<B<A NAME="#Aarseth_1997">Aarseth, Espen J.</A</B> <I>Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature</I>.Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins UP, 1997.
<BR<RATING VALUE="5.0"</RATING>Aarseth articulates a comprehensive theory of interactive literature that applies across technological and generic boundaries. "A cybertext is a machine for the production of a variety of expression" (3). According to Aarseth, "ergodic" literature is that in which "nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text" (1). The book includes chapters on hypertext literature, interactive fiction, and MUDs. Aarseth's interactive fiction chapter includes a call for better IF scholarship and criticism: "The adventure game is an artistic genre of its own, a unique aesthetic field of possibilities, which must be judged on its own terms" (107).<P>Highlights from the introductory chapter:<UL<LI>"The concept of cybertext focuses on the mechanical organization of the text, by positing the intricacies of the medium as an integral part of the literary exchange. However, it also centers attention on the consumer, or user, of the text, as a more integrated figure than even reader-response theorists would claim" (1).<LI>"Since literary theorists are trained to uncover literary ambivalence in texts with linear expression, they evidently mistook texts with variable expression for texts with ambiguous meaning. When confronted with a forking text such as a hypertext, they claimed that all texts are produced as a linear sequence during reading. . . . [But] when you read from a cybertext, you are constantly reminded of inaccessible strategies and paths not taken, voices not heard. Each decision will make some parts of the text more, and others less, accessible, and you may never know the exact results of your choices; that is, exactly what you missed. This is very different from the ambiguities of a linear text" (3).<LI>To Aarseth, the reader of a linear text is "[l]ike a spectator at a soccer game," who "may speculate, conjecture, extrapolate, even shout abuse" but cannot influence the text. "The reader's pleasure is the pleasure of the voyeur. Safe, but impotent. The cybertext reader, on the other hand, is not safe, and therefore, it can be argued, she is not a reader. . . . The cybertext reader is a player, a gambler; the cybertext is a game-world or world-game; it is possible to explore, get lost, and discover secret paths in those texts, not metaphorically, but through the topological structures of the textual machinery" (4).<LI>Aarseth argues that science-fiction authors have a better theoretical grasp of cybertext than literary theorists, the latter of whom mistakenly apply metaphorical structures such as labyrinths and ambiguity (typically found in postmodern texts) with cybertexts that are, in form and content, inseparable from the textual mazes or variables within the structure of the document, rather than merely applied by the reader's interpretation. "Thus, the interpretations and misinterpretations of the digital media by literary theorists is a recurrent theme of this book" (14).</UL>In the chapter "Intrigue and Discourse in the Adventure Game," Aarseth opens with a brief history of the Internet, and offers Don Woods's description of his collaboration with Willie Crowther in the creation of "Colossal Cave Adventure." Aarseth agrees with Buckles's assessment of the "Adventure" phenomenon as a manifestation of Internet folk art.<UL<LI>"... the ergodic structures invented by Crowther and Woods twenty years ago are of course far from dead but instead persevere as the basic figure for the large and growing industrial entertainment genre, called, by a somewhat catachrestic pleonasm, 'interactive games.' . . . It is a paradox that, despite the lavish and quite expensive graphics of these productions, the player's creative options are still as primitive as they were in 1976" (102-103).<LI>Observes that Buckles, in her dissertation on "Adventure," "seems uninterested in placing her subject text at a specific point in history, and she mentions its creators, Crowther and Woods, only in footnotes. . . . Most commentators and critics of the adventure game genre (Bolter and Joyce 1987; Randall 1988; Ziegfeld 1989; Bolter 1991; Sloane 1991; Murray 1995) fail to mention the original Adventure at all, and those who do usually date it far off the mark (Niesz and Holland 1984; Lanestedt 1989; Aarseth 1994) and often neglect to mention its creators (Moulthrop and Kaplan 1991; Kelley 1993)" (107).<LI>Offers a detailed analysis of the writing, plot, characters, and even the software bugs which contribute to (or detract from) the effectiveness of Marc Blank's "Deadline" (Infocom, 1982) (115-127).</UL<P<BR>
<B<A NAME="#Anderson_et_al_2000">Anderson, Peter Bøgh and Berit Holmqvist.</A</B> "Interactive Fiction: Artificial Intelligence as a Mode of Sign Production."<I>AI and Society</I> 4 (1990): 291-313.
<BR<RATING VALUE="1.5"</RATING>The authors advocate artificial intelligence (AI) as a means of manipulating character behavior within the interactive space wherein the reader and program together create a story, much as a stage actor employs the script and fellow actors in order to generate a performance. Anderson and Holmqvist invoke hypertext theorists and the virtual reality analytics of Brenda Laurel, for the purpose of presenting a barroom scenario in which the reader/player interacts with several simulated characters with distinct agendas. A "good" couple (dressed in white) and a "bad" couple (dressed in black) interact via signified actions (hackneyed "film noir" motifs such as buying a drink or lighting a cigarette). Their work, from a project at the Institute of Information and Media Science, University of Aarhus (Denmark), bears much resemblance the "virtual theater" work of the Oz Project at Carnegie Mellon (see also §1.2: Bates; Mateas; Mateas and Stern).<P<UL<LI>Just as successful interaction with a computer application requires a clear difference between, for instance an arrow pointer (for selecting menus and pushing buttons) and an I-beam (for inserting and manipulating text), so too, the authors argue, should interactive media develop its own "idioms that exploit the characteristics of the computer based sign" (291). <LI>This kind of interactive storytelling involves tracking the internal emotions (loneliness, vulnerability, etc.) of various simulated characters, and playing out a scenario based upon these states, which fluctuate with the action. Unlike the profession of literary criticism, which takes a polished product and analyzes it for evidence of underlying structure, the AI method begins with the structure, and builds a rudimentary story upon it. </UL<P>[Note: The AI method of computer storytelling focuses on simulating everyday human behavior; but good stories generally require unusual events of some kind – or at least an artistic presentation of everyday events. Many IF practitioners (e.g. §3: Granade, "Artificial Intelligence in IF") argue that full-blown AI is a red herring. Nevertheless, the programming of believable supporting characters remains a technical and aesthetic challenge in command-line IF (see §3: Short).]</P<P<BR>
<B<A NAME="#Buckles_1985">Buckles, Mary Ann.</A</B> "Interactive Fiction: The Computer Storygame 'Adventure'."Ph.D. Thesis. U. Cal at San Diego, 1985.
<BR<RATING VALUE="5.0"</RATING>In a New Critical approach rarely seen in academic discussions of IF, Buckles de-emphasizes the role of the programmer/author, taking "Colossal Cave Adventure" (Crowther, c.1975; Crowther and Woods, 1976) as a "given," and examining instead the reader/player's efforts to make meaning out of the experience. As an immature medium, IF has not yet produced great literature: "I do not believe that the literary limitations of Adventure means that computer story games are of necessity a sub-literary genre, or that there is something about the computer medium itself which pre-destines interactive fiction always to be frivolous in nature. The development of film can be taken as an analogy."<P<UL<LI>On the nature of language puzzles (as presented in legend, the Bible, and riddle anthologies) as a factor in traditional fiction. One such puzzle: "Brothers and sisters I have none; but this man's father is my father's son. Who am I?"<UL<LI>"Especially in the longer stories, the situations seem to be chosen not only because they express the logical relationships so well, but [also] because we can interpret them as moral or aesthetic problems" (47).<LI>"In most of the stories the reader can identify with characters' wishes or needs. Since their goals make sense to us, there is a reason, a motivation for solving the problems, i.e. we fulfill our own needs vicariously by fulfilling the characters' needs. Often the problems are couched in a primitive psychology of reward and punishment: if the heroes answer the questions correctly they win something valuable, and if not, they die" (48).</UL<LI>Applies Vladimir Propp's schema for the analysis of folktales, and concludes that "Adventure" bears only a surface resemblance to the structure of folktales (104).<LI>Offers thoughtful and interesting commentary on the significance of various passages for several volunteer players.<UL<LI>"[O]ne reader interpreted her adventure as entering a cave which all the creatures inhabited and [in which] she was an intruder. It was her duty not to disturb the creatures if possible. She therefore assumed that the purpose of the wicker cage was to catch and cage any cave creature she didn't want to kill outright" (127).<LI>[This same player tried to cage] "every creature she met in Adventure, including the dwarf throwing axes and knives at her. . . . After it became apparent that she would try negotiating with the animals, avoiding them, appeasing them, feeding them — anything but kill them, even when they were attacking her — she and her playing partner had a philosophical argument as to the validity of her attitude" (128). (See §1.1: Sloane.) <LI>Her partner then "insisted that she throw the axe at the dwarf, and she insisted variously that there is good in every creature," "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and "of course it's justified in trying to kill us, we're enfringing [sic] on its territory." The dwarf then killed them, they were reincarnated, attacked by the dwarf again, she tried a few more non-violent tactics and was killed a second time. At this point she observed that she guessed the same thing happens to her in real life. She always tries to see only the good in people and then they dump on her. Whether she will draw any real-life consequences from this observation is another question, but she did modify her game-strategy. . . . There is, then an underlying set of conventions in Adventure that is analogous in some sense to the moral underpinings [sic] of folktales, but it is the process of decision-making based on self examination and motive analysis the reader undergoes while solving problems, not the depicted actions and events in the story" (129).</UL<LI>"Somebody encountering a conventional story can pass his or her eyes over the entire text without filling in, or even perceiving, any of the textual gaps. IF is completely different, because the story stops until the 'reader' attempts to supply the missing action" (165).<LI>Gestures towards, but does not elaborate upon, the consideration of IF not as an outgrowth of fiction, but as a kind of lyrical poetry, in which the reader's interpretation of events makes meaning: "Many readers get intensely, emotionally involved in the fictional events because of their step-by-step activity in exploring the fictional world and mastering the fictional events. This can unlock strong feelings and memories of associated events from their own lives with they then build into the imaginary world they are creating. Finally, the fictional events in Adventure, for example, are only minimally explained, i.e. there is little context provided for the reader by the author. In this one sense, interactive fiction's quality of evoking emotionally charged and intellectually complete contexts for the text makes it more similar to the open textuality of lyrical poetry than the tightly woven textual fabric of fiction" (178).</UL<P<BR>
<B<A NAME="#Campbell_1987">Campbell, P. Michael.</A</B> "Interactive Fiction and Narrative Theory: Towards an Anti-Theory."<I>New England Journal and Bread Loaf Quarterly</I> 10 (1987): 76-84.
<BR<RATING VALUE="2.0"</RATING>A reading of Robert Pinsky's "Mindwheel" (Synapse/Broderbund, 1984). Pinsky was the U.S. Poet Laureate from 1997-2000. Campbell spends so much time describing the form of the "computerized novel") that he has little time to analyze the content. (See also §1.1: Packard.) Since "Mindwheel" is extremely difficult to find (except via morally ambiguous "abandonware" websites), this article (along with §1.1: Randall) is useful as a fossilized record of early cyberliterature.<P<P<BR>
<B<A NAME="#Coleman_1990">Coleman, Douglas W.</A</B> "Language Learning Through Computer Adventure Games"<I>Simulation & Gaming</I> 21 (1990): 433, 8p. Academic Search Elite full text database. 26 par. 30 May 2000.
<BR<RATING VALUE="2.0"</RATING>Although the title suggests an emphasis on adventure games, of classic text-only titles the article briefly mentions only Zork. Nevertheless, "some of the games available for home computers are designed around problem-solving activities and require methodical planning, thinking, and note taking" (<PAR>4). Of possible interest to IF scholars is Coleman's list of attributes that affect whether a player perceives a computer gaming session as "fun" — and thus, presumably, contributes to the player's determination to continue playing.<P<P<BR>
<B<A NAME="#Constanzo_1986">Constanzo, William V.</A</B> "Reading Interactive Fiction: Implications of a New Literary Genre."<I>Educational Technology</I> 26 (1986): 31-5.
<BR<RATING VALUE="2.5"</RATING>Most of the article is concerned with introducing the concept of IF to an unfamiliar audience, using transcripts from Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" (Infocom, 1984, with Steve Meretzky), and James Paul's "Brimstone" (Synapse/Broderbund, 1985). Also features a brief description of Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451" (Spinnaker, 1984). (See also §1.1: Packard.)<P<UL<LI>"Are interactive texts shaping new attitudes towards reading? If they provide new contexts for learning about language, story-telling, and ideas, are they encouraging particular skills and values at the expense of others? What happens to the traditional elements of fiction when the reader enters the fictional world as a participant? Does interactive fiction constitute a genuinely new form of literature?" (31).<LI>While Constanzo does not attempt to answer all the questions he asks above, he does conclude thus: "When we turn the first pages of The Odyssey, Pride and Prejudice, or Brave New World, we gain admittance to a system, enclosed and complete. Each system has its physical and psychological premises, its codes of human interaction, its written and unwritten laws. Our ability to read a book successfully depends largely upon our understanding of the fictionalized world order. . . . Until now, readers have had no genuinely active way to learn the codes in context, as participants, no way to test their responses against a responsive text. Interactive fiction is changing the meaning of reader response. It is giving a new generation of readers unprecedented opportunities to encounter literature, and in the process it is redefining the relationship between the reader and the text. As educators, we would do well to watch closely as this relationship evolves" (35).</UL<P<BR>
<B<A NAME="#Desilets_1989">Desilets, Brendan.</A</B> "Reading, Thinking, and Interactive Fiction."<I>English Journal</I> 78 (1989): 75-77.
<BR<RATING VALUE="2.0"</RATING>An embryonic version of his 1999 article, also describing scenes from "Planetfall" and "Wishbringer," and evaluates the problem-solving strategies of middle-school students playing IF in class. Perhaps most notable in this article is a brief passage addressing resistance from adults who dislike IF: "What's wrong with this picture? If you're one of the many adults who has tried interactive fiction and hated it, you think you may know. Actually, IF aversion is easily understandable, in that many of us get the worst possible advice [from students who present it as a kind of novel] as we get started with the genre. . . . And twenty cryptic error messages later, we've had enough of interactive fiction, because, in truth, even the most sophisticated IF program can deal with only a tiny portion of the kinds of English sentences that any speaker of the language uses" (77). Desilets' advice is simple: "all we need to do is read the clear and witty documentation that comes with each of the programs."<P<P<BR>
<B<A NAME="#Desilets_1999">Desilets, Brendan.</A</B> "Interactive Fiction vs. the Pause that Distresses: How Computer-Based Literature Interrupts the Reading Process Without Stopping the Fun."<I>Currents in Electronic Literacy</I> 1 (1999). 19 Sep, 2000. <A HREF="
<BR<RATING VALUE="4.0"</RATING>Writing mostly for an audience unfamiliar with IF, Desilets presents his experience using interactive fiction to teach literary concepts (plot, setting, point of view) to children ages 11 through 14. He reports that about 70% of the students preferred to study IF texts, in part because "it challenges them to recognize and solve problems in ways that no textbook seems to be able to match" (<PAR>8). (See also §1.1: Packard.)<P<UL<LI>Desilets presents his seventh-grade class encountering an unfamiliar word in "Arthur: The Quest for Excalibur" (Bob Bates, 1989), and discusses the opening scenes of "Planetfall" (Steve Meretzky, 1983) and the sleeping grue puzzle in "Wishbringer" (Brian Moriarty, 1985) for their value in challenging readers to conceptualize problems according to their experience of the text.<LI>He also refers to the plot ramifications connected with moral choices such as "killing a bellicose stranger" in "Zork III" (Infocom, 1978-81) and "deciding whether to respect the orders of Preelman" in "A Mind Forever Voyaging" (Steve Meretzky, 1985). Praises "A Mind Forever Voyaging" as "a work of serious science fiction that many readers regard as the finest piece of IF yet written" (Par. 15).<LI>Desilets describes methods of using IF to teach, including having a student seated at a single computer read the text for the rest of the class; using an LCD panel on an overhead projector; and having students assemble maps, hints and other supporting material in folders dedicated to each IF story.<LI>The classic Scott Adams adventures (circa 1979) "offer little in the way of theme and character development" (Par. 24), but in "Photopia" (Adam Cadre, 1998), "the thoughtful student reader, with the right kind of help, comes to see that the astronomical concepts that emerge from the a [sic] touching father-daughter dialogue illuminate another subplot of the story, one in which the daughter, some years later, weaves a tale of space travel for a younger girl who idolizes her" (Par. 25).<LI>Discusses the character of the knight who challenges the young Arthur to a joust in "Arthur," demonstrating that the text presents the knight as honorable, and that the game penalizes a player who suspects the knight of cheating during the contest.</UL<P<BR>