Siggraph 2000 - Interactive Storytelling - Panel Presention
Steve DiPaola - July 28, 2000

1. Talk Starts, Identity

(The talk is in white; instructions and additional references in red)

I am going to concentrate my talk on interactive storytelling within virtual communities, specifically 3D Avatar-based Virtual Communities.

Thousands upon thousands of people are now inter-relating in virtual worlds and they are not only blurring the lines between Author and Audience but between Fiction and Non-fiction.
I am going to give my talk today in the form of a story, a story about the goings-on in one of these virtual worlds, in fact a story of one woman named Purple Tears (PrpleTears) and her community.

Before I start I just wanted to talk about Identity. We all have many identities. We carry multiple business cards, emails, domain names. This new medium just takes that multiplicity of identity and intensifies it in everyway. In fact, my identity – my persona is very different up here on stage than it was, say, if you saw me at a Siggraph party last night.

Imagine if I could change my persona, my very physical appearance to better convey my presentation today – my story about what is happening in virtual worlds. Imagine too if I could change this very conference hall room to better convey the atmosphere to tell my story in. Avatar communities can do this – extend the multiplicity of narrative that is ourselves, and our environments.

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