Mime-Version: 1.0
Date: Sun, 7 Feb 1999 19:46:22 -0500
To: "Janet H. Murray" <jhmurray@MIT.EDU>
From: Arun Mehta <marune@MIT.EDU>
Subject: Assignment for 21w765j due 2/9/99
Example 1: One O'Clock at the Coloseum by Ben Zotto
Of all the stories involving multiple persons/perspectives and the ability
to jump between them, I liked this story best. It had interesting &
educational pictures and the map was cool.
(example:
http://web.mit.edu/21w765j/Spring98/p2/final2/colosseum/sabrina1.html)
One thing I didn't like which happened a few times to me was switching back
and forth between characters in the same time frame. On the following page,
I clicked on the link "Is that ERIK I see" and was taken to another page
where I clicked "Seems like Rob is broadening out a little" and was taken
back to the first page.
(example: http://web.mit.edu/21w765j/Spring98/p2/final2/colosseum/rob6.html)
I like stories where you are not able to manipulate time so easily such as
in Ben Sanders' ScanMan.
http://web.mit.edu/21w765j/Spring_97/StudentWork_SP97/Final_Project/ben/preface.
htm where you must follow the story once through completely before taking a
different path. Another creative way to manage many charaters is Harvard
Square Suit by Stephane Miller.
(example: http://web.mit.edu/21w765j/Spring98/p2/final2/stephane/pit-520.html)
Here all the character's thoughts are displayed in one location and are
distinguished easily by their background color.
Example 2: I liked Freedom Bair's, Mass Transit, especially the map aspect
of it. But as time progresses the map had serious clutter issues & grew
confusing. To see this without a JavaScript error, visit
http://web.mit.edu/course/21/21w765j/Final_Project/Freedom/FB_nonlinear/mass_tra
and click on 'begin', then on the world trade center in the lower left of
the map. I tried to simplify this example and you can see my new map that
would replace that one here:
http://web.mit.edu/marune/Public/newmap.jpg
Arun Meht
I kept the pink arrow for identification (though I made it opaque) but I
decided not to keep the path history of the other characters, only where
their starting point was (the box) and where they were at that particular
time (the circle). This lets a character interact with the other characters
at that time with less confusion. They can retravel their own time or start
the story over from a completely new character's perspective. The user is
no longer able to change charater and time at once as was previously
posible.
Final Note: A lot of the stories didn't work for me like A touch of time
(http://ic.www.media.mit.edu/~arjan/proj2/) and Hindsight
(http://web.mit.edu/afs/athena.mit.ehttp://web.mit.edu/21w765j/Spring_97/StudentWork_SP97/hindsight2/du/course/21/21w765j/Spring_97/StudentWork_S
P97/hindsight2/). It would be nice to view updated or working versions of
these projects as they seemed the most multimedia intensive, imersing the
user through use of applets and JavaScript to create interactions instead
of basic html and hyperlinking point & click methods.
Arun Mehta
marune@mit.edu
