Interactive cinema is an oxymoron, but may not always be
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Date
2012-09-30
DOI
Open Access Location
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Publisher
Game Studies
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Abstract
"Interactive Cinema" is a term that has been associated with videogames within historical media discourse, particularly since the early nineties due to the proliferation of CD-ROM technology. It is also a fundamental misnomer, since the processes of experiential engagement presented by the textual structures of videogames and cinema are mutually exclusive.
The experience of cinematic texts is defined, in part, by the audience's lack of ability to alter events unfolding within the film's diegesis. In comparison, the experience of videogames is tied inextricably to the player's investment and involvement within the game's textual diegesis, and within a Heideggerian world-of-concern.
However, there has been a recent development that suggests a bridge between these two structures: texts which are less defined by their ludic qualities than by a set structure - but where the affective qualities of the experience rely entirely on the direct involvement of the person engaging with the text. These are a storytelling form which are neither "played" or "watched," and it may be that "interactive cinema" is an appropriate way of conceptualising these experiences.
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Keywords
Affect, Alterbiography, Ergodicity, Interactive cinema, Phenomenology, Responsibility, Tmesis, Textual structure, World-of-concern
Citation
Game Studies: the international journal of computer game research, 2012, 12 (1)