This thesis is a re-examination of the overused and misunderstood medium “interactive narrative.” Though there are many works that try to discuss the theory of interactive narrative, very few offer anything in terms of critical understanding. By contrast, this thesis tries to find the definition for the word and expose the concepts that make it different from other forms of media and interactive media, such as interactive fiction, interactive storytelling, interactive drama, and interactive story. The concepts outlined include sections on suspension of freedom, interactive story, interactive discourse, and co-authorship.

This thesis approaches defining interactive narrative by first understanding its component concepts and theories, and examines theoretical ways to combine these components effectively from both a game and non-game perspective. Most importantly, this work pulls in often overlooked concepts from media and narrative, including several related to user freedom, anthropomorphism, discourse, focalization, agents, elements of common structure and genre theory. The last two sections of the thesis combine concepts to explain the theoretical evolution of interactive narrative, as well as future expansion into this new medium.

"Interactive Narrative: Theory and Practice " by Jeff Ward, Student Thesis, 147 Pages, Word Document.