Chapter 2: Harbingers of the Holodeck
Computer as Meta-Medium
• Computers enable many existing forms of
communication
– Existing representations
being digitized
• Typical of a new medium
– Incunabula recorded prose and poetry of oral
storytelling
– Movies were recordings of plays
• “At the incunabula phase of narrative computer”
The Multiform Story
• Presentation of alternate paths/narratives
• Sound and the Fury
– Different viewpoints
• It’s a Wonderful Life
– Showing the world with and
without George Bailey
• The Garden of the
Forking Paths
– Multiplicity of
alternatives
The Multiform Story
• Groundhog Day
– Repeating time
– Changing choices
• Dictionary of the
Khazars
– No linear narrative
• story is constructed
in the reader’s mind
The Active Audience
• Changing the author-reader relation
• Authors talking about or changing
their decisions
– Gives insight into the goals and
indecisions of the author
• Readers remixing
content or writing
new content
– Reorderable pages
– Fan fiction
The Active Audience
• New forms based on
author’s world (LARP)
• Participatory dinner
theater
• MUDs, MOOs,
and MMORPG
• Different players
want different things
– Role playing servers
3D Movies
• Early examples
– Used motion, fright
– Included jarring effects
• Now it is commonplace
– What have we learned?
• The potential for 3D sound and images to
present external and internal content
• Riding the movies (limited simulation)
Drama in Games
• Many games include narrative in cut scenes
between player activities/challenges
• Floyd the robot in
Planetfall
• Myst – the
role of sound
• What are some
more recent
examples?
Story Webs
• Hypertext
– Reader gets to choose
– Make your own story
books
• Afternoon by
Michael Joyce
– “I want to say I may have seen my
son die today.”
– Reader confusion to match
character confusion
Computer Scientists as Storytellers
• Technology is now common
– Shared virtual worlds,
avatars, force feedback,
computer characters
• Magic Mirror
– Murray vs. Tomlin
• CMU’s OZ group
– Computer as DM
optimizing your
experience