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Narrative Intelligibility and Closure in Interactive Systems

Conference paper
Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNCS, volume 8230)

Abstract

In this article we define various aspects, or parameters, of interactive narrative systems and present them as a framework that can help authors, creators and designers to conceive, analyze, or prioritize the narrative goals of a given system. We start by defining the Author-Audience distance (AAD), which in turn can be seen as a function of Narrative Intelligibility. AAD can also be influenced by the intended or unintended level of abstractedness or didascalicity (i.e. figurativeness) of a given narrative. We define narrative intelligibility in complementarity with the related notion of Narrative Closure. We also make a distinction between the goals of the system and the goals of the narrative that it mediates, and consider the proposed parameters at two interrelated levels of analysis: the system level and the embedded narrative level, as the normative values and goals of these two levels should not be taken for granted.

Keywords

Narrative Intelligibility Narrative Closure Interactive Narrative Interactive Storytelling Emergent Narratives System Goals Author-Audience distance Narrative Paradox Abstract Narratives Didascalic Narratives Interactivity non-linear narratives Edutainment 
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© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of Architecture, Design and Media TechnologyAalborg UniversityCopenhagenDenmark

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