In the end, I believe that the computer does radically alter what storytelling is and can be by its ability to virtually immerse us so directly into a story. Books and comics are established mediums that are going to continue to exist and improve. And even after all these years, there will still be radical and innovative ways in which these mediums are employed.

In experiencing Myst, Riven, Ultima Online and MitterNachtSpiel, you are positioned within the story. You get to explore simulated worlds and be an (inter)active part of them. So, the creation and relation of these computer enhanced narratives open up performative experiences where the author and readers are part of a theatrical scripting, where the story is related in the play and there are stage directions opening up the experience to the readers interactivity within the narrative experience and environment.

And with approaching technological advances, computer enhanced narratives are moving out of the virtual simulation of environments and into the real, physical world we live and breathe in. With broadband, console game Trojan horses, convergence and pervasive computing, we see DVD (digital video discs) and WAP (wireless application protocols) applications opening up the world to computer enhanced experiences. For instance, in the fall of 1999, a Masterpiece Edition of Myst was released. This edition had technological improvements and an active help agent/character you could work with to help you through the game. And in the fall of 2000, a new version of Myst, called realMyst, was released. It is the exact same game and story as the original except this version is not a series of lush still graphics that you point and click through. Instead, realMyst runs with realtime 3D graphics, so it is a lush simulated world in which you truly navigate around. You can walk around trees and rooms with close to infinite freedom, thereby being able to more fully immerse yourself in the world. And just released is another addition to the Myst story grand, Myst III: Exile, which takes place ten years after the events in Riven and also uses 3D panning. And coming soon is a project with the codename, "MudPie," as Cyan Worlds looks to innovate in the broadband internet and create an immersive, interactive and never-ending world (Cyan, "Cyan Worlds").

And broadband brings us bigger data pipes so we can have much more robust graphics and video streaming over the internet. And console games are becoming a technological Trojan horse. With the playstation2 by Sony, you no longer have just a gaming console, you have the convergence of your entertainment systems. It plays your DVD movies, lets you log onto the internet and surf the web and check your email, and it of course lets you play games. And the games themselves are becoming more cinematic and narrative driven. In fact, some are so detailed and illustrative they been given the acronym FREE (fully reactive engaging entertainment). It's like watching a movie except you are the main character on the screen.

DVDs open up a new avenue of storytelling as well. Currently the porn industry is taking the fullest advantage of the DVD's ability to click between screen angles and soundtracks (you don't like watching from that angle, try this one, or this one...). But imagine making a DVD mystery movie where you can be watching people at a murder scene and you can click to a different angle and hear what two characters are whispering to each other, or maybe from that angle you actually see the murder weapon under the table. It could be a multilinear narrative that threads together into one story and your choice of viewing position affects what story you experience. You become a virtual presence in the movie (or you could just passively watch the main thread from beginning to end). Either way, the story expands across the threads for those who choose to explore.

Similarly, WAPs are being used on cellular phones in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Japan to download roleplaying scenarios that a group can play together around town while keeping in touch on their digital phones (Silberman, "Just Say Nokia"). And remember, in Ultima Online, people are getting paid money for the characters and storylines they have developed. This could slowly turn into the ability for the reader as author to actually make money in conjunction with a narrative environment and experience created by someone else. The act and reward of creation are shared.

These developments are leading to pervasive computing, with the computers out of their boxes and into our environments and experiences. A great example of this is the EMP (experience music project) museum in Seattle. Funded by Paul Allen and designed by architect, Frank Gehry, it is a museum where you can take a specialized PDA (personal digital assistant) around the museum with you and it will respond to the displays you choose to view, keep tally of your questions and finally let you upload your visit to the internet where you can then visit it from home later (Kirsner, "Are You Experienced?"). And then there is an experience like Majestic. It is an online multiplayer game by Electronic Arts that also bleeds into real space. Computer characters will call you on your phone, send you faxes, instant messages and email. And participating web sites will contain clues to help you in the game. The story of the game exists outside of the computer itself. As a player in the game, you use all of your electronic devices to enable you to play the game and interact within the narrative from outside the box. Another example of this is the proposed Myst Island theme park where you would actually be in an environment where you walk through the island that once upon a time you could only experience virtually. And there would be objects and artifacts that you could pick up and move around with, and the environment would keep track of what you were doing and if you puzzled correctly, the environment would respond, opening a door or revealing a clue. And there could be people all over the island playing with different artifacts and experiencing different elements and aspects of the narrative environment that may or may not impact your experience of the environment (Kirsner).

The above examples are the tip of the iceberg of how stories are currently being told in new and exciting ways that lean on our narrative origins but leap forward in a world where we can relate and experience stories as never before. And we are struggling to fully comprehend the possibilities of this medium. As Marshall McLuhan's fourth law of media states, "the initial development of a new medium will retrieve forms from prior mediums." Likewise, we are using prior forms of analysis to try and understand this new medium (Miles, 4). I have aspired to use a new form expression, hypertext, in order to analyze a topic in ways that we not possible before (Landow, Hyper/Text/Theory, 36).

Computational media are allowing us to be placed virtually and physically within rich worlds where we are the protagonists and the story grand is there for us to explore, interact within and enact as we show, tell and experience stories with each other. This does not mean out with the old in with the new. Instead I hope this study shows that by exploring how we have told stories in mediums we can see how to better tell stories in these new mediums and expand our notions of what stories are and can be.