Dramatic interaction requires language. You cannot tell a story without language. There have been a few striking counterexamples, such as some comics and the movie Koyaanisqatsi. These are so strikingly exceptional that I do not believe that they contradict my claim that language is essential.
Yet for the foreseeable future, we cannot use natural language for interactive storytelling; while the technology for understanding simple natural language is already functional, the nuances of dramatic interaction lie well beyond the reach our technology.
A language for use in interactive storytelling consists of a great deal more than a dictionary; merely listing words doesn’t get us very far. The words in a sentence combine to create meaning. The words must be related algorithmically. The verbs in particular require extensive algorithms to define the processes that they represent.
We must therefore create an artificial language for interactive storytelling. The first task in creating a new language is the specification of the word types to be used in the language. The types of words used in natural languages (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, etc) are inappropriate for use in interactive storytelling. They’re the wrong way to view the problem. We need word types appropriate to the needs of a storyworld.
The Deikto system for creating a language is the best we have at this time; I hope that we can improve upon it. This system ties the words together algorithmically. The Deikto system does not specify how the words of the language are presented to the user.
That presentation can be handled by any number of means. The two most likely candidates are textual representations and logographic (iconic) representations.
I presently believe that a logographic presentation is the most promising avenue to explore. However, the Deikto system works just as well with each one.