It's very rare for me to experience true edge-of-my-seat uncertainty from fictional movies or books--the sort of uncertainty you get from a close sporting match--but it's my favorite experience when it happens. I think it's very hard to create this in a fictional context.
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It requires the author to first set up two opposing forces or outcomes, and then not tip their hand at all as to which is more likely. There can't be tone cues that a happy/sad ending is more likely or that one character is more favored by the narrative than another.
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It requires that the audience have a very clear understanding of what might occur. A story that simply surprises us with the totally unexpected is not as interesting to me. I want to feel like it's going to be either heads or tails but I really don't know which.
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By contrast, it's relatively trivial to create this pleasurable uncertainty within a game. A critical die roll or card draw carries far more of this type of uncertainty than 90% of movies and books. (Of course, there's plenty of other reasons to enjoy stories besides uncertainty)
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I've often wondered if an author could cheat this by making some sort of meta-promise to the audience. They could frame their story by saying, I'm going to setup 2 possible outcomes, but I won't choose. Instead, in the writing process I will flip a coin and abide by the result.
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Replying to @perryjon
Hah, yeah I always fancied writing a book where I tell the reader: every time someone is shot at, I will roll a dice to see if they die, and stick with it. I suspect they'd never believe you though.
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Replying to @Pentadact
You could maybe record the die rolls with witnesses watching. Then post the video online somewhere. Obviously people wouldn't want to watch the video initially for fear of spoilers, but just knowing that the video exists might be enough to make them believe?
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Replying to @perryjon @Pentadact
It would be really funny to just include a picture of the roll on the side of the page.
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With a skull on it, like these:pic.twitter.com/OEHKZspISg
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