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

2. 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.

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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)

8. 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

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

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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.

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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?

18. 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?

19. 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

20. 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.

21. 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)