Tired of Giving In: An Experiment in Narrative Unfolding

We present a model for structuring computer-based narratives so that viewers can interact without changing the story. Instead, interactions reveal the story through varying perspectives and at varying levels of detail. The story maintains its integrity while taking on progressively deeper meanings. Viewers are like members of a Greek chorus who query characters and comment on events. We describe lessons learned from a prototype that retells the story of the 1955 arrest of Rosa Parks and events leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Lessons include observations about narrative structure, writing to support narrative unfolding through user interaction, designing the multimedia interface to communicate conditions for interactivity, and implementing the program so that information about user interactions helps to control the presentation. We include some projections for using the chorus model to support multiuser interactions. This technical report subsumes WP96-01, WP96-02, WP97-02, and WP97-03. This work may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part for any commercial purpose. Permission to copy in whole or in part without payment of fee is granted for nonprofit educational and research purposes provided that all such whole or partial copies include the following: a notice that such copying is by permission of Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.; an acknowledgment of the authors and individual contributions to the work; and all applicable portions of the copyright notice. Copying, reproduction, or republishing for any other purpose shall require a license with payment of fee to Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. All