Author: asip

Bury Me My Love combines many of the themes we’ve discussed this semester into one game.. Just like Her Story, in Bury Me My Love, the form mirrors the content. Bury Me My Love tells the story of Nour who is a Syrian refugee and is trying to escape to Europe. The most unique aspect of this game is how the story is told through text messages between you (her husband, Majd) and Nour. The player is able to choose between different responses and the form of communication (text message, photos, emojis). Players must also wait in “real time” in order to receive a message from Nour. Notifications are sent to your phone – truly blurring your world with Nours. This suspense combined with the agency granted to players forces us into Nour and Majd’s world. Unlike Her Story, where the player’s role was a foil, in Bury Me My Love the player’s role is a protagonist –  a conventional main character with a backstory and motivation. The interactivity of the game paired with the user interface makes the story of Nour and Majd more compelling and intimate.

The nature of text messages are slow which mimics the anxiety that Majd faces as he tries to stay in contact with Nour. Not only that, there is a bit of dysfunctionality within the game. I wanted to scroll back up and reread my previous messages with Nour but was unable to do so. If this was intentional, it was to emphasize how important Majd’s text messages are and the time-sensitive nature. Not only that, it could also represent the poor connectivity between Majd and Nour. There were also times where the text messages wouldn’t send and the frustration I felt must’ve been similar to Majd trying to get into contact with his wife. These quick decisions that I had to make reminded me of our CYOA book and how after we made a choice, we were not able to go back. 

Finally, the most impressive aspect of Bury Me My Love to me was how no matter which options you chose – the story was clear. The relationship between Majd and Nour is clear and the environment that Nour is fleeing from is also very obvious.

Last class, we discussed the various roles that players can have when interacting with interactive fiction. In Her Story, I would argue that the player’s role would be categorized as a foil. In her blog post, “An Alternative Taxonomy for Her Story“, Emily Short describes this role as “the player-character’s interactions with the real protagonist serve to reveal and/or develop her character, but our own character remains something of a cipher.” In Her Story, the player’s goal is to figure out the role of a woman suspect in the murder of Simon. Unlike many other interactive fiction pieces we’ve looked at, in Her Story, the player serves as a third-person looking in. I imagined myself as a detective trying to pull information out of someone who wanted to trick me. Her Story as a game relies on the player not having all of the information. If it was told through the suspect’s perspective, I’d assume the focus would shift from trying to figure out the story to trying to successfully confuse the interrogator, making Her Story  a completely different game.

Another unique aspect of Her Story is the user interface and how the form mirrors its content. As I went through the videos, it was clear that there was a detailed investigation occuring. The player has to work through a computer database where the questioning of the suspect has been stored. As a detective, when there is a mystery, the instinct is to continue digging for evidence. One thing that particularly stood out to me was how players were limited to 5 entries – even if their “search term” resulted in more entries. This is part of the rule of significance, which is one of the rules of reading we spoke about earlier this semester. The rule of significance is interpreting the things you notice. Limiting the player to only 5 entries per “search term” ensures that the reader continues to search the database. Not only that, it increases the interactivity with the player. For me, this limitation motivated me more to continue searching through the database. Another example of the rule of significance are the dates on the video. By providing the player with this information, it allows the player more agency to put together the story of the suspect. 

As I read through Scott Rettburg’s description of procedural and syntactic poetry in Electronic Literature, I found myself comparing a lot of similarities between this genre and CYOA books. 

Rettburg points out that with procedure and syntactic poetry, “they typically involve elements of chance and surprise, constraint and variability, and explore the poetic and narrative potentialities of text machines” (38). The chance and surprise that Rettburg notes here is evident in the two pieces we looked at today – Jason Nelson’s This is how you will die and Nick Montfrot’s Taroko Gorge. In Nelson’s piece, each spin produces a new narrative of various death scenarios. The randomness of the stories one reads based off of the slot machine and the surprise of various videos, and short poems that Nelson implements in his game showcases the elements of chance and surprise. Not only that in Montfort’s piece, there is an endlessly scrolling poem and when I refreshed it each time, it started out with a different line. There are many different possibilities and surprises embedded within Montfort’s work, especially because there are so many different combinations. The surprise and chance that is shown in Nelson’s and Montfrot’s piece reminds me of the CYOA maps and books we explored. Depending on which choice a reader made, the storyline could also alter. Rettburg also mentions that “running the program multiple times and analyzing output from the same generator allows us to consider and decipher the program’s structure” (42). This is exactly what we did when we mapped out our CYOA books – we saw which choices were “prioritized” and how the choices of the reader dictated the endings. Both of these genres show that language and storytelling does not have to be stagnant and restrictive, rather it can be used as a tool to generate different possibilities. 

As I was going through the two pieces assigned for class today, I was also thinking about the question that was posed in class: What is critical to understanding these pieces? I discussed with my classmates that the source material was vital, especially because it dictates the narrative that is told. The user, whether they know it or not, is limited by the choices of the author. This was seen in the game Travesty which is described by Rettburg as “a text generator in the form of procedural operation by the program on any given text” (38). The user is able to select the source material and Travesty generates text using the source vocabulary and substituting elements of the text (38). In the example that is given, this generator preserves the style of the original text and that not only speaks to the sourcing material, but also the programming itself. Because the text generator uses the original source to create its new piece and the way this piece is programmed, it makes sense that the new text is similar to the source. When we looked at 100 Billion Poems and created sonnets from the base poems, the “new” poems could differ vastly from the base poems, but we were still limited to those poems.

As I interacted with Shade, I kept thinking back to the CYOA books we had discussed and mapped for our recent project. In class, we learned about four characteristics that encompassed complex interactive fiction. They were shifting perspectives, narrative enigmas, reconfiguring story time and reframing. I would argue that Shade and CYOA books could be characterized as complex interactive fiction. In  “Enlightening Interactive Fiction: Andrew Plotkin’s Shade, Douglass argues that “although the interface and description of Shade are rigorously contractured from the second point of view, from the outset there is another perspective present in the room, a kind of IF play-within a play” (135).  He mentions the foreshadowing that occurs towards the end of the game. In class, we define shifting perspectives as changing narrative points of view. I wonder if foreshadowing counts as a shifting perspective. In terms of CYOA books, the shifting perspectives can happen depending on the story that’s being told. In Marie-Laure Ryan’s “The Many Forms of Interactivity”, she describes different structures that dictate the narrative thats told during CYOA books. The Braided Plot structure allows readers to explore different character perspectives, which fits into the shifting perspective characteristic as a complex interactive fiction. 

Narrative enigmas defined as uncertainty as to whats happening or just happened is a key feature in both Shade and CYOA. Playing Shade, it is easy to get frustrated – especially because not all commands work. In many of the blog posts that talked about Shade, it was clear that many people gave up because they didn’t understand what to do. This speaks to the learning curve that IF has. Unlike CYOA books, one must understand the various commands that are offered and understand the importance of details. In CYOA books, the task is straight forward – you must follow the path that is given based on the choices you make. In both IF and CYOA books, uncertainty is key to telling the story. The thrill that you get from making a decision is similar to the thrill that you get when a command finally works. 

Reconfiguring story time is also present in Shade and CYOA. From what I understand about Shade, according to Dogulass there are “two worlds.” Death is imminent and this fits into the humbled chronologies characteristic in reconfiguring story time. I think that this is what makes Shade confusing. If I hadn’t read Dogulass piece, I wouldn’t have known that death was going to happen. In CYOA books, repetition is common. In my book, “The Magician’s House” the setting of the book was often repeated in order to get readers familiar to the odd characteristics of the setting. I know from my own experience reading CYOA books that flashbacks are also common and that different flashbacks are used in order for readers to understand the plot more. 

Lastly, reframing – forcing the reader to interpret past story events based on new information is something that is very present in Shade. For me. I found myself continuously scrolling up to the top to reread the background information in order to get a sense of what I was supposed to do. It’s also clear that after every command that works, the reader has to interpret whats given and try to continue on with the story. In terms of CYOA books, I know that mapping out each possible ending helped some of my classmates come up with the hidden lessons in their book. Some choices were more “privileged” and led to better endings. Because CYOA books fit the four characteristics of Complex IF, I would argue that CYOA books are a type of complex IF. 

As a kid, I always loved the Choose Your Own Adventure books because I was constantly amazed at the seemingly endless possibilities. I often wondered how long it took the authors to compile these stories and more so, how they were able to keep track of everything. Sam Ashwell’s article “Standard Patterns in Choice-Based Games” and Marie-Laure Ryan’s book Narrative as Virtual Reality 2 help uncover the behind-the-scenes intricacies of Choose Your Own Adventure books and other electronic media. 

Ryan defines interactivity as “a dimension of face-to-face interaction that was shut off by manuscript and print writing and introduced into written messages by the electronic medium” (Ryan 160). She focuses on ergodic literature and its relationship with interactivity. Throughout this chapter, Ryan explains the types of interactivity, the various interactive structures and even the levels of interactivity. Reading this chapter definitely made me more aware of the affordances that electronic media has over printed media. The way that creators choose to utilize interactivity in their electronic media impacts users in a way that print media often fails to do. For example, The Braided Plot, or the House of Many Windows, was my favorite structure because of how complex it can be. Usually, when reading a printed book, it is told from one point of view and I am often left wondering how the story would differ if it was told from another character’s point of view. This structure allows multiple perspectives in one story and to me, that is fascinating. 

After reading both Ashwell’s and Ryan’s pieces, I am in awe of the work and thought that goes behind games that I thought were “simple.” I am looking forward to learning more about the intricacies behind electronic literature.