The aim of my artefact was to create an interactive narrative that would
raise awareness of the dangers of social networking to young adults. I wanted
my interactive narrative to be creative and unique, combining elements of
ludology and narratology to attract and engage a young audience.
Girl Online does successfully raise awareness of the dangers regarding
strangers and the online world. The project highlights the risks of being careless
online and shows the consequences of these actions; the ending also shows users
the extreme of what could happen if they don’t take care online. Throughout the
piece I have included statistics and facts to raise awareness of Internet
safety, these statistics will hopefully surprise and shock users - influencing
them to take care when online.
I feel that my artefact fits its intended target audience well; young
adults will be attracted to the piece through the visual style and connect with
the artefact through the relatable protagonist and storyline. I wanted my
narrative to be fun and engaging but also educational, and I wanted to do it in
a way so users wouldn’t feel as though they were being lectured. I do feel as
though Girl Online successfully manages this through the high level of
interactivity intergraded into the project; it makes the artefact fun to travel
through and explore.
A weakness of my piece would be the narrative. Although I feel it still
gets the point across, because of time constraints I had to sacrifice and cut
down some of the story, I feel this makes parts of the narrative slightly
unrealistic. If I had more time I would include more frames and extend certain
scenes, this would make my project more practical and realistic to audiences.
My artefact does suit its intended market and would fit well on a site which raises awareness of Internet safety, such as the NSPCC or NSTeens. From my research I found
that most Internet safety games and digital stories were primarily designed for
young children, they were typically drawn in a cartoon style and for older
children they probably seemed quite patronising in the way they came across. I
couldn’t find one interactive narrative targeted at the young adult market.
This makes my artefact unique and causes it to further develop campaign media, as it is attracting a new audience in a new and exciting way.
Girl Online sticks to the typical conventions of an interactive
narrative, “interactive narrative design combines ludology, narratology and
game design” (Dinehart, 2008). I have included elements of ludology through the
interactivity of my piece; the user can interact with objects and explore
different pathways, discovering and interacting with a range of different
content along the way. There is also a strong narrative and themes that run
throughout Girl Online, the story develops the further along the user goes.
Overall I feel Girl Online is a fun and engaging interactive narrative,
successful in both entertaining and educating.
References
• Dinehart, Stephen. (2015). Transmedial Play: cognitive and
cross-platform narrative | The Narrative Design Explorer™. [online] Available
at:
http://narrativedesign.org/2008/05/transmedial-play-cognitive-and-cross-platform-narrative/
[Accessed 14 Mar. 2015].
