What are Immersive Stories?
They’re all around you. And they’ll pull you in.
Maybe you’ve heard of virtual reality. Or immersive theatre. Or interactive TV. Maybe you haven’t. These are all things that exist, and frankly, they’re pretty awesome, but they haven’t been widely adopted yet. And if you’re not living in a big city or working in the tech world or traveling in artsy circles, it might be pretty easy not to encounter any of them. In fact, right now, immersive stories are something you have to seek out. But once you decide to seek them out, they’re plenty findable and really exciting.
Haven’t you ever wished you could go inside your favorite TV show? Or live in the world of a book? Or be a character in a musical? Well, immersive stories bring these dreams to life.
When you immerse yourself in a swimming pool or bathtub, all parts of you are covered in water. Similarly, when you immerse a paper towel in a glass of water, you are putting it all the way into the water.
Now, let’s think of immersion in the context of media. If that paper towel were to go see a play, it would be sitting in the theatre seats, nice and dry, watching the glass of water on stage. If that paper towel were to go to the movies, it would be in the movie seats — presumably eating popcorn — and watching the glass of water on the big screen. And if that paper towel wanted to watch a streaming service, it would be binging The Queen’s Gambit on its laptop while sitting on the couch, dry as a bone because, as it would tell you, “the saying is ‘Netflix and Chill’ not ‘Netflix and spill’!”
So, what about if our paper towel—or a person—wanted to experience an immersive story? Well, think of the story like the water: they go in it. Instead of watching a play from the theatre seats, the person is in the middle of the actors. Usually, immersive plays don’t take place on a stage, but rather in a room, warehouse or building where the actors and audience are all on the same level and moving around the same space. For an immersive movie, a person might put on a VR headset — or even just go to an IMAX theatre. Instead of watching the story play out at a distance, the audience feels like they’re there, in the movie. This is the beauty of Disneyland’s California Adventure Park’s Soarin’ Over California, an immersive theme park experience.
And for an immersive TV show, well, the audience could put on a VR headset and suddenly find themselves inside a sitcom or they could simply open their laptop and, using Netflix or Eko, make choices in the story world. These laptop-based immersive experiences are, more specifically, called interactive experiences. In them, you’re not fooled into thinking that you’re actually inside the show (the way you are in VR), but you are “in the world” in a way — your actions matter and you can affect the show. An interactive TV show brings you into the show in a way that a traditional TV show never does.
“So, wait a minute,” you might be thinking, “if a TV show where you can make choices for a character is an ‘immersive story’, then isn’t a video game an immersive story???” YES! You’re right. A video game is also a type of immersive story. Even though you know full well you’re sitting on your couch, when playing a video game, you do feel like you’re inside the game because you are playing as a character in the game.
All the examples of immersive storytelling so far have visual elements that help pull you into a story, but it’s also possible to have an immersive story in which there’s nothing for you to see. These are called immersive audio experiences and they use sound to immerse you in the story world. While some immersive experiences use cutting edge technology like virtual reality, immersive audio experiences can be powered by something as simple as the telephone!
Now, a lot of the time an immersive story brings you into the story world. But it’s also possible for an immersive story to bring fictional elements of the story world into your world. This was famously done by the popular AR game, Pokemon Go, which used augmented reality to bring Pokemon into the real world.
Immersive stories begin to blur the line between reality and fiction. And they resist definition as merely “a show” or “a game”—more accurately, they’re an experience. If you haven’t experienced an immersive story yet, head over to TheLook.Club and see if you can find one that suits your tastes and technology. And, if you have experienced an immersive story (or more), describe your favorite one in the comments.
Either way, be sure to share this article with at least one other person who you think would enjoy learning about immersive stories. The more people are enjoying them, the more awesome experiences will be created!
