Alex Week 1 - Literature Review

Using Second Life for Educational Purposes: An Evaluation of a New Workshop

Kyle M. Wright Wilhelmina C. Savenye

Research Aim

This study looks into the evaluation and effectiveness of a workshop developed for undergraduate college students to learn the basics of virtual world Second Life in an educational setting.

Research Methods

Research group: 

The research involved 22 participants (11 females and 9 males) from a US university. The participants were comprised of students who were receiving partial credit for the study and teachers who were interested in the study.

Measurement:

1: The participants were required to complete a survey before the workshop started. The survey included some questions about the participant themselves and four attitude questions. The questions were to be answered on a slider scale ranging from 1 to 5 with 1 being strongly agree and 5 being strongly disagree.

2: After the workshop participants completed a post-survey which was similar to the pre-survey

3: At the end of the workshop participants completed post-test activities to determine participants’ achievement.

4: Participants were asked to answer several open-ended questions.

Research results

Participants successfully completed 55%, 80% and 90% of the activities specified in Objective 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

1.       Navigate to the Second Life Louvre, Harvard University, The United States White House, and Open University, save their location in your favourites.

2.       Find three strangers and meet them in Second Life. You can search for people or find people in the virtual environment. Make at least 3 connections. 

3.       Friendship each of the participants and the instructor in the workshop

In regard to the pre-survey and post survey the research reported significant increases in attitude towards second life across all questions.

          

However, while attitude towards second life improved across all the questions the open-ended questions still showed some concerns about the limitations of second life. In regards to classroom management one participant stated “it would be hard to watch over all the students to see if they were doing what they should be on Second Life”. A shared concern across all participants was keeping focus and keeping students on task. Although the participants expressed interest in using SL again 10 participants expressed doubts. One participant quoted, “not much, because I think it is better to be active and learn in real life”.

19 of the 20 participants agreed or strongly agreed that they felt comfortable using second life with 9 of the 20 stating that they would use second life as “virtual tours” across places not accessible by regular means.

Conclusion:

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an instructional workshop designed to teach how to use Second Life in an educational setting. The majority of students able to adequately navigate second life’s features in relation to searching, communicating and using its educational features.

Reference list

Wright, M.K., Savenye, W.C (2011). Using Second Life for Educational Purposes: An Evaluation of a New Workshop. Arizona State University, Arizona

Nia Week 2 - Literature Review

Applying Constant Comparative and Discourse Analysis To Virtual Worlds Research.

Leong, Joseph and Bouley (2010) research presents an attempt to analyse the online environment virtual worlds and brings into light a critical research question: What analytical methods are best suited to answering the different domain (virtual worlds) specific research questions we might have about virtual worlds?

The study carried out used two differing methods, constant comparative analysis and discourse analysis.

Three research questions were used.

1. What were student reactions to an experimental course taught online in Second Life?
2. How the frequency of student frustrations changed throughout the course?
3. What discourse patterns of response were typical when student expressed a frustration?

The context of this study was based inside Second Life by University of Hawaii Island which teaches online courses in Psychology, Library Science, Second Language Studies, Education and Music, Computer Science and Aquaculture. The duration of this study was carried out during a six week summer graduate elective course intended to give students insight into the use of Second Life for teaching and learning.

The data collected in this study was sourced by Second Life in-world class video recordings using video-capture software called ScreenFlow and discourse in written text through blogs, chat box and asynchronous discussion postings.

The results were based on the commonality of ‘frustration’ as the reoccurring theme. Records of instances related to this classification frustration was then recollected and therefore determined how these frustrations were responded to within the Second Life based elective course.

Firstly, data collected found leaners frustrated at technical issues within Second Life and also the dramatic learning curve dealing with functionalities of Second Life. Moreover another approach students found for frustration was the need to be social and present online, insofar as building a network of friends in order to role play and interact in a cooperative level of learning.  

Secondly, text used in chat boxes used for discourse analysis involved an instance where a student advising his avatar could not sit down during an in-class session. In reply, the assistant teacher advised to ‘choose relax’. This response determined that this was the typical response during class, as in the main instructor was occupied teaching the class using voice and unable to respond to the student via chat.

Another instance using text via chat box was a student indicated that they were having problems “I still don’t have it” “Is there another box?” During this dialog there was no response or answer from the instructor instead it seemed the student or learner miraculously found the answer and that determined IM private message from another student which eventually helped the learner.

Finally, this study also used a graph from weeks 1 through to 6 with level of frequency of frustration occurrence from 0 through to 30. According to the graph there was a spike in the first two weeks of the course with a gradual decline through the weeks. However, there was also spikes in frustration felt by students particularly in week 5 where a technical issue occurred with audio during the in-class session.

To conclude these findings made by Leong, Joseph and Bouley (2010), found the combination of constant comparative analysis and discourse analysis useful in determining the predominate theme ‘frustration’ that is common in-class setting. However, using the Second Life context as a learning platform does bring into light differing issues with frustration such as the steep learning of functioning in Second Life, finding presence and socialising on Second Life a need and non-direct response from instructor when an issue arises with the help of an assistant on Second Life to facilitate the frustration.

It is evident that Second Life in-class environment offers differing issues of frustration for the student or learner. However, these can be improved by time spent using Second Life, moreover developing a sense of presence and overall social network. This study also determines the need for Second Life assistant instructors. I think this is an important and significant attribute to have during in-class sessions as many students will have differing levels of functionality on Second Life and will likely come across technical difficulties online. Another aspect worth mentioning is the discourse analysis used in this study, which I think could have been specified more in-depth by using for example pragmatics as an understanding meaning in relation to the context. This can mean a 'shared understanding' and how a student's queries can go unanswered by the instructor but responded to by another assistant or online participant or student. 

Reference

Leong, P. Joseph, & Boulay, R. (2010). Applying constant comparative and discourse analyses to virtual worlds research. Journal of worlds research. (3) 1. University of at Manoa, United States.

Second Life - Week 5 - "A final attempt to roleplay"

As I mentioned in my last photo blog, my roleplaying account won't let me back in for some reason which is incredibly disappointing. But not to be deterred completely for the final post, I decided I'd use my old account to visit some worlds that declare themselves to be roleplaying worlds or games of some nature, to try see if I could finally get some engagement out of this thing.

I went to a world called the Tower. It's description stated: "You find yourself in a strange place with no memory of who you are or how you got there.Your only hope in escape rests in solving a series of challenging puzzles. Can you uncover the truth before it's too late?"

It was literally a single room filled with billboards encouraging you to buy shit. No puzzles in sight.

I think this lady was as perplexed as I was. Then I realized you had to pay to actually play the game. So I teleported the hell outta there. So much for "only hope in escape rests in solving the puzzles"

Next up I went to "Dynasty of Dragons" a "role-play sim with a full and rich backstory." Sounded like my kinda thing. It's too bad, the world was literally just a black box????? WTF

I tried to fly out the top of the box, thinking maybe the world was outside it. Nope. Just the deep cold void of space.

So I decided to fall into that deep cold void and see where it took me. I thought for a second that maybe this was Dynasty of Dragons coming to greet me as I fell towards it.

But does this look like a fantasy role-play sim world rich in story to you? It's a fucking modern day city that delivered on none of its promises!

"This is your last chance Second Life!" I thought to myself and visited Havendale Village, a: "fantasy themed sim... (that) ...welcomes roleplayers to live their magical lifestyles."

The trees are floating and nobody is here. Fuck you Second Life. I'm out.

Second Life - Week 4 - "I dunno man, I tried."

I'm feeling very frustrated and defeated. Last week, I thought I had it sorted. I was going to roleplay as a character in second life, talk with people, and see how having a virtual avatar affected storytelling. Or something like that. This week, I go to log in, and it won't let me for some unknown reason. I can only log into the original account I created - the non-roleplaying one.

So I figured I may as well try make the best of it and do a bit of exploring to see what I could find. Do a bit of tourism.

I started off by checking out a world that was described as "Gothamesque" which I was lead to believe meant it would be like Batman.

It felt more like Silent Hill, so I was disappointed. The place was also completely empty of life, despite it being in the "what's hot section" in Destinations.

I found a bike though. So that was cool.

Sitting underneath this tree was probably my favorite part of this world. I felt like I was in a Tim Burton movie.

Next I visited this weird fantasy world with glowing grass, and a half naked man in the far left corner.

But that quickly got weird.

That awkward moment when "Not sure if art, or erotica."

So I left that place, and went to a Fairy tale land of candy canes faeries and castles.

Which was honestly pretty cool, but once again, devoid of all life.

Except for this Maid. I'm not sure what she thought she was up to.

I explored the castle...

Clipped through a spire...

Waited on the 7 dwarves...

And had a pretty wild LSD trip.

But, at the end of it all, I'd met nobody and been subject to a host of glitches and bugs.

I don't know man, I tried. I really did. But Second Life is bullshit.

Article Review - "Systems vs. Stories" and "The Problem with Emergent Stories in Video Games" - Week 5

I've been thinking a bit about all my past article reviews, and how they all revolve around the idea of storytelling within VR. I've been wondering, how exactly all of that information ties into Second Life as a game since it quite frankly doesn't have a story. I realized, what I'm really interested in within the context of virtual worlds in general - whether its a single player console video game or a MMORPG, is how story works, if story works and whether or not it adds to the game.

So for my final article review, I thought I'd look at two articles that I've come across among the gaming industry. The first article, "Systems vs. Stories" takes a hard line approach of stating that Video Games which try to be cinematic and focus on a strong story narrative fail because games are not supposed to be stories. The second article "The Problem with Emergent Stories in Video Games" acts as a rebuttal to "Systems vs. Stories" in that it pinpoints all the problems with the previous authors viewpoint and frames it in the context of what is known in the video game industry as "emergent narratives".

Before I get started, a quick definition of emergent narratives can be found in "The Problem with Emergent Stories in Video Games": "Emergent narratives are stories that are not authored by a single person or by any person really. They are stories that emerge from the interaction between players and the systems that govern gameplay. They are random, transient, ephemeral things that only ever exist for one person at one moment in time." (Dinicola, 2013)

In "Systems vs. Stories", the author takes as I said a pretty hard line approach. There are a few things I do agree with in this piece, although I am overwhelmingly on the side of the second article. The author writes:

"Every new art form endures by carving out a creative niche that only it can satisfy. Film captured the imagination because, while it evolved from photography and theatre, it had something that those existing and well-established forms of art did not. It had movement and editing, the ability to take static images and make them appear alive... ...as these tools evolved, so too did that art of film. Games as a medium have been sadly subservient to film ever since the death of cartridges. Once games started using CDs and later DVDs as the storage medium of choice, it's as though a switch was flipped. Games could now make proper use of recorded music and video footage, and... ...the weary old canard of the "interactive movie" was suddenly tantalizingly possible. Games could tell stories just like movies!" (Whitehead, 2013)

Can you taste the cynicism in that last sentence? The author argues that games and movies are nothing alike and therefore should not be sharing in each mediums unique language. A viewpoint that is utterly destroyed in the rebutting article where the author writes:

"Games are already  an amalgamation of several other mediums. They contain elements of theatre (each performance/play session is slightly different), elements of cinema (a reliance on cinematography), elements of painting (wildly different visual styles mimicking surrealism, impressionism, pointillism, hyper-realism, baroque, etc), and elements of literature (using narrative asides for character/plot/theme/world development). With such a  wonderful melting pot of artistic inspiration as its foundation, why on earth would anyone want to limit the definition of "video game" and what a video game is capable of doing?" (Dinicola, 2013)

"Systems" continues by stating that "Games are, by and large, not the best medium to tell a story... ... No, what games are good at is suggesting stories. The thing that games have above all other media is interaction, which is to say that games have systems. Systems that dictate the rules of a fictional world. Systems that allow the audience to prod the world and feel it push back. Systems are what make games into games, rather than movies with joy pads." (Whitehead, 2013)

Here, I feel as if the author is getting a little bit confused over what a story is. A story is not necessarily a narrative that smacks you over the back of the head and drags you through the game world. Nobody is advocating for that. That's just bad writing, and in fact, it seems as if the author is unknowingly rallying against just that - bad writing. When I consider some of the best, most story-driven games I've played, I think of Dark Souls or Bloodborne, games that take a decidedly minimalist approach to the telling of their stories. These games may feel like "systems" as the author suggests, but there is a vast, rich, expansive story-world lying beneath them which reward the player for seeking out the mysteries of the world. As opposed to something like No Man's Sky where the story is essentially nothing more than "go explore the universe" and there's nothing constructed in the ways of narrative after that. No secrets to uncover, no hidden lore about alien species or planets. Just by the way, the game had a historic flop, and the creators were threatened to be sued for misleading the public as to what the game was.

This leads us really into what the Systems author is advocating - emergent narrative. Using two contrasting examples, the author writes:

"Rather handily illustrating the point, in the same week that Sony's dazzling The Last Of Us dominated both reviews and charts, Undead Labs released its own zombie apocalypse game, State of Decay, on Xbox Live. The Last Of Us is a beautiful piece of work, full of astonishing visuals, richly drawn characters and a story overflowing with genuine emotion , honestly earned. It's a polished gem of a game, the state of the blockbuster art... ...The Last Of Us is clearly superior, so why do I feel that State of Decay is the better game?

Probably because it has more interesting systems churning away under its rather ramshackle exterior, and they push back harder against the player. Ever supply run, every mercy dash to find some lost survivor, could mean the death of one or more characters... ...I care about the characters, not because the script tells me to or because they're convincingly played, but because they're in the game world with me. They're part of my story, rather than me being an observer in theirs." (Whitehead, 2013)

A rather idealistic piece of rhetoric, we have to stop and dissect what the author is actually saying from his emotional subjective experience of the game. He's basically saying "I like State of Decay because the gameplay let me experience my own personal stories."

And recalling the definition of emergent narrative: "Stories that emerge from the interaction between players and the systems that govern gameplay. They are random, transient, ephemeral things that only ever exist for one person at one moment in time."

He likes the game because it is emergent in its storytelling. But, as "The Problem with Emergent Stories in Video Games" points out: Emergent Stories aren't really stories at all.

"There's something empowering about being witness to a singularly unique series of events, watching systems interact with systems in a certain way at a certain location that might never happen again for any other player. Even if such an experience is not really that unique, it still feels that way. Yet when I look back at my emergent experiences or when I try to tell the stories to others, I realize just how shallow an experience they really are.

Emergent stories feel more engrossing than authored stories because they're personal for the player, and that personal interactivity gives it the illusion of importance. I assume that because this event was exciting for me, it must be exciting for others as well. But it's not. My adventures in Skyrim, my tense game of XCOM, my rooftop chase in Assassin's Creed... ...all of these stories seem much more exciting in the moment than they do in the retelling, and that's because they're missing the key component of any good story. They're not about anything.

Emergent stories are not complete stories, they're just outlines of a story. They're living outlines that can be rearranged on the fly, but they're still just outlines - nothing more than a sequence of vaguely related events.

A story is more than a sequence of events. It's also a commentary on those events. Through that commentary the story expresses its meaning, its themes, its morals. It becomes something greater than us... ... A good story is about some universal human experience. That's what keeps me interested even if the specific sequence of events depicted don't relate to me personally. This is where emergent stories fail. An emergent story is just a sequence of events devoid of context and commentary that is only relevant to one person. Interactivity gives it the illusion of importance, and that illusion allows games to tell cheap stories without us noticing until they're long over." (Dinicola, 2013)

So what does this all mean in the context of my Second Life work? Well, it's no secret I have struggled with Second Life. I have found it pointless and boring a lot of the time that I've spent playing it, and this is because, I believe it is an emergent narrative. It relies on me attributing importance to mundane "systems" and to converse with other players to find a story. The problem is, none of that is particularly important for me personally. I'm not saying that Second Life doesn't work as a teaching tool, nor am I saying it is a bad Social Media platform, but I am saying, it's not a game, and it doesn't really resemble a story in any traditional or complex way.

To quote from the end of "The Problem with Emergent Stories in Video Games"

"Currently system-driven stories are too focused on their "systems." Games with emergent stories tend to just loop the same general scenario over and over again... ...without asking us to think about what any of it means. If that programming loop could change, then the loop can be made to comment on itself and thus give its emergent, systems-driven story meaning. Or, a developer could just tailor their story into something that naturally comments on the endless loop of a program's code. Either way, systems-driven stories need to evolve if they're ever going to be taken seriously. Thankfully that evolution is happening. We're still discovering what it means to interact with a story, but I'm not ready to abandon the authored narrative just yet." (Dinicola, 2013)

REFERENCES:

Dinicola, N. (2013, July 30). The problem with emergent stories in video games | Popmatters. Retrieved from http://www.popmatters.com/column/173580-the-problem-with-emergent-stories-in-video-games/

Whitehead, D. (2013, June 22). Systems vs. stories. Eurogamer.net. Retrieved from http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-06-22-systems-vs-stories

Article Review - The Storyteller’s Guide to the Virtual Reality Audience - Week 4

In my previous article review, I reviewed the ideas of a Huffpost contributor. In their article, they referenced another piece of writing as the "best piece available, bar none." (Damiani, 2016) That best piece is the topic of this week's review - "The Storyteller's Guide to the Virtual Reality Audience".

Right from the get-go this article stumbles into the crux of the problem with all storytelling in Virtual Reality:

"As VR storytellers, we are charged with molding experience itself into story, and none of our storytelling tools have prepared us fully for that. As we stumble our way into this new, mysterious medium, we ask ourselves, "How do we tell a story for the audience when the audience is present within it?" (Newton, 2016)

That really gets to the heart of the matter. How VR differs from other storytelling mediums is that it unlike say film for example, it doesn't deal in "frames". Instead of looking at a series of squares that contain information that linearly leads into a narrative, we as the audience are within the story as if it were a giant sphere, and we can look anywhere at any time. This newly found presence within the story creates a desire to do something to effect the story and that's where narrative designers need to come into the mix, we have to find a way to direct them to the interactions they can have which will change the story.

This article differs from previous articles I've read and reviewed, in that they actually conducted experiments to find out how audiences perceive their role within a VR environment.

"To explore the audience's experience in VR we... ...used scenes and locations from Paisley Smith's VR documentary, Taro's World. ...all our experiments were low-fidelity and analogue, allowing us to adapt and respond to new questions as they arose. Adapting a technique called "experience prototyping" we created physical experiences in the real world involving real people. These analog tests, rooted in an HCD approach, allowed us to learn about the audience behavior quickly, inexpensively, and on a flexible timeline independent from that of VR developers and artists. 

We mimicked the constraints of VR technology, restricting our participants' movements and interactions to match the affordances of Google Cardboard. We created "magic goggles" (actually made of plastic, paper, tape, and a front-facing camera) that limited the audiences peripheral view while simultaneously recording their head movements. When participants wore the magic goggles, their head movements replicated those of someone in a mobile VR headset, compelling them to "stitch" the scenes of the 360 degrees story-world together themselves." (Newton, 2016)

The researchers re-enacted scenes from the documentary in real life with the test subjects wearing "VR headsets" and having restrictions imposed on them like in a VR experience. For example: "Participants were placed in the center of a room simulating Taro's bedroom. While wearing headphones with 360 degrees sound, they watched a scene play out in the room. In one condition of the test, the participant's view was restricted to 90 degrees of the room. These participants saw a desk where Taro sat playing video games." (Newton, 2016)

I found it interesting that in this particular experiment, the researchers discovered that: "With this restricted vision, the audience paid super-close attention to each of the objects, trying to find meaning. Among the objects was a plate of uneaten cookies, an insignificant prop setting the scene. In the test debrief, the cookies - without warning - took over the audience's understanding of the whole scene. Participants repeatedly asked questions like, "Why isn't he eating his cookies?" and "Why are the cookies crumbled that way? Who does that?" (Newton, 2016)

This calls into question our ability as writers to have unimportant props, or possibly even "walkthrough characters" (unimportant extras that walk through the story) as the audience, being restricted to a certain POV and feeling the sense of presence begin to look for meaning in the most minor of things. As the researchers themselves pointed out: "When the audience has limited visual information they will work twice as hard to make meaning out of every detail they see. If something doesn't jive with their expectations, it takes them out of the experience. It sends them into detective mode, investigating the scene from a distance." (Newton, 2016)

In another test, the researchers found that context played a large part in audience attention. They placed the audience in a classroom scene at the back of the classroom, with the intended story objective for the audience to observe the central character at class. Instead, they found the audience felt a need to listen to the teacher, and try decipher a note being passed around by students. They took on the role of a student within the story because of the context of the environment they were in. On the flip side, putting an audience member up the front of the class, either caused anxiety, or the audience member to slide into the role of the teacher themselves. This theme continues in other scenes as well, such as an audience member standing in the middle of a bedroom watching a character, felt uncomfortable and voyeuristic being there.

"We suspect this is partially attributed to not knowing how to act in this setting, a setting that is typically private, and partly to feeling physically exposed in the middle of the room. To feel bodily present, these tests suggest the audience should understand who they are in the scene (even if who they are is a "fly on the wall") as much as where they are." (Newton, 2016)

This is interesting as well as it shows that we need to consider audience context when writing a scene, as without giving them a context or purpose, they will either assume one themselves and potentially miss the plot, or they will feel uncomfortable being there.

"Looking gives the audience agency, not to change or affect the story in VR, but to choose which pieces of the story they take in, make meaning out of and combine with other information to form a story in their minds." (Newton, 2016)

Another interesting thing was discovered when researchers observed the audience members trying to piece together the story based off where they were looking in the scene. There was a reported FOMO or fear of missing out feeling that lingered over many of the test subjects after the test was done. For example, the note being passed around in the classroom scene was brought up time and time again by participants who felt as if they were missing out on a piece of the story by not knowing what was on that note, even though it wasn't necessarily important to the plot.

The researchers have noted however, that FOMO could be used to a narrative advantage for ambiguity within the story, such as the ending of the film "Lost In Translation" where the audience doesn't hear what Bill Murray whispers into Scarlett Johansson's ear.

All of these actual tests that were completed I found really fascinating and something worth exploring within my own work in this area. The article ends with this final gem of information, that I felt was worth transposing to here:

"It's actually not the audience that feels the need to influence the story - they have enough to "do." Instead, the storyteller needs to shift how they think of themselves, moving away from "director" and towards the role of "influencer." After all, influencing the audience is all that directors can do: we can't frame the shots for them; we can't cut away. Instead, storytellers have to behave like a matador, waving the red cape in the direction they want the audience to run, knowing that the power ultimately lies in the audiences hands to see what they want to see, hear what they want to hear and form their own stories about what they have experienced.

We can borrow techniques from other media - from theatre, art, film and design - to draw the audience's focus. But in order to choose whether to show a color, break the 4th wall, etc., we have to first put ourselves in the audience's shoes and understand their cognitive, emotional and physical experience. We need to embrace human-centered design lens of "audience experience", and let that guide our choices." (Newton, 2016)

REFERENCES

Damiani, J. (2016, June 16). Storytelling in virtual reality: The basics | The huffington post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-damiani/storytelling-in-virtual-r_b_10448832.html

Newton, K. (2016, April 7). The storyteller’s guide to the virtual reality audience. Retrieved from https://medium.com/stanford-d-school/the-storyteller-s-guide-to-the-virtual-reality-audience-19e92da57497

Article Review - Storytelling in Virtual Reality: The Basics - Week 3

As my search for information relating to storytelling techniques in the fledgling field of Virtual Reality continue, I came across an article in Huffpost from June last year that discusses a really great overview of the main points of importance when considering how to tell a narrative in VR.

In the article, the author takes us through a lot of what we need to consider when writing for VR, and I found their advice quite practical in a broad sense of understanding the medium.

Beginning with IMMERSION the author explains that the end goal of a VR narrative designer is to "...create such a high degree of immersion that users aren't caught up thinking, "Man, this is a cool experience," because they're too busy participating in what's happening around them." (Damiani, 2016)

When immersion is created in a VR experience, a player will inevitably experience a sense of PRESENCE. Presence is described as "...the sense of the body, the spirit and the mind feeling it is somewhere that it is not." (Nelson, 2015) When we talk about presence here, I believe what we are really talking about is a kind of "religious experience" a sense of ekstasis creating as the Greek Lexicon describes a state "...that of a man who by some sudden emotion is transported as it were out of himself..." (The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon)

But how do we create immersion, and how do we reach that peak point of presence for a player or viewer in VR?

The first step to creating this is AGENCY - "the ability to "do something" in the experience - to interact or react rather than simply perceive." (Damiani, 2016) This could be anything from choosing where they (the viewer) looks in the scene, or something more complex as is the case in many VR games where the viewer's interaction with the environment can fundamentally change how the story plays out.

Next is EMPATHY. Through using immersion and giving agency to a player of viewer, we are creating a field in which they can easily establish empathy with other characters or the character they are inhabiting themselves, within the experience.

"...when you are a given person (or "with" them), rather than watching them from a remove of time and space, you experience a greater degree of empathy." (Damiani, 2016)

another tool to consider is that of POV AND PERSPECTIVE.

"POV refrers to who is telling the story. Perspective is how the story is told." (Damiani, 2016)

Lastly the author talks about the audience as an INFLUENCER, about how one needs to write VR with multiple "readings" in mind. We cannot guarantee that an audience will follow or even be interested in the story we are trying to tell. While an important dramatic scene may be taking place in front of them, the player may simply choose to stare at a picture on a wall. To combat this, as writers we have to consider how to tell the story not only in ways that directs their attention (i.e. light and sound) but also ways to further unfold the story in every direction: "Maybe eyes appear in the painting when you stare at it long enough. Maybe the crown molding has a hidden message carved into it that begins to glow, alerting you to a vital piece of information relating to... (a) ...conversation." (Damiani, 2016)

This short, snappy article, although being a bit light on the nitty gritty was a good overview of hugely important aspects in VR storytelling.

REFERENCES

Damiani, J. (2016, June 16). Storytelling in virtual reality: The basics | The huffington post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-damiani/storytelling-in-virtual-r_b_10448832.html

The NAS New Testament Greek Lexicon. (n.d.). Ekstasis - New Testament Greek Lexicon - New American Standard. Retrieved from http://www.biblestudytools.com/lexicons/greek/nas/ekstasis.html

Nelson, N. J. (2015, August 12). All vr’s a stage: Presence, story, and the birth of the new medium. Retrieved from https://turnstylenews.com/2015/08/12/all-vrs-a-stage-presence-story-and-the-birth-of-the-new-medium/