Abstract
The Assassin’s Creed franchise mainly consists of video games but has over the years created a narrative universe spanning different media. Seeing how the traversal from the individual installment Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag into the narrative universe of Assassin’s Creed changes player engagement with the franchise allows one to understand audience interaction with different mediaproducts in a transmedia and convergent culture. Seen as a performed possible world, the individual installment is shown, through a three part gameplay analysis, to function as an unfinished commodity. This implies striking a balance between an individually satisfying experience and a plot-hole ridden incentive for further activity. When the individual installment incites traversal into a narrative universe, the player can construct the universe from installments through a hyperdiegetic, intermedia, or crossmedia engagement, depending on the reliance on medium specificity. Ultimately, this article provides a model for audience interaction in the transmedia age.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 20-33 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Keywords
- Crossmediality
- Forensic Fans
- Intermediality
- Narrative Universe
- Ostension
- Possible World Theory
- Transmedia Storytelling
- Unfinished Commodity