Transmedia: Storytelling for the Digital Age

Jason D'Aprile:  "The word “interactive” tends to get taken for granted in gaming, but we seldom think about what it actually means. Or, more importantly, what it could mean" ....

Keith Stuart:  "Part narrative adventure, part science fiction TV series, the latest game from Max Payne creator Remedy Entertainment shows us a new era of entertainment" ....

Pascal Luban:  "Gameplay for episodic games:Questions to answer and pitfalls to avoid" ...

Yinglian Xie:  "With the market booming so favorable, it is not surprising that online criminals have also found their way into the ecosystem and are creating a thriving underground market for in-game virtual goods. How do they pull this off? Here are a few attack techniques we’ve observed in the wild."

The Guardian:  "Naomi Alderman imagines a future where we have created full artificial intelligence for video games. It may not be as entertaining as you think" ... 

Damien Lawardorn:  "The real reason behind its creation [Scheherazade-IF], says Riedl, “is to probe the bounds of questions of how to get a computer to reason about, create, and understand narrative.” Given that humans are raised on stories, and make them a part of our everyday lives, Riedl’s goal is vital for any artificial intelligence if we want it to understand us."

ABC Radio:  "Fans have long had a role in influencing and in some cases helping to shape the works of popular culture they adore. But when they get restless in the modern age, they now have the resources to take a piece of fiction and make it their own. Some content producers find that assertive approach threatening. But others, particularly in the gaming sector, have begun to embrace it."

Seth Northrop and Li Zhu:  "Not only do [streaming] services provide a community for video game fanatics, streamers can earn good money through advertisement sharing and viewer donations, and can further leverage their growing popularity into brand deals or other sponsorships."

Bryant Francis:  "For better and for worse, Halo 5 is the first Halo game to acknowledge those small ways of looking at the Halo universe. It's loaded with meaningful plot points and character beats extracted from context so far away you literally have to spend additional money elsewhere to understand it. This may be the insurmountable challenge that "transmedia" stories like Halo will face in going mainstream. But as someone who already bought in, it's rewarding to play a Halo game that in brief moments, celebrates the small ways of looking at its big galactic war."

Michael Wesolowski:  "It’s no longer just about unique and memorable game characters and exciting incentives, but holistic and immersive user experiences."

Pascal Luban:  "A game based on “brands” as strong as The Walking Dead or Games of Thrones automatically generate a lot of interest from gamers and the media. However, it would be a mistake to assume that episodic games became successful only because of their affiliation with some of the most popular TV series."

Susan Karlin:  "After propelling games such as Call of Duty to global blockbusters, Arem looks to change the game for feature films."

Bridget Ellis-Pegler:  "It soon became clear that this story world wasn’t going to fit into a film, but needed a whole TV series, in fact, several seasons of TV series. And books. And a website. And a computer game – in other words, I’d created a huge transmedia beast!"

Pascal Luban:  "Episodic games are not making the headlines yet but they are quietly carving out their place in the industry. As a reminder, those games are sold in episodes. Each of them costs a few dollars and offers between one and three hours of gameplay. Those games can only be found in digital form; players must download them and they cannot be purchased in retail stores."

Simon Parkin:  "The future looks dim for film-style storytelling as more games allow you to plot your own adventures" ....

Jake Muncy:  "Open-world games leave players to their own devices, free to explore what amounts to an enormous sandbox with no boundaries and few rules."

Keith Stuart:  "With Fallout 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops III and Star Wars Battlefront drawing lukewarm reactions, what is the critic’s role in the age of patches and updates?"

Steven Melendez:  "How escape room developers use tech, theater, and game design principles to make puzzles you can actually solve but can't break."

Naomi Alderman:  "Video games could be the greatest storytelling medium of our age – if only the worlds of art and technology would stop arguing and take notice" ...