Elements of ‘Interactive Drama’: Behind the Virtual Curtain of Jupiter Green

Christy Dena

Abstract


Immediately after I registered online for ‘Australia’s first web-based drama’, I received an email from Old Norm, a fictional character in Jupiter Green, a fictional apartment block (CitySearch, 2004b). Old Norm, the caretaker, let me know that ‘there’s pretty much no limit to where you can go. You’ve got permission to snoop about wherever you like’. So I did, both within the work and beyond. I read the emails and SMS messages of the Jupiter Green residents, chatted with them via email and through a forum, spied alongside them through a web-cam and even sent a confession to one of the characters. I also checked the source code of the web-pages, discovered every website connected to the work, researched the creators and recorded every screen of the massive work. I’ve spent weeks in the audience, behind the curtain and loitering in the neighborhood. This essay is a review of the work and a snapshot of the theories and methods of ‘interactive drama’.

Keywords


performance; media; interactive drama; multimedia theatre

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References


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