Article:Interactive fiction and Storyspace hypertext
From unthinkMedia
Contents |
Four basic properties of Digital Media
- interactivity / reactivity (most prominent)
- volatility of inscription
- multiple sensory channels
- networking
Sequence
- starting from an idea and looking for the medium that will best serve this idea
- starting from a medium and asking: what can I do with it.
Interactive Fiction
In interactive fiction, story forms are impacted by the underlying code making it a hybrid of game and literature. This "constructs a productive model of this world through computer-language statements that the player never gets to see." (pg. 128) Once a player takes actions the fictional worlds model is updated.
"IF is a dialogue system in which the user, manipulating a character (henceforth referred to as the avatar), interacts with the machine not through the selection of an item from a fixed menu but through a relatively free production of text: the user can type whatever he wants, though the parser associated with the system will understand only a limited number of verbs and nouns." (pg 128)
These types of interactive experiences could be looked at as a simulation, which allows a large variety of possible outcomes. They however follow the same narrative formulas that traditional storytelling follows. It merely allows for a "dynamic model of a fictional world."
The 2 most popular types of interactive fiction are:
- puzzle based quest: "the player-hero receives a mission and sets out on a journey through the fictional world, during which he visits various places and passes various tests with the help of objects or information gathered along the way. These usually consist of various locations that associated with objects or skill that are useful or hindering to the quest. In this style, the "master plot" serves as the reward.
- Artificial Intelligence: Similar to ELIZA
Story Space Hypertext
Hypertext is said to have contributed to the demise of traditional IF such as found in Zork. This was also due to the increase graphical capabilities that where starting to emerge.
"A Storyspace hypertext is a network of links and nodes, also called lexia. The lexia correspond to units of text, the digital equivalent of the page, though the program also allows nodes to be filled with graphic and sound files."
Features:
- possibility of placing conditions on the activation of links. This feature, known as guard field, prevents a link from being followed until a specific node has been visited.
- Storyspace generates a map that shows the current state of the developing network of links and nodes.
Interesting Quotes
As Henry Jenkins observes: "Game designers don't simply tell stories; they design worlds and sculpt space"
As Nick Montfort observes, "winning" is getting the whole story; "losing" is causing the story to end prematurely
Reference
Marie-Laure Ryan. Avatars Of Story (Electronic Mediations) (p. 127). Kindle Edition.
