Artykuły w czasopismach na temat „Quantin (Firm)”

The relationship between the fundamentals of a firm and cash holdings is an interest topic in financial accounting and financial market literature. Adequate cash holdings can lead to higher profits and financial flexibility, allowing companies to take advantage of opportunities. Therefore, the real estate and property sector requires optimal liquidity holdings to avoid losing investment opportunities and achieve organizational goals. This study examines the effect of controlling share ownership and profitability on cash holdings in the corporate sector. Our samples are the real estate and property sub-sector from 2018 to 2021. The study uses quantitative methods with an archival technique from a capital market database. We performed multiple linear regression to test our hypotheses. The findings show that controlling share ownership has a significant influence on cash holdings. However, the profitability impact on cash holding is not supported. Our study has several limitations, i.e., (1) The study focused only on sub-sector real estate and property, and (2) Our sample period was conducted during 2018-2021. Originality/value examines the effect of controlling share ownership and profitability on cash holdings in the corporate sector, with a focus on the real estate and property sub-sector from 2018 to 2021.

Purpose - The first objective is to analyze and compare Bertrand and Cournot equilibria in a model wherein two governments compete with regard to research and development (R&D) subsidies, and two firms compete in a third-country market through product R&D investment and substitute goods. The second purpose is to compare the results derived in the presence of government intervention in international trade with those obtained in the case of no-trade and non-intervention. Design/Methodology/Approach - For this analysis, we extend Symeonidis’s (2003) work and develop an international R&D subsidy game consisting of three stages. Findings - First, the equilibrium levels of R&D expenditure, product quality, subsidies, prices, and firm profits are higher under quantity competition compared to price competition in the presence of government intervention in international trade, as in Symeonidis’s (2003) no-trade and non-intervention model. Second, the rankings of output and consumer surplus in the third country under the two competitions differ from those derived by Symeonidis (2003), who finds that they depend on the degree of horizontal differentiation and R&D spillovers. Third, the ranking of social welfare under the two regimes differs from the results of Symeonidis (2003), who establishes that the ranking of social welfare depends on the degree of horizontal differentiation and R&D spillovers. Research Implications - If a country is involved in international trade with substitute goods and its government faces R&D subsidy competition in the presence of product R&D spillovers, it is better for the government to provide R&D subsidies to domestic firms under quantity competition rather than those under price competition to ensure greater social welfare.

<p><strong>Resumen</strong></p><p>El artículo desarrolla un debate sobre la aplicación de los conceptos propios de los modelos tradicionales de la Ciencia Administrativa, a la sazón amparados bajo la llamada escuela “newtoniana”, vis a vis con aquellos más contemporáneos y asertivos, cobijados bajo la óptica de los novedosos enfoques administrativos de corte “cuántico” para el caso específico de una empresa orientada hacia el conocimiento. La indagación supone que una firma de esta naturaleza, y que es abordada como un análisis de caso en el entorno de negocios costarricense, debería presentar una visión más cercana a los enfoques más recientes de la Administración, precisamente porque, por su giro de negocios, los desafíos ambientales y organizativos que enfrenta son muy importantes. Del análisis de la información que destila de sus directores de proyectos, hemos podido concluir que, pese a lo anterior, sus puntos de vista presentan tendencias que no son lo suficientemente contestes con los enfoques cuánticos, lo que representa un factor que le resta competitividad a la compañía, así como su capacidad de adaptación y flexibilidad en el funcionamiento de sus operaciones.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>This article presents a debate between the application of concepts related to the traditional model of administrative sciences, included within the so-called ‘newtonian’ school, and the application of more contemporary concepts, covered under the new ‘quantic’ administrative approaches, using the specific case of a knowledge-based enterprise. The inquiry supposes that a company of this nature, which is also taken as a case study in the Costa Rican business environment, should hold a closer position to the more recent administrative focuses, especially because its business orientation presents important administrative and environmental challenges. From the information collected from the project managers involved in this firm, we have concluded that their points of view show tendencies that differ from the quantic approaches, and this constitutes an element that diminishes the enterprise’s competitiveness, as well as its capacity to adapt, and the flexibility in the functioning of its operation.</p>

The rural film Tuya's Marriage, directed by Wang Quan'an, constructs profound and rich spatial metaphors, promotes the development of film narrative, shapes the character characteristics of female characters and completes the unique expression of the female experience. Based on the theory of space narration, this paper makes an in-depth analysis of three narrative Spaces, which are enclosed space, social space and imagination space. It reveals the internal relationship between spatial metaphor and the image-building of female characters in movies as well as the profound cultural connotation. The film focuses on the living conditions, the expression of true emotions and the construction of female individual subjectivity of women in marginal areas, which further promotes the writing of female images in films.

The article deals with the phenomenon of “quality time” in the modern mass culture at the beginning of the 21st century. One of the most notable trends is the use of interactivity in creating cinematic works and computer games. Interactive storytelling allows the spectator/player to choose options for the development of the action and thus independently build the plot of the game film. Such involvement in creating a work of mass culture is an exciting new way to occupy the recipient’s time qualitatively. The variability and artistic potential of interactive cinema are discussed based on the example of one of the most popular computer games of recent years – “Detroit: Become Human” (2018) from the French studio “Quantic Dream”.

Graphene, which can detect a broad spectrum from ultraviolet to terahertz, is a promising photodetector material because it offers a broad spectral bandwidth and fast response times. However, the nature of weak light absorption has limited the responsivity of graphene-based photodetectors. Here, we demonstrate a responsivity of up to ∼6.7×103 A/W in a hybrid photodetector that consists of monolayer or bilayer graphene covered with a thin film of colloidal quantum dots. At the same time, benefits from gate-tunability, the device can response from the short-wavelength infrared to the visible, and compatibility with current circuit technologies.

<p>本研究探討台灣的對外直接投資對國內創新活動與效率的影響。利用2002-2018年上市櫃電子業廠商的縱橫資料進行研究，不同的估計結果顯示：整體而言，對外直接投資對國內母公司的研究發展支出與專利數具有正向的影響。然而，對外直接投資的研究效果可能隨投資目的國與不同的時期而異：在2000年代晚期之前，對外直接投資的研發促進效果僅出現在赴開發中國家投資，特別是中國；但此研發效果在2000年代晚期之後變為負向。本文亦發現對外直接投資存在促進專利申請的效果，特別是基於技術取得目的的赴先進國家投資。就高新穎性的發明專利而言，赴開發中與先進國家投資均促使國內母公司取得更多發明專利。再則，對外直接投資也促使母公司在專利的研發生產力有所提升，特別是發明專利。</p> <p>&nbsp;</p><p>This study investigates how outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) influence innovation activity and efficiency in Taiwan. On the basis of a firm-level panel dataset of publicly listed electronics firms for the period 2002&ndash;2018, various estimations reveal that OFDI overall has a positive influence on research and development (R&D) expenditure and patent numbers. However, this R&D effect may be adverse across destinations and time periods. Before the late 2000s, the pro-R&D effect existed for OFDI to developing countries only, particularly China, but this R&D effect became negative after the late 2000s. The patent effect of OFDI is also found, particularly the technology sourcing through OFDI to advanced countries. Regarding high-novelty patents measured by inventions, we find that the OFDI in both developing and developed economies indicates a positive relationship with invention grants at home. Further, OFDI also facilitates multinational enterprises&rsquo; promotion of R&D productivity in patents and high-novelty inventions in particular.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

O objetivo desta pesquisa é identificar fatores que influenciem na determinação de gastos com auditoria e consultoria por parte das empresas brasileiras abertas. A principal motivação do presente estudo foi a falta de pesquisas sobre gastos com auditoria e consultoria no Brasil, enquanto que esse assunto já vem sendo explorado há anos em outros países. A escassez de dados no Brasil é devido ao fato de que, só a partir de 2009, tornou-se obrigatória a divulgação das quantias despendidas com serviços de auditoria e consultoria prestados pelo auditor independente. A divulgação desses dados possibilita a análise dos determinantes dos valores pagos pelas empresas por tais serviços. Vale ressaltar que, neste estudo, analisamos apenas os gastos com serviços de consultoria prestados pela mesma firma de auditoria, ou seja, não levamos em conta qualquer quantia despendida com outros consultores. Os resultados indicam que as despesas de auditoria estão positivamente relacionadas com o tamanho da companhia, qualidade da governança e com o fato de a empresa de auditoria ser uma Big Four. Já quanto aos gastos de consultoria, existe uma relação positiva com o tamanho da empresa e com Big Four, mas não existe relação significativa com governança.

Surprisingly little work has been dedicated to Mozart and the march genre. The literature has explored only the 17 marches which feature as introductory movements in his cassations and serenades (Neue Mozart-Ausgabe, Günter Hauswald, Wolfgang Plath). However, marches have important functions in Mozart’s operas – in his seria works as celebratory and greeting intermezzos, and at expressly key instances in his Da Ponte operas (“Non più andrai,” “Ecco la marcia, andiamo,” “È aperto a tutti quanti, viva la libertà!”, and “Bella vita militar”). The same applies to Idomeneo and The Magic Flute, where the priestly rituals are accompanied by marches, albeit of a slow variety, as is Tamino and Pamina’s trial by fire and water. Studying the marches reveals a formulaic recurring rhythmic model (a succession of eighth notes in the following pattern: 4:3:1:2:2) that acts as a thematic introduction to many works which do not conspicuously belong to the march genre – notably his piano concertos and symphonies. This model appears already in his juvenile pieces, reoccurring throughout his œuvre as a means of expressing the beginning of a purposeful action.

O Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar (Pronaf) é uma ação governamental com 24 anos de existência. Está presente em praticamente todos os municípios brasileiros e se firma entre os pequenos agricultores como auxiliar no combate à pobreza rural. A partir disso, o trabalho objetiva analisar a evolução e as mudanças socioespaciais promovidas pelo Pronaf em Sergipe, em termos de inserção técnico-produtiva. A pesquisa tem caráter analítico-empírico, com base quanti e qualitativa, utilizando dados colhidos das bases do Banco Central (2005-2012) e do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), além da validação perceptiva de 76 beneficiários, quanto à importância do Programa e das instituições parceiras na sua efetivação. Conclui-se que, após o acesso ao Pronaf, houve ampliação no número de agricultores que passaram a receber assistência técnica e extensão rural, aumento na aquisição e utilização de equipamentos técnicos-mecânicos, além do uso de insumos químicos modernos. A utilização desses condicionantes, principalmente após o acesso ao Pronaf, demonstra que o Programa tem sido uma experiência benéfica na promoção de mudanças socioespaciais no rural, alavancando e diversificando a produção das unidades familiares, de modo a integrá-las às demandas de mercado.

Neste trabalho buscamos trazer ao conhecimento, a importância dos recursos vegetais como parte do acervo de saberes e práticas dos povos e comunidades tradicionais na região do Baixo Tocantins, nordeste do Pará, Brasil. No estudo, abordamos uma situação concreta na qual se verificam as estratégias de enfrentamento aos sintomas da Covid-19, por meio do uso de recursos vegetais e alimentação. A pesquisa se insere num projeto maior, iniciada em 2018, cujo objetivo é entender como grandes empreendimentos e os desastres ambientais que eles provocam, afetam a autonomia e qualidade alimentar de ribeirinhos, pescadores artesanais, extrativistas e quilombolas, distribuídos em áreas de várzeas e terra firme da referida região. Para desenvolver o objetivo realizamos pesquisa etnográfica, com abordagem quanti-qualitativa em 24 comunidades dos municípios de Abaetetuba, Igarapé Miri, Limoeiro do Ajuru e Moju, nos quais selecionamos 86 pessoas com sintomas da doença. Os dados da análise permitem conhecer a sociobiodiversidade e confirmam a importância da mandioca e demais recursos vegetais na dieta alimentar e na saúde coletiva, os quais contribuem para a sustentabilidade e atualização de uma cultura ecológica, coerente com suas necessidades.

Sinema hayatın bütün gerçekliğini geniş kitlelere sunan ve hayatın her alanını temsil eden bir sanat dalıdır. Sinemada ideolojik söylemlere ve temsillere oldukça fazla yer verilmektedir. Diğer sinema sektörlerinden farklı olarak Hollywood sineması ırkçılık unsurunu özellikle de beyaz ırkın üstünlüğü olarak kabul edilen ‘üstün ırk’ temsilini ayrı bir noktada yer edinmiş, beyaz perdede açık ve barbarca göstergeler ile izleyici kitleye sunmuştur. Bu çalışma ırkçılığın beyazperdeye nasıl yansıdığını analiz etmek amacıyla, ırkçılığın ırk ve etnik köken türünün temsili üzerine bina edilmiştir. Bu doğrultuda ırk ve etnik köken ırkçılık türünü temsil eden film evreninden, örneklem olarak Hollywood Sinemasında yer verilen 2012 yapımı ünlü yönetmen Quantin Tarantino’nun beyaz perdeye sunmuş olduğu ‘Django Zincirsiz’ filmi, amaçlı örneklem yöntemiyle seçilmiş ve film göstergebilimsel analiz yöntemi kullanılarak sömürgecilik ve özellikle de ırkçılık olgusu bağlamında incelenmiştir. Çalışmada Hollywood sinemasının ırkçılık unsurunu inceleme şekli analiz edilmiş, ırk ve etnik köken türü olan ırkçılığın örneklerinin özellikle ‘Django Zincirsiz’ filminde karakterler, diyaloglar ve sembolik göstergeler üzerinden temsil edilerek sunulduğu saptanmıştır.

The mainstream approach in most previous empirical studies of capital structure has been to estimate regression equations w ith proxies for dependent and independent variables. These stu dies test for relationships betw een leverage variables and other factors. This methodology, how ever, has been criticised by Hem pel (1983) among others, because the explanatory variables are restricted to those which can be quantified. Barton and Gord-on (1987) argue that this restrict-tion leads to oversimplification of how the firm works. This quanti tative analysis tends to ignore managerial preferences in capital structure decisions, and Barton and Matthews (1989) state that a new paradigm is needed which includes the qualitative factors which have an impact on the firm's financing decisions.

Brooks has implemented a collaborative product data management system in which information is accessed through Web interfaces. The system lets engineers at Brooks’ worldwide facilities collaborate on design projects and exchange information in seconds, providing product information to manufacturing and customer service departments and other areas of the company. Brooks expects eventually to give limited access to customers and suppliers. Using UGS software in product development, Brooks’ global development team can collaborate effectively and expects to increase business by reducing time to market for its flow meters. Role-based access gives several types of users different interfaces-different views of the data-depending on the sorts of information they need to see. With its new system, Brooks can issue engineering changes in seconds. This helps the firm meet customer needs for the technology built into its Quantim flow measurement and control device.

On January 17, 2024, Freudenberg Sealing Technologies announced offering a new class of materials, intended to improve fire protection in electric vehicle drives. Its name is “Quantix ULTRA” and it reportedly resists melting even at extreme temperatures of up to 1,200 degrees Celsius. Processing the material in injection molding is claimed to be both versatile and economical. Given that today's vehicles call for lightweight construction, its lower density compared to metallic materials should be an advantage. The first series application is now underway, as a flame protection barrier for cooling system parts in an electric car's lithium-ion battery.

Abstract Quantas Marias existem? (How many Marias are there?) is a documentary on violence against women, which results from an amateur and collaborative production of movies. This paper describes the process of narrative construction, the visual meanings and subjective intersections. The objective is to map the movements and lines that make up this experience. It is an intervention-research that valued the participation of the women who were victims of violence in the script and production of the film. From the analyses, which mapped as movements and lines that made up the experience of making the documentary, the process of becoming a woman emerged as a common plan, forming a documentary-rhizome.

Abstract This article presents part of the descriptive data about a doctoral study held between 2017 and 2021. The study problematized the formative, pedagogical, and aesthetic experience with films in an undergraduate Pedagogy degree. By highlighting children’s representational plurality through films, from a filmography review or film state of the art, this text aims to reflect on the significant amount of short, middle, and feature films that portray children in their different narratives. Regarding the methods used, we privileged the work in an interdisciplinary and multi-referential methodological conjunction based on Grounded Theory and scientific bricolage, backed by hermeneutic phenomenology. We point out 204 cinematographic works - from data on theses, dissertations, and scientific articles – from searches in theses and dissertations databases in digital libraries and journal platforms. The professors interviewed accounted for thirty productions. Faced with this number of works, we believe that films are part of students’ formative process and allow other interpretations of children and childhoods nowadays, revealing their relevance as a source and reference in the formative process.

Due to recent pandemic, the 2021 International Conference on Energy Technology and Engineering Management (ETEM 2021) which was planned to be held in Harbin, China, was held virtually online during December 24-26, 2021. The decision to hold the virtual conference was made in compliance with many restrictions and regulations that were imposed by countries around the globe. Such restrictions were made to minimize the risk of people contracting or spreading the COVID-19 through physical contact. There were 100 individuals who attended this on-line conference, represented many countries including Japan, Algeria, Brazil and China. This conference aimed to boost development of the Greater Bay Area, expand channels of international academic exchange in science and technology, build a sharing platform of academic resources, promote scientific innovation on the global scale, improve academic cooperation between China and the outside world, enhance development of Energy Technology and Engineering Management. It also aimed to encourage exchange of information on research frontiers in different fields, connect the most advanced academic resources in China and abroad, turn research results into industrial solutions, bring together talents, technologies and capital to boost development. During the conference, the conference model was divided into three sessions, including oral presentations, keynote speeches, and online Q&A discussion. In the first part, some scholars, whose submissions were selected as the excellent papers, were given about 5-10 minutes to perform their oral presentations one by one. Then in the second part, keynote speakers were each allocated 30-45 minutes to hold their speeches. In the second part, we invited four professors as our keynote speakers. Assoc. Prof. Quanqing Yu, Harbin Institute of Technology, performed a speech: Fire safety issues and countermeasures for the battery system of new energy vehicles. And then we had Assoc. Prof. Yanling Yu , Harbin Institute of Technology. She made a wonderful speech: Heat generation and recovery from aerobic fermentation of corn stover. Associate Professor Alina Steblyanskya, School of Economics and Management, Harbin Engineering University, delivered a speech: GDP growth under environmental constraints: the case of Russia. Assoc. Prof. Zhaohan Zhang, from Harbin Institute of Technology. He presented a wonderful speech: Enhancing bioelectron transfer and methane production with nano-meidators and voltage in anaerobic wastewater treatment systems. Their insightful speeches had triggered heated discussion in the third session of the conference. Every participant praised this conference for disseminating useful and insightful knowledge. List of Committee member, Program Committees and Technical Program Committees are available in this pdf.

J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is appalled to learn that his lover is a victim of incest in Robert Towne and Roman Polanski’s definitive, yet subversive film Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974). Similarly, Ethan Mars (Pascale Langdale), the hero of the electronic game Heavy Rain (David Cage, 2010), is equally devastated to find his child has been abducted. One a cinema classic of the detective genre, the other a sophisticated electronic game: both ground-breaking, both compelling, but delivered in contrasting media. So, what do Chinatown and Heavy Rain have in common from the writer’s point of view? Can the writer of games learn from the legacy of film storytelling yet find alternative rules for new media? This article attempts to answer these questions making reference to the two works above to illuminate the gap between games writing and traditional screenwriting scholarship.Western commercial cinema has evolved to place story centrally and Chinatown is an example of a story’s potential as film art and entertainment concurrently. Media convention derives from the lessons of previous relatable art forms such as pictorial art, literature and architecture in the case of film; board games and centuries of physical gaming in the case of games design. Therefore, the invention of new media such as online and electronic gaming relies, in part, on the rules of film. However, game play has reassessed screenwriting and its applicability to this new media rendering many of these rules redundant. If Marshall McLuhan’s adage “the medium is the message” is correct, then despite the reliance of one medium on the traditions of its predecessor, gaming is simply not cinema. This article considers writing for games as axiomatically unconventional and calls for radical reinventions of storytelling within the new media.In order to investigate games writing, I will first revisit some of the rules of cinematic construction as inherited from an original Aristotelian source (Cleary). These rules require: a single focussed protagonist driving the plot; a consistent story form with narrative drive or story engine; the writer to avoid the repeated dramatic beat and; a reassessment of thematic concerns for the new technology. We should also investigate game-centric terminology such as “immersion” and “agency” to see how electronic gaming as an essentially postmodern phenomenon reciprocates, yet contrasts to, its cinematic predecessor (Murray, Hamlet 98/126). Must the maker of games subscribe to the filmmaker’s toolbox when the field is so very different? In order to answer this question, I will consider some concepts unique to games technology, firstly, the enduring debate known as ludology versus narratology. Gaming rhetoric since the late 1990s has questioned the efficacy of the traditional film narrative when adapted to game play. Players are still divided between the narratologists’ view, which holds that story within games is inevitable and the ludologists’ opinion, which suggests that traditional narrative has no place within the spatially orientated freedom of game play. Originally espousing the benefits of ludology, Janet H Murray argues that the essential formalism of gaming separates it from narrative, which Aarseth describes as representing “'colonialist' intrusions” on game play (46). Mimetic aspects inherited from narrative principles should remain incidental rather than forming an overarching hegemony within the game (Murray, "Last Word"). In this way, the ludologists suggest that game development has been undermined by the persistence of the narrative debate and Murray describes game studies as a “multi-dimensional, open-ended puzzle” worth solving on its own terms (indeed, cinema of attractions compelled viewers for thirty years before narrative cinema became dominant in the early twentieth century.Gaming history has proved this argument overblown and Murray herself questions the validity of this spurious debate within game play. She now includes the disclaimer that, ironically, most ludologists are trained in narratology and thus debate a “phantom of their own creation” (Murray, "Last Word"). This implies a contemporary opposition to ludology’s original meaning and impacts upon screenwriting principles in game making. Two further key concepts, which divide the medium of game entirely from the art of cinema are “immersion” and “agency” (Murray, Hamlet 98/126). Murray likens immersion to the physical sensation of being “submerged in water” pointing out that players enjoy the psychologically immersive phenomenon of delving into an undiscovered reality (Murray, Hamlet 98). Although distinct from the passive experience of cinema viewing, this immersion is like the experience of leaving the ordinary world and diving into the special world as Christopher Vogler’s screenwriting theory suggests. The cinema audience is encouraged to immerse themselves in the new world of Gittes’s Chinatown from the comfort of their familiar one. Similarly, the light-hearted world of the summer home contrasts Heavy Rain’s decent into urban, neo-noir corruption. Contrary to its cinematic cousin, the immediacy and subjectivity of the new media experience is more tangible and controllable, which renders immersion in games more significant and brings us to the next gaming concept, agency.To describe agency, Murray uses the complex metaphor of participatory dance, with its predetermined structures, “social formulas” and limited opportunities to change the overall “plot” of the dance: “The slender story is designed to unfold in the same way no matter what individual audience members may do to join the fun” (Hamlet 126-27). In electronic gaming, time-honoured gaming traditions from chess and board games serve as worthy predecessors. In this way, sophisticated permutations of outcome based on the player’s choice create agency, which is “the satisfying power to take meaningful action and see the results of our decisions and choices” (Murray, Hamlet 126). Bearing this in mind, when narrative enters game play, a world of possibility opens up (Murray, Hamlet).So where do the old rules of cinema apply within gaming and where is the maker of games able to find alternatives based on their understanding of agency and immersion? McLuhan’s unconventional scholarship leads the way, by pointing out the alternativity of the newer media. I consider that the rules of cinematic construction are also often disregarded by the casual viewer/player, but of utmost importance to the professional screenwriter.Amongst these rules is the screenwriting convention of having a single protagonist. This is a being fuelled with desire and a clear, visually rendered, actively negotiated goal. This principle persists in cinema according to Aristotle’s precepts (Cleary). The protagonist is a single entity making decisions and taking actions, even if that entity is a collection of individuals acting as one (Dethridge). The exploits of this main character (facing an opposing force of antagonism) determine the path of the story and for that reason a clear, single-minded narrative line is echoed in a single story form (McKee). For example, the baffling depth of meaning in Chinatown still emanates from protagonist J.J. Gittes’s central determination: to solve the crime suggested by the Los Angeles water shortage. The audience’s ability to identify and empathise with Gittes is paramount when he discovers the awful perversion his love interest, Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), has been subjected to. However, the world of Chinatown remains intriguing as a string of corruption is revealed though a detective plot fuelled by our hero’s steadfast need to know the truth. In this way, a single protagonist’s desire line creates a solid story form. Conversely, in computer games (and despite the insistence of Draconian screenwriting lecturers who insist on replicating cinematic rules) the effect of a multiple protagonist plot still allows for the essential immersion in an imaginative world. In Heavy Rain, for example, the search for clues through the eyes of several related characters including a hapless father, a hangdog, ageing detective and a hyper-athletic single mother still allows for immersion. The player/interactor’s actions still create agency even as they change avatars from scene to scene. The player also negotiates for mastery of their character’s actions in order to investigate their situation, facts and world. However, each time the player switches their character allegiance, they revert to square one of their potential identification with that character. Indeed, in Heavy Rain, the player keenly aware of the chilling effect generated by the father losing his child in a busy shopping mall, but then another avatar steps forward, then another and the player must learn about new and unfamiliar characters on a scene-by-scene basis. The accumulative identification with a hero like Chinatown’s Gittes, begins with an admiration for his streetwise charm, then strengthens through his unfolding disillusionment and is cemented with Polanski’s brilliant invention: the death of Evelyn Mulwray replete with its politico-sexual implications (Polanski). However, does this mean cinematic identification is superior to game play’s immersion and agency? McLuhan might argue it is not and that the question is meaningless given that the “message” of games is axiomatically different. Traditional screenwriting scholarship therefore falters in the new medium. Further, Heavy Rain’s multi-protagonist miasma conforms to a new breed of structure: the mosaic plot, which according to Murray mirrors the internet’s click and drag mentality. In this sense, a kaleidoscopic world opens in pockets of revelation before the player. This satisfies the interactor in a postmodernist sense: an essential equality of incoming information in random, nonlinear connections. Indeed electronic games of this nature are a triumph of postmodernism and of ludology’s influence on the narratologist’s perspective. Although a story form including clues and detection still drives the narrative, the mosaic realisation of character and situation (which in a film’s plot might seem meandering and nonsensical) is given life by the agency and immersion provided by gaming (Truby).Back in traditional screenwriting principles, there is still the need for a consistent and singular story form providing a constant narrative drive (McKee). As mentioned, this arises from the protagonist’s need. For example a revenge plot relies on the hero’s need for vengeance; a revelation plot like Chinatown hinges on detection. However, first time screenwriting students’ tendency to visualise a story based unconsciously on films they have previously seen (as a bricolage of character moments arranged loosely around a collection of received ideas) tends to undermine the potential effectiveness of their story form. This lack of singularity in filmic writing indicates a misunderstanding of story logic. This propensity in young screenwriters derives from a belief that if the rendered filmic experience means something to them, it will necessarily mean something to an audience. Not so: an abandoned story drive or replaced central character diminishes the audience’s enjoyment and even destroys suspension of disbelief. Consequently, the story becomes bland and confusing. On investigation, it appears the young screenwriter does not realise that they are playing out an idea in their head, which is essentially a bricolage in the postmodern sense. Although this might lead to some titillating visual displays it fails to engage the audience as the result of their participation in an emotional continuum (Hayward). In contradistinction to film, games thrive on such irregularities in story, assuming radically different effects. For example, in cinema, the emotional response of a mass audience is a major draw card: if the filmic story is an accumulation of cause and effect responses, which steadily drive the stakes up until resolution, then it is the emotional “cathexis” as by-product of conflict that the audience resonates with (Freud 75; Chekhov). Does this transfer to games? Do notions such as feeling and empathy actually figure in game play at all? Or is this simply an activity rewarding the interactor with agency in lieu of deeper, emotive experiences? This final question could be perceived as anti-gaming sentiment given that games such as Heavy Rain suggest just such an emotional by-product. Indeed, the mechanics of gaming have the ability to push the stakes even higher than their cinematic counterparts, creating more complex emotionality in the player. In this way, the intentional psychological malaise of Heavy Rain solicits even greater emotion from players due to their inherent act of will. Where cinema renders the audience emotional by virtue of its passivity, no such claim is possible in the game. For example, where in Chinatown, Gittes tortures his lover by repeatedly slapping her, in Heavy Rain the character must actively perform torture on themself in order to solve the mystery. Further, the potential for engagement is extended given there are fourteen possible endings to Heavy Rain. In this way, although the film viewer’s emotional response is tempered by guessing the singular outcome, the multiple endings of this electronic game prevent such prescience (films can have multiple endings, but game mechanics lend the new media more readily to this function, therefore, game books with dice-rolling options are a stronger precedent then cinema).Also effective for the construction of cinema is Aristotle’s warning that the repetition of story and expositional information without rising stakes or any qualification of meaning creates a sense of “dramatic stall” for the audience (Aristotle). This is known as a repeated dramatic story beat and it is the stumbling block of many first time screenwriters. The screenplay should be an inventive effort to overcome escalating obstacles and an accumulative cause and effect chain on the part of the protagonist (Truby). The modern screenwriter for film needs to recognise any repeated beat in their early drafting and delete or alter the repetitive material. What then are the implications of repeated dramatic beats for the game writer? The game form known as “first person shooter” (FPS) depends on the appearance of an eternally regenerating (indeed re-spawning) enemy. In an apocalyptic zombie shooter game, for example, many hordes of zombies die unequivocally without threatening the interactor’s intrigue. Presumably, the antagonists are not intended to pose intellectual opposition for the gamer. Rather, the putrefying zombies present themselves for the gamer’s pugilistic satisfaction, again and again. For the game, therefore, the repeated beat is a distinct advantage. They may come harder and faster, but they are still zombies to be dispatched and the stakes have not necessarily risen. Who cares if this is a succession of repeated beats? It is just good clean fun, right? This is where the ludologists hold sway: to impose principles such as non-repeated beats and rising stakes on the emergence of a world based on pure game play offers no consequence for the FPS game. Nevertheless, the problem is exacerbated in “role play games” (RPG) of which Heavy Rain is an example. Admittedly, the gamer derives effective horror as our hero negotiates his way amongst a sea of disassociated shoppers searching for his lost child. The very fact of gamer agency should abnegate the problem, but does not, it merely heightens the sense of existential hopelessness: turning face after face not finding the child he is searching for is a devastating experience exacerbated by active agency (as opposed to the accepting passivity of cinema spectatorship). The rising panic in the game and the repetition of the faces of impassive shoppers also supports the player’s ongoing disorientation. The iconic appearance of the gruff clown handing out balloons further heightens the panic the gamer/protagonist experiences here. These are examples of repeated beats, yet effective due to player agency. The shoppers only persist until the gamer masters the situation and is able to locate the missing child. Thus, it is the capacity of the gamer to circumvent such repetition, which actually propels the game forward. If the gamer is adept, they will overcome the situation easily; if they are inexperienced, the repetition will continue. So, why apply traditional narrative constrictions on game play within a narrative game?Another crucial aspect of story is theme, which in the young writer reflects a postmodernist fetishisation of plot over story. In fact, theme is one of the first concepts to be ignored when a film student puts pen to paper (or finger to keyboard) when designing their game. In this way, the themes students choose to ignore resurface despite their lack of conscious application of them. They write plot, and plot in abundance (imperative for the modern writer (Truby)), which the mosaic structure of games accommodates for seamlessly. However, plot is causative and postmodern interpretations do not necessarily require the work of art to “say” anything beyond the “message” trapped in the clichés of their chosen genre (McLuhan). In concentrating on plot, therefore, the young writer says what they are unaware they are saying. At its most innocuous level this creates cliché. At its worst, it erases history and celebrates an attitude of unexamined ignorance toward the written material (Hayward). In extreme cases, student writers of both media support fascism, celebrate female masochism, justify rape (with or without awareness), or create nihilistic and derivative art, which sensationalises violence to a degree not possible within film technology. This is ironic given that postmodernism is defined, in part, by a canny reaction to modernist generation of meaning and cynicism toward the technology of violence. In all this postmodernism, that illusive chestnut known as “originality” (a questionable imperative still haunting the conventional screenplay despite the postmodernist declamation that there is no such thing) should also be considered. Although the game writer can learn from the lessons of the screenwriter, the problems of game structure and expression are unique to the new medium and therefore alternative to film. Adhering to traditional understandings of screenwriting in games is counterproductive to the development of the form and demands new assessment. If gaming students are liberated from narratologist impositions of cinematic story structures, will this result in better or more thoughtful games? Further to the ludologists’ original protestation against the ““colonialist” intrusions” of narrative on game play, film writing must recede where appropriate (Aarseth). Then again, if a ludologist approach to game creation renders the student writer free of filmic dogma, why do they impose the same stories repetitively? What gain comes from ignoring the Aristotelian traditions of storytelling–especially as derived from screen culture? I suggest that storytelling, to echo McLuhan’s statement, must necessarily change with the new medium: the differences are illuminating. The younger, nonlinear form embodies the player as protagonist and therefore should not need to impose the single protagonist regime from film. Story engine has been replaced by player agency and game mechanics, which also allows for inventive usage of the repeated beat. Indeed, postmodern and ludological concerns embedded within mosaic plots almost entirely replace the need for any consistency of story form while still subverting the expectations of modernism? Genre rules are partly reinvented by the form and therefore genre conventions in gaming are still in their infancy. Indeed, the very amorality of nihilistic game designers opens a space for burgeoning post-postmodernist concerns regarding ethics and faith within art. In any case, the game designer may choose the lessons of film writing’s modernist legacy if story is to be effective within the new medium. However, as meaning derives from traditional form, it might be wiser to allow the new medium its own reinvention of writing rules. Given Heavy Rain’s considerable contribution to detective genre in game play by virtue of its applying story within new media, I anticipate further developments that might build on Chinatown’s legacy in the future of gaming, but on the game play’s own terms.ReferencesAarseth, Espen. Genre Trouble: Narrativism and the Art of Simulation. First Person: New Media as Story, Performance, and Game. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT P, 2004. Aristotle. Poetics. Australia: Penguin Classics, 1997.Chekhov, Michael. Lessons for the Professional Actor. New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications, 1985.Chinatown. Roman Polanski. Paramount Golden Classics, 2011.Cleary, Stephen. “'What Would Aristotle Do?' Ancient Wisdom for Modern Screenwriters.” Stephen Cleary Lecture Series, 1 May 2011. Melbourne, Vic.: Victorian College of the Arts.Dethridge, Lisa. Writing Your Screenplay. Australia: Allen & Unwin, 2003.Freud, Sigmund. “On Narcissism: An Introduction.” On Metapsychology: The Theory of Psychoanalysis. Middlesex: Pelican, 1984. 65-97.Hayward, Susan. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. London: Routledge, 2006.Heavy Rain. David Cage. Quantic Dream, 2010.McKee, Robert. Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting. UK: Methuen, 1999. McLuhan, Marshall. “The Medium Is the Message.” Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT P, 1994. 1-18.Murray, Janet H. Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace. New York: Simon and Schuster / Free Press, 1997.Murray, Janet H. “The Last Word on Ludology v Narratology in Game Studies.” Keynote Address. DiGRA, Vancouver, 17 June 2005.Polanski, Roman, dir. DVD Commentary. Chinatown. Paramount Golden Classics, 2011.Truby, John. The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.Vogler, Christopher. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters. London: Boxtree, 1996.