Week 2 – Topic 1 - Interactive Websites, Immersive & Extractive

Interactivity can be seen as the distinction between old and new media. Websites are now interactive for a number of different reasons, and unlike new media the audience become “produsers” (Lecture 2) meaning that don’t only have to look and take a medium at face value, like reading a newspaper, they can now use new media to edit and express their opinions within a matter of seconds.

Habbo Hotel would be one of my first uses of interactive media. For those of you who don’t know what Habbo hotel is, it’s a interactive online game where you create your own character within this ‘cyber town.’ There are many similar websites, and I personally would apply this type of interactivity to Lunenfeld’s ‘immersive interactivity’ notion because it is “simulation 3D worlds” (Lister page 21) which users live in as their characters. However, a negative of this type of interaction is obviously the fact that people live their lives as their characters and get engrossed within these 3D worlds. I would distinguish this from “extractive” interaction as I would describe extractive interaction as taking what you want and need from a website, not necessarily getting involved within the site.