Within the world of "virtual worlds and stories" Young (2007, p. 194) states that the "key feature of these worlds is the level of interactivity that they offer the user. The ability to step into the narrative world and play a character in the story, to take substantive action within the unfolding story."

So, virtual worlds, and virtual/interactive cinema, allow us to, in a sense, step outside of our world, and into the virtual world and partake in the undefined and emerging story. In a sense, we become avatars:

"So, the typical scenario for twenty-first century cinema involves a user represented as an avatar existing literally "inside" the narrative space, rendered with photorealistic 3-D computer graphics, interacting with virtual characters and perhaps other users, and affecting the course of narrative events." (Manovich 1997, II. Cinema section)

So, as interactors, we impact upon the overall narrative. But should we be? Narrative can function alone:

"One of the major factors conducing to multi-tasking split attention and distraction derives from the predication of interaction upon changes to the narrative evolution which the interactor performs: a type of interaction that is redundant in narrative." (Ben-Shaul 2004 p. 158)

Interactivity within narrative - within cinema, as Manovich wants - is unnecessary. Narrative does not need it. Users may not need it. Users may not like it.