Problem: Erasmatron beginners face a steep learning curve, and don't know where to start. What to do? Here are my thoughts on three possible solutions:
This would be something like Guideworks, a second-generation help system that takes a more proactive stance than conventional help systems. My problem with this is, we really don't know how to design this thing. If we could stand over a storybuilder's shoulder and give advice, what would we say? I wouldn't know what to say, and if we can't figure out what a human-mediated tutorial would look like, then how can we design a computer-mediated tutorial?
This would be a series of forms that the storybuilder fills out that pave the way for the creation of the storyworld. The forms ask questions about the conflict, the characters, and the actions available to them; then the forms become the basis for the first verbs in the storyworld. Again, I am bothered by the vagueness of this concept: what forms? what should they say? How would the software convert vaguely worded answers into actual content (verbs, background, etc)?
This is my preferred solution. I think that I should design a demo storyworld that exercises the most important features of the Erasmatron. The learning process for the student storybuilder is to take the demo storyworld and soup it up. I can leave lots of obvious dangling possibilities that could serve as the starting point. It's always easier to edit than to create, and it's especially useful to have a complete and fully operational system to toy with so that you can see the whole forest before you start building your own trees.
Unlike the previous options, I can clearly imagine this demo storyworld. It should have a small cast, just three or four characters; only a few stages open; few Things, and about a dozen verbs. It should focus on a fragment of dramatic interaction, something dramatically very common and modular.
Why am I wasting time arguing with myself about this? Just do it.
OK, I will.