Whether it be books, visual or audio, we have been kept on the edge of our seats by gripping storylines and turned off by uninteresting ones that don’t grasp our attention.

The ability to choose storylines has been around for sometime now with adventure books. My favorite was “Deathtrap Dungeon” by Ian Livingstone from the Fighting Fantasy range of books.  These were my entry level in to gaming, however there are earlier versions of this type of themed book.

A couple of experimental programs have been broadcast on TV where the viewers choose the next actions are taken. This input can be via an mobile application or smart TV and the shows editors broadcast the next scene as per the votes. We have had this ability for a while though with voting for winners of a program or to send someone home. These types of viewing does bring pressures into the lounge with who has the controller or who asks the voice assistant to vote.

On-line content is easier to collect the choices and stream out the next scene. This allow each viewer to make their own choices and stream choices to individuals.

The BBC Click on-line program has now offered content based on choices and starts with a Fighting Fantasy book as their introduction before allowing you to choose which content you want to view.

Are we ready for interactive programs or will there be a increase of arguments over Eastenders or Love Island. For me this works well with on-line content, until we get to a general population of Smart TV’s with the ability to stream individual outcomes to households.

Our choices will also be a good indication back to content producers as to what works and what doesn’t.