Blog on Afternoon, A Story

Electronic Literature

A couple notes from the reading:

Before diving into new texts—I prefer to read the articles about them so I have an idea of what to expect. In the beginning they discuss the digitality of all current texts—the basic precept of nearly all books—they are formed and stored digitally. In a previous English class, we read House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. While the author does not go into this novel in depth regarding the visuality—it was truly unique. Visually, words appeared in different parts in the page—most notably, I remember having to look at the book through a mirror on some pages as that was the only way to read them legibly. It was a very different experience from any book I had ever read before.

In regards to dynamic heterarchies and fluid analogies—I liked the author’s explanation of the dynamic heterarchy when he explained the fetus growing inside a mother’s body, the mother’s body is forming the fetus but the fetus is also reforming the mother’s body (45). This analogy lends itself to electronic texts by giving the reader a different experience each time he or she experiences the piece. Furthermore, the descriptions of the MP3 player and creating an executable from programming bring two things to the table. One, the author brings up things that are current and relevant to the reader and the second, he seems to have knowledge on the subject, he either has made electronic literature before, knows how to put it together and the steps that are involved.

Michael Joyce: Afternoon: A Story

After playing interactive fiction and immersing ourselves in hypertext media, this is certainly a step backwards in terms of display. Upon opening the application, we are greeted with the copyright date 1987,93 and a picture that appears to be about 300dpi in grayscale. This work does seem to get one thing right, or at least it has a good aspect to it, one can click yes (y) for directions on how to navigate through the piece.

Instructions from help text:

RETURN KEY – Navigate through the text.

BACK ARROW – Page back.

DOUBLE CLICK – Bring up more information about a particular word.

Other useful information:

TEXTURE – Certain words have texture, usually character names and pronouns.

Y|N – One can type Y or N or click the buttons for Y and N to respond to questions.

What I do not like so far is when I click certain words to find out more about them, I wish it popped up a small note or something more modern, but rather it takes me to a new page and then I have to click back each time I look at word. This makes reading into the words a bit tedious. I find the help from the earlier instructions—is true, when I click regular words, it takes me to the next page; where as when I click names it gives me more information about a character. I will continue to work through this piece; although, it would be nice to know how long it goes on for so I can allocate an adequate chunk of time for this story.

As noted in class, one can continue through several pages until you get into a loop in which the user must take action.

“fenceline”

“relic”

“can I help you?”

“no, I say”

“transcript”

“I call”

This series of slides will repeat until the user chooses a different path besides just pressing return or clicking “Y” continuously.

The premise of this piece—is the main character is Peter and he has witnessed a car accident and it may involve his son and ex-wife.

Also mentioned in class was the dialogue, I agree it takes a while to get used to as the reader needs to ascertain who is talking—as it is not explicitly stated.

Ann Arbor is located in Michigan, more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Arbor,_Michigan

While searching around for hints online about certain pieces of this text, I found a document containing the entire text itself:

http://fortunaty.net/text/textz/textz/joyce_michael_afternoon.tmp

Doing a little scoping of the raw text— it is composed of ~1512 lines and ~25,249 words.

I liked the text on the “but this…” slide, he mentions a Cray and parallel processing—its rare to find mention of these types of computers, especially in literary texts. A computer that was marveled— in its time.

The narrator or main character drives a truck, his wife drives a Bimmie. What is a Bimmie supposed to represent, a small vehicle? On “I want 2” it stated “He’d be alive still if he’d had the station car.” – in this slide, who is “he?”

Two further items, one is what relation does the Title Changes in the menubar have to do with the story? Second, “Medusa,” I find the computer comments very interesting, something only a geek would say, “In the silence I could hear the humming of hard disks.”

Overall comment in terms of navigation and the text itself, even though Hegirascope was not concrete, I found it more entertaining and interesting than this piece story—pure black and white text with a very early interface, similar to HyperCard for the Macintosh back in the 1980s. If we were in the 1980s this may be more interesting, with the advent of Flash, Java and other plug-ins, it is difficult to keep my attention on this work of fiction.

If you choose the wrong way out, it takes you back to the beginning and is rather irritating. However, the history is nice allowing you to go back where you made the bad decision and pickup where you left off. On “I know” it states “I’m afraid they have been hurt—I say—I’m afraid they died.” At the end of this path, there is still no resolution, the woman tells Peter to call and then he will know.

I am not sure if one exists—but it would be very interesting to see a concept map of this piece.

Other/misc information:

Characters:

Werther, Peter, Peter’s Wife, Andrew/Andy, Lisa/Lolly, Nausicaa, Woman he flirts with at work.

Company:
Dataquest

Learn How To Unlearn What You Have Learned

While reading Michael Joyce’s “Afternoon” I felt like I was being pushed by the author to leave behind all the preconceptions I  have about reading and interpreting a text. Perhaps that is why I failed to conceptualize the story when I initially read it, since I was desperately searching for the different pieces of the story in order to find out what it’s about, instead of enjoying the journey. However, once I left my inclination to search for any form of order in “Afternoon” – an impossible task, since “Afternoon” has numerous characters that live inside different times/spaces – I began enjoying the fragments of the various stories.

I believe Joyce has a smile on his face every time he thinks about how “Afternoon” and its lexias ask the reader to learn how to unlearn what they have learned about reading a text in order to enjoy his story.

A story that is about Peter who may have seen is his ex-wife and their son die in a car crash, but which is from a thematic perspective is predominantly about sex and death. If you don’t believe me, than explore Nausicaa and Lolly’s relationship – “Olympus” is a good lexia to begin with – or find out if there was or wasn’t a love quadrangle between Peter, Nausiica, Werther and Lolly.

If I’m to be honest I was less concerned with the story’s theme, than with “Afternoon’s” declaration of war on closure. Yes, we discussed closure in class, but only after I had found out that the last page in “Afternoon” reads: “Work in Progress” – so does every link leading out of it – did I begin to think that the purpose of this story was prove that there can be closure without ending a story. I certainly felt that there was closure in “Afternoon,” since I was at peace with the development of the story’s different fragments, and with the fact that it will never end – as the line ”Work in Progress” proves.

Then again, do we truly want closure? If we do there wouldn’t be dozens of prequels and sequels for all the movies and books that we love. I for one like the idea of having closure without, well, having closure in the traditional sense of the word. I think we always had this concept in our lives and “Afternoon” only points that out for us.

Initial Thoughts on “Afternoon”

Seeing that it came with a manual upon installation, I was both frightened and relieved. Frightened because anything that recommends a reading of the manual presents itself as complicated. Relieved because the fact that I thought I had a manual to fall back on in the event I got confused was nice. However, when I opened the manual, I found that it really only had the basic tools mapped out along with an about the author and some copyright info. Real helpful…

Upon first opening the game, I elected to read the instructions as opposed to just diving right in because I assumed if I just started without rhyme or reason I would just end up in a corner or hole with no idea of what to do. The instructions confused me at first because I think the language he used did not sit well with me. I still am not quite sure what he means by words “yielding” something. Is that supposed to mean they take me somewhere? Why not just say it that way? I don’t need him to be “playful” here because all I want to do is learn how to play “afternoon”.

Once I began playing it for the first time, I was amazed. I could not believe that practically any word I clicked on took me somewhere different. As said in class, this was almost like “Hegirascope”, except ANYTHING on the page was eligible to take me somewhere different. That, and not having to worry about a time constraint was nice, too.  Also like “Hegirascope”, I was not quite sure how the pages corresponded to one another. The order made sense in terms of being led to something similar in the realm of what I clicked on, but there didn’t seem to be a solid story anywhere that I could find.

These were just my initial thoughts and I’m sure we’ll learn a lot more about it in class.

Blog #4: Vespers

I think Krisztian brought up an interesting point about “self-reflection and questioning our true selves.” I found this to be relevant to a certain degree while attempting to navigate through Vespers. Unlike in The Baron, I was unable to make the same sort of interactive choices which would significantly impact my outcome, although I felt as though I was an atmosphere which was clearly defined by a set of morals, specifically the Christian religion.

I had great difficulty getting to an ending in Vespers as I tried to interact with the brothers of the monastery who seemed to have grave mental issues and disorders. I visited and re-visited several sites around the church, examining various objects and pathways. Something was clearly affecting those brothers who remained at the church, and it was obvious that some sort of traumatic event had occurred on the grounds of the church, as evidenced by the ruins, ashes, et al.

I felt like I was attempting to navigate through a particularly elaborate maze, as I found myself in many rooms (the Cloistery, the character’s room, the hallway, and so on) and felt as though I kept running out of choices to examine, touch, or otherwise interact with the data that might be available to me. As with many of the other Interactive Fiction narratives, I found myself frustrated and confused.

This confusion was not lessened at all by the supposed “hints” that popped up, sometimes too quickly for me to read them, at the top of some of the screens. Most of the messages appeared to be religious in nature, ostensibly coming from the Bible. These hints did little to help me, and, in fact, I found none of them useful. One, which was about laughter, foreshadowed a future dialogue with Matteo, in which he laughs, seemingly, at nothing in particular, or at least in a manner that is nonsensical. None of the brothers of the monastery seemed to provide any real clues as to what path the character was supposed to follow.

Perhaps this was a particular trail I took and others were able to find other ones, but the only ending I could come to was one that took me to the top of the Belltower. In this ending, the character talks to the brother, Matteo, but their conversation is quickly exhausted and little to no information is revealed by the end of their exchange. Suddenly, the character feels a scratch beneath his skin. I tried several commands, such as “scratch itch,” “touch skin,” and so on. Finally, I decided to navigate north. Apparently, I had made an “unlucky” choice, and found my character plummeting to his death. I was informed that he had committed suicide. “Hell has a special place for those who commit suicide,” the screen read. 

Ultimately, Vespers seems to be a story of despair and loss, though I was unable to come to a true realization or conclusion about the meaning of the story. The other characters are listless, crying, and mostly absent from the story other than acting as further indicators that something is ostensibly very wrong with this church and that something terrible has happened. In terms of Interactive Fiction, I feel that Vespers is a richer, more complex text than most of the ones we have encountered so far. Nonetheless, I am still unsure of the message it is trying to send, exactly. Perhaps if there are other potential endings which are more easily accessible, I would better be able to acquire an understanding of the text.

You had me at, “Why did you do that?”

Over the years interactive fiction had blessed me with a variety of different feelings, like anger, frustration and delight, but I don’t think that this genre had ever disturbed me. That is, before I read “The Baron.”

The game’s premise and prose may sound cliché at first to people who read interactive fiction. There is a girl that was abducted by an “evil” baron and you as the father have to save her. On your quest you encounter a dragon in a bone filled cave – a cave and a dragon that is interestingly the beginning and the end of the tale – a forest filled with danger, a village, and of course, a ruined castle. So what is so disturbing about “The Baron” that the author had to write a disclaimer and a warning for it?” After all, it’s only a tale that is full of clichés and propagates a fairly linear plot. The answer to this question lies in the representation and consequences of your decisions.

When I was in the forest and I encountered the wolf, I decided to kill her, even though deep down I knew that she was only protecting her son. I killed her, because I knew that “my daughter” was in danger, and the fastest way to save her was to kill the wolf. I thought that trading wolf’s life for my daughter’s was a reasonable choice. I was wrong. After typing “kill wolf,” I not only had to read in gruesome detail as I killed her, but I was confronted by a gargoyle as to why I did it? That’s when the game became disturbingly intriguing, because by then it was not about the protagonist anymore, but rather it was about me. I, like the protagonist, had personal stake in the tale.

Perhaps that is why it feels wrong to place “The Baron” into the interactive fiction genre, since it offers so much more then traditional interactive fictions – like self-reflection by questioning our true selves. That is why “The Baron” had me at “Why did you do that?” and that is why I will keep an eye on this evolving genre from now on. Now lets get back to “The Baron…”

Photopia

I attempted Photopia today. I can definitely say that I got a lot further with it than I did with the Lost Pig and Shade. I guess because it was most similar to the Choose your own adventure books. The story continues progressing as you enter the commands. What surprised me was when it started the story was of two guys in a car, they were both drunk and were driving to meet these girls that they had met earlier in the day. The driver passed a red light in the intersection and the story moved on to the exploration of the red planet Mars. I got a bit confused at first at how quickly the story jumped. As I was discovering the red planet it was coming along easier the computer and I were in sync, that is until the end when the explore found what they had come looking for and needed to head back to the spaceship before running out of oxygen. Whatever command I wrote I could not get the explore to do anything, I even re-read the instructions and the prompts so that I could get back to the spaceship nothing worked.  I just wish that I were able to finish the story before frustration kicks in and I give up.

I really do think that I much rather prefer hypertext than interactive fiction, because its easier to click on a picture than it is to figure out what command the computer will recognize.  I guess of all the interactive fiction that I had done the one that we did in class Aisle was the easiest for me to navigate through. 

Photopia

I remember spending library time in elementary school reading tons of Choose Your Own Adventure books and not following any of the rules deemed necessary in them. I was however completely unaware that there was more than just the CYOA books out there and that interactive fiction was an entire genre fueled even more so by the web. Just as with the CYOA books, I find the genre as a whole interesting to a point, but beyond that annoying. I don’t get the endings I want so I switch it around. Although with hypertexts like Photopia I could not break the rules with a simple flipping of pages like in CYOA. I found the interactive fiction on the web to be frustrating and annoying. With these I could not simply make a choice and go with it. I had to work with the programmer and the text to find proper ways to word commands that would agree with the hypertext or continue. It was frustrating having to gain a feel for the program before I could really progress into the story which I think could either encourage or discourage a user depending upon their type of personality. I couldn’t simply create a command. I had to retrain myself to think in a different way which perterbed me. It was a tedious task considering that only one out of every three or so commands would provide me with a continuance of the plot, although I suppose I did find it satisfying when I finally got the hang of the program, but by then I was ready to be done with it. Mainly, I’d be more satisfied if we could go back to CYOA, only with a little more added difficulty to the text and choices.

Blog #3 – Interactive Fiction

When interactive fiction was first discussed in the class I was immediately reminded of a game I had played a few years ago called shrapnel.  I was given no context for the game and just simply tried to make my way through it.  It proved an extremely interesting story, sort of a post-modern version of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. And now after being more familiar with the genre I notice several things about shrapnel that I did not before.  For one thing, it was written by Adam Cadre, the author of Photopia.  As well, now having read Aisle, I realize the ways in which shrapnel cleverly engaged with the genre, namely the single-move-and-the-story-ends angle of Aisle and other texts.  In shrapnel, you are placed near a house and are given the descriptions of areas to the East, West, North, and South of your position, and usually after two or three moves you are killed in some grizly fashion, by being devoured by dogs or shot in the chest with a shotgun, etc.  However, the interesting thing shrapnel does with this is remember each time you were killed and the locations of your deaths, allowing you to encounter the scenes of your numerous deaths and see how the story has been impacted by them.  It really stretches the premise of Aisle in a very interesting way that makes the text all the more bizarre as the story shifts back and forth in time, as its setting in the Civil War becomes more pronounced, and as you try to grasp whether you are a ghost or to what degree your presense in the narrative is actually felt.  Not wanting to ruin the ending, the text becomes a sort of meditation on interactive fiction itself, and a speculative musing on the potential of technology.

Shrapnel can be found here: http://www.wurb.com/if/game/645

my interaction with interactive fiction

This was my first interaction with interactive fiction. Before two days ago i didn’t even know what it was. But after playing around with it for a little awhile ive come to the conlcusion i could of probably lived my life completely fine without it. it seems to be stuck in the middle of a CYOA book and a video game but its not nearly as fun as the two. its to slow paced to be as fun as a game because half the time the computer didn’t recognize my commands leading me to become frustrated. and frustration isn’t my idea of a good time. Then its similar to CYOA book but theres more work involved. There are already a few set paths i going to have to take. but instead of being told what my chioces are i have to narrow them down by typing North, south, east and west. If i can’t go south or west just tell me my choices are north and east. Don’t make me waste time pushing keys for no reason. On the flip side all this work and frustration did leave me with a sense of accomplishement when all was said and done. I felt like i worked hard to get to the ending and getting there was rewarding. i do feel, however, i worked a little to hard to get there. maybe what they should do is have different levels of interactive fiction. Like youth, young adult, and adult. that way people like me can get the benefits of interactive fiction without as much work.

Blog 3: Lost Pig and Shade

While I must admit, and agree with other like comments for blog #3, I found the idea and process of Interactive Fiction to be quite odd at first discussion. Pared with this, I was not really sure what the point of this genre of writing was. My opinion on this will be discussed at the end of this post, but for now I would like to discuss Lost Pig and Shade.

I personally found these two “games” harder to navigate than ones discussed in our last class (Aisle). Especially in Shade, it seemed as though the program did not recognize items that it should have. For example, the background and beginning scene describes the room: telling us there is a window, desk, bathroom and luggage by the door. Why, if these items are mentioned in the description, are they not recognized in commands? I find this very discouraging for the program.

I found Lost Pig slightly more entertaining. Perhaps this is because I found it easier to navigate and the commands more recognized (after a few annoyances) or perhaps its because I am from a small farm town and can relate to the farm life and way of speaking. Also, one of the reasons I think I found this more interesting is because we were given a point. In Lost Pig, we are to find the pig and bring it back to the farmer; in Shade we are simply bumming around the apartment waiting for our ride to come. What exactly are we supposed to be doing?

Finally, my opinion on the IF genre as a whole. Again, I did not understand the purpose and the reasoning. However, now I see (and remember) that the whole purpose of writing is self expression and creativity. IF def does just this. Not only are the authors able to write what they want, but they are able to do it in a way that is beyond just writing. They show their creativity and playful side. This is the purpose of Interactive Fiction.

Blog #3 Interactive Fiction

I guess I wasn’t the only one that wasn’t quite sure what Interactive Fiction was. It seems like a pretty cool idea, creating a transfusion of a choose your own adventure story, user interactivity, and game. I can’t say it’s completely random simply because the user has somewhat full control of what is going on or what will happen next. Similar to a CYOA book, you control the outcome, but the story still has a predetermined path – interactive fiction just disguises it with the ability for the reader to write out what he or she wants to happen. Even by giving the reader a prompt to type out what he or she whats to happen next, the prompt does not recognize all the commands, and only recognizes the commands installed by the author, making it pretty much predetermined.

I spent most of my time trying to figure out the main point/idea of Shade. Not sure if I was doing it completely wrong but it started to get frustrating when I couldn’t figure out what to do or what command to type. It seemed like every command I typed in the prompt was “a verb not recognized” or it answers me with the prompt, “you can’t see any such thing.” I went on for about 30 minutes, typing anything, everything, I could think of to try and get this ‘game’ going. But I finally broke down and cheated and searched the web. I googled it and at first read all of the wonderful things people had to say about it – how great this concept was and how innovative and ‘easy to follow’. Maybe it’s just me? Maybe I’m alone on how confusing Shade is…?

So I looked around and actually found some commands/ a tutorial (http://webhome.idirect.com/~dswxyz/sol/shade.html) of some sort. I didn’t follow it completely, but just went by the commands it gave so I could at least get the prompts going. But even with this tutorial, I have still yet to find the proper words/commands to finish the story – or the game. I managed to make him drink water from the bathroom sink, but somehow cannot locate his plane tickets!

Lost Pig and Shade

Blog post for Admiral Jota, Lost Pig and Andrew Plotkin, Shade

In certain interactive fiction (IF) I find a subtle variation in response time, which I believe is an important aspect of IF.  For example, the Eliza interpreter link off the course syllabus responds instantaneously but with normal human interaction this normally does not occur, people have to think before speaking; whereas with Eliza there is a full response in less a few seconds.  With Lost Pig, I have not checked the source code to this piece of IF, but there is definitely a 1-2 second delay when performing actions.  The computer I am using not slow, nor is the server, it is most likely a delay put into the piece by the author.  This is very peculiar, I wonder if different pieces of IF use different delays based on the actions performed by the characters to make the interactivity seem more realistic?  In addition, I like to keep track of the code types used for each piece of IF we read in class; in this case they are both javascript-does the software used-java, javascript or flash affect interactive fiction differently?  I ask as different functions and capabilities are available in the code bases that may allow some things to occur in java and others in flash.

Admiral Jota, Lost Pig

In Lost Pig, on the top, a “menu-like” bar informs the user of location or subject that is presented in the text on each screen.  In addition, there is also a numerical score on the top right of the bar.  The Grunk character reminds me of an oricish-like figure; in the Release information presented on the first slide the serial number appears to be a date code, 08/04/2006.  When I typed help, the web page had errors so I referred to the e-mail Prof. Sample had sent out for assistance.  Following the help page I moved around exploring the bushes, climbing the wall and eventually ended up burning the forest.  The pig started squealing, Grunk grabbed it, and the game was over.

Andrew Plotkin, Shade

The serial number also appears to be a date code, according to Wikipedia this piece was written in 2000 so the year begins in the beginning of the date code; I miss the help feature as was given to us in Lost Pig.  There is a menu bar like there was in Lost Big, but in this case, only the location is given, there no score.  Incase anyone was curious the hyacinth refers to a plant which are “bulbous herbs formerly placed in the lily family Liliaceae but now regarded as the type genus of the separate family Hyacinthaceae” (Wikipedia).  The “help” option does work in this piece of IF; however, it is not too useful.  After about 30 minutes, trying to figure out what was going on I looked for help and found http://waxy.org/2003/03/shade_and_inter/.  Apparently, I am not alone in my trouble with this piece.  Overall, I prefer the “Lost Pig” type of IF where one can traverse multiple pathways and has more leeway in terms of where one can visit.  I felt like I was in a box in this game and without a substantial help page it makes it difficult to figure out the main idea behind this piece of IF.

Superbad.com

Hegirascope reminded me of a website I used to go to all the time when I was in high school: SuperBad.com (no relation to the movie). I don’t remember exactly how I came across it (it was probably featured on Bored.com or a similar website), but after the discussions we’ve had in class and the different readings we’ve done I went back to check it out with a new perceptive.

 

The site operates basically the same way as Hegirascope: click on links to navigate through a labyrinth of oddities and non-sequiturs.

 

The most obvious difference between the two is Superbad’s use of pictures and animation in addition to text. It also has a variety of “anti-games,” which are basically scroll-over-manipulatable picture patterns (I’m sure there’s a technical or at least better term). They’re not really games at all, in the sense that there is no purpose or goal, but for some reason being able to change the colors and pictures of the page brings a inexplicable sense of satisfaction to my life.

 

The pages on Superbad are also less uniform than Hegirascope. Instead of four different links per page, there are anywhere from one to forty-two(+) links per page. Some pages will have only one that redirects you to the same page every time and sometimes the same links will randomly redirect you to a completely different page every time. The pages don’t automatically refresh either, which gives you more time to ponder the eccentricities.

 

According to Wikipedia (citation needed) it was created by Ben Benjamin in 1997, and received a Webby Award in 1999 in the “weird” category. Benjamin is quoted as saying that “he didn’t really start thinking of Superbad as art until the art people started finding it.”

 

Here are just a few examples of the different kinds of pages:

http://superbad.com/1/trunk/trunk.html: Like Hegirascope, the index seems a good place to start until you realize that there is no way to know what you’ll actually be taken to. But I suppose you have to start somewhere…

http://superbad.com/1/heaven/heaven.html

http://superbad.com/1/fall/piano.html : Here’s an example of a page with only animation.

http://superbad.com/1/plumbing/index.html: Here’s a good example of one of the many “anti-games” on the site, accompanied by an intriguing micro scene.

 

I’m not sure where Superbad.com ranks in terms of textual media credibility, if there is even such a thing, but I really enjoy this site and I think it’s at least worth a look.

Photopia

Well, first off, Photopia did not manage to make me cry; however, it did leave me depressed, which is an accomplishment in itself. I found myself easily frustrated by the site. I didn’t want to cheat, so I labored on. The most difficult pages for me to get through were the Wendy/dream themed ones. I don’t think I ever want to type “Go north/south/east/west” ever again. I was also frustrated by the scifi theme that so starkly contrasted with the more normal narrative pages, but I came to appreciate them once I learned where they came from.

As for the story, it did make me sad. I had a feeling something bad would happen to Alley when she was young. Darwin didn’t seem to be working overtime for a little girl who jumps in a pool to check out if it looks different from underwater. The car accident was sad and senseless. The little pieces of Alley’s waking life were all happy. It’s easy to imagine her date the following Saturday if she had not gotten into the wreck, or everything turning out differently if she had gone to the dance as opposed to babysitting. The one piece of the story that bothered me was the photopia itself. Alley’s parents note that she seems enamored by it as a baby, but it led to her having strange and unpleasant dreams all of the time, along with the creepy one of her talking to the older and cursed version of herself. Would Alley’s dreams have been left uncorrupted if she didn’t have the photopia? Or was it inevitable? It struck me that the thing her parents bought to comfort and inspire her ended up contributing to the tale of her demise.

Although I was frustrated by navigating the site, I did appreciate the little witty comebacks they had at the ready. At one point I had typed “kill”- Who?, the site politely asked, “me”, whereby the computer discouraged me from such senseless violence. Or if I tried to pick up the broken shovel, “The shovel is not useful anymore.” Well, thanks, I hadn’t realized that. That’s one aspect of interactive storytelling that really differs from regular old books… here, you have to work for it. I’ll admit, I did get frustrated, but the payoff when I would finally type the right thing (for once) and be rewarded with a paragraph was almost euphoric. It made me more aware of the story and more eager for details to emerge.

Interactive Fiction

Before joining this class I had never heard of interactive fiction. After the first day we started talking about it in class I decided to google it and find out what it was about and the point behind it, because I was truly confused in class. I first found the definition and it said that it is a computer-mediated narrative, resembling a very finely grained “choose your own adventure” story. So you basically read a few lines and type instructions to the computer to find the plot. I thought to myself ok and what’s the point???

As I was finding information on Interactive fiction I came across this fun little tidbit, that a computer programmer that was going through a divorce, and was searching for a way to connect with his kids created it in the early 70s.

The first interactive fiction that I did alone was the Lost Pig. I tried doing myself at first without reading the instructions and that did not work out so well. I really was not moving along very well, and was getting frustrated by the minute. I decided that I needed help so I went to the link and read the instructions. I attempted it again and used the prompts that were given. I unfortunately did not find the pig because I was getting frustrated with the fact that when I made a mistake typing I could not delete the mistake and continue typing, and I was also annoyed with Grunk talking in the third person. I will try it again tomorrow when I have more patience.

As far as interactive fiction is concerned I prefer the CYOA books. I guess it’s as easy as turning the page. I am really not computer savvy I only know basics.