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
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.
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“Finally, narrative vectors “ describe [ … ] substructures within a narrative design that provide a speci fi c direction ” (Koenitz, 2015, p. 99) and thus allow an interactive narrative author a degree of control over the actions performed by the interactor.”
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Cited by
Hayvon, J. C. (2025) · International Journal of Lifelong Education · doi:10.1080/02601370.2025.2467967 · Cited by 3
Introduction: Games, Gaming, and Interactive Aesthetics in Contemporary Chinese and Sinophone Cinema
Eyman, D., Li, G., & Sun, H. (2024) · Journal of Chinese Film Studies · doi:10.1515/jcfs-2024-0049 · Cited by 1
A Study of Flow Theory in Interactive Movies: A Focus on Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
Zou, J.-Y., & Kim, S.-H. (2023) · Journal of Digital Contents Society · doi:10.9728/dcs.2023.24.11.2701 · Cited by 1
Keerdo-Dawson, M. (2026) · Media Practice and Education · doi:10.1080/25741136.2025.2608936
Pour d’autres espèces d’espaces
Coover, R. (2025) · Hermann eBooks · doi:10.3917/herm.chate.2025.01.0186
Keerdo-Dawson, M. (2026) · New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia · doi:10.1080/13614568.2026.2718772
Combinatory Film And The Digital Imaginary
Coover, R. (2026) · TIPA Travaux interdisciplinaires sur la parole et le langage · doi:10.4000/16rzl
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
- 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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