I suppose it was inevitable. I was reading “Chris Crawford on Interactive Storytelling.” Ironically, many of his thoughts are are the same as mine. Regretfully, I have been at the Interactive Storytelling game for much shorter than Chris Crawford. He’s gone into far greater depths then I have dared enter. It’s really cool reading some of my own thoughts extrapolated in a very intelligent, articulate manner … all with a bit of tongue in cheek 🙂
Last night I read about the inevitable comparison between interactivity, plot and free will. Ultimately, Chris Crawford(CC) rationalized that you can’t have a fully interactive world and tell an interesting story. Thus Plot and Interactivity are fundamentally at odd with each other. I would agree with this. Although I am no game expert I have played enough to kind of understand this. An open world such Second Life or WOW seem devoid of plot. Sure there are quests, people to meet and objects to collect. However, there is a void of character and theme. I could not help it … I grew bored of these games after a while. On the other hand, a game that is on rails such as “Uncharted” is choked full of character and theme. However, it does feel as if  every real decision has been made in advance for me. Interactive Storytelling must lay somewhere in between.
Thus we come to the analogy of free will and destiny. Of course there are the myriad of religious holes to fall into. I’ll do my best to avoid those. If there is true free will in the universe then there could be no omniscience or order. And on the other hand, if we are ruled by destiny, why bother living since everything is already in front of us. In a fat nut shell, I see the issue as this. In the largest perspective of the universe, there is no free will, no choice. The universe is ruled by cause and effect. Everything that has or will happen, already has … albeit much if it is in the future which we have no insight  :(. Reality on the other hand is a really complicated thing. There are so many millions of parameters which influence our thoughts and actions we could not possibly keep track of them all. Thus, if one could keep track of all the parameters in the universe then they could see what will happen in the future before it happens. Now that omniscience really would take some omnipotence. To some things up, although there is no free will in the universe, there are just so many parameters needed to accurately see the future that we as humans should not even bother. Live life at hard as you can and make the best decisions you can.
The same thing applies with Interactive Storytelling. I believe our duty as creators is to be in control of our characters’ plot lines or destinies. However, the true challenge lies in creating a “living” experience that would appear as if the characters are in full control. See? Clear as mud 🙂 Free Will or interactivity is an illusion in the grand perspective of the full story world. Gee, I hope I have not given anything away.
