Abstract
Starting from the observation that a cognitive distance prevents human beings from taking the measure of the current climate crisis and adopting adequate behaviors, this article asks the question to what extent a narrative approach could help to reduce it. First, it proposes a narratological analysis of some of the scenarios of the future of the world outlined by the scientific community, the Shared Socio-economic Pathways, which leads to the conclusion that, despite the terminology used in the associated commentaries, these scenarios have little narrative value. Continuing with a questioning of the difficulties and implications of the conception of a narrative about the future, it then shows how the approach of anticipation narratives, which consist in envisioning tomorrow on the basis of choices made today, naturally approaches that of interactive narrative. Finally, it argues that transforming the scientific scenario into a fully-fledged narrative cannot be done without adding fictional elements which, if they are coherent and plausible, can only enrich it and sharpen its didactic impact.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
- 2.
See IPCC website, accessed on July 25, 2022. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/.
- 3.
Our translation.
- 4.
Adventure games, Role-Playing games, life simulators, etc.
- 5.
A 3-choice branching story gives 8 possible endings.
- 6.
See, for example, the debates around the mini-series Chernobyl, released in 2019.
- 7.
Let us keep the term since, despite our conclusion, it is the one used in the reports that concern them.
References
Arinbjarnar, M., Barber, H., Kudenko, D.: A critical review of interactive drama systems. Narrative (2009)
Aylett, R.S., Louchart, S., Dias, J., Paiva, A., Vala, M.: FearNot! – an experiment in emergent narrative. In: Panayiotopoulos, T., Gratch, J., Aylett, R., Ballin, D., Olivier, P., Rist, T. (eds.) IVA 2005. LNCS (LNAI), vol. 3661, pp. 305–316. Springer, Heidelberg (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/11550617_26
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (2019). https://civilization.com/civilization-6-gathering-storm/
Eco (2018). https://play.eco/
van Enschot, R., Boogaard, I., Koenitz, H., Roth, C.: The potential of interactive digital narratives. Agency and multiple perspectives in Last Hijack Interactive. In: Cardona-Rivera, R.E., Sullivan, A., Young, R.M. (eds.) ICIDS 2019. LNCS, vol. 11869, pp. 158–169. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33894-7_17
Fate of the World (2011). https://store.steampowered.com/app/80200/Fate_of_the_World/
Gapiuk, L., Estupiñán, S., Szilas, N.: Effects of higher interactivity on the interactive narrative experience: an experimental study. In: Cardona-Rivera, R.E., Sullivan, A., Young, R.M. (eds.) ICIDS 2019. LNCS, vol. 11869, pp. 379–388. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33894-7_40
Grawitz, M.: Lexique des sciences sociales, 8th edn. Dalloz, Paris (2004)
Koenitz, H.: Representations of complexity – Interactive Digital Narratives Enabling Discourse for the 21st Century. Keynote at Zipscence Conference. Budapest (2018). https://www.slideshare.net/HartmutKoenitz/representations-of-complexity-interactive-digital-narratives-enabling-discourse-for-the-21st-century
Liveley, G.: Anticipation and narratology. In: Poli, R. (ed.) Handbook of Anticipation, pp. 1–20. Springer, Cham (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31737-3_7-1
Margolin, U.: Story modalised, or the grammar of virtuality. In: Pier, J. (ed.) Recent Trends in Narratological Research, pp. 49–61. Presses universitaires François-Rabelais, Tours (2017)
Markman, A.: Why People Aren’t Motivated to Address Climate Change (2018). https://hbr.org/2018/10/why-people-arent-motivated-to-address-climate-change
Mateas, M., Stern, A.: Integrating plot, character and natural language processing in the interactive drama façade. In: Göbel, S., Braun, N., Spierling, U., Dechau, J., Diener, H. (eds.) Proceedings of the Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling and Entertainment (TIDSE) Conference, pp. 139–151. Fraunhofer IRB, Darmstadt (2003)
McQuiggan, S.W., Rowe, J.P., Lee, S., Lester, J.C.: Story-based learning: the impact of narrative on learning experiences and outcomes. In: Woolf, B.P., Aïmeur, E., Nkambou, R., Lajoie, S. (eds.) ITS 2008. LNCS, vol. 5091, pp. 530–539. Springer, Heidelberg (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-69132-7_56
Murray, J.H.: Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. The Free Press, New York (1997)
Nothing For Dinner (2014). http://nothingfordinner.org
O’Neill, B.C., et al.: The roads ahead: narratives for shared socioeconomic pathways describing world futures in the 21st century. Glob. Environ. Change 42, 169–180 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.01.004
Prince, G.: A Dictionary of Narratology, Revised edn. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln (2003)
Riahi, K., et al.: The Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and their energy, land use, and greenhouse gas emissions implications: an overview. Glob. Environ. Change 42, 153–168 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2016.05.009
Ryan, M.-L.: Possible worlds and accessibility relations: a semantic typology of fiction. Poet. Today 12, 553–576 (1991). https://doi.org/10.2307/1772651
Ryan, M.-L.: Toward a definition of narrative. In: Herman, D. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Narrative, pp. 22–36. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2007). https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521856965.002
Szilas, N., Barles, J., Kavakli, M.: An implementation of real-time 3D interactive drama. Comput. Entertain. 5, 5 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1145/1236224.1236233
The Sims4: Eco Lifestyle (2018). https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/the-sims-4-eco-lifestyle?setLocale=en-us
The Climate Game (2022). https://ig.ft.com/climate-game/
Thoreau, H.D.: Walden: Or, Life in the Woods. Dover Thrift Editions (1854/1995)
Thoreau, H.D.: The Journal, 1837–1861. Orell Füssli, Zürich (2009)
Walden, A Game (2017). https://www.waldengame.com/
Weyhrauch, P.: Guiding Interactive Drama. Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh (1997)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Varone, S., Szilas, N. (2022). The Future of the World: From Scientific Account to Interactive Storytelling. In: Vosmeer, M., Holloway-Attaway, L. (eds) Interactive Storytelling. ICIDS 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13762. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_21
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22298-6_21
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-22297-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-22298-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)