In all human cultures, stories are of great importance when it comes to organizing information and communication. On the one hand, this leads to the use of a variety of storytelling techniques in journalism or audiovisual documentary texts. On the other hand, also fictional stories have a great influence on social discourse – often a greater one than purely factual formats. In both film and game, this has led to their own genre designations for narratives – Entertainment Education and Serious Games. These fictional narratives are produced with the intention of changing human behavior, advancing social discourse, and acting as agents of change. Reception is not only meant to entertain and emotionalize, but to effect concrete behavioral modifications.
Is storytelling, therefore, a political and sustainable way to change society and human behavior? What is the responsibility of storytellers who reach a large number of recipients with their stories? How can empathy be generated through stories in a globalized society marked by wars and disruptive events? Can interactive and immersive formats such as Computer Games or LARPs, which involve the recipients in the creation of the narrative, have a more lasting effect than classic, linear formats?