What are your favorite digital-only stories? | Hacker News Reader

What are your favorite digital-only stories?

5 pointspcmaffey3 comments

Why are most stories still created for traditional "offline" formats—books, articles, videos, even comics are mostly still imgs. With how much time we all spend online, why aren't we creating and consuming more digitally native stories (fiction and non-fiction)? Video games provide some outlet for this, but the web is infinite in space and possibility. I'd love to uncover those rare websites that exist only to tell a story, to be experienced. That are immersive, playful, and often interactive, drawing you in in the way the best storytellers do.

So what are your favorite digital-only stories? Stories that can't be printed out and read or watched on a TV, without crippling the experience?

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BBC Taster is a long-running project from the BBC exploring experimental ideas. They have many 'experiments' with drama and storytelling using audio or technology like VR. Here are two examples which sound intriguing (I haven't listened to them):

-- The Inspection Chamber (requires Amazon Alexa)

> Use your Amazon Alexa to enter the Inspection Chamber. Play your part through voice interactions in this exclusive science fiction comedy

https://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/pilots/inspection-chamber

-- Monster

> Monster is an immersive horror drama. You create and control the impact of the horror by connecting as many everyday devices (laptops, phone and tablets) as you can, deciding how closely and from where you want to experience the terrors that emerge.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/pilots/monster

-- More from BBC Taster

Here is a list of all the experiments - drama is just one part of the list (some of them have expired too).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/all/

I think Worm counts? https://parahumans.wordpress.com/

It's one of those things that seems impossible to write without a supportive fan base encouraging the author to regularly output it. I'm sure for a lot of these, the story and writing style might even change iteratively around the fan base.

A few non-fiction stories I love:

https://neal.fun/deep-sea/ - Gives me the feeling of wonder I'd had as a kid looking at "explore the world" type picture books...

https://ncase.me/trust/ - Really everything by Nicky Case is top notch, but I particularly enjoy this one.

Fiction:

http://memories.sutueatsflies.com/ - Love the way the words flow over the pictures.

https://www.featherbuuble.com - My own humble attempt from a few years ago... so much fun making this.

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