Space Time

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SpaceTimeInteractivity

• Week 11
• Juli Griffo
• Ben Hansford

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What is time?

• Space-Time
• Time is an observed phenomena
• Gravity

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How do these affect each other?

• A mathematical model that puts space and time
  together in one continuum (in physics)
• Do these go together in media?

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Time/Space/Narrativity

• Okay, math science aside
• Theres a model of representation for media.
  Pretty classic stuff.

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Time Plot

• There are two parts to the traditional idea of
  time structure in narrative
• Discourse-time and plot-time.
• And for more traditional media these make sense.

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First, lets get these two down

• 1. Discourse-time
• The time in which the story is received
• (This involves the order in which the same
  events are being told in)
• (The time it takes to peruse the discourse)

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Pick your Favorite Movie or Book.

• The story is unchanging. No matter what you do,
  you cant cut up the film or rip up your book and
  actually change the story-time in these
  narratives.
• Maybe you shouldnt try this at home

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The Smaller Argument

• When reading a book, you are going to have
  slightly different discourse time than other
  readers. If you pause a movie and get up and
  make popcorn, again, it changes it a little but
  this changes the experience in a physical space.
  Does this really impact the way in which you are
  receiving the story?

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Simple way to make this argument end

• But, you guys probably still can be willing to
  accept that little differences like this are not
  really what discourse time is supposed to
  encompass. Thats more about audience reception
  than time of the narrative.

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Non-changing.

• Your favorite movie is still your favorite movie
  with a set time for the narrative to be told. A
  90 minute movie is always a 90 minute movie.
• A 300 page book is still a 300 page book.

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Still following the Double Time Structure?

• 2. Plot-time
• The time within the story itself
• (This is the order in which events happen in
  the story)
• (Story-Time - The duration of the purported
  events of the narrative)

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But why?

• Books and movies dont have to have a linear
  narrative
• But these are unchanging stories.
• What does interactivity do to this narrative-time
  relation?

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Examples

• Lets look at some examples for time in less
  traditional narratives.
• Interactive Media.
• How about Changeables? _

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Prince of Persia Trailer

• Link it.

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The Gameplay in Prince of Persia

• Use game's plot-time to your advantage, creating
  a "clone" of yourself that passes through
  separate time (but same space) to complete quest.

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For all these examples

• Keep these questions in mind.
• Will the discourse time ever be the same for
  each user and playthrough?
• What about the story time?
• Does the narrative change entirely?

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Forza Motorsport 3

• Racing Simulation Game
• In single player mode, the player is now (in FM3)
  able to rewind the race.
• If you crash, no worries, rewind to where youre
  comfy and do it again.

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Like this
Rewind It Up.
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CtrlZ for Gaming?

• Undo it up.
• Undo directly causes branching in any endeaver.

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Storytelling

• Branching Narrative
• Essentially, narratives that are changing.
• Embedded Narrative
• Traditional media. 300 page book. 90 minute
  movie.

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The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom

• Trailer Information
• Static level puzzle game where necessary to use
  multiple (temporal) versions of self to complete
  puzzle.

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Game Space Awareness.

• If you warp the space in a game, youre also
  warping the plot-time and not just the discourse
  time.

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Moving Around in the Narrative Space

• Teleporters. Half-Life and Halo (and others)
  have portals/teleporters that allow the user to
  traverse space instantly to pop up elsewhere in
  space. You change the game space by NOT existing
  on the terrain you just covered.

24
Portal The Flash Version

• Game
• This is based on the real Portal the one
  originally included in Half-Life. (Later, Orange
  Box)
• Puzzle-based static level game in which your gun
  shoots an Open Portal and an Exit Portal. Use
  this to solve puzzles and move to next level.

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Time Fcuk.

• First, hehehehehehhehe!
• Second, a quote from the site, A game about not
  being able to succeed in this world without
  seeing it from the perspective of another world.
• Third, link it up for play!

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Coming around in a Circle.

• Interactive media long ago surpassed the limited
  definitions of discourse time and plot time
  reserved for traditional narrative media.
  Branching narratives imitated the agency and
  variability of our real world dynamics. However
  now interactive media has gone beyond imitating
  real-world physics by allowing meta and in-game
  time ( space) manipulations that demand an
  updated model for time in narratives.