Mike Mulvey
Dr. Liu
Interactive Fiction Response
March 31, 2010
The is little doubt that Interactive Fiction is one of the most unique types of literature available today. By allowing the user to actively participate and make decisions that affect the plot, IF pulls the reader into the world of the narrative in a way that other forms of literature cannot. In this regard, IF can, in many ways, be considered superior to simple electronic texts. Unfortunately, I have found that the interactive elements of electronic fiction can ultimately have a deleterious effect on the overall literary experience. The goal of this analysis is not to argue that Interactive Fiction is a good or bad form of creative expression, rather that some of the interactive elements are inherently flawed. For my purposes, I will use two different pieces of IF to demonstrate what elements detract from the narrative as a whole. The first piece of IF I would like to review is titled "All Roads", written by Jon Ingold.
The electronic work "All Roads", is a good example of unique blending of interaction and narration that can be found commonly in IF. "All Roads" is puzzle-based adventure that requires the user input to advance the story as many IF works do. The work itself is one giant puzzle in which the user must provide the right sequence of inputs to move the story forward. For example, after the prologue and the first several cycles, the user finds him or herself trapped in a cell. The user must then figure out how to escape the cell by using only the materials inside the room.
The image above describes what is inside the room and some of the potential inputs. In order to escape the room the user must pick up a wine bottle, smash it, and use the shards to cut the ropes binding the protagonists hands.

While this task may appear simple at first glance, I found the puzzle to be significantly challenging. I was unaware that the wine bottle was anything more than a part of background itself. I was only able to figure out the correct sequence of inputs through an extraordinarily frustrating process of trial and error. I did feel a certain sense of satisfaction when I solved the puzzle, but after nearly an hour of frantically typing every possible input I could imagine, I found myself completely discouraged with the work as a whole. As the piece continues, the protagonist escapes the cell and the user finds himself in an alleyway outside the jail.
The cycles in the screen-shot above are a perfect example of the main criticism I have for puzzle-based Interactive Fiction. The output at the top of the screen details several alleyways and a girl bathing in the fountain. After issuing several commands, I found that I was unable to make my character do anything. Even more frustrating was the parsers inability to interpret the word fountain. The output at the top mentions a fountain, yet when I attempted to walk to the "fountain" the parser was unable to understand what I was referring to.

Eventually, I found my way down one of the alleyways and made it to a church, where I was greeted by a priest. I then bribed the priest with my gold ring but, I was captured by the captain of the guard and then executed. I played through this sequence a total of three times, and each time no matter what I did I was unable to prevent my character from dying, over and over again. Despite multiple attempts I was never able to advance the game any further than that point, no matter what I did. For this reason, I feel that the notion that Interactive Fiction is very open-ended cannot be somewhat misleading. In my experience this is not a flaw that is exclusive to "All Roads", but can indeed be found in other IF works.
As mentioned above, I feel that one of the primary drawbacks to Interactive Fiction is the lack of influence the user actually has on the story. In many regards IF has been hailed as, narrative where the user shapes the story. I feel that this assumption is false, and is no more apparent than in a work such as "For Whom the Telling Changed" by Aaron A. Reed . The electronic work "Telling" puts the user in the role of a member of a tribe, which is on the brink of warfare with their rivals. This particular piece does allow for the user to manipulate elements in the story such as the main character's gender and occupation. "Telling" allows the user to make small decisions that have no relative impact whatsoever on the plot, such as deciding which character is the storyteller.

I choose to make the protagonist a female, and to make her uncle Nabu, the storyteller. Regardless of which character is choosen the story told by the fire is always the same. Which ever character you give the feather circlet to becomes the storyteller, and begins telling the tale of Gilgamesh. I played through this piece twice and ended up giving the circlet to Nabu both times because the parser was unable to interpret the name of the other character for reasons I cannot explain.

The plot of this work itself is simplistic and in order to advance the story I found myself repeatedly entering the same input over and over again.

Each time I attempted to make the character do anything other than "Listen" the parser responded with "Now is not the time for that".


I didn't feel that I was in any way shaping the outcome or even the sequence of events, rather I was just repeatedly typing the same command to advance the story.
Although it may appear that my goal in this brief analysis was to attack Interactive Fiction, nothing could be further from the truth. I feel that IF is in many ways a unique, and valid form of literary expression. I freely admit that the criticisms mentioned above could be attributed to my somewhat simplistic understanding of Interactive Fiction. This particular type of electronic literature is predicated on user interaction, and is unique in that it allows the user to make choices that can effect the story. Yet, I find myself questioning just how much impact the user can have on the narrative's plot. Each time I begin a piece of IF, I do so with a certain level of excitement, as I feel that my actions can help shape the outcome of the story in some profound way. By the end I ultimately find myself disappointed as I never feel like I made any decisions that matter. Based on what I have seen so far IF seems to be little more than text fiction with multiple plot lines. In some cases, such as "For Whom the Telling Changed", I felt that the choices I made were relatively meaningless. While I was unable to advance the story of "All Roads", I am aware that the narrative does have more divergent story lines than I mentioned above, but I feel they are in many ways the same. My criticisms aside, I admit that IF does offer some interactive elements that are different from any other form of literature, but to the extent that the average user believes. In summation, I don't feel that the interactive elements are enough for IF to be classified as its own genre of literature.