Short Essay on Interactivity

Interactivity will not impair the ability to tell a story, it will only change how it is told. I believe that a great story can be told using interactivity without becoming a game. I think that the input that the user gives will force them to want to give more in order to see the reaction. In interactivity, the user must make some decisions. Once the user has made some decisions they will be entirely consumed by the story. It will make them feel as if they cannot abandon the story and they must finish. When they have finished, they will have a feeling of accomplishment. This is something that movies lack and videogames excel at. Not that you don’t feel accomplished after watching a movie, but when you had a part in telling a story it becomes more memorable. I think that if interactivity is used to tell a story the user will remember their experiences much more vividly and will cause them to think about it afterwards. 

                I think the challenge with this is that experiencing an interactive story is a much greater investment of time. When you watch a regular movie you can also do other things. If you are experiencing an interactive story, you lose the ability to multitask. Therefor you must devote your entire self to the story. This means you will do it less often, and if you wanted to devote your entire self to a story, you might as well just play a videogame. I believe that interactivity is not a replacement for movies or videogames but an alternative that could stand beside movies and film. Also, these stories might be difficult to show to large groups of people. If one person is making the decisions, the other people in the audience might feel left out. This is what makes it so close to a game. When a large group of people enjoy a game, they either play together or take turns. In movies, everyone just enjoys the same movie. With an interactive story, it might feel like watching someone else having all of the fun. So I think these stories would take place at the individual level, like a game, but it would not impair the ability to tell a story.