In the 1990s Cyberspace, multimedia, the internet and on-line communication have been appropriated by the masses as their latest entertainment obsession. Multi-player games, chat-rooms and Search Engines offer a variety of distractions to the end-user.

It has been exactly 100 years since the last mass frenzy over a media innovation. In the 1890s, the magic of film was introduced by the Lumiere Brothers in France when they screened a train rapidly approaching the audience. In this historic moment, half the audience ran screaming from the hall, for fear that they would be run down. . . but they kept coming back for more . . . and flooded the penny arcades to watch the hand-cranked machines show simulations of the animated physical world on the moving screen.

The Filmic Medium is about the manipulation of the physical dimension: the impact of image size, the dynamics of movement, the variation of points-of-view, and the juxtaposition of them so that the sequence of images creates an impact upon the viewer's consciousness and emotional state.

Cyberspace, involving multimedia, the internet and on-line engagement, is a medium about the manipulation of the mental dimension. Its strongest impact is on the sub-conscious, rather than the conscious. Mental constructs, our assumptions, our deep seated beliefs and expectations, our personal boundaries, our sense of self, our mental processes, are all called into play. How is this so? Because we directly engage in an interactive process which takes place within a digital medium wherein we reveal aspects of our mental processes through language/text, image, roles engaged in, and interlock with others who are also revealing aspects of their mental dimension.

The beginnings of interactive soap could start out with something simple: Live-on-line Little Interactive Episodic Serials. A player would log on to a given website, choose a character, receive instructions as to the character's intended goal, and then engage with other characters (players) from around the world in order to achieve the character's goal. Players could explore playing hero roles of which they never thought they were capable. Players get hooked into the roleplay when the central question is asked: will I achieve my goal or will I be led astray, seduced by the devious intentions of others? Players could also choose to explore the Villain, the shady aspects of self that they dare not explore in real life. Again, the central question hooks the player into a learning curve: will evil triumph or will the villain be foiled by the noble deeds of others? And by the way, what was that neat strategy that character used to deflect negative criticism?!