ABSTRACT
Interactive storytelling has the potential to empower an individual identity for an intrademographic community by inhabiting a shared story world. User-oriented, interactive storytelling not only challenges people's tradition of following narrative timelines, but also the tradition of using written language to compose stories. In the past, the terms “storyteller” and “writer” were often used synonymously. Interactive stories of the 21st century may not be written but instead, evolve through the users’ decisions and movements in the narrative space. Interactive storytelling empowers the user as a self-authorized protagonist of a simulated reality where everybody can be what they want – and in which winning and growing are not the maxim of actions. Out of new narrative-ludic hybrids, two different forms and aesthetics of participations evolved or renewed prominence. The core quality of interactivity lies not so much in the lack of narrative predetermination but in the relationship between authorship and recipients.
