More on Non-Linear Storytelling

Keeping to the same theme as yesterday's update, there is a story in the Wall Street Journal which talks about Lean Forward Media which provides a capability to create DVD's which can have decision points in the story i.e. the user gets to decide from a list of options what a person in the story should/ should not do. This leads to a different outcome of the story for each choice made. The DVD therefore ships with a large number of storylines (easier with Animation!) and the user gets to participate in the story telling.

I see this world coming closer and closer to reality based multiplayer online games, which evolve a narrative of their own. An example of this is Perplexcity - which has its players and its storyline. At some point even during a dvd you may be asked to solve a puzzle else the story doesn't go forward, or perhaps play a game.

There already many games which are more biased in favour of roleplay over winning and losing. This line will continue to blur. In the absence of ad-breaks or more importantly in the world of time-shifting and ad-skipping, these decision points may be the place for advertising - but ham handed efforts will kill both the experience and the idea, for others.