The Journey through the Interactive Story

By Hilary McLellan

In most current games, the story is missing. However, stories can provide a powerful model for designing interactive games. The story has an emotional curve of ups and downs that's comparable to a game. Plot logic, developed over millenia, can provide a foundation for building game structure, pacing and momentum.

Almost all interactive games currently feature the metaphor of a battle, a struggle. Yet the metaphor of a journey, a quest, an exploration offers a powerful alternative, as demonstrated by the phenomenal success of Myst. Multimedia designer Alan Robbins has suggested that interactive stories are broad and shallow, in contrast to traditional story formats which are deep and narrowly focused on a predetermined plot line. However, perhaps this breadth can be used as a basis for creating a different kind of depth. The metaphor of a journey --- across the landscape of a 'Mysterious Island' or some other virtual world --- perhaps offers a way. The multimedia storyteller must be a world-builder, creating minature universes that have their own internal states and mysteries to be discovered by peeling back layers of space and layers of meaning; realms for the audience to explore via the thread of the story. Actually, all storytellers are world-builders. This is vividly demonstrated by J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien created a world filled with unique cultures, languages, and mythic traditions. A professor of linguistics and the history of languages at Oxford University, Tolkien began by inventing words and entire languages (Elfin, Hobbit, etc.). He went on to create a mythical world --- Middle Earth --- where he could put these languages into context. Part of the power of Tolkien's storytelling is the vast depth of context. With multimedia, the story can provide a compelling reason to pursue a journey through the virtual world, together with the emotional satisfaction of an engrossing trajectory through the experience.

Interactive stories present uncharted territory, but traditional storytelling can offer a compass for navigation. A critical element is pacing. Chris Vogler reports that in Hollywood, filmmakers use the "Whammo chart" (from AIP - American International Pictures) which specifies that every ten pages or so of a script there must to be a real whammo, a real shot of action. Interactivity helps to create a sense of action and movement, but it should be fundamental to the story, not something trivial and unrelated, or the spell of immersion is broken. All elements can be used to support pacing, momentum. For example, if the player reaches a life-and-death decision point that requires a pause for strategizing in the midst of an action scene, keep the music and sound effects from the action-context fast paced, pumping up the adrenaline, the tension, as the player tries to come to terms with the challenge. Don't let up! Another way to intensify pacing is to set an internal deadline.

Stories provide a kind of seduction made up of many factors --- structure, pacing, mood... One time-tested story structure is the mythic Hero's Journey, identified by Joseph Campbell as well as Carl Jung and others. The Hero's Journey has been influential to the work of George Lucas and many others in Hollywood. Think of the Hero's Journey as a structure for orchestrating the ups and downs, the ebbs and flows of the experience in a way that is emotionally intense and deeply satisfying to the participant. Basically the Hero's Journey calls for a succession of high and low points punctuated by two major high points (sort of like the midterm and final exams), with the last being the most intense and the most challenging. With interactive storytelling, the audience and the hero are one and the same, so the Hero's Journey is the audience's journey through an imaginary realm.

Stages of the Hero's Journey

In his book The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Storytellers and Screenwriters, Christopher Vogler, a Hollywood story analyst, identifies the stages of the Hero's Journey as follows. Ordinary World; Call to Adventure; Refusal of the Call; Meeting with the Mentor; Crossing the First Threshold, Tests, Allies, Enemies; Approach to the Inmost Cave; Supreme Ordeal (the Story Crisis --- the Midterm); Reward, The Road Back; Resurrection (the Story Climax --- The Final Exam); and finally, Return with Elixir. The pattern of the Hero's Journey is infinitely varied and yet the basic form remains surprisingly constant and universal across time and cultures. This time-tested formula provides a story structure that offers lots of challenges, together with valuable tools and constraints (don't underestimate the value of constraints!).

The following discussion draws heavily upon Vogler's excellent book, which itself builds upon the work of Joseph Campbell. However, Vogler analyzes the Hero's Journey in the context of filmmaking, while I will describe how the Hero's Journey can fit into the uncharted territory of interactive storytelling.

Traditionally, the Ordinary World provides a baseline for comparison with the story world for the hero. One crucial function of the Ordinary World is to suggest the dramatic question of the story. The Ordinary World should be as different as possible from the Special World of the story to add implicit pizzazz to the speical story world. In The Wizard of Oz, the Ordinary World is shown in black and white while Oz appears in vibrant color.

The Virtual Worlds Entertainment (VWE) centers, housing games such as Battletech and the Red Planet Death Race, each features a restaurant-bar that serves as the Ordinary World from which Heroes launch their journeys into the alternate realities of the games, an Ordinary World that the Hero returns to after the journey. The idea is that these Heroes (the game players) are associate members of the 'Virtual Worlds Explorers League' a special organization for great explorers and discoverers such as Sir Richard Burton, the great African explorer, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindbergh, and Thomas Edison. This is a great idea. Unfortunately, however, the story context of the Virtual Worlds Explorers League and the actual games don't seem to fit together: how does a free-for-all battle with everyone trying to kill each other compare with with the exploits of these explorers? Interestingly enough, Jordan Weisman, one of the designers of the VWE games, has explained that the goal of these games is to create heroes. How? By providing players with an audience --- people in the restaurant can watch players' 'heroic' exploits via TV monitors. After the game, they can offer congratulations as well as challenges.

In a traditional story, the hero must be introduced to the audience. However, since the audience in an interactive story is the hero, the audience should be introduced to the role he or she will play. The designer may want to include some mechanism where the hero identifies him or herself --- selecting from a set of options or answering some personal questions that are relevant to the story theme. In Battletech, each player chooses a name, a "handle," that represents his persona in the interactive story. And players can buy Battletech flight jackets, badges, and other elements of costume to put them all the more in character. The popularity of Multi-User Dungeons (MUDs) and Multi-User Simulated Environments (MUSEs) on the Internet is a strong indication that people enjoy selecting and playing roles. This may provide a mechanism for establishing contextual information about the hero that can help drive the story.

Heroes in mythic stories across all cultures have one common denominator: they are lacking something or something is taken away from them that they feel compelled to retrieve. The Hero's Journey is a search for completeness, for filling in the piece that's been missing. This is what drives the story, propelling the Hero's Journey.

At this beginning stage of the Hero's Journey, the storyteller should establish what's at stake. What does the hero stand to gain or lose in the adventure? What will be the consequences if the hero succeeds or fails? Make sure the stakes are high ---life and death, big money, or the hero's very soul. People aren't as interested if the stakes aren't high enough, heroic enough.

The Ordinary World is one place to provide exposition and backstory: What's this story about? What is the relevant information about a character's history and background? In Myst, the journals of Altrus (an unseen mentor) serve this purpose. In Who Killed Sam Rupert, an assistant to the detective (i.e., the player) has already conducted interviews with the suspects when the story begins. Before the game actually begins, the VWE centers present a very brief video(it's both adrenaline pumping and quite funny) to orient new players to how to operate the controls of their BattleMech simulator pods while at the same time providing a mythic dramatic context for the actual game. In television, stories often open with a "teaser," a self-contained sequence designed to pique interest in the episode.

The opening of any story must suggest the tone of the story and communicate a great of information without slowing down the pace. The storyteller can conjure up a mood, an image, or a metaphor that will provide the audience with a frame of reference for the whole story. For example, the first thing the audience sees is the title. This is an important clue to the nature of the story and the writer's attitude. Compare the title "Myst" with "Mysterious Island," another name that was first considered. Myst is intrinsically more mysterious since it's not a familiar word and it is highly evocative --- a great title.

The Call to Adventure is the catalyst, the trigger for the events and challenges of the story that is unfolding. Many things can initiate the chain of events: a message or a messenger, repeated clues and hints, or the arrival of some temptation --- news of a treasure, love, etc. The Call to Adventure may also come in the form of a villain appearing, asking for information about the hero, thus alerting the hero to the coming adventure. The Call to Adventure may be precipitated by a lack or need: for example, a call for rescue.

Refusal of the Call: At first, the hero refuses the call to adventure. The challenge may be presented indirectly the first time, instigating a refusal, but then things change. Or the hero may mistake the messenger, or the messenger may be in disguise at first. There may be tests that raise fear and doubt. The hero's worthiness may be questioned and tested before he can accept the call. This halt on the road before the journey gets underway serves the dramatic function of signalling to the audience that the adventure is risky, the stakes are high. This compells the hero to examine the quest carefully and perhaps redefine its objectives. It may be necessary for the hero to obtain additional information, to undergo some kind of training or special preparation.

Meeting with the Mentor: The mentor can take many forms and may change masks during the course of the story. For example, in Star Wars, Obi Wan Kenobi first appears to the hero, Luke Skywalker, as a bedraggled desert wanderer; then it is revealed that he is the last of the great Jedi knights. There may not be an actual character to serve in the role of mentor, but the hero almost always makes contact with some source of wisdom before committing to the adventure. As Vogler explains, heroes "may seek out the experience of those who have gone before, or they may look inside themselves for wisdom won at great cost in former adventures. Either way, they are smart to consult the map of the adventure, looking for the records, charts, and ship's logs of the territory. " This is the strategy driving Myst where the player examines books and journals left by Althus and other characters. Indeed, this approach fits interactive storytelling very well.

Chris Vogler points out that audiences don't mind being misled about a Mentor (or any character) from time to time. This is just like real life where we are often surprised about people who turn out to be very different from our first inpressions. One highly suspenseful example of this is found in Terminator II where Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a good guy, a mentor, the absolute opposite of the villain he played in Terminator I.

Crossing the First Threshold: This is the point where the Hero commits to the adventure. Something may have emerged, to sweep aside hesitation. For example, the villain may have killed or kidnapped someone close to the hero, sweeping aside all hesitation. The hero may be given a deadline. Or he may be tricked into undertaking an adventure.

The Hero enters the Special World and undergoes a series of Tests that are meant to prepare for greater ordeals ahead. These tests can take many forms; for example, testing the environment of the Special World, testing for traps, testing the enemy's barricades and checkpoints. The tests should be fundamentally linked to the story, not add-ons or distractions that break the story's spell. Part of the testing is how the hero deals with these challenges.

At this stage, another activity is for the Hero to identify his Allies and Enemies (enemies can include a rival, who may go back and forth between being friend and foe as circumstances change). And the Hero must quickly learn the rules and constraints of the Special World. This is a time of exploration; the storyteller-world-builder should provide a wealth of detail ---meaningful detail --- for the hero to explore.

Approach to the Inmost Cave: The Inmost Cave is a special world within a world where the supreme wonder and terror awaits. The Inmost Cave is the villain's lair --- it may be a cave, a castle, a city, a planet --- anywhere. The hero must prepare for the ordeal and remain on guard against illusions and temptations. At this stage, the hero and his allies may make plans, do reconnaissance on the enemy, try to psych out the opponent, regroup. The stakes are higher here than in earlier challenges the hero faced. The storyteller can use music and sound effects to indicate this heightening of stakes and suspense.

The Supreme Ordeal is the crisis point of the story (the midterm) where there is the most dramatic tension. It is not, however, the climax (that comes later). In the supreme ordeal, the hero must die (or witness death) so that he can be reborn, transformed, come into balance. The death may be symbolic. For example, there may be an suspenseful accident where the hero appears to be dead or feels the presence of death, an experience that results in a change in attitude. At this point, the audience's concentration should be intense. The interactive storyteller can use this to good advantage to try to create in the audience-hero the kind of emotional transformation portrayed in the story.

Reward: At this stage, the hero can savor victory and enjoy the consequences of surviving death and winning against evil. He takes possession of what he's been seeking. The reward can take many forms, depending on what the hero sets out to win --- treasure, the girl of his dreams, a magical substance or medicine, etc. In The Wizard of Oz, the cowardly lion sought courage, the scarecrow wanted intelligence, and the tin woodsman wanted a heart. Dorothy wanted to get back to her home in Kansas. Celebrations are de rigeur.

On The Road Back, the hero begins the journey home to the ordinary world. At this point, the story's energy, which has mellowed, downshifted, since the moment of victory, must be revved up again for the story's climax. The hero faces new challenges and setbacks. The seemingly vanquished opponent may show up again, or an avenging force such as an ally or loved one, seeking retribution for the villain's death. Villains may steal back the treasure from the hero or make off with one of his friends or allies.The hero must overcome these new problems. This part of the hero's journey tends to feature some kind of chase scene. Another threshold must be crossed.

Resurrection: The Supreme Ordeal was the crisis; now comes the story's ultimate climax (the final exam); the hero's last and most dangerous meeting with danger. For the story to feel complete, for catharsis to occur, the audience needs to experience an additional moment of danger and transformation. The stakes are highest at this point in the story; the threat is not just to the hero, but to the whole world. This is the hero's final test before reentering the Ordinary World. Once more the hero must be transformed. He must show that he's actually remembered what he learned for the midterm, that he's got "the right stuff." This is the last chance for the hero to show that he has truly learned the lesson of transformation.

Return with Elixir: An elixir is a magical substance or medicine. It symbolizes what the hero brings back to the ordinary world, including treasure and knowledge. This is the stage where the storyteller ties up all the loose ends of the story --- with a certain amount of surprise, to heighten the momentum one final time. The hero brings something back to share with others in the Ordinary World, and there's a satisfying closure.

With new forms of interactive storytelling, new adaptions will be made to this timeless structure. Remember: anything that breaks the story's spell must be eliminated. For multimedia, one of the things that most often intrudes is a poorly designed interface. Ultimately, the interactive story should be so challenging and compelling that the audience comes back for more and more explorations on the hero trail.