The Curse of Interactivity or Vive le Passivity!

When I read a book, the process of turning the page is an important, but entirely unconscious activity which has nothing directly to do with the plot. I like that. I'm glad that each time I turn the page I don't have to figure out how exactly to turn the page--Gee, should I clap my hands three times, bark like a dog and shake the book? or should I turn back to the previous page, re-read the first paragraph and then try turning the page? But that, alas, is what navigating most CD Roms is like. Their creators seem to think that navigation must be challenging and inconsistent in order to be fun. To me, it is just plain frustrating. I don't want to come home after a day of work only to deal with a whole set of arbitrary rules and regulations; I have Microsoft for that, after all...;) No, what I want after a long day and a nasty commute is a relaxing diversion from the stress of my daily life. And when a game is awkwardly imposed upon my reverie, I get irritated. It's like those moments during foreplay when you think, "Did I leave the oven on?" or "Where is that other sock?" - it interupts the seduction. Although I've worked for a multi-media company, the term "interactivity" makes me cringe. Why? Because what I enjoy about other people's music, visuals and stories is that they don't directly include me. I am thrilled by another's odd turn of phrase or quirky metaphors; I can be moved to tears by the right melody and phrasing in a song; I can mourn when a book is finished because I miss the characters within it -- in short, I don't need to be the star of every show. Another problem with interactivty, aside from being an over-used word, is that often there is really only one choice. Let's say you're using a CD Rom and you come to a room with a bookshelf. "Hey, that little red volume on the bottom shelf looks intriguing," you think. So you click on it and nothing happens. In fact, you click on six or seven books and still nothing happens. Finally, you click on the "right" one and *zing* something happens. Wow, man, how interactive...not! Turns out that only one book on the whole shelf will respond to your clicking. So why were you given all those choices to begin with? I see nothing fun nor interactive about pseudo-options that merely steer the user onto a pre-determined path. In fact, passivity and linearity are under-rated and under-explored in multimedia. CD Roms such as Peter Gabriel's "Eve" are a step in the right direction, but even with that I found myself occasionally dealing with the frustration of not figuring out the navigation as quickly as I wanted. Most CD Rom developers ignore one of the main strengths of CD Rom experiences, and that is the dream-like quality one feels due to the lack of dialogue with the characters and the sense of being there and yet being an untouchable observer. This dreamy feeling should be allowed to flow and not be interupted by arbitrary rules, tricks and deadends. This dreamy feeling is what I seek from a good story, website, or CD Rom.