Interactive Stories

Over time, writing advances in different ways that we may not expect. Stories that we have never thought of being created thanks to the creation of new writing methods, styles, and genres change how we can convey stories. One of the many prominent changes that story writing has gone through recently is the use of interactive stories in mediums such as online videos, shows on streaming services and video games. In this blog post, I explore various known forms of interactive story telling and why they offer new possibilities for the future of immersive story writing.

Is 'Interactive Storytelling' the Future of Media? | by Mike Raab | OneZero

Interactive stories are essentially stories where the reader/viewer/player has influence of the overarching storyline in a narrative. This can be see in certain books that ask you to jump between pages based on choices, in YouTube videos or shows/films such as the very well known Black Mirror Bandersnatch that gained massive popularity over viewer choice, and video games which are more commonly known for their level of interactivity. I will split interactive stories into 2 types, predefined and endless. The latter type will be a section of the post that talks about a medium of entertainment that I have not yet mentioned and hope to encourage more research about it.

Predefined Interactive Stories

Predefined interactive stories are what I define as interactive stories that have already been given a set number of multiple endings that can be reached by different branching paths, or a story that has multiple branching paths but converge to one ultimate ending. The experience of the narrative and the overall journey is unique depending on the choices of the person interacting with the narrative but these branches and endings are ultimately defined by the author(s) and for the players to explore these branched paths and endings as they have been made. There are a good number of well known examples in different mediums of entertainment that use this form of interactive story telling, which is expected because of the way they are created.

Books

Books with interactive stories are usually referred to as choose your own adventure books. Although usually used in books meant for children, interactive stories can also be found in books made for adults. I compiled some of the books I found online into a single image:

The way these books handle the different branching paths and endings is by having the reader jump to different pages depending on the choices they make. These choices take the player through different branching paths which take them to either one of multiple endings or one ultimate ending. Although for some it can get confusing as they are not used to jump between different pages in a book, I remember experiencing this with one of the books from the Goosebumps series as a child in my school library. These types of books have been around for quite some time. There is even an entire series of books known as the Choose Your Own Adventure series with various adventures for children to explore. These genre of books are known as Gamebooks.

Cave of time.jpg

Videos, Shows & Films

Another form of well known interactive stories take place using online videos, shows and films. YouTubers such as Markiplier have made their own series of choose your own adventure videos. YouTube videos take advantage of the annotations and unlisted video system on YouTube to give hyperlink to people in videos at the very end to make decisions. These hyperlinks take the viewer to unlisted videos that cannot be accessed without the link, allowing for the branching decisions and endings to be hidden.

YouTube's first interactive original show sends Markiplier into a heist -  The Verge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TjfkXmwbTs

A well known film that had also sparked an interest in interactive shows/movies was Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, an interactive film on Netflix that made use of the Netflix app/web-app to allow users to make decisions at the end of each video, similar to how it is done by YouTubers. It is the first interactive film to gain widespread media attention.

Netflix faces $25 million lawsuit over 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch' |  TechCrunch

Video Games

One of the most well known forms of interactive entertainment are video games. Story driven video games can take many forms, whether they be linear or open world games, these games usually tend to have a linear story. Some games however, offer multiple branching paths and endings to encourage players to go through multiple playthroughs. One game that is very well known for this is the critically acclaimed NieR: Automata. There are a total of 26 different endings in this game, with most of them being jokes that occur when you make certain decisions in between the game, but a good number of them are serious endings that change depending on your decisions throughout the game.

Nier Automata Girls Poster – My Hot Posters

Try the interactive adventure I made for this blog post to get an idea of what a choose your adventure is like:

The embed is quite small in this post so please visit this link to check it out: https://codepen.io/merriemweebster/embed/KKzLxQb

Story source: https://www.teachervision.com/creative-writing/choose-your-own-adventure-stories

Endless Interactive Stories

Endless interactive stories are what I define as stories that have no limitations, which can be influenced by the reader/viewer/player, and for the author(s) to simply structure major parts of the story and leaving the rest of the influence for those experiencing it.

Tabletop RPGs

Probably one of the only few forms of such interactive stories are Tabletop RPGs. In particular, D&D is well known for its ability to cause unexpected scenarios and storylines that even the author did not expect. In D&D, players create their own characters in the world of the Dungeon Master (DM) who is the world builder and story writer. The DM narrates the actions and decisions of the players in addition to everything else in the world, whether it be voice acting different people in the world, describing events and places they have written, or the monsters the players have to face. In D&D, everything is up to the players’ imagination. Any decision can be made, any action can be done, and anything they wish can be said. The world revolves around the players, their decisions and actions are what change the storyline and the world of the DM, and the possibilities of their experiences are endless, regardless of what the DM writes.

What is D&D? | Dungeons & Dragons

The Future of Interactive Stories

The possibilities are endless. There will be new forms of entertainment and new takes on predefined interactive stories that will change the way we immerse ourselves in different worlds. But the most exciting aspect is seeing endless interactive stories being used in new forms that could change the way stories are structured and experienced. Imagine a future where every movie, show or video game you experience is unique for everyone. Where the stories of unknown worlds will revolve around your decisions and bring unique responses that are unknown maybe even to the writers themselves.

Discussion Questions:

What kinds of interactive stories have you read/experienced? What was it like compared to traditional stories? What do you think advancements in technology might allow for those writing interactive stories?

4 Comments

  1. Wow! You know so much about these things. I’ve always loved the idea of being involved in a story, breaking the fourth wall. The Disney Just Role with It is an interactive show that determines what happens to the characters, and I think it’s really cool. I also used to read the Club Penguin interactive novels as a child and always found them so engaging. I also played Episode, and played an interactive game on Netflix. It forms a bridge between our world and the world of the story, and I find that truly magical. I haven’t heard of endless interactive stories, but they sound great! I’d love to learn more about them

    1. Endless interactive stories is just my own name of stories that don’t have defined branched paths or endings. I wanted to keep that place for D&D because of the amazing things I’ve experienced playing that game. You should check out some videos on D&D if you wanna understand what I mean.

  2. Oh I loved Nier: Automata!! I managed to get 25 of the endings but ending Z (the Emil one) was just taking too long so I ended up buying the trophy haha.

  3. I personally haven’t had much experience with interactive games, books, tv shows, or movies, but I remember watching a black mirror episode that was interactive. I definitely enjoyed it, but I also wanted to go back and pick the other choices to see what I would get. If I were to read an interactive book, it would take me months to finish it so that I can pick all the choices and see what I get each time. Also, I’ve read somewhere that people who suffer from anxiety would watch TV shows repeatedly because they know the ending already. I’m not sure how true this claim is, but if it were to be, I wonder how they would react to interactive stories.

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