Interactivity

The noun Interactivity is a derivative of the word "interact." To "interact," by definition, is to participate in a give and take relationship with another human being or piece of technology. Interactivity, in particular with regard to technology, is often gauged by our engagement with the shared subject of interaction. A lecture, for example, is not an interactive experience until auditors pose questions or give information back to the lecturer in some form.

Interactivity and Technology

Technology in our culture has begun to shift our understanding of interactivity more towards meaning a person's activity level in relation to the system they are using. Television, for example, requires a low level of interactivity by the user. However, as our concept of television expands beyond the medium into online forums and extensive fandom, the opportunities for interactivity treble, though they are not within the original medium. Video games, specifically MMOs, are extremely popular largely because they require high levels of interactivity with the technology. This level of interactivity relates to the phenomenon of immersion in a virtual world (see Second Life for an example). The Nintendo Wii has gained popularity very recently because it accentuates the players input into the system through physical movements. The interactivity of users within the Web 2.0 has popularized websites like Wikipedia and YouTube.

Interactivity as it relates to video games describes an environment that is both participatory and procedural. Ian Bogost notes that these rhetorics do not require a sophisticated interactivity, but they do benefit from them. Procedural rhetorics also relate to interactivity. Bogost states that the concept of GTAIII as a fully interactive game is flawed, but in fact, the game is only interactive in that it requires us to fill in the gaps between the missing information from what we do and what we see.

References

Bogost p40-44.