Interactive Fiction: Computer Games
When I read a good novel I always imagine myself participating in the events, going on the journey with the characters. I can still clearly remember the first time I finished The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I was 9 at the time, and the books had a great effect on me. When the story ended, it seemed like I had been along for the ride. Yet I had been involved in the action only as a bystander, nothing more than a ghost watching things happen, unable to effect the events that occurred or interact with the characters I had grown attached to.
Not long after this I bought a copy of a computer game called Final Fantasy 7. It changed the way I viewed storytelling completely. In the first few moments of the game I was placed in control of a character where I made the decisions. I chose where to go, what to do, who to talk to, even what to SAY! For the first time, I was able to actually live out a fantasy that all readers indulge in - being IN the story! And what a story it was. The game experience was rich with great music and compelling graphics that worked together with the text. The effect was like a mix of novel and movie, with the radical new ability of user control. It was immediately addicting.
This new genre of storytelling is called interactive fiction, and is the newest frontier of writing. Taking full advantage of computer technology from sound, graphics and the internet, games create a virtual universe for the user. The line between spectator and actor is blurred. Computer-mediated storytelling is about what you do right here and now, while you are sitting at the keyboard. That's where the story comes from. It's not about what somebody else did, once upon a time, in a land far, far away.
Steven Johnson touches on this idea in his essay “Links”.
“Hypertext [fiction] would be … where the reader would create the narrative by clicking on links and following different story lines, like the old “choose your own adventure” children’s books. The work itself would be less like a narrative in the strict sense of the word, and more like an environment.” (Johnson, 205)
While it seems Johnson is unaware of the fact that computer games already embody his idea of “hypertext fiction”, he does make an important statement when he says that the work is “like an environment”.
When you read, especially fiction, you experience a broad sweep of human life. You gain access to the thoughts of others, look at history through another person’s eyes and learn from their mistakes, something that you otherwise would not be able to experience.
Stories with a hero’s journey can serve as an escape from everyday life, which is why these kind of stories are so popular and why they resonate so deeply with readers. In everyday life, people develop routines. The reason readers like these kinds of stories is the same reason why most people go on vacation: to destress, explore, and take a break from these mundane routines. The same goes for books with tales of fantastical lands and mystery. The opportunity to experience a whole new fantasy world with every book is an adventure in itself. Not only do the magical worlds add to the
For as long as language in its most rudimentary form was created, people have never stopped writing stories. Before people wrote things down, stories and legends were passed down by the elders of a family or tribe. Over time, things can be forgotten, and that is why it is important to write these things down. Stories were created to teach children good from bad, to inspire people to do great things, and for general enjoyment. These stories have taken many forms ever since the original spoken tale. Movies, comics, television shows, and much more have been introduced in order to tell more intricate stories. One of the best, and original mediums for story keeping is a book. A good book can elicit any emotion from you, just as a film or television show could. A good writer knows how to take hold of an audience, and allow them to explore a whole new world as they are sitting on a couch. Both Shakespeare's Hamlet and George R. R. Martin's A Storm of Swords are considered to be amazingly written stories. It is interesting to see how two highly pleasing books relate to each other, a...
South, S. J. & Spitze, G. (1986). Determinants of divorce over the marital life course. American Sociological Review, 51(4), 583-590.
The Intertextuality and Analysis of Homoerotic Relations and Desires between UbiquitousMixie’s fan fiction “As Long As You Love Me” and its canon The Hours by Michael Cunningham. Intertextuality according to Genette is a “relationship between two texts [...] the actual presence of one text within another” (Allen 98). Genette’s theory of hypertextuality is presented as “literature which are intentionally inter-textual”. Genette uses the terms hypo- and hypertext, which means that the hypotext is considered as the source for the hypertext. In this case, “As Long As You Love Me” is the hypertext and its source is the hypotext; The Hours. Genette also argues that “the meaning of hypertextual works are depended on the reader’s knowledge [...] imitates
Art can be divide in to two different categories, “literacy arts,” art forms that attempt to tell a story, and “fine arts,” traditional works, sculptures, and paintings, as well music and dance. Video games, along with film, are an example of a literacy art form. Video games are increasingly becoming literacy art by telling stories that are equal if not better than those found in most movies. Not just mediocre stories to have them in the games, but compelling stories that drive the player to push forward. Bioshock, a 2007 release, is an example of this increasing importance of stories in video games. Influenced by philosophy and the works of Ayn Rand, the creator where able to create a cautionary tale of man’s individualism and genetic tweaking (VerBruggen).
Before reading Harry Potter, I very rarely read for pleasure. I found reading boring, almost old fashioned. My frame of mind more readily paralleled Danny Divito in the movie Matlida, who says that “[t]here's nothing you can get from a book that you can't get from a television faster.” While my view of reading as a child could be summed up in that quote, everything changed when I was introduced to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I can remember to this day when my Dad began reading Harry Potter to me, and how I did not understand just how much this book would change me. Harry Potter and his world of wizardry became my own personal Shangri-La, my escape, my own world. Anytime I wanted, I could ascend to a world of fantasy and explore the depths of my own imagination in a way that I had never been capable of doing before. I became obsessed with the book, reading it before, during, and after sc...
A narrative is specified to amuse, to attract, and grasp a reader’s attention. The types of narratives are fictitious, real or unification or both. However, they may consist of folk tale stories, mysteries, science fiction; romances, horror stories, adventure stories, fables, myths and legends, historical narratives, ballads, slice of life, and personal experience (“Narrative,” 2008). Therefore, narrative text has five shared elements. These are setting, characters, plot, theme, and vocabulary (“Narrative and Informational Text,” 2008). Narrative literature is originally written to communicate a story. Therefore, narrative literature that is written in an excellent way will have conflicts and can discuss shared aspects of human occurrence.
Shakespeare, William. Othello. Ed. Philip M. Parker. [San Diego, Calif.]: ICON Classics, 2005. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 17 Feb. 2014.
Since the coinage of the term in an MIT Technology Review (2003) article, Henry Jenkins’ theory of transmedia has been significantly contested and edited by multiple media theorists and scholars. In short, transmedia storytelling is the technique of telling a narrative across multiple platforms. The goal of a transmedia project is to heighten the degree in which audiences participate and interact with the events, characters, and storyworld of a franchise. A transmedia project can include, but is not limited to, the use of movies, books, games, social-media, and graphic novels. These elements work together to make the story more enjoyable and contribute to richer fan-engagement. Jenkins’ best summarizes a definition himself in his 2006 book Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide; “A transmedia story unfolds across multiple media platforms with each new text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole” (pp. 95-96).
Gerner, Deborah J., and Philip A. Schrodt. "Middle Eastern Politics." Understanding the contemporary Middle East. 3rd ed. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2008. 85 -136. Print.
Back in 2003 Henry Jenkins caused a massive stir in the media world when he introduced the idea of transmedia storytelling, Jenkins describes it as a process where elements of fiction are dispersed across multiple media platforms in order to serve the purpose of creating a coordinated entertainment experience. Jenkins goes on to say that preferably, each medium will contribute different aspects which will assist in the telling of a story and unveil new aspects. However a good transmedia text does not simply supply information, instead it allows the fans, or fandom, to interact with the world within the text (Jenkins, 2007). This essay will arue that transmedia storytelling impacts on how the audience interacts with the story, in order to
Along with almost any other topic, there are statistics based on divorce and the effects it has on children. First, the current divorce rate in the United States is the highest in the world. As of now, fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce and sixty seven percent of all second marriages end in divorce. The financial reality of divorce is hard to comprehend (Corcoran 1). Along with...
Role-playing games are becoming increasingly popular in this age due the assistance of the Internet. In these types of game a person can assume a character and give this character a personality, physical features and “live” through them. All though in past years “pen and paper” types have dominated the rpg world, now MUDs are making it possible to role-play along with thousands of others A MUD is a network-accessible, multi-participant virtual reality that is primarily text-based. (Bruckman, 1992). Although the term “virtual reality” often refers to a computer-simulated environment that contains varying degrees of audio/visual interface, this form of virtual reality is mainly text-based. Elizabeth Reid further explains by saying:
I could never fully understand the world in the way that traditionalists explained it to me. Storytelling has always been a way to help me gain a better understanding of the world I live in and its different functions. Movies and books painted pictures that explained to me the lessons of life that weren’t so black and white. Some of the things I saw on screen had a big impact on shaping who I am today. And growing up in a household of movie lovers, I spent a lot of time in front of a T.V or sitting in a theater. My hunger for books, however, didn’t come until my teen years.