OVERVIEW

Interactivity! After dozens of years of hype it is still a word that excites, attracts, sells, and confounds people.

In the game industry interactivity is very tangible. It is a key feature that helps guarantee the success or failure of a product. Just how interactive is a game? How is the game play? designers ask. They are asking about the level of interactivity.

The game play had better be very interactive if the game is to sell at the level that publishers require. Take Electronic Arts million-seller Knockout Kings, for example. If you want to take on Muhammad Ali or George Foreman or Oscar De La Hoya, you can encounter virtual adversaries who present their style, their skill, and their fighting philosophy right in a virtual ring. Select your character, choose your opponent, and see just how interactive an experience can be. Maybe you ll be able to punch your way to a virtual world title.

One thing is certain, unless your experience is very interactive, you ll be the one who is knocked out.

Interactive learning? In the 1950s and 60s, educators and instructional designers realized that if students participated in the learning experience rather than just watching passively, a measurably higher degree of learning could take place. As a result, training organizations from McDonalds to the U.S. Army...