Interactive, Live, Fully Ludic
Wayfinding: Taxonomy > Interactive & Gamified Theatre > The Spectrum of Interactivity and Gamification in Digital Theatre > Interactive, Live, Fully Ludic
Finally, some digital theatre shows require the audience to play a game together – there may be live performers as hosts or characters, but the live audience is the main narrative driver which leads to a unique ending. For example, En Route had the audience gather in an interactive space where we were represented by avatars as characters on a spaceship; were encouraged to turn our video and audio on so we could talk to each other and the live (over video) performers. The murder mystery format involved the audience actively deciding who killed the ship’s captain. Occasionally, the ship’s artificial intelligence would intervene to offer (pre-recorded) clues; the AI would also offer (pre-recorded) segments of video logs from the three main human characters. At the end, based on the evidence we had gathered and discussed, we voted to decide which of the three characters had the best idea to save the ship. In contrast, Meta vs. Life by Hijinx Theatre combined an in-person experience and an online experience so both audiences had unique interactions and a sense of choice and community: the in-person audience in Cardiff entered a haunted, abandoned storefront in which they had to help the ghosts enter the Afterlife; meanwhile, we in the online audience were those ghosts, trying to help the in-person audience find our murderer and get rid of him. Those of us who were online/ghosts met in Gather.town, with our video and audio on, so we could talk to Charon who would help us get to the Afterlife, which meant being guided to resolve our sacrificial murders in the abandoned building. The cast helped both audiences make choices, solve puzzles, and otherwise participate with each other, so that we could get to the best ending; I assume, ultimately, there were few actual endings, but the point of the show was our sense of togetherness and collaboration. Overall, the show was a collaborative, hybrid escape room with both ghostly and living participants assisting each other to find the best way out.
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