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Netflix is Developing a Slate of Specials That Will Let Viewers Choose the Next Storyline in a TV Episode or Movie, Report Says (bloomberg.com)
Netflix is about to let you decide how your favorite show will end, Bloomberg reported Monday. From the report: The streaming service is developing a slate of specials that will let viewers choose the next storyline in a TV episode or movie, according to people familiar with the matter. The company expects to release the first of these projects before the end of this year, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are still private.
Viewers will get to choose their own storylines in one episode of the upcoming season of "Black Mirror," the Emmy-winning science-fiction anthology series. The show is famous for exploring the social implications of technology, including an episode where humans jockey to receive higher ratings from their peers. The fifth season of the show is expected to be released in December.
The foray into choose-your-own-adventure programming represents a big bet on a nascent form of entertainment known as interactive TV. As Netflix expands around the world, it's looking for new ways to lure customers. By blending elements of video games with traditional television, the company could create a formula that can be applied to any number of series.
Viewers will get to choose their own storylines in one episode of the upcoming season of "Black Mirror," the Emmy-winning science-fiction anthology series. The show is famous for exploring the social implications of technology, including an episode where humans jockey to receive higher ratings from their peers. The fifth season of the show is expected to be released in December.
The foray into choose-your-own-adventure programming represents a big bet on a nascent form of entertainment known as interactive TV. As Netflix expands around the world, it's looking for new ways to lure customers. By blending elements of video games with traditional television, the company could create a formula that can be applied to any number of series.
"Twitch plays Pokemon" comes to TV.
Turn to page 12. Turn to page 49. Turn to page 26. Turn to page 71. You are slayed by...
Haven't they learned anything from cases such as Boaty-McBoatface, Taylor Swifts Biggest Fan,or sending her to a school for the deaf, or sending Pitbull to Alaska
Leaving the choice up to the Internet, or even just Netflix subscribers isn't going to result in the best storylines, or even the storylines that necessarily reflect what actual people want to see.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
It's been done before: Blake 7.
Or how about a character break character while filming and accuse someone of doing something. (It's got to be a female though, since they don't lie.)
And then we could follow the cast and crew spread to the winds while the accused producer loses everything and ends up on the street, disheveled and homeless.
If the universe is someone's simulation -- does that mean the stars are just stuck pixels?
it's a bunch of films: the characters not surpasses "epiosodes"...
Didn't someone try that sort of thing with DVDs many years ago? How'd that work out?
Well for a start the options are going to be limited and, had they done that with the boat I doubt "Boaty-McBoatface" would have been an option. However, an even better option would be to film all the optional endings and then let each viewer choose how they want it to end. Sort of like the Butterfly Effect did where there were four endings: happy, sad, unclear and the director's.
Didn't Sky already do this in Britain? They even had a Doctor Who special that let you use Sky RedButton to point out stuff to the Doctor during the episode, and if you missed the cues, the scene unfolded differently (but did not affect the overall plot).
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
If you are presented with 5 different ways a story ends, people would want to know how it really ends or which one is correct.
Those "choose your adventure" books always had one real ending (killing the princess and rescue the dragon.. whatever.. there's a reason why they work well with plain vanilla fantasy) and you had to get to that ending.
bickerdyke
Netflix produces shows and movies based on recipes (for most), quantity more than quality. Shows like Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, The Wire, have a distinct identity ; none of their creators would let anyone decide the next storyline.
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
With deference to the earlier post "Everybody Dies" and Blake 7 (s/b "Blake's 7 btw).
Been done before, everyone in the audience, THUMBS DOWN.
Tracy Johnson
Old fashioned text games hosted below:
http://empire.openmpe.com/
BT
Why doesn't Netflix go back to what was working? This internal created programing is mostly crap, can't imagine its cheaper then buying really good produced shows and movies. Amazon has basically done the same thing, spending a ton of money on internal productions. Both need to go back to being a content streamer not a production house making failed original content.
Due to:
1) Price gouging by content owners
2) Content owners pulling their content and making competing services
It is probably not only a great deal safer in the long run, but probably cheaper in both the short and long-term to make their own content
Not to mention
3) different constraints on streaming vs broadcast
As this lets them make episodes that do not need to exactly match the current broadcast episode length, or even the length of previous episodes for the same series.
(including explicit material for some series/episodes that could not be broadcast)
Also, the opportunity cost is very different as Netflix is not constrained to 'time-slots' and they can keep things running/available even if they are only marginally popular/profitable because the cost for keeping it available on their servers is effectively zero(if it is theirs), and 'broadcast' costs scale with popularity.
All roads lead to bigotry, scatological humor, and sex.
Because taken as a whole, the Internet is a 12-year-old boy who has no filters, wants to see boobies, and thinks fart jokes are hilarious.
Maybe in the USA. I'm Canadian and I'm really fucking sick of all the useless violence and deaths.
#DeleteFacebook
On the contrary, it would allow for story paths for the lowest common denominator AND story paths for the rest of us.
Netflix is available world-wide, so the lowest common denominator story path would be zero nudity, 200% guns, 300% car chases and 400% gruesome deaths for the USA while the rest of the planet could watch something with tasteful nudity, 1000% less violence and an ending that actually makes sense.
#DeleteFacebook
That could be the basic ending of the branches.
Another idea would be to follow the story on one side instead of the other. See the bad guys point of view, etc.
#DeleteFacebook
People want car chases, guns guns guns, nudity, and no story.
Judging by novel sales, what people what most is a good mystery, followed by romance. Adventure is a distant third, followed by children's stories.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
If you want Calculon to race to the laser gun battle in his hover-Ferarri, press 1. If you want Calculon to double-check his paperwork, press 2. Enter now. Confused, Fry presses "1" on his chair. Mr. Moviefone: You have pressed 2. Fry: No, I didn't! Mr. Moviefone: I'm almost positive you did.
https://www.fsf.org/associate/support_freedom
It's called "gaming", and its bound to do it better than anything like this can.
Somehow I doubt any basically linear form like a movie or a TV show or a novel can offer enough interactivity to matter without undermining the uniquely valuable aspects of traditional storytelling. But it's not surprising that people -- corporate people -- keep trying.
Movies and special TV shows are massive collective undertakings which take immense logistical ingenuity and financial risk just to bring to the screen. Just sit through the credits of a modern tentpole movie and you'll see more than five hundred people listed.
What's lost in all that tends to be authorial point of view. That's why you can go to a community theater and see a play put on by a handful of actors and stage hands that entertains you in a way that movies theoretically could can, but seldom do. It's not that blockbusters don't entertain you, but more often than not what you take away from them is the impressive production craft, not the story.
So I'm not surprised that producers would want to punt on the storytelling. Letting the audience choose is a way of getting them engaged without taking any risks.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Can't be worse than letting Adam Sandler write a series.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I was building and deploying interactive TV apps in Canada in 2001. iTV is nascent like nuclear fusion is nascent.
it's very true (a didn't know the concept)
To be fair, explosions don't look nearly as cool in book form.
You know nothing about the USA. We actually love watching nudity. We just don't want other Americans to see nudity. Those people can't control themselves.
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