Interactive Fiction

Introduction
Interactive fiction (IF), or text adventure games, defines a genre of literature that incorporates an engaging environment where characters are controlled by users through textual commands. The forms of IF include literary narratives and video games. Text and graphical text adventure games are characterized by text-based and graphics-based interfaces respectively. The interactive environment prompts the user to make constructive decisions based on the choices offered as the user advances through the text.

Definition
Interactive fiction is a type of electronic literature, though it is differentiated from other types of electronic literature by its stronger gaming element. When it comes to the gaming format, many of the titles such as Zork and Savoir-Faire ask the user to input information in order to make the next step or move, and in both of these cases the number of moves made and points scored are recorded. These scoring systems and the challenges presented to the user when participating in the story define the gaming aspect of the genre. Adding to the genre's gaming element,  Zork I  was even included in a modern day video game, Call of Duty Black Ops,  as a hidden feature that could be discovered by entering a code into an in game computer terminal. While interactive fiction has a strong gaming element, there are some key features that give it a literary element as well.

History
The first text adventure computer game was created in 1976 by programmer Will Crowther. Crowther’s game, Colossal Cave Adventure, was a simple text-based cave exploration game with a computer narrator that understood two word commands. Crowther was an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons and the game used a similar interaction style, where the player speaks to a game master. Equipped with good story telling, fantasy elements, and challenging puzzles, Adventure would quickly bring attention to a hot new genre of interactive fiction. Interactive fiction games were wildly popular in the 1980s when home computers had extremely limited graphics capability. Since then, as computer technology has exponentially grown, these interactive fiction games have faded into obscurity compared to new video game consoles such as the Xbox and Playstation. However, there are still some games online which are distributed for free, and interactive novels are still sold in bookstores.

Major Features
Text adventure games range through many different styles, from online games (like Zork) to novels in which readers are told to flip to different pages based on the decisions they want the character to make, commonly known as “Choose Your Own Adventure” books. Interactive fiction can be compared to many types of traditional literary genres, most notably, mystery and science fiction. In a mystery novel, the mystery is not unraveled until the end, and it is up to the reader to solve it before the author reveals it. In interactive fiction, the player’s goal is to score the most points or "beat the game," which could also be described as beating the writer. Science fiction novels also attempt to create a new environment that is not present in everyday life. In much the same way, interactive fiction attempts to transform the "reader" into one of the characters in the game, giving the reader an alternative reality.

Lost Pig (Harshman)
Lost Pig is an interactive fiction game written by “Admiral Jota.” It has won first place in the Interactive Fiction Competition, best game, best writing, best individual non-player character, and best individual player character. This is a text adventure game as there are no graphics for the reader to look at. The game is notable for its use of humor peppered throughout the game.

The protagonist is a character by the name of “Grunk,” who works at a pig farm. Grunk is a less-than-intelligent person, and thus drives the string of humorous events that happen throughout the game. Grunk’s lack of any grammatical skills add to the humor of the game, but it also does make it a little harder to read as you have to actually translate each individual sentence into proper English. A sample of this grammar is, “Grunk like working at pig farm, so now Grunk need find pig.” I imagine this character to be very much like the Cookie Monster on Sesame Street. What drives the game is that Grunk allegedly did not close a gate, and one of the pigs on the farm escaped, and Grunk has to find the pig and bring it back to the farm or else he loses his job on the farm. You find the pig early on in the game, and once I did that, I thought it would be easy to get the pig back to the farm, but it is not. Without a walkthrough, I never would have been able to actually pick up the pig. The game’s humor really does set it apart from other interactive fiction games though. At one point in the game, the pig will rip Grunk’s pants off, and while it really doesn’t add anything to the story line, it is just one of the many subtle things in the game that make it that much more enjoyable. As far as I can tell, there is only one way to win the game.This does not mean that is the only way the story can go however, and that’s what sets interactive fiction apart from other types of literature. I played this game twice, first without the walkthrough, and the second time with it. I got further than I thought I would the first time, but I ultimately killed Grunk, the pig, and the farmer when I caught everything on fire. When I used the walkthrough, I was able to return the pig to the farmer, but I was amazed at the amount of detail and specificity needed to actually complete the task. The only real complaint I had for the game was that I was not able to get the hints to work. Every time I would click on one, it would freeze the game. Other than that, I really did enjoy this piece of interactive fiction.

Although this game may not go down as one of the greatliterary pieces of all time such as The Great Gatsby, it still has its place in the literary ranks. Lost Pig has a distinct storyline that allows the “reader” to not get too lost and stay on track. Much like looking ata piece of fine art, Lost Pig will make you think. Maybe not in the same way, but it will challenge every problem-solving brain cell you have. It will definitely frustrate you, especially when you corner the pig and still can’t pick it up, but you can be sure that the actions of Grunk will be humorous enough that the urge to laugh will outweigh the urge to throw your computer out the window.

Savoir-Faire (Jenkins)
Savoir-Faire is an award winning piece of Interactive Fiction created by Emily Short in 2002. It operates primarily as a game, though it also features a prominent literary component. The game is operated using textual input from the user to guide the character's actions and movement. The player takes on the role of Pierre, who returns to the house where he grew up in search of something. Pierre possesses magical abilities that are used throughout the game to solve puzzles, and these puzzles require "the user to make a leap of inference from one device to another that resembles it in function." For example, there is a scene in the game where you must magically link a set of doors to a teapot, and once they are linked you open the teapot in order to open the doors. The goal of the game is not immediately apparent upon starting, though you discover more as you move along just as you would reading a book. The literary aspect comes from this need to discover the story as you play, and using verbs like "examine" and "remember" in reference to objects found throughout the game offers a fair amount of well written information regarding the character's past. So, not only do you find yourself playing Savoir-Faire, you often find yourself engrossed in the written portions as well. It effectively functions as both a game and piece of literary art, providing both an intriguing puzzle and amazing imagery and detail through its textual components.

Emily Short's creation of Savoir-Faire as a piece of interactive fiction shows us how good electronic literature can be when all of the right elements come together. Savoir-Faire offers the user a very engaging experience that challenges them with mind bending puzzles and rewards them with a fascinating story. The gaming aspect of Savoir-Faire is extremely challenging, and one would find it quite difficult to complete without a walk-through like the one created by David Welbourn. There are challenging puzzles, mazes, and required discoveries throughout the game. These challenges make reading the story a more involved task than reading a typical book would be, and they really exercise the reader's problem solving skills and patience. Instead of simply observing the story, interactive fiction such as Savoir-Faire requires the reader to become a participant and engage in the story itself. While there is a conclusion at the end of the game that is meant to be reached, user decisions can alter the exact course one takes to the conclusion, and sometimes even make the conclusion unreachable. There is a scene in the game where the player creates a chocolate rose that must be magically linked to the roses guarding the shed, and then it must be eaten in order to make the roses disappear. If the rose is eaten before it is linked to the roses on the shed you will never have access to a ladder that is required for the completion of the game. These types of variable outcomes are what tend to define interactive fiction as more game than fiction. Savoir-Faire, as well as other interactive fiction, effectively transform the act of reading from a leisurely activity into a challenging gaming experience. Although Savoir-Faire proves itself to be a rather challenging game, it also successfully functions as a work of fiction. The story told in Savoir-Faire is "linear with a set beginning and end" like most works of fiction, though in this case "the reader manipulates the path between these points to create the story." While the user gets to choose their own path, Emily Short does not forget the importance of language and writing style in Savoir-Faire, but instead uses them to enhance the entire interactive fiction experience. The user can progress through the game without using the "examine" and "remember" functions, but they would miss out on the vivid imagery and fascinating story presented through the additional text they provide. For example, examining a set of silverware brings additional details such as the appearance of the silver and the individual details of the family crest on the handle. The "remember" function provides detailed memories of the objects or people, such as memories of Pierre's relationship with Marie. Short's writing and attention to detail when providing these memories connect the reader to Pierre and the story, providing an experience that immerses the user more thoroughly than a game typically can. These characteristics are what make Savoir-Faire a work of fiction as well as a game, since the user not only plays it, but they also get a large part of the experience through reading it. By providing both a gaming experience and a true work of fiction in Savoir-Faire, Emily Short has given us a piece of interactive fiction that offers up a good example of what electronic literature has to offer.

The Kingdom of Loathing (Le)
Created by Zack "Jick" Johnson and Josh "Mr Skullhead" Nite, Kingdom of Loathing (KoL) is a unique fantasy-themed online role-playing game. The game was first released in 2003, though new content continues to be added quite frequently. Drawing inspiration from the classic game Zork as well as Choose Your Own Adventure books, KoL strives to place the players (or readers) in the role of the protagonist they have created. KoL features virtually no animation, with the bulk of the game being given through text and some crude black-and-white illustrations. The game require users to create a free account to play. Account usernames serve as the player character's name. Often, the player's username will be inserted into the game's narrative and extensive exposition as a means of immersion.

The basic plot of KoL sees an adventurer (the player) tasked with defeating a sorceress who has taken over the kingdom. However, KoL emphasizes choice over linearity, and so players are free to diverge from the main task. Once the player succeeds in defeating the "Naughty Sorceress," the main antagonist and parody a character from the film Army of Darkness, they are given the option to "ascend to a higher plane of existence," where they will start their character over at level 1 to play through the entire game again, making different choices and earning new rewards that carry over from one "ascension" to the next. Other activities in the game include various sidequests, and a very active community in the form of an in-game chat panel and official message boards.

The game is rife with allusions and references to pop culture, as with the Sorceress character. The subjects KoL makes references to span every facet of pop culture, from literature, TV and film, music, viral internet phenomena, and more. For instance, one of the quests, the Strange Leaflet quest, is an allusion to one of KoL's main inspirations, Zork. In this quest, the player is transported inside of a piece of paper, the Strange Leaflet, where they must enter text commands to reach the end and claim a reward. Here, it is even possible to be eaten by a grue!

Literacy is an integral part of the game. In addition to the vast amounts of narrative for the story and quests, every area, item, and monster has its own unique, detailed text description. Other than that, the game developers even require players to pass a simple literacy and reading comprehension test within the game to be able to use the in-game chat panel. Other instances where literature has been interestingly inserted in the game are in two of the dungeons, the Haiku Dungeon and the Limerick Dungeon. In these areas, all information given in the action panel is given in haiku and limerick form, respectively. KoL sets itself apart from games as a piece of interactive literature because it relies on text to interface with the user rather than animation and sound. It is a very unique game, with clever narrative and witty wordplay as the central part of the game.

Shade (Moustafa)
Shade is an interactive fiction (IF) piece written by Andrew Plotkin. It earned 10th place in the 6th Annual Interactive Fiction Competition in 2000. It is an example of a text-based adventure game, where the user ( or main character) interacts with their environment only through the use of textual commands. Traditionally IF has a specific goal for the main character, who commands the games by imperative statements. The user must creatively employ their own vivid imagine as the game (or parser) develops the situation with second person written responses. The objective of the game isn't very clear as initially you are wandering in your apartment and then later you are wandering in an unpredictably changing environment (i.e. objects appear and disappear, sand forms in areas, and avalanches occur). One of the limitations that the main character has to get used to is the structure of the input text commands to the parser. The imperative statements have to include a definitive verb, such as "open", followed by an existing object, such as "jar", in order for the main character to successfully receive a response. Also, the main character has to recognize that spatial movement is not based on navigation in different directions and instead it is based on the types of actions that the character demands the game to execute. The IF functions as a fiction rather than a game because you learn and gain knowledge as you advance through the written responses of the parser. Similarly to a literary fiction work like Frankenstein, the reader only gains as much knowledge as the narrator exposes about himself or herself. The reader experience is enhanced by the subtle descriptions that are printed on the screen in order to continuously engage the reader in the decision-making process.

In Shade, the player takes the role of the main character, who lives in a one room apartment. Initially his environment includes a futon, kitchen nook, bathroom nook, a desk, a computer, a stereo on a crate, a closet, luggage, and a window. In the beginning, you are sitting alone in the apartment during the night where the window shades are shut. You are very thirsty and you are waiting for your ride to arrive to travel to your destination but you become anxious upon misplacing your plane tickets. The travel preparations don't only become worrisome to you, but the subtle environment transformation from your ordinary apartment to the desert convolutes matters. The desert where the rave you are intended to reach is the destination of your travel and you only begin to discover that you are at the desert rave when a familiar light shines on the walls of your apartment. The shocking reality and truth revealed to the main character presents a compelling and an indelible plot of this work of fiction upon its completion. One cannot identify the plot at the onset of the story as the author conveys the state of confusion and dizziness that you, the main character, have to experience. We discover that a man is at a desert rave in the mist of the heat and sun, where he begins to hallucinate of the familiar environment of his apartment.

The hallucination presents a very interesting perspective as the readers learn about the main character and the choices that he had already made prior to his actual arrival to the desert rave. It reminds me of literary works that employ the flashback technique to educate the readers about historic events in order to understand the present. The form of the text IF work provides me with the feeling of a literary art of fiction because visual effect of the script printing on the screen as I input the textual commands provides the reader and text interaction. The reader interacting with the text is an important goal that the author desires for his audience to attain and grasp, otherwise the author wouldn't write a literary work in the first place. Andrew Plotkin's mastery of the language complexity is immediately obvious when one attempts to use complex sentences, but rather the parser demands the player to use simple statements with basic verbs. The reader's level of comprehension of the author's language will determine the reader's level of engagement with the text. A written novel functions with the same principles in engaging its audience through the level of linguistic difficulty, therefore, Shade is literary fiction that underlies a compelling and engaging story to readers.

My personal experience with Shade was very challenging and intriguing at the same time. I had trouble maneuvering in the apartment because I wasn't aware of the structure of the imperative statements I wanted the game to execute. For example, I would tell the parser "get up from futon" instead of "leave futon" and "get jar" instead of "take jar." This created a frustrating experience at first but after mastering the linguistic requirements of the IF, I began to immerse myself as I would with a novel. I was hooked from this moment as I experienced the fanatic state of mind of the main character as I searched for those plane tickets. I heard the helicopter noises at the dark silence of the hours before dawn and I began to see the story through the main character's experience. I became the main character at this point. My environment began changing quickly where objects were constantly become misplaced and I felt I was actually whirling into a dream deeper and deeper. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to reach the desert rave to experience the entirety of the adventure game. The elementary language of the IF enabled me as a reader to navigate my way through the story and I enjoyed the mysterious aspect of the story as well. Shade is a great work of electronic literature with different elements of adventure and mystery mixed equally to provide to readers an enriching and engaging experience with a very limited environment. It teaches readers that one's imagination can create virtual reality from the simple structure form of interactive fiction.

Whom the Telling Changed (Riley)
Whom the Telling Changed is a piece of interactive fiction by Aaron Reed, where the reader plays a villager, warrior, who gathers with the rest of his village to hear the Epic of Gilgamesh. The story begins with the reader being introduced to his love, Saiph, and his village nemesis, Sihan, followed by them joining everyone for the Telling, or the story. Upon arriving at the central fire of the village, you meet your aunt, who is the village storyteller, and place the circlet of storytelling on her head so she may begin the story. She begins the Epic of Gilgamesh in Eruk, the city where Gilgamesh was ruler. Gilgamesh decides that he will journey outside of the city, with his friend Ekidu and other companions, to slay a demon, Humbaba who is protector the Cedar Forest. Gilgamesh and his companions must cross seven deserts and seven mountains on their long journey to the Cedar Forest. Luckily, Ekidu knew the animal trails and locations of water, food, and shelter along the journey so their journey went smoothly. Once they arrived at the Cedar Forest, Gilgamesh draws out Humbaba and the evil spirit installs fear within Gilgamesh to the point of turning in fear. Ekidu helps Gilgamesh find the strength to continue on and, with the help of the Sun God, defeats Humbaba. Humbaba begs Gilgamesh to spare his life in return for eternal servitude and Gilgamesh considers showing mercy for the demon. Ekidu, however, doesn’t feel the same and convinces Gilgamesh to kill the evil demon, disembowel him, and finally decapitate him. Throughout the Telling, Aaron Reed uses “emphasized” words to help the reader continue and direct the story. A great example of this is during the journey to the Cedar Forest, Gilgamesh sees bones of previous travelers and they decide to keep going instead of stopping to honor the dead. The reader can cry out and say that Gilgamesh’s actions were the right thing or that he should’ve done the noble thing and stopped for them. Near the end of the Telling a group of “newcomers” emerge from the darkness, spears in hand, and demand half of the village’s resources.

The Telling allows the reader to speak with leader of this intruding tribe and you come to find that their shepherds can’t maintain their own sheep, so they must take from other tribes. On my first run through, I ended up stating that the other tribe’s weaponry was very similar and that there was no need for violence. I then offered to help teach their shepherds how to maintain their herd and the leader stated his name and that there would be peace between the tribes. After the newcomers leave the storyteller calls the reader into her tent and, on her death bed, she asks the reader if they will become the new storyteller for the tribe. The 'Telling'' provides an interesting experience for the reader because it allows the reader to shape the outcome of the entire story. On my first run through, I was focusing on a peaceful outcome. However, the Tellingallowed me to play through again and when the newcomers arrive, a huge battle broke out and both sides sustained many losses. The interactive fiction tale Whom the Telling Changed is a great piece of interactive fiction because it tells a great story, creates good imagery, and lets the reader shape and direct the story from start to finish.''

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Tupp)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams is one of the most famous and successful book franchises in history, and it has spawned several video games and a Hollywood movie starring Martin Freeman and Mos Def. The original text-based video game was created in 1984 by Adams and Steve Meretzky and did not feature any graphics at all. Adams comically stated this happened because, “There was a time when computer games didn't have graphics. Or at least they couldn't have graphics and sound at the same time. They certainly couldn't have graphics, sound and enough content to keep even a human being amused for more than a few minutes. So they had text.” The game I will review is the 20th anniversary edition of this game – basically the same thing but with graphics and improved computer logic.

Anyone who is familiar with the Hitchhiker series will immediately recognize many of the game’s main characters, settings, and events as the same ones which appear in the books. However, it does deviate significantly from the complexity of the books; Douglas Adams described it as, “bearing as much relationship to the books and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead does to Hamlet.” The game is played by the user typing short instructions into a command box, to which the computer responds accordingly. This game is far from easy in that there is a huge chance you will die before you even get to the pub (basically the first scene from the books). Any Hitchhiker fan knows that the real treasure of the books is the hilariously witty writing from Douglas Adams, and gamers are treated to some previously unseen text in this game. For example, one of the first times I died, the game read, “Your home collapses in a cloud of dust, and a stray flying brick hits you squarely on the back of the head. You try to think of some suitable last words but what with the confusion of the moment and the spinning of your head, you are unable to compose anything pithy and expire in silence.”  Classic.

This is a unique example of interactive fiction because there is not a clearly defined difference between the “fiction” and the “game” aspects. This story originally took the form of a book which most gamers previously read, taking away most of the mystery of where the plot is going. But, the subtle differences and extreme difficulty of the game make it an exceptionally enjoyable experience. This game requires above average intellect and reasoning skills, as well as the patience to mess up over and over again without giving up. I am a huge fan of Douglas Adams’ writing style and humor so I had a great time playing this game, but I can see how people unfamiliar with the Hitchhiker series would not understand the plot or the comical genius of the game. Megadodo Publications is planning on designing and releasing a new interactive game sometime within the next two years (the website contains no information about the game’s contents or release date). This will hopefully bring a new frontier to the story which has been exhausted by 28 years of the same text-based game.