Wk 8 Q1: What is Interactive Entertainment (IE)?

Costikyan basically shoots himself in the foot by making such a sweeping statement, especially when he provides the very examples that refute his statement in the same chapter itself. The examples of MUDs, RPGs and simulations like SimCity have been described as lacking in terms of explicit goals inherent in the design itself and so despite his use of the term ‘games’ to describe them, these applications do not qualify as games per se. However, that does not stop us from classifying these applications as being an IE, from which entertainment is derived from the act of interaction in these applications itself.

A very good example of another form of an IE that would not qualify as a game would be that off the simulation Sims 2, which is interaction personified. Sims 2 can be seen as a multi-function entertainment suite which allows players to play the role of plastic surgeon, costume designer, architect, town planner and most importantly, live the lives of their character in whatever way they choose to. Like SimCity, the simulation features no explicit goals and thus no victory condition, and cannot be considered a game under Costikyan’s definition, but it would be hard to question the entertainment value of the game.

Costikyan claims that it is not possible for IEs to eschew the sense of struggle characteristic of games, but if one were to look at the performance genre of improvisational comedy (think Whose Line is it Anyway?), it might not necessary be the case. It is definitely no struggle for the audience members to come up with keywords (for use by the performers in their improvisation) in the process of being entertained. The struggling is left entirely to the performers while the audience members sit back and enjoy how the performers struggle to include their input in the performance. Costikyan specified that the struggling has to be on the part of the user’s experience which clearly is not the case in this example, thus allowing us to qualify it as a piece of non-game interactive entertainment.

From what has been suggested thus far, the definition of IE definitely extends beyond the games genre and where Costikyan has failed is to provide a definition of entertainment to provide a frame for his definition of IE. This allows for the expansion of the scope to include any form of interaction that provides a generally enjoyable experience to the interacting agent, thus refuting his claims.