Interaction to me, after becoming a student of Interaction Lab, has become the action or ability of one actor to be able to attain a reaction from another. The actor does not necessarily have to be human or animal, however those do obtain the highest level of a reaction in my opinion. Living creatures, such as Dogs, Cats and People, are raised with the ability to think, form opinions and act as they please; this means that they can interact with whatever they wish to of their own will. I believe sensor based objects such as horror house traps or video games can also be interactive, but they are interactive without being able to have an opinion of their own. Crawford’s article on “Interactive Art” is definitely a piece of work that helped me better understand the concept of what is truly interactive. It broadened my understanding of the meaning of the word “Interactivity” and I do agree that in order for something to be interactive to a high degree, it needs to be able to Listen (Comprehend), Think (Contemplate) and Respond to another actor.
What I would like to do for my final project is a video game of sorts. Originally I was inspired for it by Dungeons and Dragons- a fantasy tabletop role-play franchise where friends would gather around a table and be able to interact with a story, changing it and molding it as they go through it into their own adventure and legend. I was inspired by how every person who I played Dungeons and Dragons with was important individually and immediately fell in love with the characters that they created for themselves. I, for example, was Kharis Galafion, the Forest-loving elf…who also worshipped a god called the Blood Lord, but don’t worry! He is a relatively Chaotic Good deity!
I also received a recommendation by my professor to look at the Bandersnatch, a Netflix episode of Black Mirror, as I researched further on how to progress the project and shape it more into something interesting but also different. Black Mirror, similiarly to Dungeons and Dragons, highly values the decisions which the people watching the show make, and chose a path for a character based on their choices. The Concept of the Bandersnatch is that the Stefan Butler, the main character, is creating a choose your own adventure fantasy book into a video game, which is very similar to what I want to do! The entire idea with that particular Black Mirror Episode, however, is that Butler is making a game that gives the player multiple choices but the further he gets in completing the game, the more his own life begins to replicate it….which is kind of creepy.
The case is, for me, that I am also a creative writing minor and am working on a long term project. I though it would easiest to adapt some of the scenes from inside this project into this video game that my group-mate and I are going to try and develop. We have started writing the script, which I consider exciting! My biggest issue is that the project will probably only be able to fit one player, and if it only fits one player, I do not think it should be too long lasting of an experience.