Interactive Storytelling

Sarusa writes "Video games are big business. Movies are big business. I hear that people used read a lot of things called books: it seems like there would be a lot of money to be made from a successful merger of what makes books and movies compelling with what makes video games compelling, though we've been trying that for decades with little success. Interactive Storytelling: Techniques for 21st Century Fiction by Andrew Glassner takes a look at what we know about stories, what we know about games, how they work (or don't work) together now, and how they might work together in the future." Read on for the rest of Sarusa's review.

Interactive Storytelling
author	Andrew Glassner
pages	500
publisher	A. K. Peters
rating	7 of 10
reviewer	Sarusa
ISBN	1568812213
summary	A solid look at the elusive merger of movies and video games.

First, this is a book that everybody who wants to make compelling games should read. That said, however, it isn't really a book you would read for fun -- it's more of a textbook. The first half of the text is a necessarily rather dry presentation of concepts: for example, nine pages on 'Narrative Devices.' Glassner uses copious examples from movies that you've probably seen and games that you've probably played, and the text is certainly an easy read and well written, but it's still a very step-by-step presentation. You can't hide the fact that you're supposed to be learning something here. The second half of the book does open up a bit as he goes beyond just priming you on story and game theory.

He starts out by assuming you know almost nothing about storytelling. You might think that this is too obvious, but if you've played enough storytelling abominations like 'Sudeki,' you will know that game creators usually don't make very compelling storywriters. So the first quarter of the book is a crash course on the fundamentals of writing stories -- characters, plot, and techniques. The second, slightly shorter, part of the book examines the mechanisms of games in general. Not video games in specific, but all types of games. The five types of games, scoring rules, structure, and theory.

We're now ready to actually tackle merging stories and games, and at this point our cunning vision falls apart. Glassner's strongly held opinion, which he argues quite coherently, is that a great story is the product of one (or a few) expert storytellers presenting a strong, consistent vision to you, the consumer. The fabled holy grail of gaming is letting the player do whatever they want -- full interactivity. And this is to a point fundamentally incompatible with telling a great story. Conflict drives most stories -- what if the player quite reasonably minimizes conflict? But there's a lot to be learned from where they do contradict each other, and some common ground to be found. In my favorite chapter in the book, 'Common Pitfalls,' he uses specific video games that blatantly demonstrate how to not apply even the simplest rules of good storytelling and user immersion.

Many of the fundamental insights in this part are 'obvious,' yet demonstrably unobvious to most video game designers. For example, that people gravitate toward the entertainment that has the highest fun-to-work ratio. Television is hugely popular since the fun is high to very low, but the work is near zero. They will do more work if it offers a lot more fun. Which means you shouldn't force your players to do stupid, boring, unnecessary work like running through a dozen screens again and again to get between important locations. "A game should offer the fastest and easiest possible way to do everything unless there is some entertaining or informative reason to prevent it." Preach on!

The last part of the book finally deals with the 'interactive storytelling,' slowly building up ever more ambitious plans till we're in the realm of the purely experimental. Several reasonably fleshed out examples are given, and some of them seem quite plausible even with today's technology. The balance between future technology (holograms and AI) and the reality of today is considered. Glassner is quite a skeptic about AI and the holodeck from Star Trek, but explores how tricks such as emergent behavior and setting expectations low and then beating them can work for you. For instance, if your AI is driving an animal (rather than a human), the players will be much more forgiving. Or if you give the user attractive, static graphics up front, they will be projected onto the cruder in-game graphics. Because of the conflict between a great story and complete interactivity, he suggests 'participatory storytelling' is a better goal than fully interactive storytelling.

Particularly interesting is the discussion of 'living masks.' Most people don't like to act, because they know it takes skill and that bad acting is very painful. But what if you could be 'in' a character that would take what you were doing at home and then do it in character on stage, so everyone involved could act to the best of their abilities but still 'be' a good actor? You'd have some control over the gross reactions, but the details would be up to the software. Obviously, we're nowhere near that level of sophistication, but there's a lot of time left in the 21st century. It does mean that a large portion of the book deals with techniques that are right now totally impractical.

My biggest disappointment with this part of the book is that it implicitly seems to assume that all games in the future will be multiplayer, as they're the focus of all the examples. And at this point Glassner has pretty much transcended mere 'games' for his vision of the future of entertainment. But it's easy to see how they could be adapted to the single-player games which will hopefully still be available in 2099.

To summarize, I think anyone with a serious interest in telling stories via video games or interactive fiction should read Interactive Storytelling. It's well written and does a good job of teaching concepts that most people making currently making video games could use a lot of help with. Furthermore, Glassner's vision of the future of storytelling is fascinating, even if it doesn't play out that way. However, I would not recommend that you pick this book up as a casual read. If you're looking for that, you might be better off with Creating Emotion in Games by David Freeman or perhaps The Art of Interactive Design by Chris Crawford. Or, though it somewhat destroys the rigorous chain of thought, skip the first half of Interactive Storytelling, then go back and digest it piece-by-piece later.

You can purchase Interactive Storytelling from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Well

[savagedome]

Interactive storytelling in common man's terms is called Grandma.

Re:Well

[dillon_rinker]

Yup. Any grandma who makes up stories is well versed in the technique of reaching a climactic moment and asking "And then what do you think happened?" The child responds, and grandma exclaims "That's exactly right!" Then grandma continues, dramatizing and expounding on the child's answer.

Re:Well

[SaV]

Sounds like "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" to me!

Every member of the Mouse Army has one, your kid needs one too!

Re:Well

[javaxman]

My 3-year-old son has recently decided that instead of a book at bedtime, I ( or my wife ) will tell him a story. Then he tells us what the story will be about. If the story we tell him at some point doesn't include the things he thinks it should include, he tells us about it.

Sounds like interactive story-telling to me...

Re:Well

[daeley]

Dear Dr. Lundberg:

You will be happy to hear our "javaxman 2.0" project is proceeding well. Please see attached post on Slashdot by the story-telling android unit, referring to his client-child as its own -- you can't imagine how long it took our AI team to get the emotional algorhythms just right without resulting in murderous rampages every fortnight for no discernable reason! A lot of good scientists lost their lives in pursuit of this project. And yet, considering how much money such a product will bring our company, what are a few PhDs, eh?

Once again, on that other matter of concern, we have every confidence that the FBI will be able to track down the "javaxman 1.0" unit that disappeared last month. And I *do* think all the dead farm animals in Saskatchawan are a coincidence.

Sincerely,
Dr. Ackthappth
Android Product Division

Re:Well

[LoudMusic]

My 3-year-old son has recently decided that instead of a book at bedtime, I ( or my wife ) will tell him a story. Then he tells us what the story will be about. If the story we tell him at some point doesn't include the things he thinks it should include, he tells us about it.

Sounds like interactive story-telling to me...

That is soooooo cool. Still doesn't make me want to have kids, but it is very cool indeed. Congratulations on an apparently successful family (:

Re:Well

[LoudMusic]

Rule #31 of posting on Slashdot: Using inverted smileys will cause people to think your post was sarcastic and therefore mod you as a troll. In order to avoid this please use the standardised form of having the bracket last (e.g. :)).

Commenting on this rule will have your post marked down as -1 Offtopic.

That's stupid.

Re:Well

[javaxman]

A.C. writes : My son is 3.5 year old son does the same thing.

All I need to say is, "Once upon a time there was a little boy and his three friends the green, yellow and red dinosaurs. What do you think they are going to do?"

The stories usually involve what he's done during the day or what he wants to do. Maybe an upcoming trip. I start the story and ask what the characters say or do. From there, he's telling the story and I just add in things to keep it going when he runs out of ideas.

Actually, my exp

Re:Well

[VidEdit]

Ah, so true.

People act as if interactive story telling was some sort of new idea. In fact, it dates back as far as story telling. However, the fact is that their are two kinds of media right now (I forget who coined the terms): Lean back (where we watch passively as the story unfolds, e.g. books, tv and movies) and lean forward (where we interact, eg. computers and games).

There will always be two kinds of media. People will always want lean back media. They want a story told to them and they want the director to do the story telling, to build up the characters and the tension, to create pace. And they don't want to do his work for him.

People always will want to interact with media, so they can be involved, interact and be a part of the action. Which means the pacing and conflicts can't be perfect because the story is now being partially written by the player.

As the summary of the book points out, the idea that lean back media and lean forward media will merge completely is balderdash. The two media have different needs. Futurists be damned...

re: well

[ed.han]

and in geek terms is called role-playing games. you know, pen & paper/tabletop games. D&D, GURPS, the white wolf stuff...

ed

Interactive fiction.

[uberdave]

Let's not forget the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books, and the Infocom interactive fiction software (Planetfall, Zork, Leather Goddesses of Phobos). Heck, back in the long ago, a troupe of actors came to my school and performed Treasure Island. At various points in the play, they asked the audience what they would like the characters to do. They then took the story in that direction.

Or...

[temojen]

this [wizards.com], this [sjgames.com], this [palladiumbooks.com], this [shadowrunrpg.com], this [herogames.com], this [white-wolf.com], or many others.

Alternate title:

[Neil Blender]

"Books for Dummies"

Interactive novel style game:

[l33t-gu3lph1t3]

Final Fantasy X immediately springs to mind. Any others?

Re:Interactive novel style game:

[ppz003]

How about the Myst series? OK, the first couple don't exactly let you stray very far at all, but it is kinda nice being able to spend a lot of time to work out the puzzles, and not worrying about dieing all the time.

Re:Interactive novel style game:

[Anonymous Coward]

The Zelda games have been very, very good at this. There is a definite goal, but you have so many other options (and alternate, minor goals) that you can have fun all over the place.

When my girlfriend plays, she has so much fun just messing around that she forgets what the main goal was. Then she makes me a sandwich.

Re:Interactive novel style game:

[RsG]

Planescape Torment is a damn good story and a fine game. It's easily my favorite RPG.

(For those who don't know what I'm talking about, this is a Black Isle game from the late nineties, using the same engine as Baldur's Gate. Great reviews, devoted following, lousy sales).

Re:Interactive novel style game:

[Aash]

King's Quest 6. One of the best adventure games ever.

But I think pretty much any adventure game would fall into this category.

Re:Interactive novel style game:

[JJahn]

Xenosaga is an even better example.

Re:Interactive novel style game:

[AuMatar]

Xenosaga doesn't have enough game to qualify for the second half of the term.

Adventure games

[Hatta]

Interactive storytelling reach its zenith in the mid 1990s with the graphic adventure games from Sierra(Kings Quest, Space Quest) and LucasArts (Monkey Island). It's been on the decline ever since, but RPGs like FFX have been focusing more on story and less on stat building (contrast FFI, Dragon Warrior, etc). If you like the story telling more than the stat building, you owe it to yourself to check out some of the games I've mentioned.

Re:Interactive novel style game:

[rootofevil]

for those that played it, the marathon series, even through the usermods like evil had great plots. also, myth: TFL and myth 2: soulbligher had very good plots.

after pathways into darkness, bungie really stepped up the plot factor in their games.

remnants of marathon remain even in halo, which i suppose exists in the same universe. heres to hoping that the pfhor and spht return or at least make a guest appearance in halo 2.

Choose Your Own Adventure?

[FatPaulie]

Didn't we create these "interactive stories" in the early 80's?

Those Choose Your Own Adventure and Which Way books were pretty darned popular in my grade school library.

Re:Choose Your Own Adventure?

[StalinsNotDead]

I remeber those. Every time I'd read a new one for the first time I would die. That's how I learned I don't have very good judgement.

It's back - as gay porno

[Anonymous Coward]

It's back. See Escape from Fire Island [amazon.com]. "If you ask the lifeguard to bring you to the sheriff's office, turn to page 108. If you ask the lifeguard to warn everyone at the night club, turn to page 32. If you ask the lifeguard if he'd like to work out sometime, turn to page 140."

Re:Choose Your Own Adventure?

[gl4ss]

most of those are quite sucky, in reality giving you just two options, to die after 2 steps or go the 'right' route.

that's the problem with 'interactivity' in games though too. more often than not you're just a puppet on a totally prescripted rail of events.

Re:Choose Your Own Adventure?

[Taladar]

The Problem simply is that for every real choice you double the number of possible story lines so if you get a choice betwenn two of these every 5 minutes you have 4096 distinct storylines to build after an hour of gameplay which is quite impossible at least for a commercial game with limited ressources.

Re:Choose Your Own Adventure?

[gl4ss]

yes, but it would be nice if there were at least 10 _really_ different storylines.

or even 3.

Re:Choose Your Own Adventure?

[_|()|\|]

The author mentions Choose Your Own Adventure in "Branching and Hypertext Narratives," and he doesn't think highly of the concept, beyond the initial novelty. I think some of today's games could stand a bit of CYOA-style novelty. Games like Half-Life, as high as their production values are, make me feel like a rat being led through a maze. Halo puts a red or green light over the door to let you know whether it's locked. Elite Force puts force fields in the corridors.

A cheap way to spice up a game is to bo

Graphic Novels

[erick99]

I do greatly enjoy graphic novels that combine comic book-like panes and text into a novel length book. Harvey Pekar [harveypekar.com] is my favorite practitioner of this art. For me, an interactive novel is one step beyond what I am comfortable reading. However, I am 46 and maybe those a bit younger will have an easier time trying something like this.

aka "Hypertext Fiction"

[useosx]

Further reading:

Hypertext 2.0 [amazon.com]

Writing Space [amazon.com]

Eastgate Fiction [eastgate.com]

Temporality of Hypertext Fiction [stockton.edu]

Re:aka "Hypertext Fiction"

[cno3]

Chris Crawford has a new book titled Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling [amazon.com] that covers similar ground but from a different angle, and should be very good.

Also, Grand Text Auto [gatech.edu] is an excellent Interactive Storytelling group blog by some of the important names experimenting in the field today.

Graphic Adventures?

[TheRealMindChild]

Isnt this what Graphic Adventures are? One specifically I have in mind was Phantasmagoria 2. Sure it wasnt that great of a game, but it was a really great interactive movie.

Re:Graphic Adventures?

[glenebob]

It seems to me that those adventure games have two little problems. One, they're generally too difficult to be enjoyed as a story, and two, they're usually very short if you remove all the time spent trying to solve puzzles. For example, I played the old X-Files game (all seven CD's of it) in twelve hours or so. Most of that time was puzzle solving, and it's the easiest such game I've ever seen.

But they're in the right direction. Just spend less time and money on puzzles, and more on story telling, and

reality modiciation environments

[dTaylorSingletary]

I've always been interested in interactive storytelling. When I was a creative writing major over at San Francisco State University I was exploring such options, I purchased the excellent StorySpace software [eastgate.com] thinking that perhaps the web or a hypertext environment was the right way to go, only to be disappointed at the limitations. (The software is excellent for what it is capable of, even if it didn't fit the bill in my aspirations).

The conclusions that I drew are financially unreachable at this time. As well as the age-old problem that I think any interactive fiction will ever have: lack of interest. What I've always wanted to do is create locations much like Disneyland rides that tell a story interactively with a participant using computer projections and robotics, possibly with the interaction of psychedelic substances to help prime the "reader" for their experience.

Alas, I will probably never feel fufilled creatively as my ideas have no possibility for ever coming into fruition. (More on these ideas here [everything2.com]).

It's a chicken/egg problem. Those of us who are but poor artists can't realize their dreams without heavy investment, and cannot get the heavy investment without an interested public to interact with. And an interest public cannot exist until the artistry is to be seen.

Re:reality modiciation environments

[Oligonicella]

Nicely put. May I suggest that you, like all poor artists throughout time, forgo all the little pleasures that cost money and invest in your craft at the expense of all else. Remember, daVinci had to grind and make his own paints, he didn't purchase them. Valesquez even went so far as to invent his very own way of doing it. If you need a good computer, work at Kentucky Fried or whereever and save. At the end of the year you can purchase said machine. In the meantime, there's nothing stopping you from

Re:reality modiciation environments

[Spy der Mann]

Hey look. there's ALWAYS a way to exploit your creativity.

I've done it myself. I _SUCK_ at drawing. But i'm a wonderful storyteller. So instead of suffering because I can't draw manga, I don't lose time and start writing.

The key here is: Use what you have handy. People have different ways to express themselves: Music, poetry, literature, movies... etc etc.

And it's funny you mentioned Disneyland - because you know? There was some guy who wanted to turn the Pirates of the Caribbean tour into something more

Re:reality modiciation environments

[_|()|\|]

The conclusions that I drew are financially unreachable at this time. As well as the age-old problem that I think any interactive fiction will ever have: lack of interest.

You've gotten a couple of encouraging replies, and I'll add one more. It is often said that the game industry doesn't need any more "idea people." Looking at the current market, I don't agree. Develop your ideas so that you can pitch them to a team capable of realizing them. Prototype with hypertext, or even paper. Today's market may see

Warren Spector

[kin_korn_karn]

All you have to do to learn this art is play every game that Warren Spector has ever touched. The man is the gaming world's Ridley Scott (I almost said Spielberg but that's more Will Wright).

Re:Warren Spector

[subrama6]

you're kidding, right? warren spector creates art. ridley scott used to, but then he started doing gi jane and hannibal. if you're going to compare spector to a filmmaker, it has to be someone who rarely misses. for the sake of argument, i'll throw out wes anderson.

Re:Warren Spector

[kin_korn_karn]

well, ridley scott in his prime, I guess. Think Alien, Blade Runner, etc.

Wes Anderson is good but I don't like his style. Too much of that "I'll linger on this shot and slowly zoom in, which will show the audience how profound I am" stuff in his movies.

Should they merge?

[G4from128k]

I question the premise. Although games and stories are both entertainment, that does not imply that they can be successfully merged. On the one hand, what makes a story great is the ability to hear how someone else handled a problem or situation -- learning from another person's life and NOT controlling the story line. Call it lazy, but a passive vicarious experience can be pleasurable.

On the other hand, what makes games great is the ability to take control and run your own life in the game. You get to be someone you are not or try a persona or just compete for the thrill of it. Games are pleasurable for a diametrically different reason than stories. We like stories because they let us be passive and we like games because they let us be active.

I like green olives and I like chocolate and they are both food, but that does not mean they should be merged.

Re:Should they merge?

[RsG]

Well, I've always said that games are not stories per se, but rather are just plain _games_. Most of us play games for the enjoyable challenge to our brain and reflexes, not for in depth narrative. At it's core every game boils down to pong or chess (an oversimplification to be sure, but still true).

That being said, games with a compelling story, even one that would never work as a book/movie/TV series, are generally better than games that lack story. Story in a game is a nice bonus that fleshes out the universe that you're playing in. It adds much needed substance. But it's not a prerequisite for a good game.

Doom/Quake (all of them) Half Life, UT etc have little in the way of storytelling (HL has plot, but no narrative or character), yet these are highly praises and successful games. On the opposite side, KOTOR, System Shock, Planescape, BG II and the like have very good story, strong character development, and are generally well written, yet also have solid gameplay behind them. Partly it's a genre thing (the "vicarious experience" is definitely a FPS convention), but mostly it's a matter of gameplay first, story second.

Re:Should they merge?

[Taladar]

Wait till you have seen all of Gameplay a hundred times, only then will you be able to really appreciate a good storyline because story is different in any game, gameplay is more or less the same in any game of the same genre, there will be a point when you grow tired of gameplay but you will never grow tired of good stories.

Re:Should they merge?

[jglen490]

Agree. When reading a book, the interaction is between the story-teller's words and the readers own mind and experience. If you were to read a piece of good fiction by Hemingway, or Steinbeck, or other good storyteller, there's a certain "movie-like" stream that plays within your own mind that comes from the interaction of your imagination, your own understanding of the author's story, and your own life experience. A compelling story absorbs you within that interaction. A game, while possibly as compell

Re:Should they merge?

[Wile_E_Peyote]

I like green olives and I like chocolate and they are both food, but that does not mean they should be merged.

Okay, but think of it more like stories are a seasoning than a food. I don't think the article is talking about "Choose you own adventure" type of stories. It's more about bringing the techniques of story telling into gaming.

Most of the really good games I have played have a good narrative. That doesn't mean I wasn't in full control of the character, it just means there were moments when I w

Story vs. non-story games

[Doctor Cat]

One of the things we DON'T hear in all the writings about "how to get great stories/writing" into games is a good analysis of "what percentage of games should be story-related and what percentage should be otherwise, and why?" Games like tetris, solitaire, minesweeper, chess, pinball, card games, etc. are certainly quite popular with little or no story elements, and deservedly so. More story-oriented games like Secret of Monkey Island or the Final Fantasy series have their place too - but it seems clear to me that they'll always account for a minority of the overall game market. Discussions or studies of "what should we do within that portion of the market" are fine with me, but overly broad talk of "what should games do" that imply ALL games should be striving for more story and more writing bother me a bit. Games can validly focus just on action, like robotron, asteroids, or quake 3, they can validly focus just on strategy, luck, trivia questions, relaxation, or socializing. (In studies by GameTrust, when asked "what's your main reason for playing this game", 40% answered "to win", 43% answered "to relax", and 17% answered "to socialize".) What to do with storytelling and writing in an interactive setting is an interesting and useful question for the game industry to keep exploring. But it is less central to the question of how to make games than issues like "What role do different kinds of game mechanics play in the social and heirarchical interactions between human beings, and how could they do it better?" Or "What kind of single player games can best develop inductive reasoning skills?" The Super Mario games were huge hits in large part because they develop a young person's inductive reasoning "mental muscles" in a very satisfying and very rapid way. But discussion of these other types of questions is, I feel, sadly lacking in the game industry. -- Dr. Cat

And what about narrative voice?

[ahfoo]

I think this idea of the role of narration is clearly related to what you've just said.
Most novels and short stories are written from the literary perspective of a third person omniscient narrator and this is part of their charm.
I think the seduction of interactive fiction partly stems from this desire to transcend the role of the reader and ascend to the role of the omniscient narrator --to become god-like.
But this is a lot like the story in Fantasia. You may dream of incredible powers, but

Another good book

[ErikInterlude]

Anyone intereseted in writing interactive fiction or non-fiction might be interested in "Writing For Interactive Media" by Jon Samsel and Darryl Wimberely. Here's a link [amazon.com].

It goes over the various techniques by which one can develop interactive media, and what one should think about when doing so (design techniques, multiple plots, characters, interactive screenwriting, and other issues). I think it provides a good foundation with which to approach most forms of interactive writing.

very interesting

[loid_void]

It's very interesting that this is now another book on interactive storytelling. I tough nut to crack, but it will happen. We've got a site up [desktopstory.com], the story is just unfolding, some online and the rest, developed in group sessions, as it is a musical, and we are just now setting up the blog, needed, to fuel it along it's way. The future of it all, it's out there... somewhere.

Dammit...

[bigattichouse]

[click click.. damn intros].. slow fade in of a new world.
In the.. [click]
new cut away of astonished faces.. [click]
And.. [Click] "But I n.. [click]
.. [click]
.. [click]
.. [click]
Bashing heads!!! dodge spin duck, combo attack.. crap!!!! wheres that save-portal!! dammit!

[click click.. damn intros].. slow fade in of a new world.
In the.. [click]
new cut away of astonished faces.. [click]
And.. [Click] "But I n.. [click]
.. [click]
.. [click]
.. [click]

Even worse, intros you HAVE to watch EVERY DAMN TIME, no click thru.

Of Course

[$RANDOMLUSER]

> My biggest disappointment with this part of the book is that it implicitly seems to assume that all games in the future will be multiplayer, as they're the focus of all the examples.

That's why they call it play. Remember playing cowboys and indians, or hide-and seek? How about adult paintball?
Play is inherently with other people.

"Playing" against the machine (solitaire, chess, solo FPS, whatever) is just a diversion, it's not really "fun" if it isn't shared.

Re:Of Course - you are wrong

[ajc314159]

Yes - of course I never had any REAL fun reading a book, watching a movie, solo climibing a mountain, doing archery in the back woods, doing lego as a small kid (sadly no more), torturing my linux boxes, reading slashdot, learning to juggle, doing martial arts training, tracking animals, etc. etc.

You have a pretty limited life if you can't find fun when alone...

Re:Of Course

[Shadow Wrought]

Remember playing cowboys and indians, or hide-and seek? How about adult paintball? Play is inherently with other people.
it's not really "fun" if it isn't shared.

I think you might be mixing up the conept of "play" and "fun." There are quite a few things that are "fun" which tend to be solo activities. My solo training flights were a blast, but, of neccesity, solo. Does that mean that they weren't fun? Play for the most part is with others, but nowhere is it written that the "other" must be human. Ever "play" with a dog? Or a cat? Playing with an AI is a means to for play just like anything else in the virtual world. Indeed I find the computer to be a far more satisfying opponent than the human ones most of the time!

You are certainly welcome to your beliefs, and I don't know that I would argue against you if your premise was that folks needed more human interactions (/. bias notwithstanding) but I think you have taken this a bit too far.

Re:Of Course

[utexaspunk]

Play is inherently with other people

are you trying to say that I can't play with myself?

Re:Of Course

[Wile_E_Peyote]

it's not really "fun" if it isn't shared.

Apparantly you have never heard of masturbation...

Re:Of Course

[$RANDOMLUSER]

I was (I thought rather obviously) talking about the appeal of multi-player video games.
I wasn't saying that "fun" required others, only that "play" requires others - and I think I'll stick with that.
Playing with my dog is "play", but playing (interacting) against an AI is a "fun" diversion - not "play" in the real "seven-years-old-runing-and-laughing" sense of the word.

And yes, if no-one else will play with me, I can always play with myself.

Re:Of Course

[Oligonicella]

What a bunch of pompous crap. Play (in Webster's Unabridged) has 94 definitions. I can play a flute, play a hand of solitaire, or play with myself.

Not one definition of fun as a verb requires another participant. Mainly, it is any activity that generates mirth.

In short, you don't know what you're talking about.

I know I'm not the only one here...

[Ira Sponsible]

I don't necessarily have to play with other people, and I'm sure everyone here is the same way. Sometimes I have plenty of fun when I play with myself.

Wait, that didn't sound right...

Interactive storytelling? Well, that's RPG for me

[Anonymous Coward]

The storyteller is the game master (or whatever he's called in the game), the listeners are the players and they interact with the story.

This way everyone has his word in the story: the players learn a story (a good one let's hope) and the master must bend his "original" story around the players actions/reactions/decisions.

I have been playing RPG for 23 years and it's still a fascinating storytelling experience!

Just my 2 euro cents ;o)

Yes, I believe I've found the solution.

[korea]

It involves 20 sided die, mountain dew, cheetos, and a bag of holding.

Are there any girls at the bar?

[Bryan Gividen]

Cause if there are I want to doooo them!

Re:Yes, I believe I've found the solution. D&D

[davidsyes]

If you're referring to D&D, I thought they got secured a patent or copyright covering turn-based games. Hopefully, though, they didn't. Actually, RPG/FPS probably trumped that-- unless they're paying royalties we haven't been told of.

Imagine a tablet-based, MySQL-arbitrated RPG game that has a huge scenario engine, a character attributes engine, and the other stuff you need. You pick from canned scripts for a book, then create a complementary or supra-set or super-set framework. AI and a number of o

Re:Yes, I believe I've found the solution.

[gblues]

You left out the +9 Ogre Slaying Knife.

Nathan

Re:Yes, I believe I've found the solution.

[Khan Fused]

I shoot an arrow at the Gazebo.

application for PnP RPGS

[EisBar]

This looks like a very interesting title, I wonder if it's any good for pen and paper RPGs. I always thought that the most interesting adventures are those with good plots and villains, rather than simple dungeon crawls.

What people dont get about books

[emtboy9]

is that until they figure out a way to make games capable of being played out in our own brains, they will never have the quality of a good book.

What makes a book special, beyond character development, sympathetic characters, great story line, plot, drama, and all the rest, is the fact that we live the book in our own minds.

If I watch the movie Timeline based on Crichton's novel, I am seeing that Fast and Furious guy adn some other people on a ride through time. Its a fun movie, I suppose, not the best, but not the worst, but its still vicarious. I am experiencing it through their lives.

When I READ Timeine, I actually got to LIVE the adventure. Since it was all in my own mind, the scenery, people, etc were all up to my own imagination. The lead character looked, in my mind, or at least personified my ideal self in that story.

Reading is a hell of a lot more mentally engaging than watchign a movie or playing a video game. So far the closest anyone has come to a game being close to the book experience is the FPS. The FPS puts YOU in the game. You arent just playing some character, directing his/her/it's life. The character you play in a FPS, esp in somehing like a MMORPG, is an extension of YOU.

When I played Resident Evil, I controlled a character. When I play Battlefield Vietnam, I AM in Vietnam fighting it out.

THAT is the difference between a book experience and a game/movie experience.

Of course, I am just holding out for the chance to jack in to interactive pr0n ;)

Re:What people dont get about books

[Jormundgandr]

I feel obligated to point out that Timeline was a really fantastically horrible movie. It was a mediocre made-for-tv movie that somehow got put into the A-list box by mistake. Like Underworld. But sadly, Underworld was much better than Timeline.

The scottish guy had a cool accent though. I guess that's one reason to watch it.

As far as putting me in the game, I can't wait until I have enough $$ to buy a new 3d card and Doom 3. Just playing the demo at midnight with the lights off had me twitching in my

Re:What people dont get about books

[Taladar]

Good Text Adventures have at least some of the qualities of a good book although most Text Adventures are more like Short Stories or very thin books in length.

D&D / RPG

[Glove d'OJ]

Wasn't this kind of "interactive story telling" very popular in the 70s and 80s, but known as D&D (Dungeons and Dragons)?

Additionally, in the late 90s or so, LARP (Live Ation Role Playing) had a surge in popularity, where instead of rolling dice to see if you whack the Orc, your friend Bob is the Orc, you both have boffer (foam) swords, and you just swing--if you hit, you hit!

Sheesh... after bell bottoms, it seems everything from that time period is coming back around full circle.

--
WWJD? JWRTFM!

Re:D&D / RPG

[vortexofchaos]

FYI:

1. LARPs have been around since the early 80s. Actually, there are historical precedents for LARPs from much further back. However, most modern LARP communities can be traced back to roots that sprang up in numerous different locations back in the early to mid 80s.

2. LARP is not all live-combat. Ask ten different LARPers what LARP is these days, and you're likely to get thirteen or fourteen different answers. For example, the next Boston area Intercon [interactiv...rature.org] (the eighth) already has more than two dozen diffe

Lots of games tell stories

[LoudMusic]

One of my favorite games is (was) Ico. It told a great story and was tons of fun to play. Getting an entire movie audience interacting with the movie in a sort of story video game would be impressive. That's what I want to see.

And ... how did this article get posted without a single link in the preview for us to slashdot?

books are books

[Rize]

What makes books compelling is immediately removed when you try to mix them with video games. The automatic use of imagination to convert the words on a paper into an active memory in your head is what books are all about. Any attempt at mixing this with a video medium removes the majority of what makes a book a book.

Re:books are books

[Taladar]

Sadly, most Movie Producers don't realize or ignore this and go on ruining good books with bad movies that claim to be the same as the book.

I once skimmed this book...

[Musenik]

But when it asserted that all interactive fiction was operated by verb/direct-objects controls, I had to put it down. There are other metaphors for controlling a branching narrative. Midnight Stranger [uspto.gov] let you control the main character's emotions, allowing him or her to react based on the player choice of emotion. Another game to break the verb/target type of adventure game is The Witch's yarn [garagegames.com]. Instead of controlling the character, the player controls the environment.

Re:I once skimmed this book...

[Billy the Mountain]

I think controlling the main character's emotions is probably what makes The Sims popular. By controlling the various characters activities, you can cause various types of relationships to develop and transform. So by causing player A to interact in a certain way with player B you effect a long-lasting transformation in how they relate to each other emotionally. A similar kind of thing also happens in the Grand Theft Auto games. As you progress through some missions, you get various gangs to "Hate You."

A game is a place you go, not a story

[Animats]

The trouble with "storytelling" in games is that it locks the player into a canned plot. This is boring. In the game industry, such games are derisively referred to as "track rides", as in a theme park. It's also the hell game designers used to find themselves in when involved in a Big Name Licensed Title project.

Now that players expect, and developers can deliver, a big, free-play world, plot-oriented games are in decline. Those stupid canned cinematics are disappearing.

Progress is now made by figuring out how to make free-play worlds more interesting, not by locking the user down to a plot track.

combining both would be nice

[Trepidity]

My ideal game would have an interesting, richly-simulated world, so that basically you can do almost anything. On that point I agree with you---it's really irritating when you can basically follow one track, and if you do manage to get off it, the game sucks because the designers never implemented anything they didn't expect you to do.

I do think story has a place in games though. It would be nice if you could do anything, but things sort of developed: the game reacted to what you did. This is how tradit

preview

[Trepidity]

Gah, should've used preview, of course. How about this link: fixed link [gatech.edu].

Re:combining both would be nice

[Animats]

Of course, that's what There [there.com] did.

I had high hopes for There. But so far, such virtual worlds are a niche market.

Best of both worlds.

[vhold]

A lot of the best games now tend to try to accomplish both. Grand Theft Auto 3 is obviously going to be the immortal example of this.

Spiderman 2 for the consoles is a pretty amazing example of pulling it off while in a movie license because it manages a significant amount of freeform exploration story-less play, follows the storyline of the movie well enough, but also intertwines unexpected comic book stuff as filler to flush out an otherwise short and overly predictable story element.

Some games can thri

Re:A game is a place you go, not a story

[zephiros]

There is a tradition, in chinese and japanese landscape painting, of telling stories by presenting a activity-rich space. While you can stand back and look at an entire painting, it's best experienced by letting the eye wander across the various little vignettes happening in different parts of the work. Here some children are playing with a dog, over there the emporer is receiving guests, etc.

I suspect the way forward with interactive storytelling is to rediscover this notion of spatial storytelling. This requires authors to abandon plot as a mechanism for communicating with the reader. Instead, the author is left with setting and characters.

Traditional authors will balk at this, but as the field matures, I think a new generation of authors will find their voice in creating rich, interactive worlds.

Re:A game is a place you go, not a story

[Wile_E_Peyote]

Now that players expect, and developers can deliver, a big, free-play world, plot-oriented games are in decline. Those stupid canned cinematics are disappearing.

The problem isn't games with plots. The problem is a lack of options in solving the issues brought up by a plot.

In a poorly written (or older game) you are given a problem to solve (find the bad guy) and one or two solutions (ask specific person or find specific note with an address). In a good game you would be able to do _anything_ to find

Re:A game is a place you go, not a story

[_|()|\|]

The trouble with "storytelling" in games is that it locks the player into a canned plot. ... Progress is now made by figuring out how to make free-play worlds more interesting, not by locking the user down to a plot track.

This is a fair description of the state of the art, but I think we can do better. Consider the relationship between animated and live-action movies. Would a faithful remake of Gone with the Wind as an animated feature be interesting? Probably not. Part of the point of animation is to do

Those who can, do

[Doc Ruby]

Why didn't Glassner publish this content as a videogame?

Re:Those who can, do

[zephiros]

I suspect he would have loved to.

The last few chapters in the book are a bunch of "wouldn't it be cool if..." game concepts. Actually, much of the rest of the book was filled with critiques of popular games and various bits of "if only they had done it this other way" armchair speculation.

ARG's

[laard]

ilovebees [ilovebees.com] and other ARGs [argn.com] come to mind. Maybe not the type of interactive storytelling meant in the article but they are are certainly relevant. Any story that has me and my friends driving around town finding payphones at designated GPS coordinates just to unlock more pieces of the plot is definately interactive. This is not to mention the puzzles, and the latest development, actually interacting with characters via phone conversations.

Story can make up for graphics however

[ewanrg]

I think the trick in this arena is to find a balance of graphics and story, and that balance is going to differ based on the intended audience as well as the skill of the author/programmer.

For example, Kingdom of Loathing [kingdomofloathing.com] seems to do very well with a good story and rather poor graphics. On the other hand there are games where you sit there in awe of the visuals and can pretty much forget about why you're there.

Just my .02 worth [blogspot.com]

Story and Interactivity has an odd relationship

[het3]

They are, at their extremes, mutually exclusive, but in the middle, they are not. It is possible to add more story and more interactivity to a game, and neither will impinge on the other -- for a while. But there is a certain threshhold one passes where, if more story is to be told, then one must constrain the player's freedom of choice. Conversely, if one gives the player ever greater scope for interactivity, story will become more marginalized. Taken to extremes, they are completely exclusive of one anoth

Blarg.

[Ralph Spoilsport]

Interactive storytelling, as pointed out earlier, can be done with children and a parent who actually bothers to talk to them. I've done itwith my daughter plenty oftimes.

But in terms beyond that, it will either be the game industry's beeyotch, or the fertile ground for some pointless PhD project. What this kind of thing does is it transgresses basic performance issues of human to media rituals. there's nothing wrong with that in this pomo a-go-go world, but in terms of How People Actually Operate, the ba

Chris Crawford redux?

[webmosher]

This book sounds alot like what the infamous Chris Crawford has been preaching for the last 8-10 years. I see alot of good things in this outlook: basically that interactivity should be the primary tenet of good game design. However, I don't really agree that the storytelling/"live your own movie" pragma is the best approach to garnering true interactivity. Its certainly a good platform for creating an interactive environment, but if interactivity and is the key, it must be the basis on which the design is

We called them Text Adventures (linkies)

[tenzig_112]

Check out Eric, The Power-Mad DM [ridiculopathy.com] a text adventure about playing home-rules D&D back in 1981 with that know-it-all kid with all the Gygax books but no actual knowledge of the game. It's got a combat engine and an unreliable narrator.

It's based on ">N You Can't Go That Way" [ridiculopathy.com]

Dupe?

[JojoLinkyBob]

Isn't this post a dupe? I thought the presidential debate was yesterday.

Mr. Glassner needs to try LARPing

[vortexofchaos]

These are the kinds of questions that a good LARP tries to answer, whether in a one-shot game or an ongoing chronicle. There are a lot of answers that can come from the LARP experience that might translate well into other styles of storytelling. There is a style of LARP known as "interactive literature" (IL), which is distinct and different from most live-combat LARP. IL focuses on the story, on characters and plots, and on creating an immersive environment.

Glassner's strongly held opinion, which he argue

MultiUser RolePlay Entertainment

[SilverThorn]

My business is currently involved in this now, except we are mixing it up a bit by working w/ authors and turning their novels into online games...

MultiUser RolePlay Entertainment (MURPE) is a total game development and publishing enterprise that was designed to be the next stage in a real-time, immersive game evolution. Working with multi-genre authors and their publishing vendors, we intend to turn these novels into living works of art, but applying a totally dynamic story-like atmosphere through online

A Young Lady's (or Man's) Illustrated Primer?

[One Blue Ninja]

Not to push the Neal Stephenson [nealstephenson.com] thing again on the heels of the recent link between WorldWind [slashdot.org] and the Earth program in "Snow Crash [randomhouse.com]", but I believe he had some great ideas with respect to the future of storytelling in "The Diamond Age [randomhouse.com]"... Anyone?

Is this just...

[tsunamifirestorm]

text adventures?

Once Upon A Time

[AaronGTurner]

Several years ago a couple of friends of mine designed and sold an interactive storytelling based card game. Highly recommended if you can track down a copy of 'Once Upon a Time' (I doubt it is still in production so I don't think my friends are going to get any extra revenue from this, sadly).

Just checked: it is still available, and very reasonably, but I am not meaning to advertise for their sake, it's just a good game worth having, and a good alternative to charades or the TV.

Re:interactive storytellling

[genner]

3.)Profit!

Don't mod this funny, as in this case it's both true and insightful.

Re:It's not fun at the end

[soft_guy]

Was it called Slashdot?