Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media, by Marie-Laure Ryan
An eloquent articulation of the relationships between literary theory, hypertext, and VR, Narrative as Virtual Reality focuses on what Ryan sees as the competing interests of immersion and interactivity. Although Ryan's sophisticated approach elevates her above the usual pitfalls of the immersive fallacy, she is an apologist for immersion, and her discussions of interactive design suffers as a result. That said, for the topics that this thick volume covers, it is essential reading.
Recommended:
Part II: The Poetics of Immersion
Part III: The Poetics of Interactivity
Remediation: Understanding New Media, by Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin
Bolter and Grusin introduce the concept of remediation, the process in which new media forms define themselves by borrowing from and refashioning old media. This process also works in reverse: older media forms borrow from new media forms, such as television remediating the windowed world of computing. The book's most useful concepts for game designers are immediacy, and hypermediacy, which refer to the way media forms can both authentically reproduce the world while simultaneously reminding the audience that the reproduction is both constructed and artificial.
Recommended:
Introduction: The Double Logic of Remediation
Chapter 1: Immediacy, Hypermediacy, and Remediation
Chapter 2: Mediation and Remediation
Chapter 4: Computer Games
Shared Fantasy, by Gary Alan Fine (see page 417)
Recommended:
Chapter 1: FRP
Chapter 2: Players
Chapter 3: Collective Fantasy
Chapter 6: Frames and Games
"A Theory of Play and Fantasy" by Gregory Bateson (see page 373)