A feature article on Interactive Fiction: Magic Words: Interactive Fiction in the 21st Century. Additional discussion on /..
This is the article that Tracy cited earlier today:
Where Stories End and Games Begin by Greg Costikyan
In my personal work, the most interesting thing for me was how extremely difficult it was to write interactive writing. I spent quite a bit of time thinking about a story idea that would lend itself to interactivity, mainly focusing on disorientation. I figured out a structure that would work and spent more time diagramming the structure for easy reference and programming then I sat in front of a blank Microsoft Word doc, and went, uh duh? I had a brilliant structure and good idea, I was thinking of way to make an interesting interface and I COULD NOT WRITE IT! It was extremely frustrating.
And in the end, I had a sort of inspiration and completely abandoned all the work I had done in favor of a basically linear narrative that I could write rather easily. Which is both good, and bad, because I really want to write interactive fiction. Or at least I thought I did. I had grand plans of writing, what I like to call low-brow Ifiction, since most of what I've read that is out there bores me to death, stuffed full of its own importance.
So in terms of my dead ends, I don't know that I'll ever be able to write an Ifiction. Maybe one day inspiration will strike for me. Or I can enter into a collaboration with someone who can't think of good structures and we'll be set.
But Peggy's idea of the time travel website IS very intriguing. And I think it would be for others who are avid time-travel fans. And in terms of ifiction like that, I could definitely seeing myself exploring that further, maybe this summer when I've got less on my plate.
Below is the link to my "Future Fair" project presented in class this week:
As mentioned in class, this is a story I came across a while ago that's quite an entertaining read.
While it's highly unlikely to be true, Titor's postings do make you go hmmm... (as in considering all that we take for granted) and if nothing else, makes for a great parable:
Does the civil war start in such a way that with this foreknowledge those willing will have time to remove themselves to safer locations.Yes. You will be forced to ask yourself how many civil rights you will give up to feel safe.Will you readily be able to identify the enemy.They will be the ones arresting and holding prople without due process.
So wait, did the civil war already begin?
It's occurred to me that the Titor posts could quite possibly be an art project of some sort. If it was a student project, I hope he got an A, it's quite more effective and smart than that whole mess of stupid e-bay tricks projects during that time-period.
Cory Doctorow made a great presentation on ebooks last week at ETCON. He's made the full text of the presentation available as Public Domain: Ebooks: Neither E, Nor Books
The other arguments were a lot more interesting, though. It seemed to me that electronic books are *different* from paper books, and have different virtues and failings. Let's think a little about what the book has gone through in years gone by. This is interesting because the history of the book is the history of the Enlightenment, the Reformation, the Pilgrims, and, ultimately the colonizing of the Americas and the American Revolution.
See also: my earlier post on Eastern Standard Tribe
Here's a link to my interactive writing project idea(s).
I'd loooooove any comments on what you think & where to go with this!
Thanks!
From Scott:
The Five Stages of Writing for Interactive by Noah Falstein
The following is the title of the book from which we read a section for Survey of Interactive Media 505 last semester. The section was titled: "The Structures of Interactive Narrativity." It explains different interactive network stuctures through text and images. I found it interesting in that it describes some of the qualities of each from a user and designer perspective, and includes references to texts and examples that use different structures.
You can search for the title at HOMER and read the electronic version if you're on campus. If you're off campus you'll need to install Cisco VPN client for your OS, available here. I believe VPN screws with your network settings because after I installed it I could no longer connect to my ISP. I uninstalled it and everything returned to normal. Leonard recommended emailing tech support at consult@usc.edu for a solution.
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Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media
Ryan, Marie-Laure
I started a discussion on interactivity and narrative on my blog (sorry, Peggy, but I had to get my name back up to the top of the column!).
I'm currently reviewing "Truth in Comedy" by Charna Halpurn, Del Close, and Kim Johnson, which I HIGHLY recommend. It's a quick read, and outside of explaining the "Harold" long-form format developed by Charna and Del Close in Chicago, it has wonderful pearls of wisdom about collaboration. I'm hoping to go through and extract these pearls for our collaborative writing project. Here are the first:
"The truth is funny. Honest discovery, observation, and reaction is better than contrived invention."
"A truly funny scene is not the result of someone trying to steal laughs at the expense of his partner, but of generosity -- of trying to make the other person (and his ideas) look as good as possible."
"There are no bad ideas.
There are no mistakes. Everything is justified.
The best way to look good is to make your fellow players look good.
Treat other as if they are poets, geniuses and artists, and they will be."
This article appeared in "Studies in Art Education v. 45 no1 (Fall 2003) p. 40-55" and is about :
In this autobiographical arts-based research study, the authors use data from personal experience and education theory to correlate the use of interactive computer hypertext with an expansive and meaningful way of knowing in art education. The authors share their creation of a computer hypertext consisting of text, images, and video in response to Jasper Johns's 1983 painting Racing Thoughts. Because of the linking possibilities available with hypertext, the authors made connections in and between both real and imagined vast experiences"
Pretty interesting, and it includes discussion of Storyspace, and a diagram.
Read Me It's 17 pages...