Digging for the Roots of Digital Storytelling

Interesting article by Carolyn Handler Miller, about the origins of digital storytelling. Excerpt:

On the vast timetable of human achievements, computer-based interactive storytelling is a mere infant, only coming into being in the mid-twentieth century with the development of modern electronic computer technology. These narratives are also characterized by attributes rarely found in other forms of storytelling: they are interactive; they are immersive; they are nonlinear; and they are participatory, meaning that the audience not only takes part in them but can make choices that directly impact the story. Furthermore, the fictional characters in these stories commonly breach the fourth wall – the invisible barrier that separates the story world on one side and the real world on the other. In interactive narratives, it is extremely common for the fictional characters and the audience to communicate with each other and even for audience members to step into the story and play a direct role in it.

Given the fact that these narratives are so new and that they differ in so many important regards from other forms of storytelling, one might wonder if they are an entirely modern invention. Did they enter the world like the Greek goddess Athena, who sprung into the world from the head of her father, Zeus, fully formed, dressed and armed? In other words, are these unique types of works that came into existence only because the development of the electronic computer made them possible? Or do the characteristics that make them so different from other forms of narrative possibly have roots in earlier types of storytelling and other human activities?