Can Interactive Narratives Really be Art?

http://www.bboynyc.com/archives/76
Roger Ebert made a controversial statement that jabbed at everyone pursing ambitions involving interactive storytelling: "Video games can never be art" (Ebert "Video Games"). While his article mainly pointed at video games trying to be recognized as an artistic medium, his comments reach to all that view their narrative as interactive and are looking to find their place amongst all the new media. The main critique is targeted the seemingly ambiguous relationship author and reader, or player, have in interactive narratives; Ebert, and others, see the quality of any person being able to dictate the experience they are having to be taking away the control and craft of the artist, thusly becoming artists themselves. So far, established forms of art an be interpreted in many ways, but the product itself (a painting, film, novel, etc) tend to be a controlled experience that the audience received, not participated in. While there are other arguments against games, this explanation is the only one that doesn't come from arbitrary tastes and evaluations, and clearly states that in order to be art, there must a finite amount of creators that masterfully tailor an experience for an audience to receive. Even though this standard is easily debatable as a requirement for something to be art, it is the largest opponent against interactive narratives, and therefore deserves a thorough dismantling.

Player as Cyborg Performer

http://narrativedesign.org/2010/04/dramaticplay/
Dungeons & Dragons as a storytelling device provides an easily accessible method of analyzing how interactive narratives overall defeat viewpoints like Ebert's; it employs a set of rules that establishes the roles of the author and players, identifying it as a game, while creating a space for both parties to act extemporaneously in relation to the narrative, relating it to other forms of interactive narratives such as interactive fiction and drama. By visiting the village of Hommlet in the adventure of the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, players experience narrative through a process related to Donna Harroway's Cyborg Theory within the scheme of Cybernetics Theory and act as performers in an organically adapting authored world. The author retains their position as the dispenser of narrative while the players move in a narrative third dimension to experience the story.

A Trip to the Village of Hommlet

http://www.tsrindex.net/3e/elevil.htm
In the spirit of the topic and as an attempt to implement theory rather than idly theorize, characters will be created to explore the village of Hommlet in the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. These characters will be created by a character generator and decisions will be made with computer dice rolls via Wizard of the Coasts' website Dungeons & Dragons dice roller; then interact with Hommlet with each theoretical perspective in mind. While the experience will not mirror the actual gameplay of the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, this format allows the game elements to become more transparent than they would be within live play. If at anytime you need to return here, click the "Home" link at the bottom of the page to see the introduction posts.



Need Some Recogntion

http://vixstar1314.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/closed-book/
One of the closing comments Ebert makes in his article is "Do they require validation?" Critics of interactive narratives see authors of such works as juvenile, trying too hard, and attacking an established tradition that has stood the test of time. Validation implies a concession that something is wrong, that there is a need to rationalize a trivial hobby. Interactive narratives don't need validation, but recognition for the traits inherent to its form and how it informs the individuals that participate in its interactivity the culture and values. Through the feedback loop, participants use interactivity instead of passive reception to receive their experience from the narrative, augmenting an authored space to generate meaning personal to them and their particular journey. These perspectives not only recognize the medium for what it actually is, but leads the way in creating a new type of criticism and interpretation for it's innovative way of involving the individual.

Works Cited

http://www.flickr.com/groups/mdpd2009/
discuss/72157612008655798/page4/

Cook, Monte, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams. Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide: Core Rulebook II V.3.5. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2003. Print.
Cook, Monte. Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2001. Print.
Ebert, Roger. "Video Games Can Never Be Art - Roger Ebert's Journal." Chicago Sun-Times Blogs. Chicago Sun Times, 16 Apr. 2010. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/04/video_games_can_never_be_art.html>.
Evans, Monica J. Computer Games and Interactive Narratives: A Structural Analysis. Diss. University of Texas at Dallas, 2007. Proquest. Web.
Haraway, Donna. "A Cyborg Manifesto." UMass Boston Online Directory. University of Massachusetts. Web. 27 Apr. 2011. <http://www.faculty.umb.edu/gary_zabel/Courses/Art%20and%20Philosophy%20in%20SL%20and%20Other%20Virtual%20Worlds/Texts/cyborg_manifesto.pdf>.
Voorhees, Gerald A. Simulations of the Self: Rhetoric, Argument, and Computer Game Criticism. Diss. University of Iowa, 2008. Print.