I used to like interactive fiction in the beginning of the 90’s, when a lack of good graphics allowed me to explore games that were founded purely on texts, and when I was naïve enough to think that in these games I was deciding the fate of the protagonist – when you are not even brushing your first decade in life that can happen.
Reading Photopia brought back interesting memories from my youth, like when I read underground interactive fiction about people and institutions that I knew – I’m quiet sure that there is a few out there about GMU too – or when I almost threw out my PC because I was frustrated with a riddle. Sadly, it also brought back memories as to why I don’t read them anymore.
Interactive fiction is fun as long as you can delude yourself into believing that you are deciding the outcome of the story. Photopia is especially fun in that regard, because of its engaging story and its elusive theme about free will – a theme that was perhaps raised by Adam Cadre in order to convey a message about the limits of interactive fiction. However, at the end of the day the fact that Photopia has a predetermined ending, regardless of what I do, and has no gaming aspect whatsoever will not bring me back intro the brethren of interactive fiction.
When I say that the ending is predetermined regardless of what I do, I literally mean that it’s predetermined. If you don’t believe me, then try to develop your character based on your decisions. You are going to fail in the first page. I know, because I had tried to “pull” Rob away from the wheel, “punch” him, and finally “kill” him before he kills somebody, but I failed. I always arrived at the same red light and red planet, and had to salvage the same seed the same way – I initially thought that the red planet will provide me with some gaming experience, and help me forget about “determinism,” but I as I later found out I was wrong.
While Photopia may have reinforced my belief as to why I don’t read interactive fiction, it also helped me to see how interactive fiction evolved from text to graphic based games. It helped me to appreciate games like Shenmue I-II, KOTOR I-II, Jade Empire, and Mass Effect even more. I may not be an interactive fiction fan anymore, but Adam Cadre’s Varicella – you can find this game on his website along with other interesting ones (http://adamcadre.ac/if.html) – did consume a few of my hours with its puzzles. I couldn’t help myself. Damn you Adam Cadre!