> So having exhausted both of these subjects, would anyone care to take
> on a thornier narrative problem, say, "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare?
> You can't get away with random events quite so easily in this one.
>
This is a decent topic. One that we have discussed before, but I
don't think that we ever came upon a successful way of deciding what
"story" meant in an immersive medium...
I thought that was because there was a disagreement as to what
immersive medium meant as well. One faction was all for the "HamletVR
on CD-rom" style thing, while the other side was for "HamletVRMUD"
Actually, both have thier appeal (the time control element being the
main benefit of HamletVRCD, while HamletVRMUD allows more plot
flexability (assuming current AI)) but are somewhat disjoint, as they
have a different focus.
One point that was being tossed around way back when we (I say we even
though up to now I've said almost nothing on the subject ;) were
discussing this was the viewpoint, and how a directors role in a movie
can be adequately simulated in a free form hamletVRMUD setup. One
thing I'd thought of was (besides having storytellers who run around
invisibly and alter events etc) having "Builders hints" sort of an
overlay view on the vr, which shows what the builder intended
initially with the VR area. So, for example, in the Hamlet scenario,
the builders hints would be a path that led you to the appropriate
scenes for the play at the appropriate times. But the important thing
would be to make these hints non-intrusive, so that the viewer knows
what is expected, but can deviate from the hints, or even outright
turn them off.
Not sure if someone mentioned something similar to that (I think so,
and I dont have web access right now so I'll be obnoxious an mail
anyway without checking) but it was something that formulated in my
little peabrain as the hamlet disccussion went around. Just this image
of walking down the street in denmark to see the scene where Ophelia
is talking to her father, with this translucent red line in space
telling me where the builder thinks I should be standing...
Ray