Failed Screenwriter

The first 1st Joint International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling is calling for papers. I love to see this stuff - supplies me with reading material. I also enjoy seeing how they succinctly describe what we're all trying to do.

In order to create novel applications, in which users play a significant role together with digital characters and other autonomous elements, new concepts for Human-Computer Interaction have to be developed.

Where we differ is our approach in developing these new concepts for Human-Computer Interaction. Where they call for papers I call for volunteer developers to put tools in the hands of artists. Maybe they think it's too complex for artists to grasp.

In order to process stories in real time, traditional storytelling needs to be formalized into computable models, by drawing from narratological studies, and by taking into account the characteristics of programming. Consequently, due to its technological complexity, it is currently hardly accessible for creators and end-users.

Complexity is not the answer

Maybe I'm taking it out of context a bit, but the call for papers implies that we still need to figure this stuff out. I'm in agreeance with them that we have yet to crack this nut, but implying that it will take more complexity to solve goes against what I see happening on the Internet and in business. I've been a product manager for most of my career and I've got to say, you quickly learn to steer clear of complex. Complex is another word for unforeseen delays and failure.

Who says we need to figure it out ahead of time

Growing up with the Internet the practice of "launch early, launch often" is second nature to me. We shouldn't be looking to figure it all out at the beginning, we should be looking to put the tools in the hands of artists and letting them experiment - that's the whole idea behind TapBot.

Foster innovation with a platform

I know I've been harping on the platform concept movies 2.0, but Amy Shuen put it nicely:

Companies have adapted to user-centered innovation in different ways. Several authors have described how companies have innovated by providing platforms from which externally generated innovations can result, and where users--as well as ecosystems of affiliates, third-party developers, and service providers--can form innovative communities.

Amy Shuen - Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide

Forget the call for papers, lets try and build an innovative community around immersive story!

At the recent Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco I couldn't escape the mantra, "the network as a platform". But hearing it from every corner got me thinking about entertainment as a platform.

Somewhere along my failed attempt at screenwriting I came across the concept of interactive story and could instantly envision the future of movies. Of course others had visions of the future as well, like Chris Crawford and a host of other entrepreneurs/academics. In 1995 Bob Gale even turned his vision into reality with the release of Mr. Payback, albeit to poor reviews. Sitting at the Web 2.0 conference I began to see my vision from a different perspective, not form that of interactive story but from the same trends that power Web 2.0. I began to see the future of movies as a platform.

Imagine the scenario

1. You log onto one of the metaverse platforms
2. Lead your avatar into a virtual theater building and select a theater.
3. Upon entering your avatar is transported to a totally different environment, or scene, and has even taken on a different appearance.
4. Characters in the scene approach and speak with you through text chat, or voice.
5. You converse with them through text chat, amazed they respond as if they were real people.
6. Slowly they draw you into the story.
7. The story continues to unfold with you its protagonist.

First movies 1.0

Before movies can evolve into a platform some underlining technology needs to be in place first. Just as Web 2.0 had a Web 1.0 to lay the ground work, the same will be true for the future of movies.

Essential movie 1.0 elements

The platform emerges

As they say, story starts with character. So that's where we'll start and lucky for us we already have the basis of computer characters in ELIZA, the famous chatterbot that first popularized artificial intelligence (AI).

Well before the advent of multimedia, there was a moment in the history of the computer that demonstrated its representational and narrative power with the same startling immediacy as the Lumieres ' train did for the motion picture camera. This is the famous but often misunderstood moment in which the first completely computer-based character was created.

- Janet H. Murray from Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace

You can think of AIML as an updated version of ELIZA, and with it an artist can easily enough build a character bot that interacts with a player using natural language and gives off the impression of being alive. AIML works by extrapolating upon a relatively narrow set of patterns (input) and responses (output) and therefore can be tripped up. An artist can combat this by adding their own patterns and responses, the same way they would add personality to a character, but trying to accommodate every possible input is a losing battle. Some think this problem is ripe for the application of AI, AI that learns. However such AI technology may overtly complicate AIML and take it out of the hands of the common artist. I also have my doubts that AI can magically solve this. AI has come up short on many an occasion and I'm a bigger fan of the less glamorous AI that powers Google and made it a billion dollar company - tapping into the collective intelligence of the Internet. A character bot can do the same, if it encounters a slang term it's never seen before it can ping the Google servers to try and ascertain a meaning. The same AI Google uses to suggest alternative searches (the "Did you mean:") could also power character bots to not sound like, well mindless bots.

Tapping in to the knowledge base Google has amassed could just be the beginning. Across the Internet new knowledge bases are being constructed and made available (for free and not so free). The semantic web is one such knowledge base that is gaining steam. As an artist, think of constructing a set for a scene to play out. Today you would most likely open up a 3D tool such as Blender and start creating objects. But what if those objects were already created and not only that, they came with a battery of semantic data - weight, how much weight it can support, texture, etc? Granted that would be a mountain of information but isn't that the same mountain of data the proponents of the semantic web are promising? And we don't have to start with a full set of data, just enough - just enough so that an artist can populate a set with pre-made objects. Pre-made objects that the metaverse physics engine would also know how to manipulate based on that same semantic data.

By tapping into the collective knowledge of the Internet an artist's creative output can be extended beyond what they could ever hope to create using conventional methods. Look at what Web 2.0 has made possible.

Power of the platform

By leveraging the platform an artist can lower their production costs, which will undoubtedly spur experimentation and draw artists into the innovation cycle - democratize innovation. And much of that experimentation will likely be directed at trying to break story into individual elements - not so much into theme or acts, but a form that enables a computer to interpret and manipulate it. Think more moving from analog recording to digital recording. Janet H. Murray in her book, Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, equates this to the invention of musical notes.

If artists and others are able to break story into individual elements the platform will really take off. Think of what digital recordings made possible. Artists can apply the same analytics companies use to evaluate their web sites and marketing but to their creative work. Imagine applying A/B testing to your entertainment, and all in real time.

Artists can take advantage of other 2.0 tools - Folksonomy, RSS, etc. They could even open source their creations, allowing others to extend and rework them or drop a character bot into their own creation. Gives fan fiction a whole new meaning.

And who knows, with the platform and further experimentation we might be able to do what others have failed to do - create a mainstream, successful, interactive story. Of course I'd just be happy seeing an immersive story.