Netflix Launches New 'Interactive Shows' That Let Viewers Dictate the Story (thenextweb.com) 104
Netflix announced that it's launching an all-new interactive format that turns viewers in storytellers, letting them dictate each choice and direction the story takes. "In each interactive title, you can make choices for the characters, shaping the story as you go," according to Netflix. "Each choice leads to a different adventure, so you can watch again and again, and see a new story each time." The Next Web reports: The first two interactive shows that will be available on Netflix are Puss in Book: Trapped in an Epic Tale and Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile. Puss in Book launches globally today, with Buddy Thunderstruck slated to make its debut a month from now on July 14. The new experience will be available on most television setups and iOS devices. "Content creators have a desire to tell non-linear stories like these, and Netflix provides the freedom to roam, try new things and do their best work," Product Innovation director Carla Fisher said. "The intertwining of our engineers in Silicon Valley and the creative minds in Hollywood has opened up this new world of storytelling possibilities." Fisher further added that, for the time being, the streaming service will be mainly focusing its efforts on producing interactive content for children -- especially since their research has shown that they already tend to be prone to interacting with the screen.
Not a new concept (Score:3, Insightful)
The BBC produced about 20 of this type of show between 2001 and 2008, using two broadcast video streams, within their 'Red Button' interactive TV service on Freeview and Sky. It stopped eventually because of the cost of producing vs the low viewership. Here's a blog from 2008 about it http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/pressred/2008/07/under-the-bonnet-the-two-stream-quiz.shtml
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There was a Doctor Who episode of this as well, where the Doctor spoke to the viewer and the viewer had to assist David Tennant in solving the mystery of the week. It was pretty fun, one time.
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Should the drive to profit trump everything else? Is there any value to living in harmony with the world around us, even if it means less profit? A small amount of profit is required; humanity will continue to push the limits of what is possible. Hopefully "The Giving Tree" is not the way it all goes down.
This argument would have merit if Netflix was raising their prices without additional value-add, even if that added value was "we can give our employees raises to address the rising cost of living". If it was "we're raising prices by $1/month for everyone for the sole purpose of increasing our profit margin", then that would be the drive to profit trumping everything else.
Netflix is offering improved service for the same money, with the intent of either luring additional subscribers or retaining existing on
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The oldest example I know is Inigo Gets Out [youtube.com] by Amanda Goodenough, from 1987 on an Apple Mac.
Douglas Adams and Tom Baker mention it in 'Hyperland' [youtube.com]
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Except that it was more or less a one-hit wonder in the videogame world. It attracted a lot of attention for its novelty and visual flair, but ultimately, didn't hold up so well in the gameplay department.
The videogame industry went through their "interactive movie as a game" phase a few decades ago. Maybe media companies need to do the equivalent. I suspect it will probably end in the same way.
Re:Not a new concept (Score:5, Insightful)
Angry Birds wasn't a new concept either.
Occasionally, someone does jump on these things and make them work properly.
Personally, I think the problem is that you want me to interact. If I'm watching TV it's because I *don't* want to interact.
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You may well have a solid point there. This could all too easily end up with all the downsides of TV over videogames - and none of the upsides.
Re:Not a new concept (Score:4, Insightful)
If I'm watching TV it's because I *don't* want to interact.
Me either, but I'm guessing we're both adults. From my in-depth examination of the summary, I don't think this is aimed at adults. Children have different motivations watching TV. I would have loved to make a couple of choices for the Thundercats or show Big Bird that I was paying attention.
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If I'm watching TV it's because I *don't* want to interact.
Me either, but I'm guessing we're both adults. From my in-depth examination of the summary, I don't think this is aimed at adults. Children have different motivations watching TV. I would have loved to make a couple of choices for the Thundercats or show Big Bird that I was paying attention.
As long as Netflix continues to keep children as the target audience (which does, indeed, appear to be their target market), this will probably work out well for them. But I pity them if they attempt to aim for adult demographics.
Telltale tried that with a lot of "choose your own adventure" sort of computer game offerings, but after the first couple of them I realized that all they were offering was the illusion of choice. I understand the reasoning and limitations - creating all the content for very diff
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This sounds like it lets make your own choice and immediately see what happens.
There have been other shows that have had the voting gimmick
I even remember reading a story years ago about doing this with a movie where the audience voted and changed what happened.
All this really is, is a video version of the choose your own adventure book. I enjoyed a few of those as a kid, and this new version seems to be targeting kids as well.
It's just a video game (Score:2)
This is just a video game which is heavy on story and light on gameplay. It has animated characters you control through a very limited set of choices instead of having to move them around manually.
And while my comment may seem disparaging, I would like if more games like this were created. I don't have much time to play games anymore, but some games have story lines which end up making entertaining movies. For instance I have watched the cut scenes from both Injustice games without every playing them and fo
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There's a Borderlands game like that, and I guess the same game studio has made other choose your own adventure type games.
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You're thinking of Telltale Games. Most of their stuff is aimed at adults, and have good stories.
Besides Borderlands they've done The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Fables, and a really good Batman adventure.
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It's an even older concept if you expand your view to include video games. And in recent years games have really improved the choose your own adventure concept into compelling and moving stories (like Life is Strange or Telltale's The Walking Dead). If Netflix taps some of those game makers or simply ports those sort of games from other platforms they could have winner for themselves.
how 'bout the dog eats the baby? (Score:1)
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... and Seven long dongs?
They say that Snow White thought that 7-Up was a drink before she met the dwarvs.
Until Dawn... (Score:2)
But without the required PS4 processing power.
Do we have a reload option if we find a choice accidentally kills an important character?
1994 (Score:2)
So, in other words, (Score:5, Funny)
Pretty much what any modern RPG offers, just without the game interrupting the cutscenes?
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Some choices you make are only an illusion and don't really alter the outcome. Between seasons a lot of stuff can happen where you don't have any influence. And still due to the increasing complexity of the story later seasons get shorter and shorter.
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...there would be a compounding series of variable scenes, which could dramatically affect later story arcs.
In many children's shows and quite a few adult shows, there's a hard rule that everything resolves itself at the end leaving it in the same state as the start, no matter what happens in the middle.
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which could dramatically affect later story arcs.
Sure if you're a poor writer and can't write your way out of the problem. But in reality how it works is that the choices end up not mattering to the primary story arc. Kill off the wrong character with your choice? You get a slightly different version that leads a different set of characters to the same place or conclusion.
Draw yourself a diagram of the plot. If it is a tree diagram rather than a swim lanes or flow chart then you probably shouldn't be writing this material.
All hail the illiterate (Score:5, Insightful)
Apparently the Choose Your Own Adventure books [wikipedia.org] were just too damn difficult for some people, so we're remaking them as movies.
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The Chooose Your Own Adventure books, now without that annoying bit about reading.
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The text on that page even said something like "You didn't make any choices, but somehow you got here".
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Apparently the Choose Your Own Adventure books [wikipedia.org] were just too damn difficult for some people, so we're remaking them as movies.
That is no different than comparing traditional TV shows to traditional books. News Flash: there is more than one form of entertainment in the world.
Coming soon... (Score:3)
Twitch writes House of Cards!
It reminded me of Dragon's Lair (Score:5, Informative)
It reminded me of Dragon's Lair [wikipedia.org] but with a lot fewer decisions and a lot more time to make them. For all you young'uns, yeah we had this in the 1980s, contemporaneous with the Choose Your Own Adventure books. The video of the storyline with alternate decisions and endings were stored on a laserdisc (which unlike a videotape allowed random access). And inputs you made with a joystick and buttons at certain times determined your progress through the story [youtube.com] and which video was played. (The approx 1 sec blackout while the LD player seeked to the correct video has been edited out of that YouTube video. So it as a lot more annoying to play than the video makes it seem. RAM was way too expensive to pre-cache multiple possibilities like we can today.)
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Dragon's Lair wasn't really multi-threaded, there was a single thread that you had to follow religiously or you died. Proper multi-threaded story telling is much more interesting. (and difficult to implement well)
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Japan called, they've been doing that with visual novels for several decades.
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Re: It reminded me of Dragon's Lair (Score:2)
No saved state? That's what your fingers are for. You can go back, if you die.
Hello 1986 (Score:2)
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Your netflix profile must be messed up. Sure, there is lots of "roll your eyes"-bad original stuff by netflix, but on the other hand, they have some really good series. Now it seems that the shotgun approach of producing a gazillion shows and look what sticks is finished and netflix starts to weed out the suckers.
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Great idea for Doctor Who (Score:4, Interesting)
A series becomes a single movie (Score:2)
Netflix already does a whole series at once. This will be the same but instead of a linear timeline of multiple episodes you have many branches of the same plot line.
Slashdot pessimists (Score:2)
I for one think this is a great idea. Netflix has taken an old idea, and is incorporating it into their IP into a format that isn't easily pirated.
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I don't think the current implementation will work, too expensive to produce alternative content.
Anyway, I have 7 year old twins, they are now FaceTiming with multiple friends of the same age. They text (good for spelling practice) and do video (generally terrible...).
Imagine a story with 2-3 threads that relate and support each other. Where even children around 7 could play.
And only with friends. I trust my kids talking to their friends from school.
Could be a cool cooperative situation, combining the sto
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i still think the increased production cost of branching movies dont really improve the viewing experience that much. interactivity is so limited and feels detached.
conventional games (provided they are well made) are way more engaging and provide a deeper experience - especially from a educational point of view.
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I think the benefit of TV/movies is that someone has crafted a story and made it compelling and interesting (at least they're supposed to). I can sit back and let that wash over me. The benefit of a game is that the gameplay can cover for a slightly tedious/unoriginal/uncompelling story.
This just sounds like the worst of both worlds. As the branches grow the chance of the story going astray grows, plus I have to stay alert for the points where I interact. If those points are too numerous I can't relax and e
I'll just wait (Score:2)
until pornhub launches their version...
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I mean, is that usually the point of Cam Shows and Live streams? Pretty sure that's not only interactive but you can control most of what you want to have going on.
Re: I'll just wait (Score:2)
For 100 tokens, they will do anything.
Limited platforms (Score:1)
no android, no pc (website) - only on ios, consoles and smart tvs.
as i'm not planning on getting any one of those i wont see much interactivity with my netflix account (movies revert back to a linear version where it automatically pics the first option on every choice).
Well my shows are going to be boring. (Score:2)
No (Score:2)
Do not want.
What about CSPAN? (Score:1)
Could we get to influence the outcome, or does it work only from .ru IP ranges?
Any idea that users can produce something coherent (Score:2)
.. is stupid.
Haven't people had enough with fan-art picked up and promoted by media conglomerate to much chagrin of the consumers? This is the same thing.
It requires a great talent, imagination, creativity to produce an original story/
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You completely missed the point of the article. The users aren't producing anything. This is a choose-your-own adventure or a Telltale game. Users watch the content and interactively make choices at certain predefined story points.
So, turning TV viewing into a game (Score:2)
The ultimate goal here ... (Score:3)
The ultimate goal will be to have the users dictate ALL the plot, getting rid of the writers. Next, CGI to replace all the human actors. Computer-generated music. The studios will be counting the money they save.
Unfortunately for them, this will go the way of all technology, becoming so cheap that people can do the same at home, without the studios. Wanna see another 10 years of M*A*S*H - but no reruns? More new Star Trek - TOS? Spaceballs 2? Or best of all, more Firefly? Boot it up or share someone else's creations.
Heck, someone may even come up with some pr0n that has a half-decent plot.
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There were pr0n movies doing this 25 years ago. Pr0n has consistently been the technology driver in visual media all the way back to the days of Adonis von Zschernitz.And is the reason we have broadband.
They had pr0n that had a half-decent plot 25 years ago? I thought the whole idea of crappy plots an cheesy music was so as not to distract from the onscreen action. At least, that's the only rationalization I can come up with as to why they'd make them pretty much plotless. So it wasn't intentional?
I just thought it was because I wasn't their target demographic, so why spend the money ... learn something new every day.
Mass Effect 3 (Score:1)
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I remember being incredibly disapointed. For a game that allowed you endless choice resulting in 3 identical cutscenes with 3 different instagram filters applied after 3 epic games worth of decisions.
If you want to draw comparisons to Mass Effect 3, then it better be "what not to do".
What a disappointment!
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That's the problem with offering players a lot of choice: it's hard as hell to resolve vastly diverging storylines* in any meaningful way, what with limited time and budgets. But honestly, it felt like Bioware didn't even try. Worse, they actually pulled a Sean Murray (back then, it was just known as "lying") in describing the ending, saying how it would be far more than a "choose A, B, or C". It's hilarious and sad, because that's exactly what we got.
I'm glad I didn't even bother with the latest mess of
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Bioware's problem is they said from the beginning that the choices would have major impact. It just felt cheap that it made no difference. Compare it to the Telltale Games series where the end will always converge, but the story feels different as you go through it so as to not cheapen the effect. Not all stories need to be a tree diagram. Some will work just fine with flowcharts.
What do you think, Linda? (Score:1)
Ugggg (Score:1)
This is their opportunity to do something drastically different. They don't need Hollywood script witers. They need video game script writers. And do some thing cool with this. Make an antagonist and protagonist that are both likable people. And let people choose to cheer on the bad guy!
The other twist is to target people age 13-25 with this. Make it sci-fi based or involving technology. Bring back Sarah Connor!
Let me tell you how this will turn out (Score:2)
what ends up happening is you write about 2-3 "serious branches" that affect the main pl
Futurama did it (Score:2)
If you want Calculon to double-check his paperwork, press 2.
The Firesign Theatre Called from 1978 (Score:2)
...(and 1985), And they want their Interactive Titles "The Case of the Missing Yolks" and "Eat or Be Eaten" back.
http://www.firesigntheatre.com... [firesigntheatre.com]
http://www.gamesetwatch.com/20... [gamesetwatch.com]
"Chose Your Own Adventure" (Score:2)
I highly approve (Score:1)
Can't wait... (Score:2)