Failed Screenwriter

Immersive story is dramatic narrative for the metaverse. Immersive as in virtual world immersion - the state where you cease to be aware of your physical self. Basically, how can we use the same technology being developed for intelligent virtual agents and use it for entertainment.

Immersive Story

Is dramatic narrative for the metaverse, where a player interacts in real time with computer controlled NPCs and virtual environments.

Common characteristics

• The player can have agency over the narrative like classic interactive story as defined by Chris Crawford, however it is not a requirement
• Can be 2D, 2.5D, or 3D
• Can employ game dynamics but is drama based
  • The player should be able to finish the narrative in a satisfactory way even if they fail all the tasks
  • Points, leader board, external opponent, challenges may be present but are not the driving force, rather the drama is

A game or not - it's more a difference of genre

Immersive story is drama based where as a game is challenged or tasked based. Another way to think of it is using Ernest Adams, author and consulter on game design, three main categories of immersion.

Tactical immersion

Tactical immersion is experienced when performing tactile operations that involve skill. Players feel "in the zone" while perfecting actions that result in success.

Strategic immersion

Strategic immersion is more cerebral, and is associated with mental challenge. Chess players experience strategic immersion when choosing a correct solution among a broad array of possibilities.

Narrative immersion

Narrative immersion occurs when players become invested in a story, and is similar to what is experienced while reading a book or watching a movie.

Games play mostly to tactical immersion where as immersive story plays to of course, narrative immersion. But of course there is a lot of overlap. That is why it's better to think of the difference between games and immersive story as genres. A horror movie attracts it's audience with a different promise than a romantic comedy.

Use case

Still confused, maybe a use case using the fairy tale Three Billy Goats Gruff will help.

Origins

l like a few people, have been struggling with the concept of interactive story as defined by Chris Crawford in his book Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling. For years I sat on the sidelines expecting someone smarter than me to figure it out, to do what Andrew Glassner, in his book Interactive Storytelling: Techniques for 21st Century Fiction , compared to finding the Northwest Passage. Then I saw the metaverse and decided to stop waiting. I gathered my thoughts and tried to start an open source project, TapBot, to bring it to the metaverse. I soon learned just how few people knew of the concept of interactive story and how difficult it was going to be. I spent much of my time wrestling with terminology (like others) and trying to show how it was different than games, but mostly how the plot could be truly interactive and react to the actions a player takes. Then I came across the study a study from MIT, Physically interactive story environment.

In particular, we found that compelling interactive narrative story systems can be perceived as highly responsive, engaging, and interactive even when the overall story has a single-path structure, in what we call a “less-choice, more-responsiveness” approach to the design of story-based interactive environments.

We had been over thinking it, in the end who cared if a player had true agency to affect the plot or not? The real question - is it entertaining? And that's when I realized we might have been going about it all wrong; continuity editing was discovered through experimentation by early film pioneers not academics or in a lab. What we need is to get artists involved, to get them experimenting and for us to get out of the way. So to do just that and escape all the baggage built up around the concept of interactive story I've started using the term immersive story.

Movies did not flourish until the engineers lost control to artists - or more precisely, to the communications craftsmen. The same thing is happening now with personal computers.

- Paul Heckel from The Elements of Friendly Software Design

Need an engine

For immersive story to work it will need an engine to coordinate everything - assets, NPCs, other players, etc. Many of these tasks can be found in the typical game engine and may also be present in virtual world platforms. Beyond that an immersive story engine will also need to coordinate story elements, what is more commonly associated with a gamemaster.

TapBot is an open source project to build the first immersive story engine.

Get involved

Of course all of this is still just a concept, a concept open to discussion so please leave a comment.

You can also check out TapBot, the open source project to build the first immersive story engine.