Keynote at Zipscence conference 10.11.2018

1. REPRESENTATIONS OF COMPLEXITY-
INTERACTIVE DIGITAL NARRATIVES
ENABLING DISCOURSE
FOR THE 21ST CENTURY-
ZIPSCENE CONFERENCE BUDAPEST, 10.11.2018
HARTMUT KOENITZ
@HKOENITZ

2. OR -
WHY WE NEED
INTERACTIVE DIGITAL NARRATIVE
AND
WHAT WE NEED RESEARCH ON

3. INTERACTIVE DIGITAL
NARRATIVE (IDN)
AS REPRESENTATIONS OF
COMPLEXITY

4. INTERACTIVE DIGITAL NARRATIVE (IDN)
WHAT IT IS
A DIFFERENT KIND OF NARRATIVE
ITS PARTICULAR ROLE
REPRESENTATIONS OF COMPLEXITY
THE ROAD AHEAD
ASPECTS TO WORK ON

5. ACADEMIC
ARTIST

6. PROFESSOR INTERACTIVE
NARRATIVE DESIGN

7. PROFESSORSHIP TEAM

8. VIDEOS &
INSTALLATIONS

9. WHAT ARE
INTERACTIVE DIGITAL
NARRATIVES (IDN)?

10. [IDN IS AN] EXPRESSIVE NARRATIVE FORM IN
DIGITAL MEDIA IMPLEMENTED AS A
COMPUTATIONAL SYSTEM [...] AND EXPERIENCED
THROUGH A PARTICIPATORY PROCESS
Koenitz, 2015

11. INTERACTIVE DIGITAL NARRATIVE (IDN)
IS NOTONEFORM
IDN ENCOMPASSES A RANGE OF MANIFESTATIONS,
INCLUDING
NARRATIVE VIDEO GAMES, INTERACTIVE
DOCUMENTARIES, JOURNALISTIC INTERACTIVES,
AR/VR EXPERIENCES…

12. ARE THEY EVEN
POSSIBLE?

13. IDN
All narrative is like the novel (or movie)
IDN is not like the novelIDN is bad, because
THE CIRCULAR LOGIC AGAINST IDN
IDN does not fulfil the expectations of the novel

14. VIDEO GAMES ARE BETTER WITHOUT
STORIES. FILM, TELEVISION, AND
LITERATURE ALL TELL THEM BETTER.
Ian Bogost, 2017

15. YES AND NO

16. YES.
TRADITIONAL MEDIA IS
BETTER AT TELLING
TRADITIONAL STORIES

17. NO.
IDN IS ABOUT DIFFERENT
KINDS OF NARRATIVES.

18. IDN ≠ +

19. SO IT’S A
GAME, THEN?

20. GAMES RESIST MANY OF THE MORE COMPLEX
THEMES WE CAN IMAGINE, SUCH AS LOVE,
AMBITION, AND SOCIAL CONFLICT, BECAUSE
THEY ARE NOT EASILY IMPLEMENTED IN RULES
Jesper Juul, 2005

21. RULES ARE NOT
ENOUGH
NARRATIVES ARE NEEDED

22. HOWEVER -
GAMES AND NARRATIVE
DO NOT MIX?

23. THE NARRATOLOGY VS.
LUDOLOGY DEBATE
(2001-2005?)

24. THE NARRATOLOGY VS. LUDOLOGY
DEBATE (2001-2005?)
ENTRENCHED
THE EUROCENTRIC & TRADITIONAL
UNDERSTANDING OF NARRATIVE

25. THE NARRATOLOGY VS. LUDOLOGY
DEBATE (2001-2005?)
IGNORED
CONTEMPORARY DEVELOPMENTS
IN NARRATOLOGY

26. THE NARRATOLOGY VS. LUDOLOGY
DEBATE (2001-2005?)
POSITIONED
INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE AS A
SCHEME TO REFORM GAMES

27. OR A
MOVIE?

28. NEITHER ( )
IDN ARE
NEW TYPES OF NARRATIVE
(AND THAT’S OK)
AND STOP THE
F… COMPARISON

29. IDNS ARE NEITHER
DEFICIENT MOVIES NOR
DEFICIENT GAMES
AGAIN: IDNS ARE NEW TYPES OF NARRATIVE (AND
THAT’S STILL OK)

30. WHAT IS NARRATIVE?

31. NARRATIVE [IS] A FORGIVING, FLEXIBLE
COGNITIVE FRAME FOR CONSTRUCTING,
COMMUNICATING, AND RECONSTRUCTING
MENTALLY PROJECTED WORLDS
David Herman, 2002

32. NARRATIVE IS A
COGNITIVE FUNCTION
FOR SENSE-MAKING
IT IS NOT TIED TO A SPECIFIC FORM

33. THE SPACE OF NARRATIVE
NOVEL
DOCUMENTARY
NEWSPAPER ARTICLE
KISHOTENKETSU
MOVIE
AFRICAN ORAL STORYTELLING
ABORIGINAL STORYTELLING
IDN
…

34. MANY FORMS OF
NARRATIVES EXIST THAT
DIFFER FROM THE (MAINSTREAM)
EUROCENTRIC MODEL

35. ALTERNATIVE NARRATIVE STRUCTURES
KISHOTENKETSU AFRICAN ORAL STORYTELLING

36. CECI N’EST PASUN MODÈLE NARRATIF UNIVERSEL
Figure 2: Story arc in Computers as Thea
1991)
esort to a historical approach. And indeed, the

37. KOENITZ, H., DI PASTENA, A., JANSEN, D., DE LINT, B., MOSS, A. (UPCOMING) THE MYTH
OF ‘UNIVERSAL’ NARRATIVE MODELS: EXPANDING THE DESIGN SPACE OF NARRATIVE
STRUCTURES FOR IDN, ICIDS 2018, CHAM: SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING
4.2 Bengali Widow’s Narratives
The Bengali Widow’s narrative structure either raises after the climax to a tragic
outcome, when the protagonist is abandoned by her family, or folds back to see the
protagonist becoming the antagonist to her son’s bride.
We derived this narrative structure (Fig. 2) from the comparison of different nar-
ratives that circulate among the West Bengal population that focus on the powerless-
ness of the displaced widowed mother. In so doing, they provide a critical perspective
on the status of the apparent stability women are assumed to have acquired upon
marriage, which comes into question in West Bengal after the death of their spouse,
especially if their children have already reached adulthood by that time [50]. Therefore,
the Bengali widowed mother narrative wants to illustrate a less romanticized reality
which many women face. At first sight, this narrative structure is reminiscent of the
dramatic arc, however there is a crucial variation that is connected to the ‘themes’ of
the narrative. The climax is not followed by a phase of dénouement; rather, the tension
keeps growing, either with the narrative looping back on itself if the widowed mother
becomes the antagonist (the mother-in-law) for the bride of her son – effectively
repeating the cycle from marriage to close – or, by continuing forward to show the
abandonment of the mother by her sons after the death of her husband, will end in a
climax where her sons and daughters-in-law leave her beggared and alone. What is
notable here is the underlying tension between the mother’s expectations for how her
sacrifices for her children will be repaid in the future and the reality of widowhood, as
well as her gradually shifting role from protagonist to antagonist in the eyes of the
younger generation of brides. Having two variants in a narrative is an aspect that can be
made productive for IDN, as the different outcomes can be connected to players’
choices. In addition, IDN could add additional varieties, e.g. an outcome in which the
widow becomes a good friend and trusted advisor of the next generation of women.
Fig. 1. Etiological structure
The Myth of ‘Universal’ Narrative Models 7
4.3 Ganga Comics
This structure is based on adaptations of Indian mythology in comics, in which the
solution to one conflict also immediately causes the next conflict to arise.
The “Ganga” [52] comic provides another interesting narrative structure to study
(Fig. 3). The “Ganga” comic is derived from the Amar Chitra Katha (ACK), an
illustrated comic series depicting hundreds of tales from the Rāmāyaṇa, Mahābhārata,
Panchanatra, and Vasavadatta, alongside a host of other plays, epics, and romances
across the Indian subcontinent. This particular story stems from the Mahābhārata, a
collection of mythological and instructive stories that revolve around a main narrative
that recounts the power struggle between two groups of cousins, namely the Kauravas
and the Pandavas. The Mahābhārata represents a seminal text for the growth of
Hinduism, and it is understood as both Dharma (moral law) and Itihasa (history) [53].
The “Ganga” comic is a particular variety of this narrative that utilizes the affordances
of its medium.
The narrative structure is arranged as a negotiation between the two poles of
‘responsibility’ and ‘consequence’. The narrative begins with an initial instigating
action (IA), which would have specific consequences (C1). The next step involves the
search of a solution (S1), that eventually results in a sort of resolution (R1), which
however would have other ongoing consequences (C2). These further consequences
would begin the next part of the narrative, as the secondary instigation for further
action, escalating and repeating until all major consequences are resolved. The
“Ganga” comic narrative structure is characterized by a cumulative pattern, in which
the consequences of the solution to each problem affect the overall narrative. This
aspect also aligns well with the affordances of IDN; the idea of player choice affecting
the problems/conflicts they will encounter later in the story is a powerful one with
much potential for the creation of many individually different narratives from the same
system.
Fig. 2. West Bengali widow narratives
8 H. Koenitz et al.
AuthorProof
4.4 Sīra Narratives
Sīra narratives (Fig. 4) recount the circle of life and death of a Bedouin community
known as the Banī Hilāl tribe. These narratives have the purpose of preserving the
memory of brave warriors who vanished as the tribe achieved peace through struggle.
More specifically, they narrate the adventures of the tribe as it traveled toward Tunisia
in search of new pasturages. They feature an ‘accurate’ historical frame of the
migration and conquest, while the actual narratives are “a series of intricate tales built
on tension among a constellation of central characters” [54], involving several key male
roles playing opposite a single female lead role.
The life of the Bedouin tribe is organized in a “pattern of repeating cycles” [54],
which organize the progression of episodes as journeys, from the protagonists’ birth to
their death. Each episode narrates a journey, with varying characters and changing
composition of events; the different and unique premises of every episode emphasize
the significance of each individual journey. The dual nature of the ‘journey theme’,
understood both as the search of new life and as war campaign, “sets up a vital tension
of opposites”, such as “famine-plenty, desert-pasture land, war-peace, life-death” [54].
Fig. 3. Ganga comics
The Myth of ‘Universal’ Narrative Models 9
4.5 Epiphanic Structure
This original structure features a cycle of conflict designed to create a moment of
epiphany, which causes the player/interactor to suddenly understand the events of the
narrative in a different light, and subsequently explores the narative again from the
beginning to discover the consequences of this revelation.
While alternatives to established narrative structures have been discussed before,
these discussions frequently lack a structural analysis. Moreover, established narrative
structures like the Hero’s Journey are gleaned from the analysis of linear, fixed media
with no regard for the participatory aspect of interactive narrative. In contrast, the
above structure (Fig. 5) is inspired by and partially based on the analysis of two
playthrough sessions of PlatinumGames’ 2017 action game NieR:Automata [56], in
which players see the same events twice, but through the eyes of each of the two
protagonists.
Fig. 4. Sīra structure (Connelly 1973)
10 H. Koenitz et al.
AuthorProof
The first playthrough builds up to an epiphany, a realization or retrospective
moment that radically re-contextualizes the events of that playthrough; the second
playthrough then has players experience those same events with that epiphany in mind,
which causes a (presumed) significant shift in the meaning that the player ascribes to
their own actions and the actions of the protagonists. Another game that can be said to
follow this structure is Paper Dino’s Save the Date [57]. The structure can be described
as follows:
1. Opening: the introduction of the storyworld;
2. Cycle(s) of Conflict (CoC): the protagonist(s) face(s) challenges – physical, battles
and treasure hunts; emotional, relationships with other characters/actors; mental,
piecing together clues about the storyworld’s backstory – and overcome(s) them (or
not);
3. Culmination: the fulfilment of the CoC’s narrative purpose, its result;
4. Epiphany: a realization or retrospective moment, as a consequence of the culmi-
nation, that radically re-contextualizes the events of the CoC;
5. (optional) Post-epiphanic Replay(s): the implicitly or explicitly acknowledged rep-
Fig. 5. Epiphanic structure
The Myth of ‘Universal’ Narrative Models 11
AuthorProof

38. IDN IS POSSIBLE -
WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

39. IDN CAN
REPRESENT
COMPLEXITY

40. A PERSONAL
APPROACH

41. I’M FROM THE COUNTRY OF THE CHANGING NARRATIVE

42. GERMAN HISTORY IS UNLIKE ANY OTHER
[ … ] NO COHERENT, OVER-ARCHING
NARRATIVE CAN BE CONSTRUCTED FOR IT;
THE JIGSAW PIECES DO NOT FIT TOGETHER
British Museum Curator Neil MacGregor 2016

43. THERE IS ALSO AN ALTERNATE REALITY MACHINE THERE
THE STASI ARCHIVES

44. HISTORICAL / POLITICAL
NARRATIVES ARE NOT
FACTS, THEY ARE
CONSTRUCTED

47. YES, WE ALL KNOW THAT
THE BIAS PROBLEM
THE FILTER BUBBLE

48. HOWEVER…

49. IDEOLOGY AND HIDDEN
FACTS ARE NOT THE
ONLY PROBLEMS

50. OUR REALITY IS
COMPLEX

51. A CHANGED VIEW

52. WE KNOW WE LIVE
IN A
COMPLEX WORLD

53. WE DO HAVE SOME
SYSTEMIC
UNDERSTANDING

54. WE KNOW WE SHOULD
NOT FEED THE DUCKS
ALLIGATORS

56. YET…

57. WHEN IT COMES TO MANY
PRESSING PROBLEMS, WE
FALL BACK TO IMMUTABLE
NON-COMPLEX NARRATIVES

60. CANNOT
REPRESENT
gure 2: Story arc in Computers as Theatre (Laurel,
91)
o a historical approach. And indeed, the Oxford English Dictionary
n answer. It lists the first proper occurrence as “arc of story” in 1978:
Stewart in ELH 45 483 In the proliferated death scenes of Bleak
ckens brings death as never before into the pages that intervene
e implied oblivion before and after the arc of story, the unvoiced voids
e. (OED Online, n.d.)
on to Aristotle and Freytag, ‘story arc’ is a ghost-like existence, “used

61. TRADITIONAL NARRATIVES ARE
NO LONGER ABLE TO
ADEQUATELY REPRESENT OUR
COMPLEX REALITY

62. THE POSTMODERN CONDITION
IS […]
A CRISIS OF REPRESENTATION
Jean-François Lyotard 1979

63. TRADITIONAL REPRESENTATION
PROVIDE AN OPENING FOR
EXTREMIST PROPAGANDA IN
ITS INABILITY TO CONTAIN
COMPETING NARRATIVES

65. COMPLEXITY REQUIRES
NEW NARRATIVES
David Rejeski, Heather Chaplin, Robert Olson 2015

67. THERE IS A NEED FOR
ART TO REFLECT
COMPLEXITY

68. A SHIFT, […] TOWARDS AN
ART OF SYSTEM AND
PROCESS
Roy Ascott 1964

69. IDN AS SYSTEMS CAN
REPRESENT AND EVEN
LET US EXPERIENCE
COMPLEXITY

70. G A M E S A R E [ … ]
ESSENTIALLY SYSTEMIC
Eric Zimmerman 2009

71. AYITI - THE COST OF LIFE

72. FIREWATCH

73. PLAYERS/INTERACTORS
LEARN ABOUT DECISIONS
AND CONSEQUENCES

74. THE LAST HIJACK
INTERACTIVE

75. PLAYERS/INTERACTORS
LEARN ABOUT
DIFFERENT
PERSPECTIVES

76. FORT MCMONEY

77. IDN ARE TOOLS FOR
COMPLEXITY BY
PROMOTING AND TEACHING
SYSTEMIC THINKING

78. IDN ENABLE COMPREHENSION BY
TEMPORARILY COGNITIVELY REDUCING
COMPLEXITY, BUT NOT ELIMINATING IT

79. THIS ENHANCED
COMPREHENSION IS THE
BASIS FOR AN
IMPROVED DISCOURSE

80. THE ROAD AHEAD

81. HOW CAN WE MAKE
INTERACTIVE NARRATIVES
BETTER UNDERSTOOD
AND MORE WIDELY USED?

82. ISSUES
MODELS & FRAMING
DESIGN KNOWLEDGE
EDUCATION
CRITIQUE
APPLICATION

83. WHERE DO WE
START?

84. FOUNDATION:
MODELS

85. THE NATURAL SCIENCES
HAVE WAYS TO
REPRESENT
MULTIPLICITY

86. 80 YEARS AGO, THERE WAS A CAT, SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT
DEAD AND ALIVE AT THE SAME TIME
¨

87. MANY ADDITIONAL METHODS WERE DEVELOPED EVER SINCE
CYBERNETICS
SYSTEM THEORY
CHAOS THEORY
FUZZY LOGIC

88. IDN SPECIFICS

89. DIFFERENCE IDN AND TRADITIONAL FORMS
INTERACTION
COMPUTER W/SOFTWARE
OUTPUT
(CAN BE FIXED BY RECORDING)
WRITING
AUTHOR
OUTPUT (IS FIXED)

90. IDN REQUIRES INSTANTIATION
COMPUTER W/SOFTWARE
OUTPUT 1 OUTPUT 2 OUTPUT N
INTERACTION 1 INTERACTION 2 INTERACTION N

91. PROCESS
SYSTEM
PRODUCTPRODUCT - STORY
SYSTEM - PROTOSTORY
PROCESS - INSTANTIATION
SPP MODEL (KOENITZ 2015)
POTENTIAL
NARRATIVES
INSTANTIATED
NARRATIVES
PERFORMANCE/UX
DESIGN
RECORDED OUTPUT

92. KOENITZ, H. (2015). TOWARDS A
SPECIFIC THEORY OF INTERACTIVE
DIGITAL NARRATIVE. IN H. KOENITZ, G.
FERRI, M. HAAHR, D. SEZEN, & T. I. SEZEN
(EDS.), INTERACTIVE DIGITAL NARRATIVE
(PP. 91–105). NEW YORK: ROUTLEDGE.

93. RESEARCH OF THE
PROFESSORSHIP
INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE
DESIGN

94. DESIGN CONVENTIONS
PEDAGOGY
EXPERIMENTAL PRACTICE
COMPLEXITY NARRATIVES

95. IDENTIFYING
IDN DESIGN
CONVENTIONS

96. MEASUREMENT TOOLBOX
EVALUATION OF IDN USER
EXPERIENCES
SELF-REPORT SCALES
BASED ON
ENTERTAINMENT THEORY
CONNECTED TO
MURRAY'S TAXONOMY
(AGENCY, IMMERSION,
TRANSFORMATION)
the term “immersion” – Murray uses the word in a more general
sense of all aspects that let an interactor feel as being transported
to a different reality [22], while in our psychologically-oriented
perspective [27], immersion is only a technical quality of virtual
environments, which is complemented by presence to account for
the perceptible aspects. Thus, in order to connect the two
approaches, decisions have to be made in regards to which
meaning will be adopted for a combined model. This also might
mean to re-name and re-locate existing categories. In the concrete
case of immersion, we adopt Murray’s more general use and re-
locate the technical aspects of immersion (e.g. sensoric input and
system feedback) as part of the usability dimension. Similarly, we
emphasize eudaimonic appreciation as a more inclusive term over
aesthetic pleasantness, which we have used in our earlier work.
Figure 1. Roth’s original categories
3. USER EXPERIENCE DIMENSIONS
We evaluate the IDN user experience on 12 dimensions, which we
group under Murray’s experiential qualities of agency, immersion
sections, we will describe these experience dimensions in more
detail.
Figure 2. Dimensions of user experience

97. A/B TESTING USING THE MEASUREMENT TOOLBOX
Group A
Group B
Prototype A
Prototype B
Measurement
Comparison

98. FIRST STUDY: INTRO TEXT TO SCRIPT THE INTERACTOR
The Walking Dead
Life is Strange
Heavy Rain
Until Dawn

99. ROTH, C., & KOENITZ, H. (2016). EVALUATING THE
USER EXPERIENCE OF INTERACTIVE DIGITAL
NARRATIVE. HTTP://DOI.ORG/
10.1145/2983298.2983302
ROTH, C., & KOENITZ, H. (2017). TOWARDS CREATING
A BODY OF EVIDENCE-BASED INTERACTIVE DIGITAL
NARRATIVE DESIGN KNOWLEDGE: APPROACHES AND
CHALLENGES. HTTP://DOI.ORG/
10.1145/3132361.3133942

100. KOENITZ, H., ROTH, C., KNOLLER, N., & DUBBELMAN, T. (2018).
“CLEMENTINE WILL REMEMBER THAT” – METHODS TO ESTABLISH
DESIGN CONVENTIONS FOR VIDEO GAME NARRATIVE. PRESENTED
AT THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE 2018 DIGRA INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE THE GAME IS THE MESSAGE, TORINO, ITALY.
RETRIEVED FROM HTTP://WWW.DIGRA.ORG/WP-CONTENT/
UPLOADS/DIGITAL-LIBRARY/DIGRA_2018_PAPER_290.PDF
KOENITZ, H., ROTH, C., & DUBBELMAN, T. (2018). ENGAGING THE
COMMUNITY IN COLLECTING INTERACTIVE NARRATIVE DESIGN
CONVENTIONS. PRESENTED AT THE CHIPLAY 2018, MELBOURNE. HTTP://
DOI.ORG/HTTPS://DOI.ORG/
10.1145/3270316.327153310.1145/3132361.3133942

101. IDN PEDAGOGY

102. UNLEARN TRADITIONAL
APPROACHES
TOWARDS NARRATIVE

103. SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE
TEACHING METHODS
IN COMPARISON TO TRADITIONAL
NARRATIVE

104. EDUCATE A NEW
GENERATION OF
IDN DESIGNERS

105. DUBBELMAN, T., ROTH, C. & KOENITZ, H. (UCOMING)
INTERACTIVE DIGITAL NARRATIVES (IDN) FOR CHANGE:
EDUCATIONAL APPROACHES AND CHALLENGES IN A
PROJECT FOCUSED ON MIGRATION. ICIDS 2018, CHAM:
SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING
DAIUTE, C., & KOENITZ, H. (2016). WHAT IS SHARED? -
A PEDAGOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON INTERACTIVE
DIGITAL NARRATIVE AND LITERARY NARRATIVE.
ICIDS2016.

106. EXPERIMENTAL
PRACTICE

107. THE MULTIPLE LIVES OF WALTER B. (ELO 2017)

108. THE INDUSTRY

109. DUIJN, M. & KOENITZ, H. (2017). BEYOND
THE TIMELINE - A DATA-DRIVEN INTERFACE
FOR INTERACTIVE DOCUMENTARY. HTTP://
DX.DOI.ORG/10.1145/3084289.3089920

110. IDN AS
REPRESENTATIONS
OF COMPLEXITY

111. INVESTIGATING
NARRATIVE
COMPLEXITY

112. KNOLLER, N. (FORTHCOMING 2019).
COMPLEXITY AND THE USERLY TEXT. IN M.
GRISHAKOVA, & M. POULAKI (EDS.),
NARRATIVE COMPLEXITY: EXPERIENTIAL
AND COGNITIVE INTERFACES.
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA: UNIVERSITY OF
NEBRASKA PRESS.

113. WRAP UP

114. IDN ARE
(SYSTEMIC)
REPRESENTATIONS
OF COMPLEXITY

115. IDN
PROMOTE SYSTEMIC
THINKING

116. IDN
ARE KEY TO ENABLE
DISCOURSE ON
COMPLEX TOPICS

117. MAKING THEM AND
UNDERSTANDING THEM
IS AN ONGOING
CHALLENGE

118. LET’S WORK ON IT
TOGETHER

120. ARDIN
ASSOCIATION FOR RESEARCH IN DIGITAL
INTERACTIVE NARRATIVES
HTTP://ARDIN.ONLINE

121. THANK YOU
HARTMUT.KOENITZ@HKU.NL
@HKOENITZ
HTTP://GAMESANDNARRATIVE.NET
HTTP://TINYURL.COM/HDSPJRQ