Interactive Storytelling in VR Games: Revisiting Janet Murray’s Legacy
Baltic Journal of Legal and Social Sciences
This article examines the prospects for interactive storytelling in virtual reality (VR) games through the theoretical lens of Janet Murray’s foundational concepts: immersion, agency, and transformation. While Murray’s work provided a seminal framework for digital narrative, the rapid evolution of VR technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) necessitates a critical reassessment of these ideas. Utilizing a narrative literature review, this study synthesizes theoretical extensions by scholars such as Marie-Laure Ryan and Hartmut Koenitz, while addressing ludological critiques regarding the tension between game rules and narrative structure. The analysis identifies three primary directions for future development: the integration of AI for real-time adaptive narratives, the use of VR for educational and empathetic “storyliving,” and the emergence of collaborative storytelling in social VR spaces. The study argues that while VR amplifies the potential for embodied narrative experiences, it also introduces significant ethical and practical challenges, including algorithmic bias, accessibility barriers, and the risk of illusory agency. The conclusions suggest that the future of VR storytelling lies in hybrid models that successfully balance authored intent with procedural openness and social responsibility.
Argument and scope
The paper revisits Janet Murray’s triad of immersion, agency, and transformation as a working lens for VR game storytelling. Rather than treating Murray as a closed canon, it places her categories against later narrative theory (including Marie-Laure Ryan and Hartmut Koenitz) and against ludological objections about the friction between rules and story.
Three development lines structure the discussion: AI-driven adaptive narrative, educational and empathetic “storyliving” in VR, and collaborative storytelling in social VR. Across these lines, embodiment is treated as a condition of narrative experience, not merely as a technical feature of headsets.
Conclusions
Murray’s framework remains productive for VR if agency is measured not only by choice count but by the quality of meaningful, embodied presence. VR can intensify immersion and transformation, yet it also multiplies ethical and practical risks — algorithmic bias, accessibility limits, and illusory agency. The study concludes that viable futures for VR storytelling are hybrid: authored intention coexists with procedural openness and social responsibility.
Full text: DOI 10.30525/2592-8813-2025-4-18.
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