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Comment by zelphirkalt | Hacker News Reader

Long before the metaverse or meta even existed, I had this idea: A movie, which is explorable. You and a group of friends or even alone go to the movie and get a time budget, maybe like 5h or so. In that time you can explore the world of the movie in 3D virtual reality. Also you would be able to influence the story of the movie by acting as some characters in the movie.

Of course this could have huge production costs associated with it and might not be realistic any time soon. But maybe one day ...

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Isn't that just any other game? Like games that change based on your reactions? Like GTA5, Bioshock Infinite, Red dead redemption?

No, regular games just sit around and wait for the player to do something. Nothing ever happens without the player actively triggering it. This is quite different from a movie, which will play from start to finish without the viewer ever lifting a finger.

I don't think there is anything that matches what OP is looking for perfectly, but games like The Last Express, The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask or Invisible Hours get somewhat close. In those the story plays out in real time with all the NPCs playing their roles, the player can observe and interact, but he isn't the central trigger for everything, the story will reach the end even without the player doing anything. Fahrenheit and most of the other stuff Quantic Dream has done also go in that direction, in those games you often switch characters, so you are really playing "the story", not a specific person in that story, however they are much more linear than the other games mentioned and don't leave that much room for exploration.

Haha you gave such a big explanation and invented games again. Still my point stands, all you are asking for is an interactive game that may not need user action to complete. But movies still need a script, without an actor performing an action the movie just doesn't complete it doesn't make sense at all. What you are describing is an open world like GTA, where NPCs just go around, gangs fight, police run behind, etc etc. It's just a game, it already exists. OP started with the expectation of an interactive movie. It's called GAMES.

"The Invisible Hours" is pretty close to that. You can't interact with it, but you can freely explore what is happening while all the characters do their own thing. It's basically a theater play that is spread around a whole house.

"The Last Express" for an earlier non-VR example, this one is a bit closer to a regular adventure game, but the events in it still play out in realtime without the other characters waiting around for the player to do something.

That actually sounds fun. It's like karaoke but more than singing songs... even without the acting aspect, it sounds fun to experience the story unfold while you're in it. Not sure if people will feel bogged down by the additional effort they'll have to put in and prefer to just stare at a screen though.

Without the VR element, that sounds a bit like Secret Cinema or immersive theatre companies like Punch Drunk.

There is a concept like this in the Clarke novel The City and the Stars. One of the entertainments in the far future is essentially playing out pre-scripted stories in a VR kind of system with your friends (although it's a full brain integration kind of thing, not just sensory input).

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