described fun unification model [Newman 2004]. In this article, subjects' individual predispositions and responses are correlated with the number of acceptances, blocks, and counter-offers they made during their encounter. From this emerges a view of the complex interactions that make up the simple universal construct of fun in an RPG environment and the identification of certain combinations of predisposition and "environmental affordances" which act as predictors of the subjects' fun response.

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      cover image Computers in Entertainment
      Computers in Entertainment   Volume 3, Issue 3
      Theoretical and Practical Computer Applications in Entertainment
      July 2005
      141 pages
      EISSN:1544-3574
      DOI:10.1145/1077246
      Issue’s Table of Contents

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      Association for Computing Machinery

      New York, NY, United States

      Publication History

      Published: 01 July 2005
      Published in CIE Volume 3, Issue 3

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      Author Tags

      1. fun
      2. online communication
      3. role-playing games

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