Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace

Abstract

Murray discusses the unique properties and pleasures of digital environments and connects them with the tradition satisfactions of narrative. She analyzes the dramatic satisfaction of participatory stories and considers what would be necessary to move interactive fiction from the formats of childish games and confusing labyrinths into a mature and compelling art form. She also introduces the reader to landscapes populated by witty automated characters and tele-playing interactors, who together make up a new kind of commedia dell'arte. Through a blend of imagination and techno-wizardry, Murray provides both readers and writers with a guide to the storytelling of the future. She analyzes the state of "immersion," of participating in a text to such an extent that you literally get lost in a story.