kellee's blog

Yes, that is my problem exactly, I am just not engaged at all. The story seems less interesting and more work. I am not motivated to "click" so to speak. That sounds very lazy, but very true. Maybe traditional narrative (film/novel) has held my hand for too long. Something to ponder.

I don't even think it's about being hand-held by films/novels. You play video games, which are much more demanding medium as far as interaction. I just think that "clicking" isn't ENOUGH for us as readers to really be engaging.

You make a very valid point Kellee. I've been analyzing my experience with hypertext and why I can not get involved in a text. Beyond my so-called high-brow dislike :), I think it is also the fact of having to click-through the path. Just seeing a text with three or four different phrases higlighted annoys me, because it means I'll have to choose. I don't think its laziness, maybe I enjoy letting an author guide me much more. I keep asking myself, when reflecting on my assignment, what does/will this structure ADD to a story? I can't figure it out yet! So maybe it is the simplicity of clicking that bores me...I hadn't thought of that before. You're so smart...

i also think that the 'simplicity of clicking' is boring and a problem, but that can't be all coz even if i had something more interesting and demanding to do, but got the same results as with hypertext structures, it wouldn't be all that better. the result (i.e. the system's reponse) has to somehow bond with the TYPE of interaction/user-choice.

I think for me, it ultimately comes down to the fact that I prefer to read things on paper, rather than on a computer screen. If I am to stare at a computer screen, the content needs to be compelling enough to justify looking at it on a screen--otherwise, I'd rather read a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, where I can finger-mark the pages and read it from the comfort of my bed.

So that you're referring to the (and I agree) rather non-compelling hypertext narratives we've seen, but on the flip side, and you actually touch on this, there several million people are clicking around on billions of pages on a huge hypertext network at this very moment. The large majority of people are not involved in creating said hypertext.

Not that I think that creating a text adventure is a bad thing (btw here's a link to getting started with Interactive Fiction engines: http://directory.google.com/Top/Games/Video_Games/Adventure/Text_Adventures/Design_and_Development/Authoring_Systems/ ), merely to say that we *know* hypertext works, and has been used to be extremely engaging. Perhaps we just haven't distilled the properties/methodologies or seen how the strengths/qualities can be applied into the narrative context that we're trying to shoehorn it in.

One example of hypertext narrative that I find pushes the boundries is the whole AI/Jeanine Salla campaign. Another example of that is with the Kaycee Nicole bruhaha (google for both if you don't know what I'm talking about).

In my opinion, we're just getting into the interesting part of the medium because now we literally hundreds of thousands/millions of people trying different things and (most importantly) interacting within a larger hyptertext system and with each other. [not just a couple of art/literary wonks being self important - not that there's anything wrong with that, oh, except for the point you mentioned about the stuff sucking]

Several good points and I'll save you the trouble of googling.

AI/Jeanine Salla refers to the publicity surrounding the movie AI and the game/agent created around it.
http://www.agentland.com/cgi-bin/relocation.cgi?http://www.agentland.com/pages/learn/artificial_intelligence/jeanine_salla.html
Don't forget that the final unit in 518 is AI Driven Narrative, including bots!

Kaycee Nicole falls into the category of Hoaxes (fictions? urban(cyber)legends) propogated as collective narratives online. You can find a recap at the Museum of Hoaxes:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/kaycee.html

My personal favorite character of this genre (who I think qualifies as a fictional character, rather than a hoax) is Netochka Nezvanova: Read about her/them at http://www.rimric.com/folio/sp02/nn.htm

And thanks, Kellee, for linking this from the Class Blog.

Here's a good link list on interactive narrative:
http://www.elasticspace.com/interaction/narrative/jumpoff.html

Also, check out:

http://www.quvu.net/interactivestory.net/

This discussion is really good. It has my mind firing off on ideas related to hypermedia and interactive poly-narrative structures. Those links really helped. I’ve been a fan of Hi-Res’s work for some time, but I had not seen so much of it until investigating
Scott’s link.

http://www.hi-res.net

Their work got me thinking about how I could use flash to convey interactive narratives.

The discussion on hypertext really got me excited; I’ve expounded more on my blog if anyone is interested.

http://interactive.usc.edu/members/edinehart/

Thanks so much for the links! This is great stuff to chew on.

I would like to post a “trackback” but I couldn’t find the ability to do so.

This is a post I’m working on. I consider it a draft. But you may be interested, considering the content of this post.

http://www.hypnomedia.com/razors/blog/archives/2004_04_01_archive.html#108279922920760236

Dylan.

小灵通