interactive

Photopia, for me, was "Adventure" and "Zork" on steroids, and definitely the first text-based game that I played and did not suffer through (that maze, though...ugh). First, advances in the parser technology made my grasp of commands much easier. And back to color. How is it that a simple coordination of color would make the game not only entertaining, but even suspenseful. An entertaining current novelist whose literature I enjoy reading is Chuck Palahniuk, and his style of discourse often shifts perspective with each section or chapter, similar to Photopia. Many authors employ this shift, but that is one. Often, however, it is difficult to recognize this change until the characters have been introduced (or re-introduced) into the narrative. The change in color is an alert to this technique beforehand, and makes the transition (and thus the ability to follow the story) easier. How much more difficult and confusing would this game be without color in it? There are not as many glaring statements highlighting a specific character. The color, sometimes, is the only tip-off.  read more »

In comparing human intelligence and computer intelligence, the distinction, or lack there of, between the two must be addressed. Some say that the computer is modeled after the human brain. The computer was created or is created by humans, so the computer is, in fact, a result of human intelligence. Even though humans created the computer and the program, there is still a debate on which is the implied narrator and the real narrator is in an interactive game such as Eliza. In an interactive program, both the program and the human interacting have an impact on how the story develops. For instance, the events develop as the characters (the computer program and the human, player) are interacting. That is, Eliza, a character, puts the happenings into effect by creating verbal action. What Eliza first verbalizes, introduces or opens a template to a story about the human, character’s psychological defects.  read more »

In the study of narrative, pop-up books (and other such media) present an interesting mix of solutions. By combining text, image, and special-effect interactive elements, pop-ups invite the reader/viewer to explore the exciting images in multiple ways.

First, the images themselves are often appealing. They inform, exaggerate, illustrate, and entertain. Their content supports the text in one fashion or another, adding important elements that would not have been expressed as well in words or, at that, in traditional flat images. Readers are fascinated by the levels of exploration available, be it in a multi-part pop-up or a flip-open door that reveals a monster. This extra information enhances the narrative by allowing the monster to be absent initially, then appear when the reader initiates the narrative sequence by opening the door. Without the reader's interaction, the narrative would be different--if he refuses to open the door because he's afraid of the image, the page will not convey the same story.  read more »