Comments on: TIDSE 2004 (Part 1) http://grandtextauto.org/2004/06/28/tidse-2004-part-1/ A group blog about computer narrative, games, poetry, and art. Wed, 13 Jan 2010 15:44:40 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: USC Interactive Media Division Weblog http://grandtextauto.org/2004/06/28/tidse-2004-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1476 USC Interactive Media Division Weblog Wed, 07 Jul 2004 03:42:05 +0000 /?p=363#comment-1476
Grand Text Auto » TIDSE 2004 (Part 1) I am surprised at the two comments dismissing menu-driven interfaces as destructive to immersion. While I agree that menu-driven interfaces do interrupt the real-time experience, I question whether real-time experi…

]]> By: Chris Crawford http://grandtextauto.org/2004/06/28/tidse-2004-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1473 Chris Crawford Tue, 06 Jul 2004 14:35:44 +0000 /?p=363#comment-1473 I am surprised at the two comments dismissing menu-driven interfaces as destructive to immersion. While I agree that menu-driven interfaces do interrupt the real-time experience, I question whether real-time experience is a significant consideration. I suspect that some people are expecting interactive storytelling to mimic cinema, which is real-time in nature. But cinema is the only storytelling medium that maintains real-time behavior. Theater has lengthy intermissions, and audiences don't lose the thread of the story. Television has commercials every ten minutes, and while people complain, the success of the medium clearly demonstrates the insignificance of real-time continuity to the success of storytelling. And of course literature is the most discontinuous medium of all -- people can interrupt the reading of a book at any time, pop in a bookmark, and come back to the story hours, days, or weeks later. Cinema was crippled in its early years by expectations that it mimic theater. It took revolutionaries such as D.W.Griffith to break loose from those silly expectations and establish the unique character of that medium. The same will happen with interactive storytelling. Chris I am surprised at the two comments dismissing menu-driven interfaces as destructive to immersion. While I agree that menu-driven interfaces do interrupt the real-time experience, I question whether real-time experience is a significant consideration. I suspect that some people are expecting interactive storytelling to mimic cinema, which is real-time in nature. But cinema is the only storytelling medium that maintains real-time behavior. Theater has lengthy intermissions, and audiences don’t lose the thread of the story. Television has commercials every ten minutes, and while people complain, the success of the medium clearly demonstrates the insignificance of real-time continuity to the success of storytelling. And of course literature is the most discontinuous medium of all — people can interrupt the reading of a book at any time, pop in a bookmark, and come back to the story hours, days, or weeks later.
Cinema was crippled in its early years by expectations that it mimic theater. It took revolutionaries such as D.W.Griffith to break loose from those silly expectations and establish the unique character of that medium. The same will happen with interactive storytelling.

Chris

]]> By: andrew http://grandtextauto.org/2004/06/28/tidse-2004-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1456 andrew Tue, 29 Jun 2004 11:43:32 +0000 /?p=363#comment-1456 Yes, thanks for the extensive write-up, I'm looking forward to part 2. How nice we were awarded best paper! I recall we did spend a lot of time on it. Is Norm Badler's real-time character animation system available for others to use? Is it fully procedural, and/or do you supply / can you mix in hand-made keyframe animation? Having a good, full-featured version of such a system would be quite valuable to interactive drama research. (Facade's body and facial animation system, while built from scratch and partially procedural, is not robust enough for general use in this way.) Nicolas' paper sounded pretty interesting, I'll check it out once I get a copy of the proceedings. I also remember Shachindra Nath from TIDSE03, his presentation then was intriguing, and this year it also sounded good. So how did you like Darmstadt? Did you get a chance to see the Art Nouveau buildings nearby? Yes, thanks for the extensive write-up, I’m looking forward to part 2.

How nice we were awarded best paper! I recall we did spend a lot of time on it.

Is Norm Badler’s real-time character animation system available for others to use? Is it fully procedural, and/or do you supply / can you mix in hand-made keyframe animation? Having a good, full-featured version of such a system would be quite valuable to interactive drama research. (Facade’s body and facial animation system, while built from scratch and partially procedural, is not robust enough for general use in this way.)

Nicolas’ paper sounded pretty interesting, I’ll check it out once I get a copy of the proceedings.

I also remember Shachindra Nath from TIDSE03, his presentation then was intriguing, and this year it also sounded good.

So how did you like Darmstadt? Did you get a chance to see the Art Nouveau buildings nearby?

]]> By: nick http://grandtextauto.org/2004/06/28/tidse-2004-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-1455 nick Mon, 28 Jun 2004 21:26:31 +0000 /?p=363#comment-1455 Thanks for the extensive report - I'll mull it over and await part 2, but for now, congratulations to you and Andrew on the best paper award. It sounds like TIDSE was great... Thanks for the extensive report – I’ll mull it over and await part 2, but for now, congratulations to you and Andrew on the best paper award. It sounds like TIDSE was great…

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