Cyberdrama

For this blog, a game that I play that I would like to analyze is NBA 2K12, which was made by 2K Sports.

There are hardly any limitations by the creator in this game. I can play as any team I want, and use any player I want. As a player, I am definitely immersed in the game as I have complete control over my player and can make him do just about anything I can imagine.

As Janet Murray said in "Cyberdrama," "Stories and games are also both distanced from the real world, alhtough they often include activities that are done "for real" in other domains. The stock market, for example is a betting game, but real world resources are exchanged and people's out-of-game or out-of-trading-floor lives are profoundly changed by events taking place there."

To make an impact in NBA 2K12, I can play better with my team than my opponent and beat them by measure of total score in points.

In dynasty mode, you have the option to stay locked on one player throughout the entire game and can see his abilities develop with experience. This is a great asset to the game.

Theatrical Concepts in Human/Computer Acitivty

For this blog, I analyzed "Travels in Argentina and Bolivia." This is an audio slideshow about a few people who traveled through South America, specifically Argentina and Bolivia.

Action: The slideshow showed action with pictures, describing how they danced the tango and climbed a volcano.

Character: The slideshow showed several characters in photos, but there was only one voice narrating. The narrator described the native people and how they viewed life.

Thought: There was hardly any emotion or depth to the story, only a narration of the trip.

Language: The narrator spoke in a clear, easy-to-understand English tone. The narrator didn't use any other variations in telling his story.

Pattern: There was light background music throughout, and on occasion there was some use of natural sound. Mainly, however, I just heard the narrator and the background and natural sound was just to keep it from being silent. This was a nice touch on the author, as it wouldn't have been right to play this slideshow without any background noise. That method would be best for a solemn moment or story.

Enactment: The photography by Beatriz and Eric Stollnitz was truly phenomenal. They captured the view of both Argentina and Bolivia, using a wide variety of landscape and portraits. As it should be, the photography was the highlight of the slideshow.

Transmedia

The goal of transmedia is to unite people who interact from all platforms while following a story according to nmincite.com. The website says transmedia is on the rise, as you can see from this graph.

When Disney acquired marvel for an estimated $4.3 billion it was expected to produced transmedia-focused content. The site says that transmedia is something that is always growing and is never "finished." Clearly, that is the case.

Remediation, Immediacy and Hypermediacy

"Succinctly put, remediation is media used anew in other media. Not mainly the content, but (part of) the form is reused in a new media form."

That, according to Mediated memories, is remediation in a nutshell. The blog post goes on to talk about immersing oneself in a story.

Comps like these show that the bigger an image is, the more it becomes real. Clearly, immediacy and hypermediacy are not mutually exclusive. Rather, there counterparts reinforce each other.

Time Barrow of Contemplating Digital Orality has a different take on immediacy, hypermediacy and remediation. He says that immediacy has a lot to do with access, understanding and interaction, and how easy it is to do these three things. Hypermediacy, however, has to do with things being very easily interactive, but not necessarily transparent, the blog says. For remediation, Time says that it depends on what else has been put out, via new media and more. He argues that there should be a difference between viewing a painting in person and viewing a painting online. However, for whatever reason, this is not the case.

Digital Narrative

"Distributed narratives are stories that aren't self-contained. They're stories that can't be experienced in a single session or in a single space. They're stories that cross over into our daily lives, becoming as ubiquitous as the network that fosters them."

That quote defines what Jilll Walker's piece "Distributed Narrative: Telling Stories Across Networks" was about. Although her piece was just an intro to further research, the document said a lot about narratives and the different ways of telling stories online.

For this assignment, I chose to review "The Toll Bridge" by Nathan Oser on themoonlitroad.com. The author does a good job of drawing you in by using clear language and even phrases such as "Are you listening?" to keep you honest.

For a change of pace, a lot of this story was dialogue. For example:  

“Where are we?” Tommy glanced left and right along the road and squinted to read the street sign through clinging layers of fog. “Graves–way–Lane?”

“Yeah, Old Man Hickley’s.” Ricky flicked him in the chest and capered across the street. “Come on.” 

“Didn’t know this place was here,” said Tommy, wading through the fog. 

“Sure you did. Remember swimming lessons? The old pool used to be just down that way.”

Although the story was only told through text, the author did a good job of capturing moments by using descriptive language such as "laughed" and "easy as cake."

Overall, I thought the piece was strong, but not as strong as some of the multimedia pieces I've followed. Having huge blocks of text in a blog-like format isn't always attractive, and having photos and videos to navigate through at all times is always a plus. This story didn't have much of a multimedia element.

Interactive Narratives

While reviewing "Shirtless Others" by Jason Ockert on BornMagazine.org, I had difficulties understanding how to follow along. I think the general idea of cutting into the shark to show more of the story is a good idea, but after trying to follow along for a while, it didn't come as easy as hoped. The story definitely does a nice job of using sound effects, as I really do feel like one of the people next to the caught shark on the beach with the sound of waves and seagulls. "Several baby sharks spill out onto the pier and gasp. They writhe in the air with unblinking black eyes." That part was unexpected, but a nice spin to the narrative. The next scene turns to black and you can see the baby sharks on the ground next to the blood. Powerful writing here: "I wait to see what the thin woman will do. I am prepared to cry out if she skewers them, protest, maybe point a finger. But she lets them be, dying like they are on the dock." Artistically, I think changing the scene to black and inverting the colors really set the tone for that final line. The blood is accentuated, as is the overall tone of the scene.

For my second review, I was very impressed with "Go a Hippy Tribe" from SBS.com. Not only was it very comprehensive, but the motion background and overall solid design helped make it feel real.

The sound effects were subtle, but it made for a realistic environment. It's actually surprising just how easy the site is to navigate and follow the story. The layout actually gives off a video game-type feel, allowing users to feel their way around the site. Video plays seamlessly, introducing the tribesmen, and although I didn't connect, apparently it's very easy to share the story or parts of the story to Facebook. This was definitely one of the better narratives I've followed along online.

Website redesign: before and after

I went to this photography portfolio website and was appalled that it lacked a static featured image. It instead included rollovers of tiny images. There were even areas where you would expect to hover and find an image, but there wasn't one. 

So I spruced it up a bit, making for a better user experience.