Malka Older
Interactive Narrative
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Example 1:
The
Lives and Deaths of Mrs. Curtis
I found this example interesting because it presents a strong and engaging story apart from the interactive angle. The character is developed and the setting is peppered with telling details, adding to the immersive potential of the story.
It was the interactive design of the story that I was not as happy with. The idea of tying memories to a simple chronogical story is a promising one, but the execution in this case does not take full advantage of the potential. The presentation of an unlinked story followed by a linked story undermines the flow of the story. The black screen which separates the two is disruptive to the narrative and confusing to the reader. The juxtaposition of the linked and unlinked stories seems designed more to emphasize the cleverness of the technology than to aid in telling the story.
Once the reader does reach the
linked story, it not that different from a linear narrative, with
the simple difference that the reader is required to click to links
to follow the memories, instead of having them inserted in the text.
The lack of choices and the simplicity of the links (each one leads
to one page, which has only a return to the main narrative) keep the
story linear, though achronological.
Example 2:
I found this story, as well, very enjoyable. The choice of interactivity here was to enable the reader to see the story from multiple points of view, something which traditional narratives often attempt, with varying degrees of success. This story is open to the possibility of being read as a linear narrative. The reader could simply read through each character's story completely and then move on to the next character: a series of overlapping tales rather than an interwoven tale. The strength of the story is that it is reasonably successful in creating interest in the multiple points of view. It may be that the author wanted the reader to be able to go through every screen in a single reading; the final screen suggests otherwise. To prevent this, the author could have worked an inexorable time scheme into the story, so that only one character's thoughs could be read at each step in the narrative. Once again, however, this encourages the reader to go through the characters' stories without taking advantage of the interactivity.