Susana Tosca

Transmedial worlds - rethinking cyberworld design

In this paper we introduce the concept of transmedial worlds, relating it to genre and adaptation theory, and presenting a framework for how to look for transmedial traits in a world. Through some examples, we argue that applying this concept to the analysis of cyberworlds can reveal interesting results, as well as being a useful tool for designers of cyberworlds to plan their content.

Communication in multi-player role playing games – the effect of medium

The Pen-and-Paper role-playing game is a successful example of collaborative interactive narrative. Meanwhile, computer-based role-playing games, while structurally similar, offer quite different narrative experiences. Here results are presented of an experimental study of role-playing gamers in Pen-and-Paper and computer-supported settings. Communication patterns are shown to vary significantly on measures such as the share of in-character statements and the share of dramatically motivated statements. These results are discussed in the light of differences between the two gaming forms and finally some design implications are discussed.

The lyrical quality of links

This paper argues that hypertext might be a lyric rather that a narrative form. It proposes the close examination of explicit links as the starting point for a study of hyperfiction rhetoric.

Personalizing the player experience in MMORPGs

Personalizing the playing experience is a key factor in making players of computer games feel involved in the virtual world; however, current Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games only to a limited degree allocate development or running resources towards facilitating a personalized experience. In Pen and Paper Role Playing Games, the player-controlled characters form a key component in facilitating the formation of a personalized experience. In these games, characters are often more than the association of stats and skills popular in online games, and several approaches towards utilizing the character-based information directly to personalize the game playing have been developed, e.g. personality systems. Some of these systems can be integrated into online games, providing a realistic and financially feasible method for improving the ability of these games to personalize the experience to the individual players.

Playful Subversions: Young Children and tablet Use

Drawing on data from empirical studies of small children (4- to 8-year-olds) using tablets in educational settings, we explore the ways they resist the expected use of the various applications in order to invent their own forms of interaction. We propose the category of playful subversion to conceptualize the different kinds of technology appropriation and the pleasures of playful tinkering. We identify four aspects of playful subversion in relation to tablets – invention, definition, assignation, and performance – and argue for a less normative understanding of children’s interactions with technology.

Design thinking and imitatio in an educational setting

ABSTRACT Schools are expected to prepare students for the future, providing them with methods for dealing with the emergent world. This article considers how teachers can work with digital productions at primary schools even when they are not acquainted with the new production genres. We propose a methodological framework to assist students and teachers in their exploration of unknown media genres based on a case study. We revive the ancient concept of imitatio and integrate it with contemporary design thinking to support production dynamics that lead to increased digital literacy.

Playing with the city: street art and videogames

In this paper we introduce and describe the phenomenon of videogame street art as a specific kind of street art. We consider its materiality and significance, and conceptualize it in the light of a double manifestation of play: the playful appropriation of the city by the artist and the fact that Street art encapsulates the act of playing videogames in a visual form. Digital play spills out of our computer screens and occupies the urban space with the explicit intention of involving spectators, who are invited to play in symbolic ways that actualize nostalgic memories of gaming and can be related to a more general “play turn” in our culture.

Dreaming of e-reading futures

Abstract With point of departure on an empirical study about the new reading habits of tablet owners, this paper questions their embrace of immateriality and their willingness to abandon the material aspects of print books. Using a method of narrative enquiry, I propose an alternative future in which texts have become completely immaterial in order to push the argument to the limit. It is my intention to construct a fictional discourse that can serve as counterpart to the immaterial dream so prevalent in digital theory and the everyday experience of digital artefact users.

Writers and designers (panel): crossing the chasm

For example, there is still a gap between writer’s expectations of the functionality of hypertext systems and the concepts that developers design into hypermedia systems. Similarly, there is a major difference in perception between literary hypertext authors and the developers of large scale information management applications (especially many website developers). These differences need to be addressed to ensure hypermedia systems that work.