Transmedia Storytelling, Immersive Storyworlds, and Virtual Reality

Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts, 2020

Virtual reality (VR) movies have gained tremendous attention in recent years, with an increasing amount of experimentations and explorations from researchers and practitioners with various backgrounds. Many VR movies are aimed at providing the audience with a narrative experience, just as in traditional film and digital games. VR movies are a relatively new art form. The audience's experiences in VR movies share many common properties with traditional film and narrative games. On the other hand, VR movies offer a unique way for the audience to view and interact with the content, which differentiates it from other visual and narrative-based digital experiences. In this chapter, the authors review the narrative techniques used in movies and narrative games and present a survey and analysis of whether the techniques can or have been applied to VR movies.

NECSUS_European Journal of Media Studies, 2019

Virtual and Augmented Reality systems are becoming increasingly popular in our everyday lives. Although these systems are extraordinary examples of the new role played by the human body in digital media ecologies much of the academic scholarship conducted in this area tends to interpret such phenomena from a narrativist standpoint. Such approaches often overlook the essential characteristics of non-narrative media. As a counter-strategy, we propose virtual fictionality – a concept emphasising central aspects of worldliness in VR-based works that lie beyond the narrative paradigm. The aim of the paper is to outline virtual fictionality as a particular world-making strategy of digital games that turns players into configurators.

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing 918 Information Technology and Systems. ICITS 2019, 2019

This paper collects some core concepts of interactive transmedia storytelling to help to develop the discipline of interactive digital narrative studies and to establish functional models for identifying and analyzing interactive narrative elements in transmedia creations. The term “transmedia” was initially used by Marsha Kinder to refer to the intertextuality among films, animation, TV series and toys for children. Later, Henry Jenkins broadened the concept, using “narrative transmedia” first in Media Convergence and more recently in his blog http://henryjenkins.org. The present research introduces a model of analysis to study digital storytelling concepts, narrative elements and media characteristics used for generating transmedia using comics, films, webs, fan videos, and videogames. The model is applied to Nolan´s transmedia practices in his Batman’s Trilogy to observe and discuss the narrative remixed framework that renew the current DC Universe. The goal was to develop and applied an original transmedia model of analysis to study and draw conclusions about how the narrative elements of the actions, characters, spaces and times converge with coherence and intelligibility, and how immersive, interactive linear, emerging and circular elements serve to engage the fans. The conclusions present how the remix culture applied to interactive narrative design serve as valuable guidelines in the production of transmedia narratives. New but recognizable creations can evolve from the pre-existent modular narrative elements of characters -familiar in their appearance, abilities or personality- as they perform and interact with new actions in original spaces and times.

2021

This introduction to the monographic section on "VR Storytelling" aims to outline some of the principal transformations that VR is imparting to audiovisual language and experience, with a particular focus on the impact of these innovations on storytelling. The essays of the section span a variety of theoretical approaches and backgrounds, argumentative styles and case studies (e.g. documentaries, games, art), but all of them share a similar rhetorical attitude: underscoring the potential and novelty of VR but, at the same time, identifying a series of remediations and limitations. In particular, they will show that most of the contemporary discourses on VR need to be reframed critically in order to reflect more objectively on complex notions and dynamics such as screen, interactivity, immersion, presence, embodiment, illusion and empathy.

Critical Encounters with Immersive Storytelling, 2019

This introductory chapter considers some key themes, concepts and approaches that underpin the book. It uses existing scholarship to explore the terms 'immersion' and 'storytelling', noting that neither concept is bounded or stable. It examines why 'the immersive' is such a seductive concept in our present cultural, social, economic and political moment(s), and thus why its study is important. It also offers an overview of the book's structure. We (the authors) have both been researching at the intersection of immersion and storytelling for many years, exploring diverse connections between narrative, genre, environments and experience. Our joint perspective makes this book a unique resource; it is both critically and practically attuned, and offers ways into research design for immersive contexts. Such research raises complex methodological considerations which are often rendered invisible in the reporting of case studies, yet this book acknowledges and confronts them head on, making our reflexivity visible, and itself a productive resource. This introductory chapter considers some key themes, concepts and approaches that we return to throughout the book. It uses existing scholarship to explore what we mean when we talk about 'immersion' and 'storytelling', noting that neither concept is bounded or stable. It examines why 'the immersive' is such a seductive concept in our present cultural, social, economic and political moment(s), and thus why its study is important. It introduces key concepts that will underpin analyses in the book and begins to problematize meaningful distinctions between analogue/digital, physical/virtual and online/offline. Given the complexity of immersive storytelling as a research subject, we now offer four different approaches to sketch out where this books sits-the analogy, the experience, the history and the definition-before concluding with an overview of the book's structure. uncomfortable. We have had many conversations since that time, attempting to understand what was happening. Consulting scholarship has helped us little in our reflections on this immersive encounter: According to Matthew Reason the term 'immersive' is one with 'extremely tricky conceptual grounding' (2015: 272). Alison McMahon proposed in 2003 that the concept of immersion in video games had become 'an excessively vague, all-inclusive concept' (2003: 67) and Adam Alston has more recently observed that 'the immersive label is flexible' to the degree that it can 'jeapordize terminological clarity' (2013: 128). No clear definition exists, yet we all seem to have an idea of what we are talking about when we use that word 'immersive'.

Storytelling in games in the early years of game studies was seen as being in conflict with gameplay. Departing from that debate, I argue that it is productive to see video games as a composite form supporting different frames for involvement. Against this backdrop the article reports an interview study with game developers, asking what it means to author stories for a composite form. The main results show that the developers do not see storytelling as the defining trait of video games, but as a component in a whole product. The developers display a specific gaze for how players shift their attention between frames. An important skill for the developers is to try to control these shifts in order to enforce the emotions they want the player to have. This specific skill is labelled framework orchestration. Stories are here but one of the tools the developers have at their disposal.

Exploring the Viewer’s Role in Narrative-Based Animated Virtual Reality Experiences: Strategies for Role Activation and Immersive Storytelling, 2024

Virtual reality (VR) storytelling offers immersive experiences that engage viewers in unique and interactive ways. This study investigates the viewer’s role within animated narrative-based VR and explores strategies and techniques employed to facilitate this engagement. Using thematic analysis, the authors examined 22 animated VR experiences and identified six key themes: viewer interaction, virtual body, viewer’s spatial perspective, voice of the narrator, directed viewing and providing options. These themes encompass various strategies used to activate the viewer’s role and enhance their immersion in the narrative. The findings reveal that interactive elements, such as viewer interactions and decision-making opportunities, contribute to a heightened sense of agency and immersion. Additionally, the incorporation of a visible and functional virtual body, strategic placement of the viewer and guidance from a narrator potentially shape the viewer’s experience and understanding of the narrative. However, it is essential to strike a balance between directed viewing and viewer agency to ensure a satisfying and engaging storytelling encounter. The implications of these findings provide valuable insights for VR creators, highlighting the importance of considering these strategies when designing narrative-based VR experiences. By utilizing these techniques effectively, creators can craft immersive and engaging VR narratives that captivate and involve viewers in dynamic and meaningful ways.

2012

How can we use immersive and interactive technologies to portray stories? How can we take advantage of the fact that within immersive virtual environments people tend to respond realistically to virtual situations and events to develop narrative content? Stories in such a media would allow the participant to contribute to the story and interact with the virtual characters while the narrative plot would not change, or change only up to how it was decided a priori. Participants in such a narrative would be able to freely interact within the virtual environments and yet still be aware of the main trust of the stories presented. How can we preserve the ‘respond as if it is real’ phenomenon induced by these technologies, but also develop an unfolding plot in this environment? In other words, can we develop a story, conserving the structure, its psychological and cultural richness and the emotional and cognitive involvement it supposes, in an interactive and immersive audiovisual space? I...

PhDst Anna-Kaisa Sjölund Digital Culture, University of Turku Finland [email protected]