Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

As a game designer or media storyteller, you know that the story is everything. However, figuring out how to tell it interactively - can be challenging. This work provides examples of contemporary games that rely on different technologies - and learn the storytelling lessons to be garnered from each of the past methodologies.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. xvi)
• Part I From Story to Interactive Storytelling (p. 1)
• Chapter 1 Story (p. 3)
• The Development of Storytelling (p. 4)
• Mental Modules Interact (p. 4)
• At Last, Narrative (p. 6)
• The Nature of Stories (p. 13)
• Strong Structure (p. 14)
• People (p. 15)
• Conflict (p. 16)
• Puzzles (p. 17)
• Choices (p. 17)
• Spectacle (p. 18)
• The Tyranny of the Visual (p. 19)
• Spatial Thinking (p. 20)
• Temporal Discontinuity (p. 22)
• Chapter 2 Interactivity (p. 25)
• How Wrong Art Thou? Let Me Count the Ways (p. 26)
• My Definition of Interactivity (p. 29)
• Second-Person Insight (p. 31)
• A Model for Human Understanding (p. 33)
• Discipline (p. 35)
• Degrees of Interactivity (p. 36)
• Speed (p. 37)
• Depth (p. 39)
• Choice (p. 40)
• So What? (p. 42)
• Incentive #1 Basis of Competitive Advantage (p. 42)
• Incentive #2 Revolutionary (p. 43)
• Incentive #3 Power (p. 44)
• Chapter 3 Interactive Storytelling (p. 45)
• Extrapolation from Games (p. 46)
• Interactivized Movies (p. 48)
• Plot Versus Interactivity (p. 49)
• It's Different (p. 52)
• How Do You Generate Enough Interesting Decisions? (p. 53)
• How Do You Pare Away the Boring Decisions? (p. 55)
• How Do You Keep the Storyworld Interesting? (p. 56)
• Atoms of Interactive Storytelling (p. 58)
• The Ideal Scale of Dramatic Resolution (p. 59)
• What Can't Be Part of Interactive Storytelling (p. 61)
• Part II Styles of Thinking (p. 65)
• Chapter 4 Two Cultures, No Hits, No Runs (p. 67)
• Techies: Programmers and Games People (p. 69)
• Artsies: The New Media People (p. 72)
• Bubble Intellectualism (p. 73)
• Cross-disciplinary Futility (p. 75)
• Neurophysiological Basis (p. 76)
• Exhortations and Prognostications (p. 77)
• Chapter 5 Abstraction (p. 81)
• Justice (p. 82)
• Science (p. 83)
• Pulling It Together (p. 84)
• Playing God (p. 86)
• Chapter 6 Verb Thinking (p. 91)
• Verb Thinking Versus Noun Thinking (p. 92)
• Case in Point: Multimedia (p. 97)
• Getting Started with Verb Thinking (p. 100)
• Causal Relationships (p. 102)
• Modeling as Metaphor (p. 104)
• Aside: Quantifying Humanity (p. 110)
• The Artist's Mathematical Palette (p. 112)
• Weighting Factors (p. 115)
• How to Set Values (p. 118)
• Part III Strategies for Interactive Storytelling (p. 121)
• Chapter 7 Simple Strategies That Don't Work (p. 123)
• Branching Trees (p. 124)
• Foldback Schemes (p. 126)
• Constipated Stories (p. 130)
• Kill 'Em If They Stray (p. 130)
• Storified Games (p. 130)
• Chapter 8 Environmental Strategies (p. 135)
• Emergent Story (p. 137)
• Possible Extensions (p. 138)
• Extending the Size of the Three-dimensional World (p. 138)
• More Props (p. 140)
• More Agents (p. 140)
• Smarter Agents (p. 140)
• More and Better Puzzles (p. 141)
• A Journey Structure (p. 141)
• All of the Above (p. 142)
• Storytelling in The Sims (p. 142)
• Chapter 9 Data-Driven Strategies (p. 145)
• Story Components (p. 146)
• Connectivity Data (p. 146)
• A Short Digression (p. 147)
• The Aarne-Thompson Catalogues (p. 148)
• Applications (p. 152)
• Vladimir Propp (p. 153)
• An Application (p. 156)
• Georges Polti (p. 156)
• Chapter 10 Language-Based Strategies (p. 161)
• An Inside-Out Approach (p. 162)
• Language and Reality (p. 162)
• Vocabulary (p. 164)
• Grammars (p. 169)
• Meaning (p. 170)
• Inverse Parsing (p. 172)
• Semantic Networks (p. 173)
• Graphical Languages (p. 174)
• Basic English (p. 176)
• Pictorial Languages (p. 177)
• Part IV Core Technologies for Interactive Storytelling (p. 179)
• Chapter 11 Personality Models (p. 181)
• Factors in Developing a Personality Model (p. 182)
• Completeness (p. 182)
• Conciseness (p. 183)
• Orthogonality (p. 183)
• Tied to Behavior (p. 185)
• Overspecificity (p. 185)
• Types of Personality Variables (p. 186)
• Polarity of Variables (p. 188)
• Moods (p. 189)
• My Preferred Personality Model (p. 190)
• Intrinsic Variables (p. 190)
• Mood Variables (p. 191)
• Volatility Variables (p. 191)
• Accordance Variables (p. 192)
• Relationship Variables (p. 192)
• Automatic Relationship Adjustment (p. 194)
• Calculating with Personality Variables (p. 196)
• Putting a Personality Model to Work: An Exercise (p. 199)
• Chapter 12 Drama Managers (p. 201)
• Listen (p. 203)
• Think (p. 204)
• Speak (p. 205)
• Environmental Manipulation (p. 205)
• Goal Injection (p. 206)
• Shifting Personalities (p. 207)
• The Ticking Clook of Doom (p. 207)
• Dropping the Fourth Wall (p. 208)
• "Correcting" the Player (p. 209)
• Scoring Systems (p. 212)
• Example: An Arthurian Storyworld (p. 212)
• Tragedy (p. 214)
• Chapter 13 Verbs and Events (p. 217)
• Verb Counts (p. 218)
• Specific Versus Generalized Verb Handling (p. 219)
• Events (p. 221)
• Chomskian, or Recursive, Data Structures (p. 224)
• Flat Data Structures (p. 225)
• Chapter 14 HistoryBooks and Gossip (p. 227)
• HistoryBooks (p. 228)
• Gossip (p. 230)
• Recording Events (p. 231)
• Constructing Tales (p. 231)
• Finding a Gossip-Mate (p. 234)
• Lies (p. 238)
• Intent to Harm Relationships (p. 238)
• Gain Benefit Through Misdirection (p. 239)
• Defensive Denial (p. 240)
• Secrets (p. 240)
• The Grapevine (p. 241)
• Chapter 15 Anticipation (p. 245)
• Including Anticipation (p. 246)
• Choosing Verbs (p. 250)
• Including Logical Inferences (p. 251)
• Inference Engines (p. 251)
• Tree Analysis (p. 253)
• Chapter 16 Roles and Sequencing (p. 255)
• Selecting Options (p. 256)
• Hard-wired Versus Soft-wired Approaches (p. 256)
• Roles (p. 257)
• From Plan to Execution (p. 262)
• Deferred Reactions (p. 264)
• Chapter 17 Development Environments (p. 267)
• Historical Background (p. 268)
• The Importance of Development Environments (p. 271)
• Elements of Development Environments (p. 271)
• Algorithmic Entry (p. 271)
• Some Suggestions (p. 274)
• Setting the Context (p. 280)
• Threadtests and Rehearsals (p. 280)
• ComeFrom Analysis (p. 282)
• Debuggers (p. 286)
• A Programming Note (p. 286)
• Script Editing (p. 287)
• Part V Applications (p. 295)
• Chapter 18 The Erasmatron (p. 297)
• Early Efforts (p. 298)
• The Erasmatron Engine (p. 299)
• Data Types (p. 300)
• Roles (p. 301)
• Scripts (p. 301)
• Inclination Formulae (p. 302)
• Time in the Erasmatron (p. 304)
• Plan Execution (p. 304)
• Movement and Space (p. 304)
• Additional Odds and Ends in the Engine (p. 305)
• Future Directions (p. 306)
• Chapter 19 Research (p. 307)
• Generic Issues (p. 308)
• Hammers and Nails (p. 309)
• Boolean Thinking (p. 309)
• The Oz Project (p. 314)
• Experience Management (p. 315)
• Story Traces (p. 317)
• Facade (p. 318)
• The Dr. K- Project (p. 319)
• HEFTI (p. 320)
• IDTension (p. 323)
• The Virtual Storyteller (p. 326)
• InterTale (p. 327)
• Story Grammars (p. 327)
• Interactive Drama Architecture (p. 329)
• DraMachina (p. 329)
• Personal Narrative Agents (p. 329)
• HTN- and HSP-Based Technologies (p. 330)
• Chapter 20 Distant Relatives (p. 335)
• Interactive Fiction (p. 336)
• Hypertext Fiction (p. 337)
• Digital Storytelling (p. 338)
• Scriptwriting Software (p. 339)
• Role-Playing Games (p. 340)
• Simulations (p. 341)
• Narrative Intelligence (p. 342)
• Chapter 21 Prognostications (p. 343)
• The Evolutionary School (p. 344)
• The Wrong Verbs (p. 344)
• The Wrong Themes (p. 345)
• Market Factors (p. 345)
• A Marketing Fairy Tale (p. 345)
• A Marketing Nightmare (p. 346)
• The Revolutionary School (p. 348)
• Implications of the Market-Driven Approach (p. 350)
• Increasing Awareness (p. 350)
• Predictions (p. 351)
• Index (p. 353)

Author notes provided by Syndetics