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International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling

ICIDS 2011: Interactive Storytelling pp 55–66Cite as

Being in the Story: Readerly Pleasure, Acting Theory, and Performing a Role

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 7069))

Abstract

It is common within the interactive narrative research community to conflate interaction with changing the outcome of a story. In this paper we argue that reimagining interaction as participation in a story opens up an important new design space for digital narratives: one which emphasizes the readerly pleasure of transforming into a character rather than the authorial pleasure of rewriting the events of the story. We draw on theories of method acting and performance as a model for participating within a story and provide examples from several recent games that support this type of narrative.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Interactive Arts & Technology, Simon Fraser University, Surrey, BC, Canada

    Theresa Jean Tanenbaum

Authors
  1. Theresa Jean Tanenbaum
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cognitive Science Department, Renselear Polytechnic Institute, Carnegie 311, 110 8 th Street, 12180, Troy, NY, USA

    Mei Si

  2. Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, T6G 2E8, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

    David Thue

  3. Laboratory for Human-Centered Multimedia, Instituti for Informatik, Augsburg University, Universitaetsstr. 6a, 86159, Augsburg, Germany

    Elisabeth André

  4. Department of Computer Science, North Carolina State University, 890 Oval Drive, 27695-8206,, Raleigh, NC, USA

    James C. Lester

  5. School of Interactive Arts and Technology ( SIAT), Simon Fraser University, V3T 0A3, Surrey, BC, Canada

    Theresa Jean Tanenbaum

  6. Electronic Arts, 4330 Sanderson Way, V5G 4X1, Burnaby, BC, Canada

    Veronica Zammitto

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Tanenbaum, T.J. (2011). Being in the Story: Readerly Pleasure, Acting Theory, and Performing a Role. In: Si, M., Thue, D., André, E., Lester, J.C., Tanenbaum, T.J., Zammitto, V. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2011. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7069. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25289-1_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25289-1_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-25288-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-25289-1

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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