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Pause & Effect: The Art of Interactive Narrative
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Author: Mark S. Meadows
List Price: $45.00
Our Price: Click to see the latest and low price
ISBN: 0735711712
Publisher: New Riders (10 September, 2002)
Edition: Paperback
Sales Rank: 49,167
Average Customer Rating: 3.82 out of 5
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Customer ReviewsRating: 5 out of 5
A composed approach to a large problem
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.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Good for the eye, bad for the brain, okay for the stomach
This is a beautiful text visually, and the author has done an excellent job of bringing together very interesting experiments in interactive design. However, his analysis, as several other reviewers have noted, really is best described as "shallow." His interpretations lack insight and the details examined seem selected randomly. The interviews he includes often lack proper contextualization, and I think he stretches the term "narrative" far too much, trying to subsume things like games and theater as narratives only, without attending to their game-ness or theatricality. The problem is that there aren't many other books dealing with this genre of work yet, so some readers will find it useful for the excellent example of interesting case studies at least until someone with better analysis writes a book. Theoretically, Marie Laure-Ryan's book on Narrative as Virtual Reality is also a good selection.
Rating: 5 out of 5
INSPIRING!!
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.
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