Re: Game vs. Hyperfiction


26 Mar 1995 13:10:19 GMT

Jeff <jryoung@phoenix.princeton.edu> wrote:
> I am still unclear about the differences between Int-fiction and
> hypertext fiction (by hypertext fiction I mean stories being developed
> in Storyspace or Hypercard or HTML. (none of these are mentioned in
> the FAQ.)
>
> Are they the same thing, or are there differences? Is int-fiction
> more problem/riddle oriented and hypertext fiction generally more
> closely rooted in traditional narrative?

There is a continuum of interaction from ordinary fiction through
"adventure games" through to the kind of interactive story-telling that
people at the moment can only dream about. We might rank these artforms
in order of increasing interactivity, somewhat like this (the FAQ has a
similar listing):

Traditional, linear narrative
Postmodern non-linear narrative
Tree fiction ("choose your own adventure")
Fully hypertext narratives
Adventure games
Simulations
Automated interactive story-telling
Virtual reality story-telling

Discussion of hypertext fiction tends to go on in the newsgroup
"alt.hypertext", on the HTLIT mailing list (to subscribe, send e-mail to
"subscribe@journal.biology.carleton.ca" with the text "subscribe htlit"
in the body of the message), and on the World Wide Web itself (see the
URL http://is.rice.edu/~riddle/hyperfiction.html). Discussion of
artforms that are more interactive than adventure games is somewhat
perfunctory because no-one really knows how to implement them.

So on rec.arts.int-fiction, we talk about adventure games. What
distinguishes an adventure game from a hypertext narrative is the
attempt to give the reader a large freedom of action, and a lot of
ability to modify the state of the story.

--
Gareth Rees