Towards Measuring Consistency in Transmedial Narratives - Jonathan Barbara - ICIDS 2015
•Als PPTX, PDF herunterladen•
1 gefällt mir•343 views
A presentation of my paper at the 8th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling
Empfohlen
Weitere ähnliche Inhalte
Ähnlich wie Towards Measuring Consistency in Transmedial Narratives - Jonathan Barbara - ICIDS 2015
Ähnlich wie Towards Measuring Consistency in Transmedial Narratives - Jonathan Barbara - ICIDS 2015 (20)
Kürzlich hochgeladen
Kürzlich hochgeladen (20)
Towards Measuring Consistency in Transmedial Narratives - Jonathan Barbara - ICIDS 2015
- 1. Towards Measuring Consistency in Transmedial Narratives Jonathan Barbara jbarbara@stmartins.edu 1
- 2. Background: UX Research Board Games vs Video Games
- 3. Transmedia Storytelling StoryWorld Story Story Story Story Story Story Novel Novel Comics Film GameFilm IDS Narrative Experience TV Series 3
- 4. Narrative Consistency • Why is it difficult to measure? • Why is it important? • How to measure it? 4
- 5. Consistency? Narrative Timeline 5 Overarching Narrative The Transmedia Orchestra
- 6. Measuring User Experience • Methodologies – Heuristics – Questionnaires – Psychophysiological • Limitations – Single session – Game mechanics – Social context 6
- 7. Consistency in terms of… • StoryWorld • Timeline & Events • Characters • Agency 7
- 8. Levels of Consistency • Consistency • Cohesion/Coherence • Multiple Distinct Stories • Infidelity and Fanagement • Conflicting Experience 8
- 10. Example Consistency Scale: across Dimension per Experience Experiences StoryWorld Consistent Cohesive Cohesive Cohesive Inconsistent Events Consistent Cohesive Irrelevant Cohesive Conflicting Characters Consistent Cohesive Irrelevant Cohesive Conflicting Agency Cohesive Cohesive Irrelevant Conflicting Inconsistent 10
- 12. Discussion • A tool for IDS and narrative games that share a transmedial world with other narrative experiences – Analysis stage – Prototype stage 12
- 13. Pilot Research Application • Analysis of movie game reviews – Coding of review into transmedia elements • Into one of the five ratings on the scale – Collection of keywords used in review • E.g. ‘authentic’, ‘return to Middle Earth’, ‘embellishment’ • Scale analysis to check for reliability (N > 160) • Validity against review scores • Questionnaire from keywords • Heuristics 13
- 14. Scope of Consistency Analysis • At individual character, event, context level – Too granular ? • At dimensional level – Will inconsistencies outshine consistencies? • At experience level – Too generic ? Individual characters and events Per Dimension (Storyworld,Events, Characters, Agency) Overall Experience 14
- 15. Summary • What is Narrative Consistency across transmedia? • Why and how do we measure it? • Consistency Scale proposal 15
- 16. References• Barbara, Jonathan. "Measuring User Experience in Board Games." International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations (IJGCMS) 6.1 (2014): 64-79. • Barbara, Jonathan. "Measuring User Experience in Multiplayer Board Games.“ Games and Culture (2015): DOI:10.1177/1555412015593419 • Klastrup, Lisbeth, and Susana Tosca. "Transmedial worlds-rethinking cyberworld design.“ IEEE, 2004. • Breum, Annette Corpuz, and Hanna Skov Midtgaard. "Story Bridges in Transmedia." Unpublished Master's Thesis. Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark (2013). • Rowe, J.P., McQuiggan, S.W., Lester, J.C.: Narrative presence in intelligent learning environments. In: Working notes of the 2007 AAAI fall symposium on intelligent narrative technologies. pp. 126–133 (2007). • Riedl, Mark O., and R. Michael Young. "Character-focused narrative generation for execution in virtual worlds." Virtual Storytelling. Using Virtual RealityTechnologies for Storytelling. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2003. 47-56. • Pizzi, D., Cavazza, M.: From debugging to authoring: Adapting productivity tools to narrative content description. In: Interactive Storytelling. pp. 285–296. Springer (2008). • Murray, Janet Horowitz. Hamlet on the holodeck: The future of narrative in cyberspace. Simon and Schuster, 1997. • Dena, C.: Transmedia practice: Theorising the practice of expressing a fictional world across distinct media and environments, http://elmcip.net/critical-writing/transmedia-practice-theorising-practice-expressing-fictional-world-across-distinct, (2010). • Paternò, F., Santoro, C.: A logical framework for multi-device user interfaces. In: Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGCHI symposium on Engineering interactive computing systems. pp. 45–50. ACM (2012) • Ritchie, G. 2007. Some empirical criteria for attributing creativity to a computer program. Minds and Machines 17(1):67–99 • Jenkins, H.: Searching for the Origami Unicorn. In: Convergence Culture. pp. 95–134. New York University Press, New York (2006). • Dena, C.: Do you have a big stick? Hand Made High Tech. 1 –5 (2011). • Constandinides, Costas. From Film Adaptation to Post-Celluloid Adaptation: Rethinking the Transition of Popular Narratives and Characters across Old and New Media. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2010. • Hochleitner, C., Hochleitner, W., Graf, C., Tscheligi, M.: A Heuristic Framework for Evaluating User Experience in Games. In: Game User Experience Evaluation. pp. 187–206. Springer (2015). • Hills, M.: Torchwood’s trans-transmedia: Media tie-ins and brand “fanagement”’. Partici-pations. 9, 409–428 (2012). • Hocking, C.: Ludonarrative Dissonance in Bioshock http://clicknothing.typepad.com/click_nothing/2007/10/ludonarrative-d.html (2007) • Linderoth, J.: The Effort of Being in a Fictional World: Upkeyings and Laminated Frames in MMORPGs: The Effort of Being in a Fictional World. Symb. Interact. 35, 474–492 (2012). • Harvey, C.: A Taxonomy Of Transmedia Storytelling. In: Storyworlds Across Me-dia’conference, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz (2011). 16
- 17. Thank you! I would love to hear your Questions Suggestions Comments Criticisms Jokes Jonathan Barbara jbarbara@stmartins.edu 17
- 18. Expected Transmedial Consistency Level Description Exemplar Consistent properties that are always constant across experiences Adaptation Cohesive a variation from the expected norm that is justified by some believable motive or cause Sequel Irrelevant a new experience that was not noted in earlier experiences but has no impact on existing knowledge gained through prior experiences Spin-off Inconsistent new information that does not follow expectations and yet it does not break the original knowledge Fanagement Conflicting new experience results in an outcome that is directly opposite to that originally experienced Parody 18
- 19. Details on Pilot Research Application • Analysis of movie game reviews – 88 games based on Lord of the Rings by Tolkien – More than 3 reviews each • Analysis process – Coding of review into transmedia elements • Into one of the five ratings on the scale – Collection of keywords used in review • E.g. ‘authentic’, ‘return to Middle Earth’, ‘embellishment’ 19
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Hello Everyone! I'm Jonathan Barbara from Saint Martin's Institute of Higher Education in Malta and I have recently started my doctoral research at Leuphana University of Luneburg in Germany.
- For my postgrad research I sought and found a user experience instrument that allows a transmedia game designer to compare between board games and video games in terms of game mechanics and social presence.
- Now, my interest is to further extend the scope of game mechanics applicable to transmedia storytelling and thus my interest in Interactive Digital Storytelling as a major roleplayer in transmedia narratives.
- In this presentation I want to bring your attention to a user experience criterion which has been overly mentioned in transmedia literature, but never specifically measured: and that is narrative consistency. Consistency is a complex, subjective criterion and a decisive factor in judging the success of any transmedia experience, particularly applicable to IDS with its multiple possible narrative outcomes. I will start by reviewing why it is difficult to measure narrative consistency, why it is important, and then I will propose a scale with which to rate it.
- During an interview, Jeff Gomez compared transmedia narratives to an orchestra where each instrument plays a melody that contributes to the overall symphony. And thus, an overarching narrative, represented here by a single-track melody [POINT AT TOP TRACK], is spread across multiple media experiences [NEXT ANIM-ARROWS] each of which is liable to introducing inconsistencies as it adds more depth to the overarching story. However, unlike an orchestra, these narratives are not experienced simultaneously and, therefore, any inconsistency is not as easily detected as a discordant note from any of the instruments. Indeed, there is no means that allows us to play the separate “melodies” together in order to evaluate [ANIM] the overall consistency of the transmedia narratives. But how do we measure such consistency? Due to its subjective nature, we look at user experience analysis for inspiration.
- User experience studies of games and interactive narratives only started in 2004, mostly adapting existing software development methodologies but also involving psycho physiological measurements due to their immersive nature. However such measurements only consider same session experience as a result of game mechanics and social context. There is, as yet, no consideration of narrative consistency between multiple story instalments across multiple media.
- The literature suggests four dimensions across which such a consistency can be measured: the lore, geography and values that make up the storyworld, the order of events that push forward the plot, and the characters whose traits and actions overcome the challenges they face. Finally, agency provides us with the power to take action within the narrative, as a result of which we have a say in the authorship of the story.
- I now refer to the literature to seek the alternate meanings attributed to consistency as well as other descriptors used to refer to similar qualities. [ANIM] Consistency in a story is described as one having a recognisable setting, plot and set of characters, whose actions are consistent with their psychology. With respect to agency, this should be consistent with the narrative task at hand and should have persistent and deterministic outcomes. [ANIM] Short of a simplistic remediation of a narrative, new experiences should provide novelty, without losing, what Ritchie calls, “typicality”, that is a measure of how an experience is an example of the expectations raised by an earlier experience. While keeping the same order of events, peripheral events, that enrich the central narrative, can be explored with plausible explanations given for any deviations from the story’s canon. [ANIM] As experiences become more distinct while keeping a common baseline, they become equal contributors to the transmedial storyworld, which becomes what Klastrup and Tosca call, a “world of worlds” in that one storyworld bears many distinct stories, each with their own events, characters, and subworlds. [ANIM] We now consider negative consistency, with different media affording different representational methods and new authors tending to introduce new perspectives - which are also subject to inconsistencies. They tend to play with their audience's memory, finding loopholes that accommodate their take on the story. Sometimes inconsistency is willingly put in to satiate the angry fans who don't like the story direction and vouch for a new narrative outcome, such as in Torchwood, or to favour game mechanics of the franchise, such as LEGO. [ANIM] When the presented inconsistency conflicts with the narrative expectations of the audience, this breaks narrative presence and substantially undermines the quality of the experience. In interactive narratives this is substantial when the provided agency conflicts with the narrative, leading to what Hocking termed as “ludonarrative dissonance”.
- As a result of this analysis, I am hereby proposing a qualitative measurement of consistency. This is based on the players' reaction to different encounters with the four dimensions of interactive transmedia narratives. I am interested to learn whether such consistency can be measured from existing UX criteria or should new ones be considered. [ANIM] My proposal consists of a five-scale rating ranging from consistent, which would be applicable to faithful adaptations, through to conflicting, which is more representative of parodies, where the inconsistencies are the highlight of entertainment. [ANIM] Sequels would build new narratives based on the original, and thus would provide a cohesive narrative that provides justifications for any differences. [ANIM] Spin-offs usually share the same storyworld but augment knowledge and explore new characters and events in order to provide a narrative experience that is mostly irrelevant to the source narrative. [ANIM] I have already mentioned wilful inclusion of inconsistent experiences in order to accomodate fans' expectations, and this is also included here. I wish to thank the reviewers for bringing this aspect to my attention.
- This scale can be applied to each of the four dimensions of each narrative experience, depicting levels of consistency for each experience vis-a-vis some core narrative experience - what transmedia scholars call the tentpole experience.
- Indeed, transmedia experiences are expected to be towards the center of this scale: adaptations are more crossmedia than transmedia and parodies tend to break narrative consistency rather than support it.
- What do we do with this scale? By providing a means to compare consistency between transmedia experiences, we can analyze successful, and not so successful, interactive narratives and consider whether the level of consistency is a factor of that level of success. When designing an interactive narrative, at prototype stage, we can analyse a variety of employable mechanics and determine which ones provide a more consistent experience relative to the tentpole experience.
- As an example application of this scale, I am currently undertaking a study wherein reviews of movie-based games are being analysed and coded in terms of storyworld, events, characters, and agency into the five ratings of the proposed scale. During this process, review scores and keywords being used to describe aspects of consistency are being gathered in order to inform future questions about narrative consistency. [ANIM] As a result of this analysis, reliability checks of the consistency scale can be carried out across the multiple reviews while correlation of the consistency ratings with the review score will suggest instrument validity. From the gathered keywords, a list of questions regarding user experience in terms of narrative consistency can be shaped into a questionnaire that will be piloted using a transmedial experience. Depending on the validity results, heuristics on building successful transmedia experiences will be suggested by a minimum rating to be applied in the four aspects of narrative elements.
- And yet we are far from having a usable tool, this is just the first step. We still have to figure out at which level of detail should consistency be measured. [ANIM] Should every character in the story, each event unfolding before us, each storyworld artefact we encountered through the experience be analysed in terms of this scale? [ANIM]. If we were to gauge them at dimensional level, will the negative experiences outshine the positive ones? [ANIM] At the other end, shall we just fire a rating that captures the consistency of the overall experience? Or maybe should a rating for each level of consistency be given for each dimension?
- To summarise, I came here to explore with you the meaning of narrative consistency in transmedia and how to measure it. From my part I have proposed a 5-level scale of consistency and I am inviting you to consider it and maybe use it in your analysis of your transmedial interactive narratives.
- These are some references and
- I look forward to your feedback, thank you!
- Indeed, transmedia experiences are expected to be towards the center of this scale: adaptations are more crossmedia than transmedia and parodies tend to break narrative consistency rather than support it.
- As an example application of this scale, I am currently undertaking a study wherein reviews of movie-based games are being analysed and coded in terms of storyworld, events, characters, and agency into the five ratings of the proposed scale. During this process, review scores and keywords being used to describe aspects of consistency are being gathered in order to inform future questions about narrative consistency.