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Online story system, IDN & Narrative paradox (for my master)
Hello all!
I’m 23 years and a master student in Media Innovation from the Netherlands. For my master thesis I'm looking into interactive digital narratives, specifically branching stories, and the narrative paradox.
For those of you who are not familiar with the narrative paradox: the narrative paradox claims that it is difficult to have a satisfying narrative structure as well as satisfying user interactivity. (On the one hand, a strong narrative structure ensures quality of the narrative and doesn’t allow much interaction. On the other hand, as the possibilities of interactivity within a narrative increase, the shape of the narrative can become troublesome to maintain.)
To find out if the narrative paradox can be reduced or even avoided I first need to know how people experience a branching story without any adjustments.
And that's where I need your help!
With some great help, I've set up a 'storytelling system' which includes a profile questionnaire, a short narrative story and an evaluation questionnaire.
Some things you should know before participating:
- You will first need to register
- The total time needed, to fill out the questionnaires and read the story, is estimated to be between 15 and 30 minutes
- The data gathered will be processed anonymously
Click here to go to the storytelling system and participate!
Thank you very much in advance!
Yvonne
I’m 23 years and a master student in Media Innovation from the Netherlands. For my master thesis I'm looking into interactive digital narratives, specifically branching stories, and the narrative paradox.
For those of you who are not familiar with the narrative paradox: the narrative paradox claims that it is difficult to have a satisfying narrative structure as well as satisfying user interactivity. (On the one hand, a strong narrative structure ensures quality of the narrative and doesn’t allow much interaction. On the other hand, as the possibilities of interactivity within a narrative increase, the shape of the narrative can become troublesome to maintain.)
To find out if the narrative paradox can be reduced or even avoided I first need to know how people experience a branching story without any adjustments.
And that's where I need your help!
With some great help, I've set up a 'storytelling system' which includes a profile questionnaire, a short narrative story and an evaluation questionnaire.
Some things you should know before participating:
- You will first need to register
- The total time needed, to fill out the questionnaires and read the story, is estimated to be between 15 and 30 minutes
- The data gathered will be processed anonymously
Click here to go to the storytelling system and participate!
Thank you very much in advance!
Yvonne
Comments
Two particularly onerous assumptions it makes are:
1. Interactivity means non-linear storytelling. This is wrong because you can have someone click something to change graphical effects or something and have fun, like in many games where this is the entire game. There is nothing that says such flourishes cannot be in interactive fiction, and nothing that says that done well, they cannot be a significant part of the enjoyment.
You can easily, with a bit of imagination, design a story with a completely linear plot yet one that has high levels of user interactivity. You just may need to work on graphics or sounds as well.
2. Every decision creates a parallel universe. This is also wrong because many decisions are inconsequential. You can have many decisions that mean absolutely nothing and yet are still engaging to the reader. Life is full of such engaging yet ultimately meaningless decisions (e.g. what to watch on tv occupies people quite a bit yet means nothing).
1. Watching what's called "kinetic novels". Back in the visual novel world I hail from, kinetic novels are visual novels without choices. Well-done ones are extremely interesting and tell wonderful stories. Graphics and visuals do involve people in the story, as well as music.
2. Watching Extra Credits' "The Illusion of Choice" and related videos.
At least one of them will tell you how games like Mass Effect construct interactive narratives that don't explode into messes. (Spoilers: basically these stories have branching points that typically reach convergence points later that branch out again. It's rare for a story to branch initially and stay branched, because this creates X different games essentially.)
Similarly, things like entering your name, the name of another character, or entering some text as part of a narrative (but which doesn't actually alter anything in the story) are forms of interactivity that do not imply a non-linear story.
In my first and only Twine game so far, The Challenge, I employed this concept, where the "ending" is pretty much the same no matter what choices you end up making, with only slight variations. The decisions were "meaningful" in that they affected some minor variables (such as what time you ended up going to bed) and yet non-meaningful in that you always ended up going to bed, regardless of the paths you chose.
So I agree, Claretta, that there are ways that you can include user driven variety within the game without having to resort to a parallel universe.
I.e., just about any video game! ^_^ A few have moral systems or major end choices that affect the story outcome, but many drive you single-mindedly toward the same goal while still allowing for individual (and clearly interactive!) experiences. (Of course I'm setting aside games like Dragon Age which allow for a plethora of choices.)
@OP -- Took the quiz! Two little typos I noted: on the final page, near the bottom, you're missing a t on attempt ("If you would like to go for another attemp with the story") and on question #27 of the after-quiz, if the numbering is consistent, there was a "had" where you needed a "have". Good luck on your work!
@Claretta You are right ofcourse. What I forgot to mention is that I'm looking at the narrative paradox from a Choose Your Own Adventure narrative perspective. And the way I see it is that the possibilities of interactivity (the branches) are limited by the capability of the author to manage the story. I hope that didn't come out wrong, what I mean to say is that at least for CYOA stories the shape of the narrative can become difficult to maintain depending on the amount of content.
Connecting this back to the narrative paradox. I'm trying to look into how based on a user's (reader/players) reading and branching behavior a model can be created (a.k.a user modeling) to influence the narrative.
The idea behind this is that the content of a narrative doesn't only change based on the decision a reader makes but also based on who the reader is. Ultimately, the author might provide a different kind of interactivity by not only focussing on a pre-authored story, but also on how a story might adapt to the user himself.
@AvaJarvis Thank you for your suggestion. I liked the video, especially from 2:19 - 4:40. The illusion of choice will always be there (at least for a while, I've read into a project on Artificial Inteligence in combination with crowdfunding and they are doing some great work on making choices more realistic and extensive) but what I'm trying to look into is if the content (of a CYOA like story) can changed based on more than only the decision the reader makes. I'm trying to look into the reader himself and see if content can also be changed based on the reader (e.g. if you prefer to read more positive storylines the content could adapt to be more positive, or if you would prefer not to die at the end you will not die). I'm trying to see if the content of a CYOA like story can become less pre-authored, at least in a way that even the author wouldn't no it's final shape. And provide the reader with an extra level of interactivity (even if he might not be aware of it).
@Claretta Thank you so much! I've noted your feedback on the typos (but can't change them right away without messing up the data). I'm glad those were the only typos you noted since English isn't my native language.
Click here to go to the storytelling system and participate!
Thank you very much in advance!
For the ultimate CYOA approach you might want to look at muds. These not only allow the user to play through story lines with a plethora of choices, they also allow experienced users to create their own story lines for other users to play. CthulhuMud might be a good place to start. Muds emerged in the UK shortly after the first CYOA adventures - which in turn were shortly after the first computer adventures (starting several years earlier with colossal cave). There were a whole bunch of CYOA (and more open) adventures for the various PC and micro-computer platforms, but it's pretty hard to find any new ones these days. Twine is a distant descendent of them, but geared towards stories with simple choices rather than textual virtual worlds. Such stories are actually easier to play than the 'open' adventures as the choices tend to guide you through the tricky bits, rather than leaving you to get frustrated trying to find some illogical combination of items and scenery that'll advance your plot.
Ha! On the first page it says 'You are responsible because you choose!' I must disagree with this statement. What happens when I make a choice is determined by the author - if they are playing fair the immediate consequences may be reasonably obvious...
You've also got some technical inaccuracies in the story - the most glaring of which is that at the depths involved you'd only be able to move around outside the sub in a hard suit. If a shark tried to bite one of them he'd just break his teeth. The suits are also internally pressurized, so there's no danger from getting the bends if you rapidly surface in them (not that you'd be able to - they weight about half a ton).