Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Midterm Project CYOA

For my midterm project, I am creating a choose your own adventure that incorporates how narrative media has changed due to technological advancements. It is structured in a way that is loosely based on my own life and some of the different narrative elements that i was exposed to while growing up. Most of it addresses the television shows, movies, books, and mainly video games. I hope to post representative of the structure for this soon, either in binary tree format or with a general listing of the possible decisions and the outcomes to which they lead.
Some of the topics involve the way in which my own interpretation of narrative developed while growing up and how technology introduced new narrative possibilities which to an extent replaced others. An example is how once I received my first video game console (the Sega Genesis), I started to read books on my own less frequently. The introduction of a new, fun, and technological depiction of narrative succeeded in partially replacing the previous form of narrative.
Another example is the R.L. Stine Goosebumps series that was fairly popular in the early 90s when I was growing up. They were easy to read and very entertaining. Soon however, a cable television network started reproducing various episodes that covered the plot of a number of his books and I started watching the television shows instead of taking the time to read the actual book.
Lately, I try to make an effort to be exposed to various forms of narrative, even video games. More and more stories that were originally video games have been made into movies just as there are countless movies that are based on novels.
The way in which i will try to construct an argument is by addressing the fact that advancements in technology make some forms of narrative more convenient than others though I do not think that one form of narrative should be looked at as replacing another. With this in mind, I have structured the CYOA in a way that rewards the character (reader) for variations in forms of narrative. For example, if you choose to only play video games, you will eventually start playing more violent video games and develop into a serial killer, or just a lonely person that only plays video games in their basement (I haven't decided). On the other hand, If you try various forms of narrative, you will be rewarded with a "good" ending, one possibility involves developing into a well rounded individual who is liked by everyone and regarded as a superior being.
After I have completely worked out the details of each adventure, I will publish an outline of the structure, so keep an eye out for this soon. Also, if there are any suggestions let me know.

1 comment:

Adam Johns said...

That's a wild-sounding project. I like it very much conceptually, but it's hard for me to visualize how it's going to come together in the next week - this might be a good candidate for a somewhat reduced scope _now_, followed by further development for the final. I'm looking forward to the draft, though.