FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Basic Concepts
What is Storyplay?
Storyplay (otherwise known by its more formal name, interactive storytelling) is a new medium of artistic expression. It utilizes the greatest strength of the computer—interactivity—while drawing on the traditions of classic storytelling. The result is a unique experience where you play the protagonist of a virtual story. Storyplay provides all the drama and emotional complexity that one expects from a good story, and additionally invites you to influence the unfolding of the narrative according to your own thoughts and emotions.
What Is Storytronics?
Storytronics is the first and most comprehensive practical implementation of the theory of Storyplay. It is centered on artistic works called storyworlds. Each storyworld is a universe of possible narratives. The technology is comprised of four parts: SWAT, the Storyteller, Deikto, Sappho, and the Storyengine.
What is The Storyteller?
The Storyteller is the software used to play storyworlds. A person who uses the Storyteller to play a storyworld we refer to as a storyplayer, or simply a player.
What is SWAT?
SWAT, or Storyworld Authoring Tool, is used to create storyworlds. The person who creates a storyworld using SWAT we call an author, just as with traditional storytelling forms.
What is Deikto?
Deikto is a simplified form of English used by the Storyteller. All the occurrences in the storyworld are related to the player as Deikto Sentences, and the player acts in the storyworld by creating such Sentences him/herself.
What is Sappho?
Sappho is the scripting language the author uses to create a storyworld. Sappho allows the author to create instructions for the Actors that tell them how to respond to the other Actors' (and the player's) choices. The player never sees these scripts; they all operate behind the scenes during story runtime.
What is the Storyengine?
The Storyengine (or just Engine) is the brain of the Storyteller. Its job is to guide each computer-controlled Actor in formulating a proper reaction to each Sentence that occurs in the storyworld. The Engine is also used in SWAT to generate rehearsals, or test runs of the storyworld, as part of the authoring process.
Is it similar to Interactive Fiction or Choose Your Own Adventure?
No. Those forms of entertainment, while they have their own audience and appeal, offer very little interactivity. Storyplay offers a great deal of interactivity. The number of actions you can perform in Storyplay is endless, and the Engine allows the computer-controlled Actors to react to your behaviors in an intelligent, emotionally believable, and dramatic manner.
Is It Similar to Computer Games or MMORPGs?
No. Computer games are about things. You collect things, you build things, you jump on things, you shoot things. The only character interaction in computer games is either separated from the action, with very limited interactivity, or it occurs via instant messaging, which isn't about dramatic interaction but rather socializing during play. Storyplay is about people. You laugh with people, you argue with people, you make love with people, you humiliate people, you conciliate people. Computer games are about winning, while Storyplay is about dramatic resolution.
Is It Like The Sims?
No. Unlike in The Sims, Storytronic Actors can speak to you in a real language. And when you play a storyworld, you yourself are a character, on an even footing with the other Actors in the storyworld. The other characters pursue their goals and desires competently without your intervention. They are thinking, feeling entities, each with their own goals and desires, which may run counter to your own. With The Sims, the behaviors available to the player boil down to domestic micromanagement. In Storytronics, they are geared toward interpersonal interaction with the other Actors. The interactions in Storytronics have the tension and urgency of a drama.
Is it like Second Life?
No. Second Life is a forum for people to don avatars and interact with each other in a virtual physical setting. In Storytronics, you step into a virtual dramatic setting, and interact with computer-generated Actors.
How Is It Different from Literature?
Storytronics is not a kind of literature, nor is it a replacement for it. Storytronics is a new artistic medium, and as such it is very different from any other existing medium. When compared with literature, Storytronics has one key disadvantage and one key advantage. Its disadvantage is that it must communicate with the player in a simple language, unsuited to artistic embellishment. Its advantage is that the player can take an active part in the story, and shaping the action in a manner that is impossible to achieve in non-interactive storytelling. The two forms do have one thing in common, however. As in traditional literature, the player can form a strong emotional bond with the characters, and as with the best stories, perhaps even come away with a new insight.
How Does a Storyworld Work?
First, play Balance of Power 21st Century, our first real storyworld, to experience one for yourself. This is a geopolitical strategy storyworld. Next, if you think you might want to make one of your own, you can peer under the hood to see what makes a storyworld tick. To do so, download SWAT and take it out for a test drive. And if you are really geeking out and want yet more (you sick puppy!), check out our extensive tutorials and our Storyworld Author's Guide.
The short answer is, each Actor performs actions expressed as Sentences, and each Actor reacts to those Sentences by performing more Sentences. The non-human Actors know how to react to each Sentence through the set of instructions scripted by the storyworld author.
Playing Storyworlds
What Does the Player See in a Storyworld?
The Storyteller is a simple and appealing interface that allows the player to interact with the storyworld's Actors. It presents two Deikto displays: one for the action just performed by the Actor with whom the player is interacting, and one where the player can construct his or her reaction. Next to the Deikto sentence is an "emoticube"—an icon showing the facial expression of the other Actor.
What Can the Player Do in a Storyworld?
Each storyworld has a list of Verbs that can be performed in that storyworld. The player may choose his or her behavior at any given time from among these Verbs. These might include actions such as Ask, Tell, Kiss, Steal and many others. A storyworld may contain anything from a hundred or so Verbs to several thousand.
How Does the Player Control the Protagonist?
The player controls the Protagonist by describing the actions he or she should take in Deikto. Deikto uses a simple menu-driven interface in order to construct Sentences.
Is it difficult to learn to play?
Not at all. You can jump right into a storyworld and start playing. The only thing you need to understand is Deikto, and it is such a simple language that anyone can master it after just a few minutes of playing.
How many players can play at the same time?
The current version of the technology only allows one Protagonist (i.e. human-controlled Actor) per storyworld. However, the technology is built from the ground up so that it's adaptable for multi-protagonist storyworlds. We may provide multi-player capability in later versions.
Why aren't there any graphics?
We get this question all the time. Many first viewers are disappointed by the lack of graphical elements, and they warn that "people" just won't buy an interactive entertainment product without graphics.
We categorically reject this assertion. We do not believe that the absence of graphics constitutes any significant impediment to the success of our technology. Here are the major arguments underlying our belief:
1. Convention
Let's face it, the primary thinking behind the demand for graphics is mere convention, a variation on "Everybody else uses graphics; if you don't use graphics, then you must be doing something wrong." The ubiquity of reliance upon cosmetic factors in games has created an artificial association between graphics and quality. Everybody just kind of mindlessly accepts the need for graphics; it's a convention. But conventions are not laws. History is full of stories of "everybody just mindlessly accepting" some convention, only to discover later than their iron convention didn't apply to all circumstances. For example, when cinema first developed as a medium of expression, everybody thought of it in terms of the conventions of theater—even though the conventions of theater didn't apply to cinema. Yet those conventions chained minds. It took years for people to make the simplest of realizations: that the camera could be taken outside of the theater; that it could be mounted on a moving platform; that it could zoom in close to an actor's face or step far back. These seem simple and obvious to us—yet a hundred years ago, steeped in the conventions of theater, people simply couldn't see what is clear to us. So lose your hidebound conventional thinking and keep your eyes on the fundamentals!
2. Audience
Absolutely fundamental to our strategy is the belief that we can make stupendous amounts of money addressing the markets that videogames have missed: women of all ages and men over 30. These people constitute a market at least three times larger than the market reached by videogames. This suggests that we take a contrarian approach to the marketing wisdom of the games industry. Whatever it is that they're doing, it could well be WRONG for our market. To put it more sharply: snazzy cosmetics have utterly failed to sell games into our target market; why on earth should we rely on a strategy that is already a proven failure?
3. Popular fiction
For more direct (and positive evidence), we need only consider the popular fiction market. This market is worth some $12 billion a year in the USA, and it doesn't rely on a pixel's worth of graphics to sell its product. It's all just words, words, words, boring words, page after page of words—and people actually spend money on it! The example I like to cite is the book "The Lord of the Rings", which existed in text—only form for 50 years before they made a movie out of it—and was quite successful even though it didn't have any pictures.
4. Operational utility
This is my preferred argument. People don't seem to realize that all human communication is brutally pragmatic. Language and our various media of expression concentrate all their energies on getting their message across as quickly and clearly as possible—and the many tragedies arising from miscommunication drive home just how important clear communication must be. Thus, in evaluating any communications option, it's always wise to ask "What does this communicate, and how does that suit our purposes?"
The 3D graphics that the gamers love so dearly are really great for communicating 3D spatial relationships—but they are of zero utility in communicating emotional factors. Seeing that the other fellow is 33 feet ahead of you, 5 feet to the left, and 12 feet higher is quite useful if you want to aim a gun at him, but doesn't have any value if you want to interact with him emotionally. If you think about it, the information provided by snazzy graphics doesn't have ANY communicative value for human emotional interaction—so why do we want to confuse our players by giving them diversionary information?
Faces
There is one area in which graphical displays do have utility for our purposes: the display of the human face. Faces are the far and away the most important graphical element in human communication. We have been working for many years on the problem of applying the display of the human face to Storyplay and we have developed a clear notion of exactly what we want. However, the addition of this technology to our own will cost us money that, as a startup, we don't have just yet. But our funding plan includes a significant chunk of money for the addition of this feature to our product.
What Does the Player See in a Storyworld?
The Storyteller is a simple and appealing interface that allows the player to interact with the storyworld's Actors. It presents two Deikto displays: one for the action just performed by the Actor with whom the player is interacting, and one where the player can construct his or her reaction. Next to the Deikto sentence is an "emoticube"—an icon showing the facial expression of the other Actor.
What Can the Player Do in a Storyworld?
Each storyworld has a list of Verbs that can be performed in that storyworld. The player may choose his or her behavior at any given time from among these Verbs. These might include actions such as Ask, Tell, Kiss, Steal and many others. A storyworld may contain anything from a hundred or so Verbs to several thousand.
How Does the Player Control the Protagonist?
The player controls the Protagonist by describing the actions he or she should take in Deikto. Deikto uses a simple menu-driven interface in order to construct Sentences.
Is it difficult to learn to play?
Not at all. You can jump right into a storyworld and start playing. The only thing you need to understand is Deikto, and it is such a simple language that anyone can master it after just a few minutes of playing.
How many players can play at the same time?
The current version of the technology only allows one Protagonist (i.e. human-controlled Actor) per storyworld. However, the technology is built from the ground up so that it's adaptable for multi-protagonist storyworlds. We may provide multi-player capability in later versions.
Why aren't there any graphics?
We get this question all the time. Many first viewers are disappointed by the lack of graphical elements, and they warn that "people" just won't buy an interactive entertainment product without graphics.
We categorically reject this assertion. We do not believe that the absence of graphics constitutes any significant impediment to the success of our technology. Here are the major arguments underlying our belief:
1. Convention
Let's face it, the primary thinking behind the demand for graphics is mere convention, a variation on "Everybody else uses graphics; if you don't use graphics, then you must be doing something wrong." The ubiquity of reliance upon cosmetic factors in games has created an artificial association between graphics and quality. Everybody just kind of mindlessly accepts the need for graphics; it's a convention. But conventions are not laws. History is full of stories of "everybody just mindlessly accepting" some convention, only to discover later than their iron convention didn't apply to all circumstances. For example, when cinema first developed as a medium of expression, everybody thought of it in terms of the conventions of theater—even though the conventions of theater didn't apply to cinema. Yet those conventions chained minds. It took years for people to make the simplest of realizations: that the camera could be taken outside of the theater; that it could be mounted on a moving platform; that it could zoom in close to an actor's face or step far back. These seem simple and obvious to us—yet a hundred years ago, steeped in the conventions of theater, people simply couldn't see what is clear to us. So lose your hidebound conventional thinking and keep your eyes on the fundamentals!
2. Audience
Absolutely fundamental to our strategy is the belief that we can make stupendous amounts of money addressing the markets that videogames have missed: women of all ages and men over 30. These people constitute a market at least three times larger than the market reached by videogames. This suggests that we take a contrarian approach to the marketing wisdom of the games industry. Whatever it is that they're doing, it could well be WRONG for our market. To put it more sharply: snazzy cosmetics have utterly failed to sell games into our target market; why on earth should we rely on a strategy that is already a proven failure?
3. Popular fiction
For more direct (and positive evidence), we need only consider the popular fiction market. This market is worth some $12 billion a year in the USA, and it doesn't rely on a pixel's worth of graphics to sell its product. It's all just words, words, words, boring words, page after page of words—and people actually spend money on it! The example I like to cite is the book "The Lord of the Rings", which existed in text—only form for 50 years before they made a movie out of it—and was quite successful even though it didn't have any pictures.
4. Operational utility
This is my preferred argument. People don't seem to realize that all human communication is brutally pragmatic. Language and our various media of expression concentrate all their energies on getting their message across as quickly and clearly as possible—and the many tragedies arising from miscommunication drive home just how important clear communication must be. Thus, in evaluating any communications option, it's always wise to ask "What does this communicate, and how does that suit our purposes?"
The 3D graphics that the gamers love so dearly are really great for communicating 3D spatial relationships—but they are of zero utility in communicating emotional factors. Seeing that the other fellow is 33 feet ahead of you, 5 feet to the left, and 12 feet higher is quite useful if you want to aim a gun at him, but doesn't have any value if you want to interact with him emotionally. If you think about it, the information provided by snazzy graphics doesn't have ANY communicative value for human emotional interaction—so why do we want to confuse our players by giving them diversionary information?
Faces
There is one area in which graphical displays do have utility for our purposes: the display of the human face. Faces are the far and away the most important graphical element in human communication. We have been working for many years on the problem of applying the display of the human face to Storyplay and we have developed a clear notion of exactly what we want. However, the addition of this technology to our own will cost us money that, as a startup, we don't have just yet. But our funding plan includes a significant chunk of money for the addition of this feature to our product.
Creating Storyworlds
How Can I Create a Storyworld?
First you need to learn about Storytronics. This site contains many learning aids and if you have any questions you are welcome to ask them on The StoryBoard, Storytron's bulletin board. Once you understand the technology you can start authoring your own world using SWAT. This authoring software contains everything you need to create a storyworld. You will only need to provide a few basic images to represent the different people, places and objects in your storyworld.
What Technical Skills are Required for Storyworld Authoring?
Storytron has gone to unprecedented lengths in order to "de-technify" computing work. Our research in this area is still ongoing, but we have already managed to make SWAT accessible to people with no programming knowledge. In order to start learning the technology you will only need high-school algebra skills. Of course, to master this craft will require an investment of time and effort.
Publishing Storyworlds
How Will Storyworlds be Published?
Storytron will maintain a storyworld library on our website. Authors will be able to download the authoring software and upload their storyworlds to our library free of charge, and we will make the storyworlds available to the public. A user rating system will be used to generate feedback on storyworlds.
How Will Storytron Profit from Publishing Storyworlds?
Our first two showcase products, Balance of Power: 21st Century by Chris Crawford, and a second storyworld currently in development by science fiction author Laura J. Mixon, will be free to all comers. For subsequent storyworlds, players will be able to choose whether they want to pay to play individual storyworlds, or whether they want a subscription, which will provide them unlimited access to our storyworld library for a monthly fee.
How Will Authors Profit from Their Works?
Storytron will pay Storyworld authors for their work. Until we have an actual financial process in place we can't be more definite than this. But one approach we are looking at seriously right now is a payment system based on a combination of the audience's level of interest in the author's work and Storytron's overall financial success. Authors will retain intellectual rights to their Storyworlds.
If we haven't addressed your question, we'd like to hear from you. Post in our StoryBoard or send us Feedback.
How Can I Create a Storyworld?
First you need to learn about Storytronics. This site contains many learning aids and if you have any questions you are welcome to ask them on The StoryBoard, Storytron's bulletin board. Once you understand the technology you can start authoring your own world using SWAT. This authoring software contains everything you need to create a storyworld. You will only need to provide a few basic images to represent the different people, places and objects in your storyworld.
What Technical Skills are Required for Storyworld Authoring?
Storytron has gone to unprecedented lengths in order to "de-technify" computing work. Our research in this area is still ongoing, but we have already managed to make SWAT accessible to people with no programming knowledge. In order to start learning the technology you will only need high-school algebra skills. Of course, to master this craft will require an investment of time and effort.
Publishing Storyworlds
How Will Storyworlds be Published?
Storytron will maintain a storyworld library on our website. Authors will be able to download the authoring software and upload their storyworlds to our library free of charge, and we will make the storyworlds available to the public. A user rating system will be used to generate feedback on storyworlds.
How Will Storytron Profit from Publishing Storyworlds?
Our first two showcase products, Balance of Power: 21st Century by Chris Crawford, and a second storyworld currently in development by science fiction author Laura J. Mixon, will be free to all comers. For subsequent storyworlds, players will be able to choose whether they want to pay to play individual storyworlds, or whether they want a subscription, which will provide them unlimited access to our storyworld library for a monthly fee.
How Will Authors Profit from Their Works?
Storytron will pay Storyworld authors for their work. Until we have an actual financial process in place we can't be more definite than this. But one approach we are looking at seriously right now is a payment system based on a combination of the audience's level of interest in the author's work and Storytron's overall financial success. Authors will retain intellectual rights to their Storyworlds.
If we haven't addressed your question, we'd like to hear from you. Post in our StoryBoard or send us Feedback.
