Abstract
People love stories. Good stories can grab us by the gut and take us on an adrenaline-powered rush, they can grab us by the heart and make us feel deep emotions, they can stimulate our minds and make us think, or do all of these things and more. Given the importance of stories, the art and craft of storytelling has been raised to a very high level. Skilled practitioners constantly search for new and effective media in which to create works of fiction. The hardware and software of today's computational and communications environments hold richly attractive possibilities for storytellers. The promise of massive, interactive computer environments has caught the imagination of some developers, and a passionately dedicated (though relatively small) audience. But these environments have so far lacked the elements that have made traditional stories successful - that is, they are places filled with people and objects and short missions, but no overall narrative. The commercial appetite for fiction is enormous: it is the sum of television, films, novels, and more. But we have yet to see a commercially breakthrough title in interactive fiction. In this speculative talk, I will argue that there are a few basic principles that are satisfied by almost all successful storytelling media, and suggest some visual and structural ways to apply those principles of storytelling to create a new style of massively participatory fiction.