Empathy, Introspection, Immersion --> Interaction

I have already railed at great length regarding my thoughts on the importance of themes when telling a story in books, movies, and video games, but I would like to emphasize one more aspect of these media that impact the story and the reader’s/viewer’s/player’s experience: Interaction.
Forgive this nerd-laden analogy but for millennia, books were the closest things humanity had to the “holodeck” as seen on the TV show Star Trek: The Next Generation. Simply through reading another’s words one could be transported out of this world and into another where the drama, intrigue, and wonder of an author’s narrative can be experienced inside one’s own imagination. Also, the intimate thoughts and desires of the characters are laid bear for the reader to analyze and interpret. Such interpretation is rooted in our (the reader’s) own experiences and it becomes an occasion for introspection. This is one of literature’s greatest accomplishments; stimulating self-contemplation is something that film has been seeking to replicate since its birth as an art form, and which only recently, due to technological advancements, have video games been capable of similar feats as well.
Nowadays though, all three effectively fabricate a playground for the imagination, whisking us away to locales of our choosing. However, one thing that books and video games share that movies do not is their pacing. A movie, whether its length is a standard 90 minutes or an epic, Peter Jackson-180-plus-minutes affair, will always clock in at the same time. Books and video games are different in that a person can spend as little or as long as one wants inside the world of the author/creator. This difference in category should not be viewed as a sleight against motion pictures because, even as the viewer has no direct control over the pacing (or in the case of some video games, the outcome) of the narrative, there is a level of interaction between the events on screen and the spectator. Filmmakers, and also their predecessors of the stage, have long observed the emotional reactions that come from watching a movie. When witnessing acts of extreme barbarity or woe like those found in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List, audience members may sob, cringe, or anger—and in some cases all three in quick succession. Undoubtedly, there is a catharsis that comes from these second hand experiences and it could thus be argued that the film and theater arts are superior to books or video games at eliciting emotion simply from the human connection one develops with the actors.
As engrossing as either film or literature can be though, video games seem poised to deliver (some would argue they already have) the most immersive entertainment experience yet. The holy grail of all game designers is total immersion, whereby the player becomes so inextricably linked with the game world that it becomes reality rather than a highly detailed illusion. Even though today’s designers lack the inscrutable simulators, such as the aforementioned “holodecks,” they often accomplish a level of immersion not found in other media. In the best example, the player becomes the hero/villain and makes the story their own. The moral lessons, drama, comedy, becomes their’s in a surrealistic way. This seems to be the defining characteristic of video games and that which elevates entertainment to hitherto unknown heights.
But whatever your preference—the introspective nature of literature, the empathetic catharsis found in film, or the immersive ability of video games—the fact remains that interaction, in all its varied forms, is pivotal in storytelling.