Interactive Storytelling

Abstract

Video Games, Media, Stories, and the Embodied Brain A common way of describing representational structures is by way of media. Central problems such as “narrative” or “point of view” are explained by referring to those media forms in which we ordinarily find manifestations of such structures. Some researchers, for example, define narratives by referring to literary works, others, like Brenda Laurel,1 describe video games and other computer applications by reference to theatre and theatrical structures. Suchdescriptionshave someadvantages, but alsoproblematic consequences, because phenomena such as “story” or “narrative” are then only defined in relation to their media realizations, not by their relation to unmediated real-life experiences and those mental structures that support such experiences. This raises special problems for describing mediated activities such as virtual reality and video games because these activities are in several dimensions simulations of real-life activities. Media representations are better described as different realizations of basic real-life experiences. As early as 1916, theHarvardpsychologistHugoMu¨nsterberg2 showedhow the film experience might be described as a cued simulation of central mental and bodily functions. Such an approach provides many advantages for describing video games, because, as I will argue in detail in the following, video games and other types of interactive virtual reality are simulations of basic modes of real-life experiences. This also means that cognitive psychology.