Mapping seduction: traditional narrative abstractions as parameterized story systems

Abstract

Enduring story patterns provide a rich source of variation that can be exploited by the creators of multiform digital stories. Stories of seduction and courtship, for example, reveal variations based on the "moral physics" of the story world including characters serving similar plot functions, such as seducer or suitor, who contrast with one another in significant ways. Focusing on story structure at this level of abstraction can help authors to avoid arbitrary variation, by creating narratively consistent worlds that provide interaction choices that offer the possibility of dramatic agency.