Hi gang,
I was driving into work this morning, marvelling at the
relatively-uncrowded L.A. freeways on a holiday Friday, when I started to
think about nonlinearity again. This list has been fairly quiet lately, so
I'll throw out a few thoughts:
Q: Do we want nonlinear, or linear stories in our VRML worlds? Or both?
Do we want the user to have control over our story? We can always go the
"no-control" approach and basically make a 3D movie with no interaction --
a tried-and-true formula. However, do we start sacrificing story quality
as we add interaction into our stories?
If we decide to go the linear route, what advantages, if any, does VRML
give us? (especially without a streaming audio format right now...) Why
not use other formats?
Q: Is it possible to create truly nonlinear stories, or only pseudolinear
stories?
I define "pseudolinear stories" to be those that generally allow you
freedom, one chunk at a time:
A -> B -> C -> D
so that you have complete freedom inside "A", "B", etc... but the flow of
the story inevitably brings you from A to B, and so on... hardly nonlinear!
Q: What effect does multiuser content have on nonlinear storytelling?
I would think the multiuser aspect would provide an element of
nondeterminism into our stories. On the other hand, theme park rides are
inherently multiuser -- and strongly linear. (There are some subtle
nonlinear touches -- see the Indiana Jones Adventure in Disneyland for an
example) Moreover, some of them (notably in the Disney parks) provide an
_extremely_ good storyline. (See Alien Encounter, WDW)
You'll see me harp on and on about theme park rides, but there's a good
reason for that -- I see a lot of analogies between VRML worlds and theme
parks. Both are intended to provide a virtual environment to the user.
Both involve (somewhat) interactive things to do. And both (try to) tell
good stories along the way.
As a disclaimer, I am a nonlinear story amateur, so I may not know of which
I speak. Can anyone recommend any good books or references about nonlinear
storytelling? (Particularly in a multiuser context?)
Have a great holiday weekend, folks.
-John
--
John D. DeCuir -- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sr. Internet Programmer -- Sony Pictures Imageworks
This msg does not necessarily represent the views of Sony Corp.
