The objective of this study was to examine the storytelling principles of virtual reality contents, which are recently
grabbing much attention, and the patterns of their generation rules and, based on the results, to analyze the elements and
structure of a storytelling method suitable for virtual reality contents. In virtual reality environment, a story is usually
being generated between choices made by a user who behaves autonomously under simulated environmental factors and
the environmental constraints. This corresponds to a mutually complementary role of representation and simulation,
which has been hotly discussed in the field of interactive storytelling. This study was conducted based on the assumption
that such a mutually complementary realization is ideal for virtual reality storytelling. A simulation-based story authoring
tool is a good example that shows this mutual complementation, in that it develops a story through various algorithms
which involves the interaction of agents which occur within the strata of a virtual environment. Therefore, it can be a
methodology for virtual reality storytelling. The structures and elements of narratives used in virtual reality storytelling
which achieve balance of representation and simulation are much similar to an algorithm strategy of a simulation-based
story authoring tool. The virtual reality contents released up to now can be classified into four categories based on the
two axes of representation and simulation. The study focused on contents which are layered in higher strata of both
representation and simulation. In the perspective of representation strata, these contents are actively using such elements
as goal, event, action, perception, internal element, outcome, and setting element, which are constituents of ‘Fabula
model’, to generate time relations and cause-effect relations. And in the perspective of simulation strata, the use of the
‘Late commitment’ strategy allowed users to understand the meanings of their actions taken during the process of
experimenting with various dynamic principles within the environment
