Abstract
This chapter describes how technology, progressing rapidly, and especially computer technology has become an indispensable detail in daily life. The act of playing games starting to become virtual has emerged as a progress. In these early years, when the line between place and space has started to become thinner and people began to recognize the lines of flight between the real world and the virtual world, the movie “Tron” made an attempt to explain this possibility of transitivity. 28 years after the first movie, the sequel “Tron Legacy” emphasizes that this possibility still exists. The individual, in this sea of possibilities, comes and goes between place and space and becomes distant to their temporal context, digitalized and goes through deterritorialization. The narrative of the fictional world, the game world in this fictional world, the real world and the game field in the real world will be discussed in terms of transmedia, and some assumptions will be put forward through people and therefore, the deterritorialization of the media.
TopIntroduction
Technological advances which affect the whole world have been a medium for the beginning of digital effects age in cinema. This was the start of the camera and computer partnership, and this start has led to open up more space for hybrid storytelling examples as similar ones previously seen. In 2006, Henry Jenkins’ mentioned for the first time in his book “Covergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide” the concept of transmedia which involves the necessary definition and conceptualization for hybrid storytelling.
Transmedia storytelling is the art of world making. To fully experience any fictional world, consumers must assume the role of hunters and gatherers, chasing down bits of the story across media channels, comparing notes with each other via online discussion groups, and collaborating to ensure that everyone who invests time and effort will come away with a richer entertainment experience (Jenkins 2003, p. 21).
A few years after the definition of Henry Jenkins, Transmedia has now become a widely used concept. The concept has been expanded and has become a very important place for the field so that different thinkers have struggled to define transmedia.
A traditional definition of transmedia storytelling would be: telling a story across multiple platforms, preferably allowing audience participation, such that each successive platform heightens the audience’ enjoyment (Pratten, 2011, p. 2).
Douglas Adams was a radio programmer and one day he decided to write a book about the stories he told on the radio show. As a result of these long efforts he succeeded in writing the famous book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was, for example, first made for radio and broadcast on the BBC in the UK for the first time in 1978. The year after, it was published as a book by the same author, Douglas Adams” (Bolin, 2011, p. 245). This book, which is a successful example of showing a narrative in different fields, is just an example of the transmedia narrative. “It makes the customer (reader) dependent on not only one medium or means of consumption, but on several platforms in order to be able to appreciate the story in a comprehensible way” (Bolin, 2011, p. 246).
Thanks to different editing techniques, cinema, in the period even when it was first made, was able to open up the windows of a magical world. Through the technology, lots of stories that weren’t transferred onto the visual world, started to be a part of the big screen. J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic masterpiece “The Lord of the Rings”, which was made into a movie in the early 21st century, was certainly the most remarkable among those. The movie was accepted as spectacular repaying the success of the book. However, with the technologies used in the 21st century that we are sure to recreate the technology again, yet, this technology was on a level that the people weren’t sure of in the 80s. The people were extremely curious about these technologies, yet, they had difficulty in accepting technological advances. Computer and console games, which came along in the late 70’s, caused people to welcome technology with open arms, because humans, by their nature, are creatures that like playing games, and this innocent introduction resulted in people opening up their doors to this colorful game world.
A good transmedia franchise attracts a wider audience by pitching the content differently in the different media. If each work offers fresh experiences, then a crossover market will expand the potential gross within any individual media. So, women may not play games, but women who like Lord of the Rings might experiment on a related game title. (Jenkins, 2003).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Lines of Flight: It’s a term in Deleuzian terminology. These are the lines that people use to escape from the meaning surfaces they are in to different surfaces that presents a possibility for other subjectivities. These lines represent borders for a nomad, a rabbit hole for Alice, and cables for the Flynns.
Deterritorialization: In Deleuzian terminology, this concept can be explained as not having a home or a homeland, and described as being on the move, or in the action and not being attached to one place. In context of this article, this concept is used as the deterritorialization of the narrative in correlation with the concept of transmedia.
Space: Space is used as a place in the article. This concept is particularly chosen instead of place because space is not a physical place. One cannot be at present but exist there.
Down the Rabbit Hole: In Lewis Carroll’s book, Alice in Wonderland, written in 1865, it’s an action that is represented as a sort of gateway that gives a start to the journey of Alice into the Wonderland. When Alice falls into the rabbit hole, she finds herself in the Wonderland, and not in the real world.
Becoming-Blocks: It’s a term in Deleuzian terminology. It presents various becomings like becoming-woman, becoming-animal, becoming-plant, and possibilities of experiencing different subjects that people who opens up themselves for.
Hybrid Species: This concept is especially used in one of Donna Harraway’s articles and expressed in addition to the concept of “becoming a cyborg”. A hybrid human emerges with the technology.The concept of transmedia is constructed as a hybrid narrative and there is an intention to make a correlation between these two concepts in this article.
Becoming-Digital: It’s a concept used in the article developed in addition to becoming-blocks in Deleuzian terminology. In the article, becoming-digital is used as a different becoming and a type of subjectivity that the Flynns experience.