As someone who used to spend hours hunched over a computer navigating the world of Sims4 and the various intricacies that accompany all choices from the construction of the house to socialization between people, I never took the time to ponder the behind-the-scenes steps required to create the game.
Maurie-Laure Ryan’s book Narrative as Virtual Reality 2 examines the forms of interactivity and the resulting organizational nuances and levels. Her commentary exists in contiguity with Sam Kabo Ashwell’s piece “Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games,” which analyzes the structures specifically of Choose Your Own Adventure games. Reading both pieces led me to wonder the sequential development of CYOA games alongside other forms of electronic media. As we discussed in class, the years during which CYOA were most popular and most widely produced spanned from the early 1980s up until the late 1990s. The depth of some of these games’ options, as Ashwell outlines, limit their mainstream use, but still remain as integral parts to the development of both CYOA games and other forms of electronic literature.
The chapter of Ryan’s book examines ergodism and its bounds as they compress, expand, and relate to interactivity. What stood out to me was, amidst all of the structures, the levels of interactivity. Ryan, as she declares, “propose[s] to peel this onion” that is narrative text (Ryan 176). With this perspective, Ryan allows the reader to unpack the complexity of the games we have taken for granted all this time. Ultimately, Ryan and Ashwell force their audiences to consider the relationship between form and product. What does an author lose and gain with each decision regarding the form of her piece? Do these forms lend themselves to future development and innovation? If so, to whom does that responsibility fall, the author or the player? Moving forward in this class, I look forward to the chance to discuss the relationship between the people on both ends of the production and reception of electronic media and its CYOA counterparts.