Author: roroberts

Unlike many of the other works we have examined this semester, How to Rob a Bank is not very interactive. It is the piece from the semester that most resembles a book. Pressing the space bar is equivalent to turning a page and its parts are similar to chapters of a book. Bigelow uses the digital platform to bring the pages of his book to life. Instead of just having words on a page, the story is told through text messages, phone calls, Instagram posts, articles, google searches, TV shows and other digital forms. It is a basic story bought alive using the many different forms found within a digital space.

In contrast to Bury Me My Love, the reader of How to Rob a Bank had no control over the actions of the main character. Surprisingly, I found How to Rob a Bank to be a much more interesting and exciting experience due to the many different forms used to tell the narrative such as using a baby name app generator to signal the pregnancy of a character. Bury Me My Love only uses text messages with the occasional picture which can get quite repetitive and boring. Furthermore, How to Rob a Bank allows the reader to navigate the game at their own pace using the space bar while Bury Me My Love uses real-time text messages coming in every couple of hours. While the real-time sense of the game allows it to seem more realistic, the fragmented engagement with the game left me quite disinterested and unconnected to the characters and the story. In all, How to Rob a Bank successfully brings a book-like narrative to life using the digital platform to bring excitement to every page.

Her Story not only is a chilling and immersive game, but it also destroys Manovich’s argument that database and narrative are competing natural enemies. Her Story showcases the beauty of a fascinating narrative being imbedded within a database.  Her Story contains a database as the video clips within the game are massive, searchable, non-hierarchal and flexible. The use of a database to piece together a complex story and mystery only adds to the intensity and beauty of the game.

The use of a searchable database to understand a complex murder narrative truly allows the game to be immersive. Her Story reminded me of the book I mapped for our choose your own adventure project, Who Killed Harlow Thrombey. Also, a murder mystery the reader was tasked with discovering the truth through the interactive nature of a choose your own adventure book. Her Story takes this to another level as the searchable aspect of the database forces the player to listen like a detective. Unlike other murder mysteries, Her Story does not provide you with clues, as the player you have to listen and decide what to search to further uncover the murder. Throughout the game, the player is truly immersed in the game as they not only trying to piece together the narrative but also listen and determine what can be searched that will lead them to the truth.

Besides the searchable aspect of the game, the fragmentation of the complex chilling story really makes the game addicting. As the player puts the narrative together, the truth becomes more confusing. The short video clips began to reveal a haunting and twisted story. Her Story is a truly great game not only because of its ability to unite database and narrative, but the complex narrative revealed within the database that leaves the player questioning what is real and what is just another story.

The simplicity yet the difficulty of Dakota engages the reader deeply. As both Rettberg and Pressman note, the creator of Dakota purposely avoids the interactivity present in many electronic literature pieces. While at the first I thought the lack of interactive elements in Dakota would make it quite boring, it was one of the most engaging works we have read this semester. Unlike many of the interactive works we have discussed such as Abra: A Living Text, Dakota has a deep meaning based on a traditional work of literature. Many of the works we have explored this semester have used the digital space to merely make their work interactive, but this did not always add depth to the piece. Many creators have used technology to just add flashy elements to literature rather than push and adapt the art of literature itself. Interactivity is present within traditional literature with Choose Your Own Adventure Books; Dakota avoided this element to push the bounds of literature rather than just expand it to the digital space.

Chang states, “no graphics or graphic design; no photos; no banners; no millions-of-colors; no playful fonts; no pyrotechnics. I have a special dislike for interactivity.” (Pressman 82). This quote by the author of Dakota shows the intention behind its simple design. Technology allows the author of electronic literature to add plenty of graphics and visual aids but this does not always add to a story. Compared to Abra: A Living Text, Dakota has a much simpler design but also a more complex meaning. The most interesting thing about Abra: A Living Text was the graphics and colors, rather than the actual words within the work itself.

Besides lacking interactivity, Dakota stands out among all other works from this class as it uses the digital space to completely change the way one goes about reading and interpreting literature. The difficulty of actually reading and analyzing Dakota adds a whole new activity and element to literature. Many works of traditional literature are difficult to interpret and analyze due to the complex and formal writing, but the speed reading used in Dakota makes it almost impossible to merely read the text. The piece uses the digital sphere to bring a new element to life traditional literature cannot. This work urged me to expand my idea of electronic literature as it does not only bring literature to the digital sphere but it changes and alters the very basis of literature itself.

Work Cited:

Amaranth Borsuk, Kate Durbin, and Ian Hatcher, Abra: a living text (2017)

Jessica Pressman, “Speed Reading” from Digital Modernism: Making It New in New Media (2014), pp. 78-100

Rettberg, “Kinetic and Interactive Poetry” from Electronic Literature, pp. 137-143

Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries, Dakota (2002)

After completing our Choose Your Own Adventure project, I felt quite sad that this form of text has almost completely faded from society. I was very wrong; Choose Your Own Adventure books have not disappeared but rather evolved. As Salter points out in Playing for Empathy, Twine games are known for being “an open-source tool for telling interactive nonlinear stories”. Similar to Choose Your Own Adventure novels, Twine allows you to have an internal ontological experience with a given set of choices digitally.

Twine games have upgraded Choose Your Own Adventure Texts by increasing the exploratory nature of the story. In Twine games such as Cactus Blue Hotel and 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonald’s, the reader is encouraged to explore their settings and talk to other characters. In addition, the story is constantly evolving as the reader continues the story the options given change and adapt to reflect the past chosen taken by the reader. Another difference between Twine and choose your own adventure books is the complexity of the narrative. What makes many Twine games appealing are the heavy topics explored and the mystery surrounding the plot. Unlike Choose Your Own Adventure books, in many Twine games the reader is unaware of their mission. It is only as the game unfolds that the reader is able to understand the main character and their motives.

The beauty of Twine is that it combines the ease of Choose Your Own Adventure books and the exploratory nature of earlier interactive literature games. When playing games such as Shade, I found myself quickly disinterested as I continued typing commands the game could not understand. On the other hand, when playing a Twine game such as Cactus Blue Hotel I was so truly immersed in the game due to its ease of use. I was easily able to explore the hotel and talk to the guests with a click of a mouse. The choice of options rather than typing out commands made the game move quickly and feel truly immersive. While playing Cactus Blue Hotel, I felt emotionally stuck in the game. I could not physically stand up until I was able to make it out of the hotel. The greatly immersive experience provided by Twine games allows readers to easily understand and connect with the main character.

Work Cited:

Abigail Corfman, 16 Ways to Kill a Vampire at McDonalds (2016)

Anastasia Salter, “Playing at Empathy: Representing and Experiencing Emotional Growth Through Twine Games” (2016)

Andrew Plotkin, “Shade” (2000)

Astrid Dalmady, Cactus Blue Hotel (2016)

When first reading Ryan’s Many Forms of Interactivity, I didn’t quite understand the purpose of a story being both external and exploratory. If the reader was neither a part of or had a lasting impact on the story how interactive could it really be? Both My Boyfriend Came Back from the War and My Body-A Wunderkammer display the power of hypertext and its use of fragmentation to display and replicate emotions. The external and exploratory nature of these pieces allows the reader to interact with the story in a way to truly understand the emotions of characters through the use of both fragmentation and multilinear narratives.

In My Boyfriend Came Back from the War, the divided black screen with blurry text shows the wide range of emotions between the couple. The constant confusion and incoherence the reader experiences mirror that of an argument going nowhere. The hypertext nature of the story allows the reader to step into the couple’s shoes. Although the reader is an outside observer, the fragmentation and multilinear narrative allow the reader to truly experience the confusion and uncertainty faced by the couple as they end their relationship. The confusion the reader is overwhelmed with as they interact with the choppy and bleak storyline replicates the disorder experienced by the broken couple.

The complexity and memories within one’s body are displayed in My Body-A Wunderkammer using fragmentation. Bodies are complex with marking and memories, and the hypertext nature of the story allows the reader to explore Jackson’s body in a multilinear way. The insecurities and the views of our body can be complex, confusing and often rooted in memories. The use of hypertext allows the reader to deep dive into the inner thinking of Jackson and how her memories connect to her body image. In Tattoos, Jackson first gives a general description of her tattoos but as you continue to click on the text you learn about the memories and experiences that inspired them.  Very similar to the process of getting to know a person, the story begins with surface-level descriptions and as the reader continues, they randomly learn personal details about the author.