Surround Entertainment
Guillaume is the director of Quantic Dream, and discussed his intentions of creating something new, that involved story, equally, if not more so than it involved game. What Guillaume is going after is a convergence between the two forms of media. Gaming, which he explains in the video focuses on action (primarily in the of form of violence), and a little bit of story. With that pattern, the user is more or less told what to do, and has no freedom to do what he or she would like to do independently of the game narrative. Story involves the user or viewer to only be able to watch, read, and maybe experience the moral or lesson as it unfolds autonomously, only requiring the user to observe.
As we move and progress further along into understanding society and a multi-modal digital culture, with technology we want to engage in the text, and the stories we experience. There are a few games Guillaume describes him and his team have been working on (already out at this point). One game his team created, offered over twenty different possible endings, a full length run-time of over ten hours, and almost two thousands pages worth of script had to be written up as story for the user to go through in-game.
Similar games are beginning to follow along with this convergence, an example would be the Call of Duty Modern Warfare game in which there is story, and the player of the game is following along that story line.
The focus is more on action, and consistency with this game however, a bit less story, but a close example to the idea behind Guillaume’s approach to convergence of game and story. Although the primary focus in his creations are on story more so, specifically with a sense of individual choice and unlimited freedom allotted to the viewer, something this Call of Duty game does not quite have because of the commands given to the user throughout.
“There is no game over, never, whatever you do, whatever you choose, the story continues, it goes on and on and on.” -Guillaume
Moving deeper into this study, there is the participatory factor, keeping in mind with the user or viewer’s more instinctive desire to be an actual part of the story in real time. There have been multiple forms of this capability through games and entertainment. Over the next several years entertainment will slowly begin to change in some aspects. An example is the consistently increasing size of televisions in the average residential home.
While quality has increased in definition visually, from standard definition up through 8K ultra standard definition, the intention is to fully replace the quality of original production done with film, and have even higher quality. The purpose of increasing screen size is due to the understanding that an HD television, is not going to be capable of providing the full quality of an 8K UHD experience. The screen size is not large enough to fit the higher number of pixels within the higher resolution framing.
Additionally, streaming movies at home is becoming progressively more popular over the traditional movie theater experience. Writer Tero Kuittinen, for BGR explains the problem is the younger generation finds it easier and more modern to view movies online with friends and their home entertainment, over going to the treditional movie theater. One reason is simply the cost difference, for almost the same experience, if not better (being in the privacy of your own home).
Movie goers are able to stream popular movies, and new releases as well, straight to their home. The home theater experience brings viewers a desire for a closer more personal experience or connection with the film.
In June of 1979, Canadian professor of English and communication theorist Marshall McLuhan, lectured with a Q&A afterward for ABC Radio National Network in Australia. During the session an individual asks McLuhan if television is the ultimate medium or if there is worse to come jesting humor on “worse”. McLuhan proceeds to describe the next big step to be holograms, “the hologram goes completely around you, the television only goes a little bit around you.” McLuhan references rock music and the understanding that in order to get the full experience of the form of music, requires being in a surround sound bubble. “The hologram does for TV what rock does for auditory entertainment.”
In Being Digital, writer Nicholas Negroponte theorizes the idea of wearable media (209–11). “Instead of carrying your laptop, wear it… The wristwatch is the most obvious… it is certain to migrate from a mere timepiece today to a mobile command-on-control center tomorrow.” What he compares to the special abilities of Captain Kirk, Dick Tracy, and Batman, in 1995, is now a common tool in modern day activity.
Negroponte continues to discuss the primary limitations of devices like these however the battery source. “Our ability to miniaturize will quickly surpass our ability to power these small objects. Power is an area of technology that has moved a turtle’s pace.” Describing this issue still becomes a factor today, yet the wearable media has continued to advance.
A closer step to the convergence of game and story is now working toward this idea with wearable tech. The most common example is the virtual reality headset, which is a mixture of the 360º of vision like McLhuan’s hologram discussion, with wearable tech rapidly progressing today.
While virtual reality is still in the early stages, like ARPANET, prior to it’s available use by civilians. Or the use of drones for defense and reconnaissance operations carried out by the U.S. government. Virtual Reality is becoming more useful for training and experimentation. The use of which Star Trek’s concept of a Holodeck becomes closer to a possibility.
While Joachim Tesch represents an example of a real life Holodeck, using a large scale tracking lab with virtual reality headsets. A full-motion virtual reality rig built by Max Rheiner with Zurich University of the arts simulates flying.
Max Rheiner’s concept of flying also incorporates physical attributes like feeling the wind using a fan in front of the user, as well incorporating physical smells depending on the area of the virtual environment that is flown over.
The sense of useful application and virtual reality is used most practically for military training operations. Here is an example of that with a small team of soldiers performing law enforcement and combat exercises, moving tactically as they would during a live operation.
An interesting note is the application of virtual reality to an average consumer will still have a hard time getting any type of realistic quality experience from a civilian version of virtual reality, unless a great deal of money is available for it.
With convergence culture and the strive for something that merges story equally with participation and gaming, there are still limitations. Holograms are technically feasible as McLuhan stated in his lecture all the way back in 1977. But the complete and realistic process is still in developmental stages, the closest thing currently to such an experience does not even involve virtual headset gear, but to me, is IMAX.
Specifically OMNIMAX, which offers a visual entertainment format that fully covers an individual’s entire spectrum of sight. This technology has been around since the early 1980s, however something I believe that when integrated with more modern digital media facets, using a camera system designed to film a feature movie for OMNIMAX. I find that this form of experience will replace the traditional movie theater. And become the next traditional norm when going out of your home to experience and watch a movie.
