Interactive Fiction

Introduction
Interactive Fiction, abbreviated IF, is a type of software that simulates environments in which players use commands to control characters and influence the environment. These environments are primarily text-based although some feature graphics. The player begins with a prompt and can enter a large number of commands, usually including a combination of a verb + noun, such as "examine book," "take torch," "drop bag," or "open door." Stories can take multiple paths depending on the player’s choices, but are not meant to be intellectually challenging. Works of interactive fiction can be categorized as either traditional puzzle-based IF (text adventures) or puzzle-less IF. IF is often considered a mix of literary narrative and video game components. Alternating game play with novelistic components, pieces of interactive fiction expand the repertoire of the literary by including visual displays, graphics, animations, and clever modifications of traditional literary devices. (Buchanan)

History
Interactive fiction began with the adventure game of “Colossal Cave Adventures,” a simulated exploration of caves with no graphics. In the 1980s, interactive fiction grew even further and began to evolve into a popular and highly commercial genre of computer game. In the 1990s, with the growing popularization of game consoles, interactive fiction disappeared from the commercial market space. Instead of hindering its success, interactive fiction enthusiasts gathered together to develop tools to create their own works. This brought forth the creation of Inform, a programming language specifically designed for writing pieces of interactive fiction, “which has been used continuously through 1993.” Inform has been used to create such works such as Zork series, Trinity, The Hitchhiker’s Galaxy, and A Mind Forever Voyaging Even today a steady stream of new works is produced by an online interactive fiction community, using freely-available developmental systems. (Fairchild)

Major Features
The features of interactive fiction vary between individual works. In general, each screen of the interface will include a block of text, which can be anywhere from one sentence to several paragraphs long, and a prompt inviting the reader to input a command. However, this can be presented in many different formats; games like Photopia offer changing, brightly-colored text and backgrounds, while games like Zork present a uniform black-and-white color scheme. The manner in which the author chooses to present the text can affect the atmosphere of the story or influence the reader's emotions. IF can also vary greatly in terms of the pacing of the story - how quickly it progresses. A good work of IF is marked by pacing that is steady enough to emphasize significant aspects of the story, yet quick enough to keep the reader's attention. As acclaimed IF author Emily Short suggests, "The game should stay fun for as long as it takes to play; no aspect should take more of the player's attention than it deserves." (Galletta)

Facade (Amanda Fairchild)
The plot of Façade gives an interactive fiction that gives the player a chance to either repair or destroy the main characters Trip and Grace’s marriage. You are their out of town friend who is being invited for dinner and drinks. Even before you are invited inside they are arguing outside the door suggesting a problem in their marriage. Both of them constantly will try to get the player to pick sides and at the end of the fight you will find out whether or not Trip and Grace remain together. In others words your speaking directly interacting with the couple asking them questions and moving them around their apartment. Facade technology uses this in a way that the "game is structured to organize character behaviors in the pattern of conversations." Phrases relating to sex or divorce will make the couple feel uncomfortable and instantly angry with the player for the suggestion. Flirting with them will make them angry and shocked which may result in getting kicked out the apartment before the dialogue finishes. Insulting either of the characters will also result in an early dismissal of the apartment. If you try to hug or kiss Trip or Grace they will give you a shocked face.

Facade can be described as interactive fiction because it actively engages the player in the story. You are an active player and what you decide can influence the outcome. In a novel you are being actively engaged by using your imagination to imagine the story. Interactive Fiction expands the traditional novel by giving you a chance to act out the story. Imagine an interactive soap opera such as General Hospital created inside of a video game. According to an article titled Sex, Lies, and Videogames “they imagine a modern game that will give emotional impact of literature this concept being called Interactive Drama.”. Façade not only branches out the limits of Interactive Fiction it introduces a new sub-genre. Interactive Drama creates the opportunity for other type games using language to control the outcome of the story. Entering this world you might think you are in a soap opera, because of the consistent need for the characters to engage the player in drama. This is not just a game because there is no sense of winning or losing it all depends on what you want to achieve. At first, I played entirely as someone whose mission was to get kicked out of the apartment. Apparently, Trip does not like it if you comment on his tiny anatomy. Language choice is key to this game depending on what you might say will determine the outcome. If I sided with Trip on an issue Grace might get frustrated and leave. The same might happen if I sided with Grace on an issue Trip might walk out. They both could get angry and decide to divorce anyway it was difficult to find a way for the situation to end amicably. In literature the only end result is the end of the novel where you find out the end of the story. Mateas one of the creator of Facade explains, "In the past, he says, developers have veered to one of two extremes either they create worlds where the characters are fully autonomous or they generate high-level story, without no kind of characters to enact the story." Facade gives a balance of interaction of the world inside their apartment and a simple story to progress through. The characters Trip and Grace are not autonomous because with key choice phrases you can change their moods entirely. With the world also not being as complex this accomplishes a game with both simple interactive stories with a decent interactive world. Facade provides a balance of both story and game making it ideal Interactive Fiction.

Whom the Telling Changed (Holly Buchanan)
“Whom the Telling Changed” is a work of interactive fiction published in March 2005 by author Aaron A. Reed. Like most interactive fiction (IF), this piece involves a text based interface dependent upon textual input of the user in order for the story to progress. “Whom the Telling Changed” is unique in that it is “designed as an exercise in exploring a conversation or story space rather than a physical space.” “Whom the Telling Changed” centers around a storytelling which the user influences to potentially create several different outcomes. To progress through the story, the user chooses to input different highlighted words in order to emphasize certain aspects of the story. As the work progresses, the user accumulates a history of the protagonist as well as their surroundings. The main objective of the game is to win the people of your tribe over to your way of thinking by directing the flow of a story.

The game opens with a quote from the Epic of Gilgamesh, a narrative that is essential to the story: “He found the knowledge at the heart of the universe; Returned, and cut his story into stone…” The user is then asked whether or not you want instructions and how you prefer emphasized words to be highlighted (i.e. bold, capitalized, etc…).

The game starts with a paragraph about the “Telling”, a night once a month when the protagonist’s tribe gathers to hear a story to “make the past present, and the path to the future clear.”  Unlike other IF’s, “Whom the Telling Changed” allows the user to shape the protagonists occupation, gender, and relationships. The interface begins with the selection of the symbol of your user’s occupation: either a dagger or a medicine bag.The protagonist then goes outside to find two people arguing at which point you are asked to acknowledge one as your lover, and thus marking the other as your enemy. Your lover informs you of the mysterious tribe that has settled nearby, causing a divide in your tribe over whether they are enemies or friends. Depending on what occupation you chose and who you chose as your enemy, the protagonist is either for or against attacking the neighboring tribe. You then proceed to the primary object of the game, The Telling. The Storyteller, whom you have chosen, tells the story of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The user must choose between several emphasized words to input into the interface. These words will then guide the story and influence members of your tribe towards either aggression or peace. For example, the user is given a choice between saying something about whether a character in the Epic is cowardly or brave or merciful for not attacking a foe. As the story progresses you and your enemy get into several arguments which  work to sway your tribe’s opinion. As the story concludes, the user is confronted by the neighboring tribe. Depending on your character’s choices, and which themes of the Epic were emphasized, either a war begins or you begin friendly relations. At this point the game is completed.

The game parallels and revolves around The Epic of Gilgamesh, the first recorded narrative in history. The choice to use The Epic in the narrative of the game presents another theme of the game, the power of legend and narrative. The author draws attention to how language influences our history and our choices hence the title Whom the Telling Changed.

Language is both an essential aspect and theme of “Whom the Telling Changed”, probably more so than most other works of IF. “Whom the Telling Changed” is puzzle based, but unlike most works of IF, its puzzle lies in the underlying meaning of the emphasized words. The user must rely on their intuition to pick the words that best direct the story towards their goal. The user operates not in a space, but in a story space. One reviewer says “[The use of intuition] means that, to perhaps one of the greatest degrees possible in IF, this is a game about language, a game which emphasizes reading comprehension over puzzle-solving.” The use of language as a theme allows “Whom the Telling Changed” to exploit the possibilities of electronic literature. The game encourages reading comprehension, analysis of themes, and the power of persuasion. Because print fiction does not allow the same amount of input and involvement in a story, it does not have the ability to present these lessons.

Awards: Winner, Best Individual NPC; Nominee, Best Use of Medium - 2005 XYZZY, 1st Place Spring Thing 2005

Photopia (Esther Galletta)
Photopia, Adam Cadre's prolific 1998 work of IF, tells the story of a girl telling stories. Alley, a teenage girl, babysits a young child named Wendy and helps her explore fantastical worlds through imaginative storytelling. The settings range from outer space to beaches made of gold and enormous crystal mazes. Alley forms these stories from a combination of dreams she's had (which, as is revealed at the conclusion of the story, are stimulated by a changing, overhanging nightlight) and her adventurous aspirations, especially her desire to become an astronaut. After one seemingly ordinary night of babysitting and storytelling, Wendy's father drives Alley home. On the way, another car speeds through a red light and crashes into them, killing Alley.

Although this sounds like a simple plot, the way Cadre chooses to present the story creates an immersive experience in which the reader must explore new worlds and piece together the information to form a coherent narrative. The story starts with the reader as an unnamed character sitting in the passenger seat of a speeding car with an intoxicated driver. No matter what the reader says, the driver insists on continuing to the destination. He ignores a red light and flies into an intersection; the setting and characters then change. This scene foreshadows the tragedy at the end of the story, but the reader does not know this at this point. In fact, the reader will go through so many scenes before reaching the end that he or she might have forgotten about this first scene until the familiar setting reminds him or her. This is a testament to the immersiveness of the game.



In every scene of Photopia, the reader looks through the eyes of a character from the story rather than watching from a third-person perspective. This contributes to the immersion factor, but it also helps achieve a high level of empathy between the reader and the character. The reader chooses what he or she, as the character in the story, should do, and everything that happens is a result of these decisions. Although the plot is linear, the reader drives it forward and is responsible for the characters' actions. Thus, the reader can feel like he or she is to blame for Alley's death. After all, the scene in which Alley dies is one in which the reader is driving the car, and he or she also failed to stop the speeding car at the beginning of the game that caused her death in the end.



Photopia takes advantage of the medium of IF through its visuals, which create an atmosphere in the fictional worlds fitting of the various settings. Instead of using pictures to convey a concrete image of the current scene, Cadre chose to change the background and text colors to match what the character is seeing. For example, the first fantasy scene takes place on a lonely, red planet. Upon the opening of this scene, the background changes to black (like outer space) and the text becomes red (like the planet). This draws the reader into the setting and establishes an eerie mood that builds as the reader progresses. As the scenes switch from the fantastical stories to Alley's life, the text and background revert to black and white. This is somewhat of a shock to the eyes when it happens, and it immediately causes the reader to realize that the narrative is now taking place back in reality.

Photopia is an example of a work of IF that is more of a story than a game. Even Cadre described it as having "almost no gamelike elements." It can truly be considered a work of literature due to its heavy use of symbolism, artful descriptions of settings, simple but powerful plot, and clear message. Victor Gijsbers, an interactive fiction analyst, describes it as "a tale of influence, of how we plant seeds in the minds of others." He also explains that "Photopia's message is this: Do not despair at death, for from the tiniest seeds we have sown, new and abundant life can come forth." Photopia has everything a good work of literature should have - an intriguing plot, interesting characters, and a message to convey. It is a masterpiece of IF, and it's no wonder Emily Short calls it "a work so hugely influential to IF development that anyone interested in the history of the form should try it."

Lost Pig (Emily Posey)
Lost Pig is a piece of interactive fiction told by Grunk, a dim-witted orc, to the creator "Admiral Jota." The reader plays as Grunk, who is on a quest to find his boss's pig that escaped from the pig farm. The story is very detailed but the player can only "win the game" and return the pig to the farm through one set of events. However, these events occur in a number of different orders. As Grunk explores the world around him and attempts to catch the pig, he earns points, the maximum being 7. The plot consists of Grunk following the pig and falling into a dark hole with tunnels leading to a handful of rooms. He catches the pig through a series of tasks, and with help from a friendly gnome, exits the underground labyrinth.

The most interesting aspect of Lost Pig is the main character, through whom you are forced to experience the world. Because Grunk is an orc, he is not very intelligent, which drastically limits the actions he can perform or understand. As you travel through the environment and see Grunk's responses to various commands, you start to regard Grunk as a lovable character, who wants to find "pig" and avoid "big trouble." You identify with Grunk as you get increasingly immersed in the story, especially when he starts to talk to the gnome. You learn about "Grunk mother and father and Grunk brother in army." Upon learning that the gnome's parents are dead, Grunk thinks "That sad that gnome mother and father gone. But it good that them good mother and father." Grunk becomes more likable as the story goes on, from a proud smile when you finally catch the pig to nervous unease when you are lost in the tunnels. The point of view from the not-so-bright orc added to his wholesome character creates a fun and hilarious adventure that you enjoy to explore. You even feel compelled to describe Grunk as "not-so-bright" rather than "dull" or "dim-witted" because you come to like him so much.

Lost Pig and Grunk contrast greatly with other works such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and its main character, Victor. Victor's actions are so displeasing that the reader slowly starts to abhor him, as he makes decision after decision. The audience instead comes to connect with Victor's creation, a curious and astoundingly bright fellow. He learns about kindness and love by reading books and observing a poor family. "The creature," as Victor calls him, encounters prejudice and hatred every where he turns, no matter how kind he acts, and slowly sinks into despair. The reader sympathizes with the creature, seeing how horrible Victor and other humans have been to him. At the end of the novel, the creature laments that although his creator was unjust, he felt more loathing for himself, because he devoted his life to making his creator miserable, than Victor felt for him. Grunk exists in a fantasy world, and experiences no such prejudice, but his limited intelligence forces the player to be creative when solving problems and to experience triumphant joy when he earns a point as a result. You learn with Grunk, through his eyes and language, and even start using Grunk's syntax as you become more immersed in the plot. Shelley's novel and Grunk's journey both successfully cause the reader to identify with characters in the stories, strengthening both narratives immensely.