Interactive Fiction

## Introduction

### History

In the year 1975 Will Crowther is the first known programmer to successfully create the first text adventure game. Interactive Fiction also known as (IF) hit its first popularity peek from 1979-1986, When it became a dominant software product in the production of home computers. The two modes of user input and computer output allowed the user to control what happened in the game/text, this made the game unique to each individual who played. Interactive fiction made its first successful appearances in the 1970s, allowing gamers and those interested in technology the chance to be involved with the plot of the story or game.

Games such as *Zork* and *The* *Hitchhiker’s Guide to the* *Galaxy* were among the first examples of popular interactive fiction to come about, fighting against the constraints of available technology of the time. Yearly advances in interactive fiction can be observed by reviewing the annual Interactive Fiction Competition which has been carried out for the past 20 years, and allows virtually anyone to play and share their input. This competition is tasked with bringing forth the brightest works of the interactive gaming world according to The Guardian. Tools such as Twine provide help to new contributors to the interactive fiction community. Thanks to modern day technological advances, virtually anyone can enjoy works of interactive fiction.

### Features of Interactive Fiction

One of the main features of Interactive Fiction is that the reader is a role-player rather than a passive reader. Interactive Fiction requires the reader's full attention to be able to continue the story. In most Interactive Fiction pieces, there is a description at the beginning of the story that gives a background of the character. According to microheaven.com, the reader picks up clues and decides the path of the story. Unlike print fiction, electronic fiction allows the participant thousands of ways to complete the story, and that is why the readers is not only a reader, but an active role-player.

Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw is a great example of how a brief introduction of the piece is given, and then afterward the participant is the active-role player. Another of the main features of Interactive Fiction is the ability to navigate to, in most cases, many different endings. Now, while there are some works of Interactive Fiction which may have only one ending, or even no ending, one of the defining highlights of Interactive Fiction is the ability to change how the story ends. This is often present in other fiction outside of Interactive Fiction, which, according to tvtropes.com, could be known as Choose Your Own Adventure novels, or "gamebooks". This is often what many readers wish to do at the end of a novel or television show, but can not. However, with Interactive Fiction, this is not the case. Interactive Fiction allows the reader to choose instead of simply follow, and that defines it when placed next to regular fiction.

## Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw (Caitlin Travis)

Unlike most interactive fiction, Deviant: The Possession of Christian Shaw, is a captivating story with few words. When most people think of interactive fiction, they assume typing in words and commands and getting fed back words and clues that tell them what happens when they made that move. With Deviant, you visually see what is going on. It differs from most interactive fiction because it is almost more like a game. While there are minimal words, there are instances where you get some forms of literature. For example, when you go to the church and read the Reverend's journal, there is a poem in it. Christian Shaw also has a journal as well. Through these journals, you are given clues that give you a better understanding of what meaning of the story is.

Through my experience with this piece of interactive fiction, I could not find a finishing point to the story. I could only find certain clues and meanings. I could not discover what they were trying to tell me. However, by clicking on everything that I knew I could click on, I gathered that the Reverend had past experience of what is happening to Christian Shaw, the town that they live in has strange activity relating to the Salem witches, and that the Reverend could possibly have something to do with Christian's possession.

The sounds, music, and visual aid make this fiction piece very engaging. It creates a spooky atmosphere that leaves the reader wanting more. It is very vague with it's instruction in the description of the game, so it leaves the reader's with not a lot of clues about what do to in the game. This does make the game more complicated than most pieces of interactive fiction. For example, when playing Zork, you can type 'help' into the text box and there will be a list of instruction. With Deviant, there is no text box, so the reader can only use social interactions to guess what the events in the story are trying to say.

Since there is a rare amount of text in this piece of interactive fiction, some might argue that Deviant is not a true form of interactive fiction. However, it is an interactive piece because their is a story line behind the game-like play. According to Electronic Literature: What is it? Katherine Hayles explains that "rather than striving to progress by solving various puzzles and mysteries, the interactor discovers that the goal is not reaching the end but rather the journey itself." Instead of thinking of Deviant as a lesser piece of interactive fiction, it should be seen as innovative. The colorful graphics make this piece very intriguing, and the silent words cause the reader to interpret the piece in their own way. Interactive fiction is generally thought of as text on a screen that the reader can interpret and type in what happens. However, with Deviant, there are less words, but the pictures create a scene for us to interpret and decide on our own. The reader's imagination creates the story, so even though there are less words, it is still a piece of interactive fiction.

## Facade(Alex Jackonski)

Facade is a game that puts you in the shoes of a character invited to a couple's house for the evening. Upon arriving you hear them arguing and soon they realize you've arrived and they act like everything is ok. You can say whatever you want to the couple and can even go so far as to kiss, hug, or harass either of them. This piece of interactive fiction doesn't really have a concrete story as much as a "what would you do" type of scenario but if I had to give it a story I'd say the couple has been putting on a facade and pretending to be happy with each other and that facade crumbles away as you stand by and watch or help them through it. There's the theme of "fakeness" throughout this piece of work shown by the couple acting like they aren't on the verge of an ugly breakup and throwing little hints in the dialogue such as the male character getting called out for only liking fancy things because he thinks it'll make him look better.

This piece has many possibilities. Since you can say what you want to the couple they can react in many different ways. For instance when the male character Trip was yelling at his Wife, I told him to calm down and in turn, got a very hostile response. Their reactions can make for either a very humorous or a very serious experience. The only way I could figure out to come to a definite end in this piece is to say or do something so out of line that the couple kicks you out and even then the fate of their relationship is left unknown. You could explore this piece for hours and possibly come into many different outcomes or endings given the nature of it. This piece isn't as "guided" as other pieces of interactive fiction. It throws you into a situation and lets you have fun with it. It's almost like a sandbox type game. While it has no discernable ending, this piece is a very good example of electronic literature. It puts you into a first person point of view and leaves it up to you solve the main conflict of the story much like a video game. But This piece straddles the line between electronic literature and video game very well.

But From what I've experienced I would definitely consider this a very creative piece of electronic fiction as well as a video game. It has a story, you control a playable character, and are tasked with solving the main conflict. All those are qualities of a video game. overall, my impressions of this piece of electronic literature are very good and I enjoyed it a lot.

## Words Warriors (Steven Stephens)

Words Warriors is an interactive fiction games that is significantly different from what I experienced when playing Zork. There were picture to illustrate what was happening based on my decision, and no verbal feedback to tell me if I had made a mistake. I had to see my character die again and again and learn from my mistakes.

At the start of the game, the player is prompted to pick up a key. Commands are given by walking over top of the sentences and pressing the down arrow when either picking up the item illustrated or giving the command necessary. So the player would walk over the word key and press down to pick it up. Once the item is picked up or the command is given, it is used when moving on toward whatever obstacle is designed for that scene, the first being a locked door. Moving on to the next scene, I was prompted to pick up and as and cut down a tree that was in may way. Then I had to command a blizzard to occur to where I could freeze a dragon and slay him with a mace that I had been prompted to pick up. There are obstacles such a fire and a black pit that can be overcome by prompting it to rain or placing a bridge, depending on what is available. The potential for death is high if the correct actions aren't taken in each scene.

This game is a great way to get involved with interactive fiction, especially for visual people like myself. The imagery created by games like Zork is interesting, but difficult to stay involved with for those who don't have a broad imagination. With Words Warriors, the pictures are there to show what the interactions between the player and the are, rather than just telling us what happened. Comparing interactive fiction to video games that we play today is fairly easy to do, depending on the type of interactive fiction. The words of Zork are difficult to compare to visual games, but Words Warriors shares more similarities. Mostly the visual aspect.

It's hard to wrap our heads around what could have happened if we had done just one thing differently. This can be related to decisions we make in everyday life. What could have happened if we make just one decision differently. Other than that, the purpose of interactive literature is difficult to grasp. It is entertaining and time consuming. It can intrigue us and pick our brains, make us think. I played for free, so I'm not sure if there is any money in it. But nonetheless, it is apparent that some people will use it and get something out of it more than others. Otherwise it would have died out by now.

## Lost Pig (And Place Under Ground)

Lost Pig is a very interesting work of interactive fiction. Lost Pig is a story told by Grunk, the center character, or the character you control, as he tries to find the lost pig, owned by Grunk's employer, the owner of the farm. The owner of the farm assumes it is Grunk's fault the pig has escaped and sends Grunk out to find the pig, telling him not to return without it. While Grunk does not remember letting the pig out, Grunk goes out to find the pig anyways. As the story progresses, Grunk falls into a hole connected to an underground shrine. Though Grunk may find the pig, Grunk has to discover how to carry or lead the pig, and how to get out of the hole. Both of these can be solved through a series of puzzles, some of which can be completed out of a specific order, some of which can not.

Naturally, with a work such as this, one can assume it is man-made. However, Grunk is the only author given. While this makes sense within the story, one would figure that the creators of the work would put some form of credibility forward. Even through heavy searching, the only thing that Lost Pig's page says is that Grunk is the author, and the person being told the story, Admiral Jota, is the one who put the story into a computerized form. Now, we know that Grunk is an orc just from the opening paragraph on the website, so we can naturally conclude that Grunk is not real. This poses a mystery that is so elaborate, it must be intentional. The website makes small references to Lost Pig having won awards, and how Admiral Jota is "responsible for a few other pieces of Interactive Fiction which are probably better left unmentioned." To find any more work from the creator of this piece, or even who the creator is exactly, one would have to dig deep and far through the website, and try not to fall into any holes. When one looks around, there is a little bit of easily found information, but it is all intentionally planted within ease of access, and therefore, is intentionally mysterious. One such piece of information is what happens to Grunk after the story in Lost Pig. The author wrote a journal for Grunk, in Grunk's normal voice, that details his new job in the army after being fired from his old one at the farm. It is quite interesting, if you are really enveloped within Grunk's story.

That is only the interesting facts about the creators of the work, however. Several things within the work itself separate Lost Pig from other Interactive Fiction. One such thing would be the lowered level of grammar and intelligence inherent within Grunk. Now, while you are the player controls Grunk's thoughts and actions, Grunk is the one telling the story, so all feedback is told through Grunk's words. Grunk is not the most intelligent of narrators however, and therefore, his grammar and vocabulary suffer when any text pops onto the screen. Since the piece is entirely text-based, this becomes an even more valid point. Another such thing is the general mood, or theme throughout the piece. The lighthearted mood makes the work seem almost childish. There is no slaying of monsters, or running for your life. The upbeat nature is far different from most works of fiction, Interactive Fiction or not. This mood keeps the spirits of the readers up, while they persevere to solve the puzzles. Yet another one of the things that separate Lost Pig from other Interactive Fiction is the author's inherent want for the readers, for lack of a better word, to finish the story, and discover the ending. In fact, there is not even any way to "lose" in this piece. Rather, the only way one could lose is to not figure out the puzzles. Even in that case, one could easily access the hint system within the game in order to progress, just to discover the story. Overall, Lost Pig is easily different from the run-of-the-mill works of Interactive Fiction.

Lost Pig can easily fall under the category of Electronic Literature, as it was written very effectively with a purpose in mind, and accomplishes exactly what it sought to accomplish. While the reader assists Grunk through his journey, the reader is reading the nearly-linear story line of Lost Pig. The piece also persuades the readers to do more than just read, but rather interact, and solve puzzles, which provokes a more advanced level of thought than what someone might normally read with. While this thought is being used to solve the puzzles, this thought carries over and allows the reader to discover the themes, both obvious and hidden.

## References

Interactive Fiction History

1. ↑ Deviant: The Possession Of Christian Shaw was published by Leishman on her site, http://www.6amhoover.com, in September of 2009.
2. ↑ TVTropes page on Choose Your Own Adventure novels describes many features of the "gamebooks", such as the similar multiple endings.
3. ↑ Electronic Literature: What is it?[1]
4. ↑ http://sallepierrelamy.com/podcasts/facade.png
5. ↑ Here is Grunk's journal, detailing Grunk's future after Lost Pig (And Place Under Ground).
6. ↑ Words Warriors