Customer Reviews

Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative

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Other readers have found the book shallow. Unfortunately this is an indication of the reading that went into the book, not the writing. Pause and Effect assumes a level of reader education, reader participation, and it moves over large ideas quickly. The book points to the invention of visual narrative and goes on to explain how it has changed over time, showing why video games are part of a much larger narrative history and that "interactive narrative" is an emerging process.

It is rare to find an academic book that is both as carefully constructed and as beautifully co-ordinated as Pause & Effect. There is nothing shallow about showing how visual art, interaction, and writing are combining in new ways, and what this means to contemporary literature. One has to only read the table of contents to see that Meadows is being conscientious about his approach. Each of the 4 chapters (Theory, 2D, 3D, and Practice) are viewed through the triple lenses of perspective, narrative, and interaction. It makes for a 12-part composition that only a careful eye will notice.

The book is overambitious, as it sifts through 2,500 years of history and better examples could be found, but in the end it is an excellent read and one that stands alone in a field where consideration is needed.

An excellent book! It is beautifully designed, no question. It made me look at video games (and television and books) differently. Most useful is that it tries to make a general approach to narrative. There's examples from thousands of years ago that are still worth thinking about today. A GREAT inspiration for designers! Meadows does a great job (though a few sentences I had to go over again). I've read it twice because, like a good movie, it deserves it. I'd recommend you not only buy it, but read it twce yourself.

As a documentary filmmaker who is starting to work in the the interactive arena, this book is a map through the maze. Mark Meadows provides a detailed and interesting explanation of the evolution of narrative and how that evolution is pushing us into interactive narrative. The book helped me understand interactive design but also expanded my horizons for the work I am presently doing and will do in the future. Interactive narrative is the future for us storytellers, and this book helps us ride the turbulent waves of its development.

Anyone, theorist, artist, philosopher or entrepreneur, who has an interest in contemporary media and communications theory, cultural theory, aesthetics and design, and the philosophy of contemporary culture ought to read this book. It is a seminal text that seeks to cross boundaries, seek new borders, and open new horizons. In the often abstract realm between ideation, culture, and aesthetic theory, Pause and Effect seeks to act as a bridge that links these elements and grounds them within the prescient moment.

In an era in which history as we have known it has come to an end, this books serves as a singular oracular perspective on that tradition and where it may yet lead us. This text, if it can be limited to such a closed system, is for anyone who seeks to exist in the future. "A Story is only a beginning..."

Pause and Effect is a calling out to writers, artists, designers, students, and anyone wishing to have a voice. Really, it is a call to that within us that makes us want to write and tell stories and to our very ideas of stories themselves. This is not strictly a book about the future of Internet based design; it would be a mistake to categorize this as a text only of interest to programmers, graphic artists, and computer game designers...

Over the next 240 pages Meadows takes us through an extraordinarily rich landscape, filled with hundreds of stunningly beautiful images, from classical art to contemporary animation (including many of his own), dozens of interviews, and his own reflections on the theory of the development and possible future of narration...

His objective is to link interaction, visual art, and literature by pointing to the importance of "perspective" in each of these. Via a discussion of perspective in art, from medieval art and the long dead voice of Giotto di Bondone, Meadows weaves a history of perspective from the individual to the cultural and societal and now, once again, back to us, the reader as the individual. He guides us through narrative history, from Aristotle to Gustav Freytag, to Edgar Allen Poe to contemporary games like Deus Ex and the on-line world of Banja. Interwoven with this is the notion of interaction - not simply its roles, its definitions, its applicability and its changing shape before us, but true interaction. Meadows doesn't simply tell you about the storytelling worlds he sees forming, he brings you into them via a series of candid interviews from leading programmers like Marcos Novak, to comic writer Scott McCloud.

There is a final affect that Meadows adds to the text of Pause and Effect - the "narrative" of St_Elmo. It is perhaps not fair to call this a text itself, however, as this artist, Meadows, almost sneaks it by us. Along the margins of each page is a series of boxes, each box containing a character and a series of scenes. St_Elmo is a story, a narration, embodying a deep semiotic meaning and calling to us to not simply read the story, but to take part in it. If this indeed is Meadows' desire in writing Pause and Effect then he has succeeded enormously.

This is not a book that should sit in the once posh offices of the dot.com world; rather it is a way of thinking about storytelling, and as such it belongs on the desks of writers, students, and literary theorists as a beautiful and lucid introduction to the subject and passion of narration...

Were Pause and Effect to simply stay within the often publicly distanced realm of digital design, then we, as an interactive audience, would lose the broader and more subtle implications that this text has to offer.

This is a beautiful book, more at place on a coffee table than a bookcase. It benefits not only from its many full-color photos, graphic reproductions, and illustrations, but also from the freedom Meadows had to lay out these images with the text on the page, creating effects more typically seen on complex web pages than in traditional print books. From the Use-Case Scenario flow charts to the flipbook narrative that appears in the upper corners of the book and the related comic cell narrative that runs five panels to a page along the bottom of the book, Meadows is both telling us how interactive narrative "combines traditional narrative with visual art and interactivity" and showing us how these insights can be implemented in print.

Because Meadows believes that understanding the art of interactive narrative requires familiarity with a wide range of principles, he attempts to cover an ambitious amount of information in Pause & Effect. This would be challenging enough if Pause & Effect was exclusively an introductory "how-to" book for would-be interactive narrative designers, but the book, as Meadows says in his preface, "is designed for anyone interested in narrative art forms" (xiii). Therefore, Meadows is engaging a general audience, and does not assume any pre-existing knowledge in the field. While such a broad approach may be good for sales figures, it is not without its costs. His writing, while always refreshingly clear, is at times overly simplistic, leaving many of the good ideas he puts forth insufficiently fleshed out. Meadows attempts to compensate for this limitation by incorporating interviews and case studies that give the reader alternate viewpoints about the production of interactive narrative. The incorporation of complementary and sometimes conflicting viewpoints from important creators of interactive content adds depth to the work, making it more interesting to the general reader and more credible as a design "how-to" book.

The basic claims of the book are easy to understand. The book assumes that an author can combine narrative and interactivity and claims that the development of imagery in the Western tradition gives us crucial insights into how this process should work. Meadows' approach is to bring together traditional concepts of narrative construction, two-dimensional and three-dimensional art creation, and interactive systems design in a way that defines the role of the author in the new art form of interactive narrative design.

Meadows lays out his arguments very clearly, giving his readers useful background information and examples to illustrate his points. He also, in a style similar to a self-help guru, breaks down complicated concepts into easily remembered components or steps, such as his "Four Steps of Interaction": 1) Observe; 2) Explore; 3) Modify; and 4) Change, or his "Three Different Structures of Interactive Narrative": 1) Nodal Plot Structure; 2) Modulated Plot Structure; and 3) Open Plot Structure. Although this structure overly simplifies complicated processes at times, it is still admittedly useful for a book that is trying to be a practical guide as much as it is an academic exercise.

Even keeping Meadows' aims in mind, however, Meadows warrants some criticism about just how broad and introductory he sometimes is in the text. While a general reader, new to concepts of narrative and interactivity, will appreciate Meadows' approach, those well versed in the debates surrounding the contentious and provocative term interactive narrative will be surprised and disappointed by the fact that Meadows does not address the term as problematic at all. Although, to be fair, a great deal of the debate that continues to rage about the term "interactive narrative" has taken place after Meadows wrote his book. Still, his bibliography is missing some key figures. Perhaps this omission is because Meadows does not want to get bogged down in academic debates over ontology and taxonomy, which he may deem worthless and unproductive. It is a forgivable move considering the breadth of his work and how much he must leave out as it is. Nonetheless, these omissions are frustrating to those of us who would very much like to know how Meadows would answer the criticism levied against the term interactive narrative and some of the practices Meadows preaches.

This is a beautiful book, worth buying simply for the gorgeous design and the case studies and interviews of interactive works and creators. It's lacking as a theoretical discussion of interactive narrative, though. The book proposes a theory of interactive narrative that shows hardly any awareness at all of other work in the field. The use of visual metaphors and theory is often inspiring, as in the discussion of perspective as a way of thinking about interactive works. I would have liked to see a lot more knowledge of narrative genres and theory in a work attempting to analyse interactive narrative. I would also have liked to see more awareness of the history of interactive narrative and the theories of these works. Where to start? Try The New Media Reader, Cybertext, Hamlet on the Holodeck and see where that takes you.

I've used this book to teach interative narrative to both media arts and computer science students. It clearly (and dynamically) covers issues such as narrative, point of view, interactivity, and design in a way that students find compelling. By threading these issues throughout the book, Meadows reinforces how all are intertwined and equally important. My students love it, I suspect, because of the high image to text ratio... but the style gets them to see and think differently. Students are inspired by both the book's layout and the interviews with media artists. This book pushes them both to understand the multiple variables that go into creating interactivity and to take creative risks. You couldn't find a better text.

This is a must read for game designers, theoreticians, and anyone interested in how to tell a story in which the listener can influence the outcome. It's a how-to book, and a how-did-it-get-that-way book. Its range is wide enough to swim in, yet deep enough to go diving. And if the book doesn't get dog-eared from becoming an essential reference manual to those who design interactive environments, it certainly will from the flipbook comic in the upper corner that tells a story of one funky looking skeleton. Excellent.

Mark Meadows has proven himself over and over again to be at the forefront of the intersection of art and technology in the Internet age. From his now classic 3D comic 'Crutch', museum installations that interact between the real and virtual worlds, to narrative architecture experiments at Xerox-PARC, Mr. Meadows has consistently challenged notions of perception in the art of storytelling. Pause and Effect takes all that he has gleaned from his experiences to create a remarkable contribution to the burgeoning field of interactive narrative.

The book's premise is deceivingly simple: narrative and perception are equivalent terms, and since our notions of perception are changing with the use of a networked world, so too must our narratives. When video games are matching Hollywood in financial returns, and as increasingly novel ways are being created to distribute, explore and exchange information, this point of view is both timely and forward-looking. Mr. Meadows takes us through from basic principles to 2D and 3D imagery, and on to the development of interactive environments. With his interdisciplinary approach, he provides a wealth of examples, including analyses of medieval Christian paintings, eye physiology, color theory, software UI design, video games and comic books. And in keeping with the interactive spirit of the topic, he interviews people exploring this new terrain, from theater to books to online gaming, including Scott McCloud, Marcos Novak, and the creators of DeusEx2.

I can't really do justice to this book by merely reviewing it. However, since this is meant to be a review, I'll muddle through as best I can.

Pause & Effect is aimed at designers who want to do more than shove information at a target audience, or get people to buy stuff online. Mark Meadows discusses interactive narrative and how it relates to actual experience in online situations, as well as real life. He does this by example, by logical argument, and by simply conversing. While there is some deep theory, the text is extremely approachable, and eye-opening to say the least. You won't find formulas to make you a better designer or artist, nor will you come away with a set of rules or guidelines. What you will find is a new approach to recognizing and developing media, perspectives most people are not likely to have thought about, let alone design from.

This book has the potential to drastically change the designer and developer mindset from implementation to creation, from problem solving to architecting new challenges and solutions.

Let me be clear; you will have to work. And it will be a joy. Meadows requires the reader to get involved, to seriously consider the ideas presented and run with them. Pause & Effect will be useless to those who are happy with flashing ad banners and multitudes of pop-up/under/over/behind windows or other annoying attempts at grabbing attention. However, if you want to understand and ponder the very basis of human interaction and involvement with your visitors, this is a wonderful place to start.

Pause & Effect is a beautiful book. Definitely the most visual work on the subject of interactive narrative I have ever encountered. From its almost baroque design it immediately becomes clear that Meadows has a multidisciplinary background that among other things has seen him working as a game-designer, photographer, portrait painter and writer. Clearly, this multifaceted approach is the book biggest asset, as Meadows, rightly so, positions interactive narrative on the intersection of literature, visual art and interaction design. In his view, a successful interactive narrative finds a way to transfer some of the traditional control of the author over the story to the reader who must be able to "affect, choose or change the plot". Control over the perspective and time are important to evolve normal stories with its fixed chains of cause and effect, to a new level. And with a new underlying temporal structure of 'pause and effect'.

We should be patient, however, the new art-form of interactive narrative will not blossom over night. It took literature several millennia to evolve from its epic (with its base and violent interaction between characters) beginnings to the current intricate form, with all its depth and reflections. Most video games (the most popular example of interactive narratives) are still in the initial cycle of development, although some games hint at the next step in the is evolution after only thirty years of development.

To me the best parts of the book are the first 'dimension' (or chapter) which explains Meadow's theory of interactive narrative and the interviews that conclude the second and third dimensions. Meadows interviews the creators of some very good and important examples of existing interactive narratives. These people have many profound things to say, and it becomes clear that they were a main source of inspiration to the general theoretical framework of Pause & Effect. But close inspection of these interviews also highlights what I think is a weakness in Meadow's work.

The possible structures that interactive narratives can use play an important role in both the theory and the interviews. Meadows presents three basic structures (the nodal plot, the modular plot and the open plot) which can all be diagrammed as networks of nodes and connections. I understand that these nodes some how represent story-points, events or scenes and the connections possible routes or reader choices. This reduces interactive narrative to a rather discrete network of possibilities, whereas interviewees stress the fact interactive narrative should move beyond discrete plot trees and to more analogous story worlds or simulations. Such worlds cannot be expressed in these diagrams, rather these are expressed in rules of simulation and rules of interaction. This approach will more easily incorporate procedural or algorithmical production of interactive narrative. This is (and I am confindent that Meadows agrees on this point) where the future of interactive narrative lies.

The second weakness in the book is related to its interdisciplinary quality. Though Meadow's study is informed, it is not always as clear as I would want it to be. The many images are exemplary in this respect. The link with the text is not always apparent. In sometimes they are just illustrations, at other times they could be more integral to the argument of the text. But without captions and direct textual references you can never be sure. Many technical terms that come different art genres are taken for granted, as if Meadow's assumes his reader is as well-versed as he is in the arts of painting, illustration, writing and cinema. Sometimes technical terms have very different meanings in these different areas and I am not always sure which particular connotation is the correct one. Worse, I doubt that technical terms can be as easily transferred between the different media as Meadows does. Especially his discussion of 3D perspective seems to suffer from this a little.

Still, Pause & Effect is an important work. Its discussion on the use of time and perspective as important tools or structures for interactive narrative remain valid. Meadows multidisciplinary, eloquent and intelligent perspective is a valuable contribution to the emerging field of interactive narrative. I do not expect the "holy grail" of interactive narrative to be conquered anytime soon, and will not chastise every knight that does not return with the ultimate prize from his explorations. After all, as with any quest it is the journey that counts more than anything else, and as Meadows reminds us on the last page of his book "This is, as you can see, just the beginning". What fun would remain otherwise?