Gamification has been defined as a process of enhancing services with (motivational) affordances in order to invoke gameful experiences and further behavioral outcomes. (Hamari, J., Koivisto, J. and Sarsa, H., 2014) The trend of “gamification” in film and television is not common, but it has gained some popularity with the help of digital media and streaming platforms. Compared to viewers, who are passive observers, they may want to influence the plot of the story or even become a participant in the narrative. Therefore, gamified film and television works use interactive narrative to allow viewers to become “players” by making choices that affect the course of the story, thus bringing a new viewing experience. This trend not only changes the way film and television works are told, but also provides a new direction for “post-cinema” forms.

Interactive narrative is the core of gamefied cinematic works, where the audience’s choices directly determine the characters’ fate and the direction of the story through branching structures and multiple ending designs. For example, Netflix’s Black Mirror: Bandersnatch provides multiple plot choices for the audience, allowing them to decide the protagonist’s actions, and every choice leads to a different plot development and multiple possible endings. This interactive feature allows the audience to no longer just be observers, but become part of the story, experiencing the characters’ emotional fluctuations and dilemmas and thus bringing about a deeper emotional engagement.

Willis identifies one of the major post-cinematic techniques involving non-human actors in the contemporary media landscape: fragmentary and non-linear narratives. (Willis, H., 2016) In the context of post-cinematic forms, film and television works are increasingly moving towards non-linear narratives, and the content that audiences experience is becoming more fragmented and non-continuous. In post-cinematic works, the development of the plot often breaks the traditional spatial and temporal continuity, making the story more open. The intersection of interactive narrative and post-cinematic forms brings game elements into film and television works, allowing audiences to freely choose the direction of the story, which is unimaginable in traditional films. Through the choice mechanism, audiences make decisions at different plot nodes, breaking the fixed narrative framework of traditional films.

This interactive gamification trend is not only an innovation in technology, but also a revolution in the way audiences engage emotionally. In interactive narratives, the audience’s choices directly impact the fate of the characters, which gives them a sense of agency and makes their emotional experience more complex and profound. In “Man vs. Wild,” viewers can control every move of survival expert Bear Grylls, which gives them a direct sense of control over the story and makes them feel like they are the “main character” of the story, enhancing the sense of immersion.

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Reference List:

Hamari, J., Koivisto, J. and Sarsa, H., 2014, January. Does gamification work?–a literature review of empirical studies on gamification. In 2014 47th Hawaii international conference on system sciences (pp. 3025-3034).

Willis, H., 2016. Fast forward: the future (s) of the cinematic arts. Columbia University Press.