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Hello all!

I’m 23 years and a master student in Media Innovation from the Netherlands. For my master thesis
I'm trying to fill in a gap a I found in literature on user modeling and interactive narratives (in this case a CYOA). I'm looking into how a certain user (reader/player) can be modeled based on his reading and branching behavior of a story, to find out to what extend user modeling might reduce the narrative paradox.

For those of you who are not familiar with the term narrative paradox: the narrative paradox refers to the tension between the user interaction and plot in an interactive digital narrative. (On the one hand, a strong narrative structure ensures quality of the narrative and doesn’t allow much interaction. On the other hand, as the possibilities of interactivity within a narrative increase, the shape of the narrative can become troublesome to maintain.)

To find out if the narrative paradox can be reduced I first need to know how people experience a branching story without any adjustments.

And that's where I need your help!

With some great help, I've set up a 'storytelling system' which includes a profile questionnaire, a short narrative story and an evaluation questionnaire.

Some things you should know before participating:
- You will first need to register
- The total time needed, to fill out the questionnaires and read the story, is estimated to be between 15 and 30 minutes
- The data gathered will be processed anonymously

Click on the following link to go to the storytelling system and participate: http://kaocean.com/in/

Thank you very much in advance!
Yvonne

Just from the title, I thought you were trying to get a highly scientific question answered for your S&M buddy. But now I understand that this is a college thing.

Yeah . . . in American English, we call it a "masters" XD

Isn't it the same in the UK? I remember my brother talking about getting a masters degree a few years ago.

Haha, in The Netherlands it's called a 'master', because the degree you get is usually called either a 'Master of Arts' or a 'Master of Science'. 

What I view to be a perfectly balanced ratio between interactivity and narrative.

(examples; 1 & 2) - Note: first one is a WIP. Click on the first character choice for the rest of the story so far.

An example of extreme interactivity that still works quite well

(example; 1)

@the_quiller finish Halycon Days, holy shit

Thanks for the link TacocaT, I'd never seen that one before.

Quiller hasn't been on for, what, 1-3 months now? Before that, he disappeared for 3 months and came back for a week before leaving again.

I tried to fill in your questionnaire, but it kind of crashed after the profile questionnaire, and won't let me continue. I get an error message about a 'redirect loop' being present, if that might help fix the problem...

When I saw the words "for my master" I thought this was related to a rival dark lord or something...

Goddamn. I think this is one of the funniest post you have made thus far. I actually laughed when I wasn't suppose to. Good thing it wasn't heard...I think.

It was? I just can't get those minions from Overlord: Dark Legend saying "For the Master!" in their squeaky little voices...