Elusive. That’s the current status of interactive drama, be it via tv, online or even old cd-roms. The market, the technology and the creative structure have yet to gel commercially for the masses.

At the recent Toronto International Film Festival Symposium, Atlantis’ Marty Katz likened the industry’s reception to interactive entertainment as akin to a bunch of vaudeville producers being told people will pay to sit in a darkened room and watch on film what they could be seeing live.

Nonetheless, whoever nails interactive content down and delivers it (competently) first is going to have an advantage as the I-way battle for eyeballs and fingertips shapes up.

There’s a lot of deeply thought development going on at the same time technology is ramping up with better tools, and pundits such as fellow panelist, Digital Planet president Joshua Greer, expect serious action within a year.

Greer, a Net pioneer, is among those readying his interactive entertainment product for the online ramp, betting on the advantages of the Internet as a provider of increasingly media-rich content, and capitalizing on its advertising potential.

With a case to be made for the homepage advantage in the infopike content league going to the Net, the telcos and cablecos are drafted into a catch-up position (see Interactivities beginning p. 1). What’s needed is a killer application that will turn heads in their broadband direction. Interactive drama may be the ticket.

In their favor, the broadcasters have a certain acquired skill in the spectacle-creation arena, but so far, the consortiums behind the interactive tv tests haven’t offered content that thrills and excites.

Although frequent late-charge incurrers might be intrigued, movies-on-demand, and a myriad of other services currently available elsewhere, are not enough in terms of content provision.

With a growing number of players cabling, modeming, and beaming down from all directions, one of the benefits of the uneasy balance of power is that the basic premise of supply and demand prevails in spades, and that could be good news for producers with new product.

Platform-compatibility (there’s an oxymoron) – thwarted interactive producers may find a niche that would allow them to shift their energies to the creative evolution of their new media, and just maybe, guys who write code won’t be calling the shots.

‘Eureka!’ has yet to be heard in interactive drama. ‘A lot of people are excited about interactive drama,’ says Greer, ‘and then say, `Now what do we do about it?’ What we have to see is some interesting products come out.’

Pointing to the fact that the interactive product that’s been produced is so far uninteresting, Katz says the Holy Grail is to find the linkage structure that allows drama to unfold in your head. ‘We’re waiting for Eisenstein’s montageuntil then we’ll just be filming vaudeville.’