For the past few months, I have been thinking about VR’s potential for storytelling, nowadays, many people see to be inclining towards using interaction as another layer for immersive experiences, the main argument seems to be that giving the user an active role in the story aids toward captivating attention and increasing emotional response.
For me, this is problematic as I believe that attention and emotional response are not directly dependant on Agency. I t is true that you pay more attention when performing intellectual of physical tasks but this does not mean that adding tasks to the user will inherently mean you he/she will get more involved with a story.
We humans seem to be able to easily immerse our selves when watching a movie on a flat-screen or holding a book in our hands.
I also believe that allowing user involvement creates collateral effects that might also break the fourth wall.
For example, scrolling down on a text, turning the page, adopting the right position or even placing your view at the right angle, are all user actions, however, these actions tend to be executed in an automatic fashion, of course, after you learned that you need to turn the pages on a book, sit down in front of a screen and even standing in front of a painting will facilitate access to its content and perhaps enjoyable.
For me, the key factor is getting rid of distractions, i.e. external stimulus that might interfere with our senses.
