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Cited by 7Narrative Theory and AnalysisCinema History and CriticismCultural Insights and Digital Impacts

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 24 of the 24 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

“The road not taken”: an interactive film between narrative and database

Maziarczyk, Grzegorz·2023·New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia
DOI 10.1080/13614568.2023.2214516
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Abstract

This article discusses the impact of the interplay between narrativity and database logic on the interactor’s engagement with interactive digital films. It explores their co-deployment in three recently released works—Late Shift, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch and Her Story—within a theoretical framework extending Hartmut Koenitz’s model of interactive digital narrative. Late Shift and Bandersnatch expose the interactor to relentless narrative progression, as he/she is to decide what action the protagonist should take at various junctures in the plot, culled from the database of multiple potential storylines. By contrast, in Her Story database becomes the surface structure the interactor gains access to: his/her task is to solve the case of a missing man by searching through fragmented video clips from police interviews with his wife. This dominance of database logic paradoxically enhances narrativity by provoking the interactor’s hermeneutic desire, while narrative agency Late Shift seemingly ascribes to him/her may attenuate his/her immersion due to its being limited to the choices presupposed within its database structure. Bandersnatch dodges this problem through self-reflexive, performative thematisation of illusory agency, which ties in with the disclosure of the tension between narrative and database as its organisational principle.

Overview

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Crossref · 10.1080/13614568.2023.2214516

Cites

24 of 24 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Hussey J., 2017, Paradoxa, 29, 169
  2. Kolhoff L., 2019, Interactive storytelling. ICIDS 2019, 73

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Metadata

Authors
Maziarczyk, G.
Affiliations
John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin (PL)
Corresponding author
Maziarczyk, Grzegorz
ORCID
Maziarczyk, Grzegorz
Venue
New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Published
2023-01-02
Volume
29
Issue
1
Pages
56-71
ISSN
  • 0955-8543 (ISSN-L)
  • 1361-4568
  • 1740-7842
DOI
10.1080/13614568.2023.2214516
OpenAlex
W4378230763
Semantic Scholar
ca123e54fb4192bd4c5980b53d92a0da7d46d730
Cited by
6
References
24
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1
FWCI
16.91
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Narrative Theory and Analysis
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Visual Arts and Performing Arts › Cinema History and Criticism
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Cultural Insights and Digital Impacts
Keywords
interactive film, narrativity, interactive digital narratives, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Her Story, narrative agency, immersion, self-reflexivity, branching narratives

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: “The road not taken”: an interactive film between narrative and database. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1080/13614568.2023.2214516
The paper
Maziarczyk, G. (2023). “The road not taken”: an interactive film between narrative and database. New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia. https://doi.org/10.1080/13614568.2023.2214516

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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.