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Learning Objectives

1. To be able to discuss open-endedness andinteractivity in postmodern videogames

Year 13 OCR Media Studies

Postmodern Videogames:Open-endedness and Interactivity

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Wh at makesvideogames

postmodern?

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Wh at makes a videogame

postmodern?F ragmentation of representations

- characters, settings, events

Intertextuality and extra-textual references- genre hybridity, media interdependence, immersion and rabbit holes

Lack of Verisimilitude- machinima, shifting contexts, temporal mastery

Open-endedness- micro-narratives, sandbox style vs. linearity

Interactivity- player agency and emergent gameplay

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Wh y is t h e videogame

postmodern?³ The videogame GTA4 is consideredpostmodern because, it is includes

fragmented representations of charactersand settings, it makes explicit intertextualand extra-textual references, it creates aloss of context through a sandbox stylenarrative structure, which is driven byincreased player agency and immersionwithin the open world game.´ ± Miss O

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How does open-endedness= a postmodern videogame?

³ These narrative components - character, storyworld, emotion,narrative interface, and micro-narrative - are useful channels for

focusing a more accurate analysis of the role of narrative withinthe design of the game and the experience of gameplay.´ ± Bizzocchi, J

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H ow does interactivity =a postmodern videogame?

³ Interaction necessarily interferes with authorial control over thetiming and the details of the narrative arc, and makes it a

misleading focus for analysis or understanding of game narrative.´

- Bizzocchi, J

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Emergent gameplay

Machinima

Micro-narratives

Player agency

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Your Case Study

1. What is the narrative structure of your chosen videogame?

2. H ow can the player immerse themselvesin the videogame?

TASK: Provide examples from your videogame case study.Consider player agency?

Affect, change or choose the plot

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Y ou h ave 1 h r to answer t h e

question below«

D escribe two media texts which could beconsidered to be Postmodern, and explainwhy you would give them this label.