Argax Project

Mateas

Michael Mateas (2004) follows Laurel's model, both in the terms used and the material and formal causes. He adds to the model Janet Murray's (1997) notion of agency, which Mateas defines as "the feeling of empowerment that comes from being able to take actions in the world whose effects relate to the player's intention" (Mateas 2004, p.21).

Mateas' Model (2004, p. 24)

In an interactive drama, the story is enacted with the player taking the role of one of the characters. To support interaction at this Character level, Mateas adds two new causal chains--a Material for Action and a User Intention. When a user is interacting within a virtual world, the objects and the characters in that world afford certain user actions (from below). In turn, the story provides some narrative constraints, or at least direction (from above). When the user acts upon other characters in the story, her intention becomes a formal cause in much the same way the requirements of the action shape characters in traditional narratives. "A player will experience agency when there is a balance between the material and formal constraints" (Mateas 2004, p.25)

Works Cited

• Mateas, Michael. "A Preliminary Poetics for Interactive Drama and Games." First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. Eds. Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Pat Harrigan. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2004. Reprinted at: <http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/firstperson/mateas>
• Murray, Janet. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. New York: Free Press, 1997.

Argax Project : Dissertation : A Rough Draft Node http://www2.hawaii.edu/~ztomasze/argax

Last Edited: 17 Dec 2007 ©2006 by Z. Tomaszewski.