Soap opera is a dramatic form that is both multi-character, and exists in a consistent theatrical time. Point of view stories also offer interactive possibilities. Each character sees the action of what took place from a different point of view. The bottom line here is that there are many examples in traditional media of stories and dramatic forms that lend themselves to the interactive medium. But to take full advantage of the medium, we must always be open to invent new forms and new ideas that allow the audience members to have a role in the story and to care about the outcomes by direct participation in the story environment.
Interactive stories differ from traditional narrative in that they are non-linear.
Books, film, and TV tend to tell stories that flow from beginning to end in a sequence of actions leading from an initial problem to a story resolution or climax. Interactive stories can follow this model if the author wishes it, but they can also be much more unstructured, with the audience looking through a variety of story elements and exploring a storyspace or world created by the author. Reduced to essence, interactive stories tend to be more effective if they are more experiential than the traditional narrative, with more of a role for the audience to experiment and be involved in the story world. A series of strange events begins to occur following their landing leading them to believe that they are not alone on the island, and the story moves forward to the revelation of exactly whom and what it is that explains the mysterious occurrences. The reader is locked into this progressive series of events that lead to the predetermined conclusion.