Limits of rereadability in procedural interactive stories

Abstract

The paper investigates the limits of what authors can vary procedurally to encourage and reward rereadability in procedural hypertext fiction. Exploring these issues raises a methodological challenge: how do we study re-reading in the context of stories that change? We have developed an adapted form of the Piagetan clinical interview to do this. Using this approach, we have determined that readers, surprisingly, do not want to experience endless variation when rereading interactive stories. Instead, they are looking for some form of closure, either in terms of "understanding the story", reaching the "best ending" for the characters in the story, or finding the "most interesting" version of the story. This has implications for the design/authoring of interactive stories and interactive art and entertainment. Copyright 2011 ACM.