Early Interactive Fiction: Ambiguity & Personalized Narrative
Fig. 1 - John Tenniel's illustration of Alice meeting the caterpillar (from LambertvilleLibrary.org)
Okay. So, typing the command “KILL THIEF WITH KNIFE” in Zork because some shady, muttering bastard is trying to kipe your bejeweled egg might not have been as enriching an experience as reading about Alice in Wonderland facing off with a giant, hookah-smoking caterpillar who’s asking her THE philosophical question.
Alice in Wonderland (as it was and is for many) was the first novel I read and has never been demoted from its spot as My Favorite Book. Still, Zork’s text-based adventure had something Lewis Carroll’s book lacked: interactive narrative engagement. Sure, I could imagine the scenes in Alice—but I couldn’t affect them.
More significantly, these were Alice’s adventures, not mine. She was blonde. I was brunette. She was British. I had a thick New York accent. And I wouldn’t have been caught dead in that kooky Sunday dress she wore all the live-long day. Fahgedd’aboudit.
In Zork, I wasn’t just a pre-teen from Long Island imagining I was the adventurer—I was the adventurer! I was a small brunette, wearing jeans and a blue hoodie. Climbing down into that dungeon with my lantern lit, I was ready for that grue!
The universal ambiguity of naked text and the use of second person singular in Zork allows players to seamlessly imagine themselves in the role of the adventurer. The narrative warns: YOU are likely to be eaten by a grue. The grue is not at all interested in the taste of Alice on its tongue—it’s after you. In other words, the experience is exceedingly “personalized.”
Interactive experience designers make gargantuan efforts to create immersive, emotionally connective, interactive experiences by devising complicated, cookie-heavy, database-driven personalized experiences. That’s not to say these massive efforts don’t work. But I’m finding a simple, powerful lesson in unadorned text and that faceless, second-person pronoun. Ambiguity, ironically, is highly emotionally connective.
Early Interactive Fiction Part 3: The First Interactive Fiction Game: Colossal Cave Adventure
Fig 1. ADVENT, later Colossal Cave Adventure, being played on an Osborne mini-computer around 1982 - http://bit.ly/4hl0Xp
The very first interactive fiction game was called Advent or Adventure, and later was widely known as Colossal Cave Adventure. The game was written in 1975 by Will Crowther, a cave diver and programmer, who wanted to enjoy it with his two young daughters. (The game is based on a cave that Crowther knew well, Bedquilt Cave in Kentucky. Apparently, there’s a cave called Colossal Cave nearby; however, the details of the game are based on Bedquilt.)
Colossal Cave Adventure (entirely text-based) quickly spread across ARPAnet in 1977 and galvanized the first generation of video game designers. It inspired Infocom’s text-based Zork along with Atari’s graphical version, Adventure. It was only after playing an errant copy of ADVENT (found on developer Ken Williams’s work computer) that Roberta Williams was stirred to write and draw Mystery House. (The game development duo would later create the popular King’s Quest series.)
Although it was text-based, Colossal Cave Adventure was the catalyzing spark behind a new creative genre: graphical adventure games. (See Wikipedia on Colossal Cave Adventure.)
Screencap from wechoosethemoon.org
I wandered upon this site the other day and think it is a fun example of an immersive online experience. The site offers visitors the experience of a fly along on the original July 20th, 1969 lunar landing. It does so by giving the visitor simple controls to experience computer generated photo-realistic animated sequences of what the various stages of the voyage would have looked like (to the accompanying aliens in saucers anyway). I love it!
As I flew along I got more and more wrapped up in what was happening. I felt I learned a bit more about just what had to happen for them to pull this off. Some of the maneuvers are just astounding. When I realize the math involved in such a coordinated feat I am humbled.
The beautifully rendered animations are made even more compelling by the inclusion of actual recorded audio communications between the rocket and mission control. Not just immersive, but fascinating to get a glimpse into the “actual.” The final touches include a clock that informs you of mission time and pop up access to various media about the event itself (archival video and photos).
At first glance I would not have thought much of the idea apart from it being educational. But the way the designers delivered it almost gave me the feeling of playing the lunar landing as a game. I got lost in the drama! It left me wanting more and though they didn’t offer that “more,” they were very successful with hooking me in. Good form!
