Introduction to the Special Issue

The special issue "New Challenges of Interactivity in Narrative Creation" explores how profound social, technological, and cultural shifts have radically transformed the creation and consumption of contemporary stories. It traces the historical evolution of narrative from traditional linguistic, theatrical, and cinematic roots to the interactive architectures of modern digital media. In doing so, it addresses the historical ambiguity of "interactivity," arguing that contemporary user agency operates as a nuanced, negotiated process influenced by media convergence, technological infrastructures, and market forces. Within this ecosystem, traditional narratological structures face critical challenges. A multitude of multilinear formats, database aesthetics, and algorithmic toolkits have decentralized the classical authority of the author, editor, and critic. This fragmentation creates an individualistic emotional relationship with the stories users experience. To discuss these phenomena, the issue compiles five papers that examine interactive narrative across the subversion of the "prosumer" model in collaborative digital encyclopedias; the hybrid and fragmented identities within the VTuber live-streaming phenomenon; the tension between capitalistic ecosystems and cultural memory preservation through indigenous game design in Raji: An Ancient Epic; the spatial-temporal dynamics of the modern video game fragment as a Bakhtinian chronotope in Silent Hill; and the metanarrative functions of liminal spaces and environmental storytelling in The Stanley Parable. Collectively, these works reveal that interactive narratives offer new ways to explore complex topics in a rapidly changing cultural and technological ecosystem.