The Myth of Interactivity or the Interactive Myth?:

Interactive Films as an Imaginary Genre

Kristoffer Gansing (2003)

In this article the author reflects about the real nature of the so called "new media". Interactive media has caused a paradigm shift regarding how we understand spectatorship. In the traditional media we had "passive viewers" while with the new interactive media we have "active users". But what exactly do they mean with interactivity? The author explains that this term has sometimes been used and even misused as a selling argument. The claim that the new media will increase the empowerment of the spectators, liberating them from the passiveness in which they used to be submerged with the traditional media. The problem is that when it comes to interactive films there is no such thing as total interactivity and complete control, because full interactivity will sooner or later pose concrete problems for the storytelling of the film.

The author mentions several video games as examples of experiences where the user has been given many interactive tools in order to control a wide variety of elements, from camera angles during the cinematic presentation to being able to control almost all the actions of the main character. These experiences suggest that developers of interactive media must take into consideration many different aspects in order to make the user to be able to understand the storytelling.

The author concludes by saying that there are two main approaches that can be used:

1. To give the user almost unlimited options for interacting with the game, but this will imply that the video game (or interactive film) will have no definite storytelling.
2. To give the user only a few alternatives to choose from. This will provide a more limited interactivity but it will let the creators of the game or film to offer a much well defined storytelling.