Applied Interactive Story DIG 6551 Fall 2011 J. Michael Moshell University of Central Florida Lecture 2: The Paradox of “Interactive Story” jejakbelantara.com

The Key problem for this discussion: Play implies freedom to choose: - what am I doing? (monkey bars, Lego?) - what do I do next - how long do I do it Think about recess versus classroom time.

The Key problem for this discussion: Play implies freedom to choose: - what am I doing? (monkey bars, Lego?) - what do I do next - how long do I do it Think about recess versus classroom time. Listening to a story has none of these attributes. bcarsonradio.wordpress.com

Why do we care? We are trying to “steal the magic” of (play) * (story)  create NEW and compelling media. The big deal (1990’s): video games Play WITHIN a story framework (light or heavy.) bcarsonradio.wordpress.com

Why do we care? We are trying to “steal the magic” of (play) * (story)  create NEW and compelling media. The big deal (1990’s): video games Play WITHIN a story framework (light or heavy.) “The only story I’m interested in, is the one you tell after you play the game.” Will Wright bcarsonradio.wordpress.com

Intentionality Film in a theater: 100% authorial control: * story line * what you see and hear * how fast it goes, how long it lasts * how much you have to pay to see it (AND price of food!) Film at your house (e. g. DVD): still ALMOST 100% you can stop and start, drink beer, take off your clothes... you cannot alter the plot bcarsonradio.wordpress.com

Intentionality Role playing at a SciFi Convention: uses the ‘atoms’ of a story line: divideby0.com Setting - by reference (not much ‘set construction’) Voice – totally hijacked. Now it’s ME (Joe Blow) not Lucas Character – by archetype and costume Emotion – totally hijacked. (What a cool face mask!) Conflict – ...? Plot – If you go for FanFiction, this is your sandbox. The sky’s the limit (usually)

Milgram & Kishima: The Virtuality Continuum Real Environment 100% Tangible Objects Augmented Reality: real world + virtual objects Augmented Virtuality: virtual world + real objects Virtual Environment 100% Synthetic World

Stapleton extends the Milgram Continuum Reality 100% tangible Virtuality: 100% synthetic The User’s Imagination

Stapleton extends the Milgram Continuum and populates it with examples. Mixed Reality Reality 100% tangible Virtuality: 100% synthetic Movie Theme Park What about: Lego? Spore? Squeak? Video Games Playground Dungeons & Dragons The User’s Imagination

Stapleton extends the Milgram Continuum and populates it with examples. Mixed Reality Reality 100% tangible Virtuality: 100% synthetic Movie Theme Park Video Games Paintball Lego Spore Squeak Playground Dungeons & Dragons The User’s Imagination

Some Approaches to Interactive Story Interactive Fiction (“Choose your own adventure”) Textual online games in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Interactive Storytelling: (see Wikipedia of this title) - Facade – Mateas & Stern

Some Approaches to Interactive Story Mongoliad – Stephenson & friends (more on him) - promised an episodic Internet narrative - has a ‘wiki’ called ‘Pedia where readers can add to the back story. has various levels of membership weekly episodes appear available on app devices Lots of swordfighting Go see the Forum

Interactive Performance An extension of the concept of improvisation Pioneered by Jeff Wirth, former UCF faculty member A form of participatory drama Spect-actor: a ‘guest’ who becomes protagonist in a story Inter-actors: a ‘cast’ of trained actors who help the spect create a story. It’s like the Holodeck without the technology.

Interactive Performance Neal Stephenson’s book The Diamond Age contains an extended sci-fi fantasy about a possible application of the concept of interactive performance, or virtual actors (vactors). Two previous editions of DIG 6551 were inspired by Interactive Performance Fall 2008: Wirth, Moshell: The Quarantine Scenario Fall 2009: Moshell, Sung: Dancing the Earth (Everglades) see www.cs.ucf.edu/~jmmoshell

Interactive Performance: Reading assignments Build a spreadsheet to map the 8 papers from 2008 and 11 papers from 2009 into the (n) students in this class. Your task will be to (1) read the lead papers in both sections; (2) write critical reviews of two assigned papers. (3) read at least two other papers, “as audience” Criteria for review: next page

Review criteria for Reading assignments CONTENT purpose: is it clear what the student’s responsibility was in the project? Tell us, in a few sentences. methods: does the paper describe how they tried to do it? results: did they succeed? why or why not? clarity: was the paper clear about success or failure? PRESENTATION was the paper well written, expressive, grammar ok? did the bibliography provide useful references? were any diagrams well done and relevant?

Review criteria for Reading assignments CONTENT purpose: is it clear what the student’s responsibility was in the project? Tell us, in a few sentences. methods: does the paper describe how they tried to do it? results: did they succeed? why or why not? clarity: was the paper clear about success or failure? PRESENTATION was the paper well written, expressive, grammar ok? did the bibliography provide useful references? were any diagrams well done and relevant?

Part 3: Overall Structure of Course I: Establish a set of Propositions about Story - and examine their relevance to Interaction II: Select a problem space and design one or more story-based solutions III: Implement a prototype; evaluate it with an audience IV: Prepare and submit a PAPER (a) Student Proceedings, as seen (b) from the ‘A’ papers/authors, a conference submission

Choosing a Problem Week 1 Assignment: Everybody develop two problems (2 x 6 = 12 candidate problems) Week 2: We discuss and select top-5 problems. Week 2 assignment: one story per person for each problem.) (5 x 6 = 30 stories! So they’ll be one-paragraph.) Week 3 (Interactive Performance experience) Week 4: Review 5 probs x 6 stories; choose our Focus. Then we can consider tecnologies and ‘niques.

Choosing a Technology to Demo I want each of you to experience, in some depth, one interactive story application. Spore (Maxis/EA) – a biological simulation Facade (Mateas & Stern) – a story engine Squeak (MIT Media Lab) – a kid’s “game engine” Goal: In 3 weeks, be able to demonstrate a trivial story (Spore & Squeak); or an illuminating walk-through (Facade)