Interactor

This chapter looks at the interactors, their role, and how the interactor experiences the story. The interactor in interactive storytelling has a counterpart in conventional storytelling settings such as the reader of written stories or the audience of concerts and theatrical plays. The storyteller is responsible for providing a believable story, and the responsibility of the audience is to suspend their disbelief, which human beings have a natural disposition to do. The interactors can have different motivations for re‐experiencing interactive stories: making sense of things, finding out more, trying out ‘what‐if’ scenarios, and seeing things from a different perspective. Agency is a key concept in the aesthetics of interactive storytelling, and it is facilitated by the platform developer and provided for by the designer. If agency originates from interactivity and immersion from the willing suspension of disbelief, then transformation stems from identification.