The Virtual Real-Time Dramaturge: Formalisation of Dramaturgic Principles

Compared to classic media like movies or theatre interactive digital productions in the field of entertainment computing like VR environments and computer games are typically lacking sophistication in their dramaturgic arrangement. While hardware and network technologies are rapidly gaining quality and speed we cannot observe remarkable improvements in the ability of interactive productions and formats to create empathy. Classical dramaturgic methods for the presentation of conflicts or dramatic situations frequently fail in interactive environments. Often dramaturgy and interactivity are hence labelled as contradicting concepts. In this paper we discuss important aspects of the implicit conflicts on different levels and propose new approaches to solve them. In contrast to previous work, our goal is to facilitate the understanding of dramaturgy in interactive, digital applications from a more general standpoint as a presentation strategy rather than a 'grand unifying theory'. We clarify our arguments by the description of a successful implementation.