FORMS OF INTERACTIVITY

FORMS OF INTERACTIVITY

1. Types of Interactivity

   • External - exploratory
     • The user is external to time and space of the virtual world. actions of the player don't simulate the behavior of a member of the virtual world.
   • External - ontological
     • The evolution of the storyworld is determined by the compatibility of the actions selected by the player with the total state of the world.
   • Internal - ontological
     • The system projects a storyworld and the useer impersonates. Narrative experience of the game world.
   • Internal - exploratory
     • The user experiences the storyworld from the inside.

2. Interactive Structures

   • The Vector
     • Preserves the linearity of its temporal sequence. There is no other choice than moving forward.
   • The Complete Graph
     • Every node is linked to every node, and the reader has total freedom of navigation.
   • The Network
     • It contains circuits and consequently allows nodes to be accessed through different routes.
   • The Tree
     • There is only one way to reach a given terminal node.
   • The Database
     • Every node of the system is connected to the items on the main menu.
   • The Maze
     • There may be one or more ways to reach the goal. Terminal nodes may be dead-ends or allow backtracking.
   • The Flowchart
     • Prescribes an itinerary through the storyworld but the user is granted some freedom in connecting the various stages of his journey.
   • The Hiden Story
     • Consiste of two narative levels: temporally directed story + atemporal network choices that determines the reader's investigation of the case.
   • The Braided Plot
     • Interactive mechanisms can be used to switch windws on a multistrander but determinate narrative.
   • Action-Space
     • The system design the general outline of the plot and the user selects the details of its realization.

3. Levels of Interactivity

   • LEVEL 1: Peripheral Interactivity
     • The story is framed by an interactive interface but the user's activity affects neither the stoy itself nor the order of the discourse that presents it.
   • LEVEL 2: Interactivity Affecting Narrative Discourse and the Presentation of the Story
     • The materials that constitute the story are fully predeterminated , but the order of which the story is told is highly variable.
   • LEVEL 3: Interactivity Creating Variations in a Partly Pre-Defined Story
     • The user plays the role of a member of the storyworld. The system grants him some freedom, but along a fixed storyline.
   • LEVEL 4: Interactivity Leading to Real-time Story Generation
     • Every run of the program should result in a different story, and the program should therefore be replayable.
   • LEVEL 5: Meta-Interactivity
     • The interactor is not using the system but modifying it fo other users. Writing code and patching up the source reather than by using tools internal of the game.