Author: maahari

Bury me, my Love tells the story of Nour and her journey from Syria to Europe to escape Syria’s civil war. In the story, the user plays the role of Nour’s husband, Majd, and is able to interact with her through texts. The user is also given multiple options of texts to send in certain cases. I found the game to be very immersive and it gave me the feeling that I was actually texting someone, particularly with the app’s notifications turned on. The fact that Nour would be unavailable for periods of time also made the game feel real.

The game offers a window into the journey of Syrian migrants and the risks they face. In the story, Nour’s texts detail the challenges she faces on her journey, such as not being able to get to a border. At certain times in the game as Majd, the reader must decide on what to advise Nour to do, such as to stick with their original plan to get to a border or to find a smuggler both come with risks, decisions that real migrants face on a constant basis. I also found the dialogue interesting because it makes the characters feel like real people. For example, you see the characters’ personalities, humor, and worries. The dialogue also includes emojis and photos. All of this makes the dialogue natural and allows you to relate with both characters. I had not known that texts could be a form of storytelling and was surprised at how natural and personal the story felt.

In The Language of New Media, Manovich compares databases and narratives. He explains that “the database represents the world as a list of items” while “a narrative creates a cause-and-effect trajectory of seemingly unordered items” (225). He goes on to state that “… web sites, and other new media objects organized as databases correspond to the data structure, whereas narratives, including computer games, correspond to algorithm” (226). I have found that I do not follow the narrative structure of some of the works we examine.This may be because I was not exposed to databases in their creative form before this class. However, narratives cannot compete with a database’s ability to constantly add more data.

The Whale Hunt blends the narrative and database well. I really enjoyed the collection of photographs because of their narrative and the story they told. The photographs can be characterized as a database, but also have a clear narrative. One common theme from the photographs that stuck with me was the constant daylight in Alaska. I was trying to categorize this as being part of the eerie and uncanny or the sublime but was unable to do so definitively. On one hand, I would not say this constant daylight invokes feelings of uneasiness or uncertainty. At the same time, I do not think it is overwhelming in any way, such as in size or magnitude. As someone who has not experienced constant daylight, I think it would cause a feeling different from either the sublime or the eerie and uncanny.

Combinatory poetics is an intriguing genre due to its chance and randomness. In Electronic Literature, Scott Rettberg explains that “poetry and story generators and other combinatory writing systems are characterized by structured complexity and procedurality” (37). The theme of chance and randomness is on display in Jason Nelson’s this is how you will die and Nick Montfort’s Taroko Gorge. Nelson’s work functions like a slot machine in that each spin results in a different death. Each death scenario is composed of multiple poems and short videos that appear on the side. Each spin costs a certain number of credits and if you’re lucky, the machine will give you more credits. After several spins, I began to see the same poems in different death scenarios. Taroko Gorge is an endless poem with many possible combinations. Nature is a common theme throughout the poem, giving Montfort’s work a certain peacefulness. Rettberg explains that Taroko Gorge’s “code is open and accessible” (47). This allows anyone interested in combinatory poetics to create their own version of Montfort’s work, with many having done so already. I found this particularly interesting because, as Rettberg explains, it serves as an opportunity for people to become authors of electronic literature (48).

I think it’s interesting to compare combinatory poetics with standard poetry. While standard poetry is more cohesive and contains more meaning, the chance and randomness present in combinatory poetics does not allow for as much cohesiveness but does give the reader an element of surprise, something that is evident in both Nelson’s and Montfort’s works.

I found Shade frustrating because of how little there is to do. Some of my commands were not understood, but after some trial and error, I was finally able to explore the room a little. I found that taking what the game gives you helped you progress a little. For example, once you get up from the futon, you are able to turn on the stereo and listen to music. However, there was one aspect of the game that was particularly frustrating. The story kept telling me that I was thirsty and when I typed in the command to drink water, it wanted me to be more specific. I attempted to go to the kitchen, but the computer did not seem to understand that command. After examining the travel book, I found that the character is about to leave fora festival in Death Valley in a few hours. I was curious to know more but was unable to figure out anything else. The contrast between darkness and light also seemed to be an important aspect of Shade. The description of the apartment mentions the darkness trying to creep inside. After attempting to open the shade and turn off the lamp, you get messages saying “you have no desire to look night in the face” and “you do not want the dark.”

Instead of drawing you in with the storyline, Shade engages you by carefully describing the setting and being specific about how the character is feeling. As a result, you must use what the game gives you and use that in order to move forward.

In her book Narrative as Virtual Reality 2, Marie-Laure Ryan examines interactive storytelling and the different forms it can take. Ryan examines the various types of interactive storytelling as well as the different interactive structures found in different stories. I found her discussion regarding these different structures to be particularly interesting because it reminded me of the interactive structures I encountered while playing various mobile games when I was younger. I remember encountering “The Vector”, which Ryan defines as a linear structure but can include side branches that may or may not be completed by the user (165-166). “The Flowchart” also stuck out to me because of Ryan’s explanation that the user’s choices within the story can affect the ending, such as whether or not the user is able to gain a certain ability (171-172).

It is interesting to compare digital storytelling to printed literature. Digital storytelling allows for much more flexibility and interactivity that printed literature cannot. However, Ryan explains that many people play computer and video games for the action and entertainment, as well as the “thrill of beating the game” as many games reuse the same basic storyline (181). It is easy to get lost in the action of a computer and video game and not pay much attention to the storyline. On the other hand, printed literature puts the focus on the story and allows for more complex storytelling. While digital storytelling offers interactivity and levels of customization for the user, there is beauty in the detailed storytelling provided by printed literature.