Then there are my toddler's molars. There are only so many minutes in the day and the number remaining after we take the necessary deductions from the time bank for work and handling a curious and energetic tot are slim and meagre -- and much still remains to be done in the sliver of daily time available. Cooking, cleaning, laundering, dog-walking. (And if you ask my partner, she will concede that sometimes I even do some of it!) I am my own worst enemy here, however, since I keep the burner on beneath several concurrent projects, consigning them all to a glacial pace. There's my video game ad blog, my band, and right now I'm grappling with a twofold challenge to assemble a 20th anniversary artpack release from members of my circa 1994 BBS-scene computer art group -- and to mount a retrospective exhibition of electronic art from that period in a gallery context. There are hundreds of sub-tasks with deadlines associated for any one of those distractions, but instead I find myself here at my hyperfiction blog. Why? I found a winner I need to share.
Interactive fiction to me were always text adventure games, >GET LAMP style with the parser. I knew for years I wanted to make them (actually in my teens, with help from said computer art compatriots, I did release two of them), and recently I brought about a much more modern effort into the world, a one-move text parser game with many endings, made for the song-themed ShuffleComp. I announced it and it sank like a rock: this is the oldest and most primeval of IF styles, but in this cultural ecosphere they're a bit like frogs: keeping on, but consigned to a niche of a niche. But when I crow about Choice of Games MCGs (multiple choice games, though they have moved past that descriptor), the signal gets amplified. When I found this Twine hyperfiction piece and Tweeted about it, numerous folks picked up the torch and carried it.
It's called The Spare Set, produced by a homelessness charity in the UK called "Shelter" and based on interviews with their clients. The gameplay premise is ingenious, returning the player to a particularly memorable moment in time where they were looking all over their house, alone, for some missing goods. What the player uncovers is, of course, a lifetime of memories and anecdotes, plus ominous foreshadowing (in the form of a letter from the bank announcing the increase of the mortgage rate by 2%). It's, in my estimation, a hugely successful portrayal of a middle-class family, spouse and kids, in their gradual descent from mortgage-paying homeowners into car-dwelling indigents. It helps to put a face on the homeless, and what that face shows is that these people are just like us, but for circumstance. It's hardly "fun", but it's important, and in my estimation it's quite effective, thus I recommend everyone try it out.
For reasons that are difficult to explain, portrayal of homelessness in video games is an old preoccupation of mine from way back, and this is a nice jewel in that dubious crown.
Don't you hate it when people comment on a post, weeks late, just because it's a convenient place to ramble about something vaguely related? Dreadful practice. Let me give you an example.
ReplyDeleteThis though of mashing up existing texts into an IF is interesting, and somehow similar to an idea of mine. I have been toying with the idea of collecting, say, a few dozen different versions of Little Red Riding Hood and joining them together into a CYOA that branches where the stories differ. In this way, people can explore the variation in folk tales in a more active way.
And on the subject of alternatives to parser-IF, I've had an idea for an interface to hyperfiction similar to Dasher, where you can branch off into asides, but you must do it at the very moment you reach the branch point--the story must go on.
...that sort of arrogant promotion of the commenter's concerns above your own. Terribly self-centered, isn't it?
I've added The Spare Set to my list of games (I grow ever more uncomfortable with the use of the word 'game' for hyperfiction, as the years go by...) to investigate. Long list that it is, I hope to get to it before it vanishes from the net.
I wonder whether games are at all effective in promoting social causes? For that matter, I wonder whether games are effective educational tools (this being, I think, a related issue). My impression is that research on the topic tends toward positive results for game-based learning, but not as decisive as we might hope. Anything more specifically related to social-cause games that I find seems to be of the "games probably ought to be useful and effective" sort. In coming years we will learn more, I suppose.
Don't you hate it when people comment on a post, weeks late
ReplyDeleteIf it wasn't for Long Tail, this blog wouldn't have any tail at all!
This though of mashing up existing texts into an IF is interesting
The fellow at http://enterthestory.com/ was making an interesting go of things for a while, one text at a time. I thought it might be good fun while putting Axma through its paces to turn Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener" into a work of IF, adding junctures through the story where the player can opt to do actions... or not, if they prefer.
collecting, say, a few dozen different versions of Little Red Riding Hood and joining them together into a CYOA that branches where the stories differ. In this way, people can explore the variation in folk tales in a more active way.
Wasn't this kind of the point of Emily Short's Alabaster?
And on the subject of alternatives to parser-IF, I've had an idea for an interface to hyperfiction similar to Dasher, where you can branch off into asides, but you must do it at the very moment you reach the branch point--the story must go on.
Dragon's Lair without the pictures (and the one-true-path with all incorrect forkings leading to instant death)?
...that sort of arrogant promotion of the commenter's concerns above your own. Terribly self-centered, isn't it?
We each bring what we have to a conversation, which lies somewhere in the middle.
I wonder whether games are at all effective in promoting social causes?
You're not accidentally going to find it and play it if you're not already sympathetic to the cause. But it may help to entrench existing views, or more specifically to let the choir know about the existence of this charity and some of the specific work they do -- and how the player can help (to fund them).
For that matter, I wonder whether games are effective educational tools (this being, I think, a related issue).
Definitely games are successful at teaching people how to play games. Just imagine if Pokemon had been based on real animals, there would be a whole generation of expert zoologists out there.
In coming years we will learn more, I suppose.
That's the kind of bold stand we all hope to see more of!
Wasn't this kind of the point of Emily Short's Alabaster?
DeleteNot really. It was a collaborative work inspired Snow White, but it was essentially original.
Dragon's Lair without the pictures (and the one-true-path with all incorrect forkings leading to instant death)?
Something like that, vaguely, but it is a little beside the point... a bit more description will be required, I think.
Text input with Dasher has two major elements: first, the 'next' character is 'inside' the colored region of the current character; second, a predictive algorithm is used to make more likely 'next' characters larger than others, proportional to their probability. So, if you just aim the mouse to the right and wait, you'll typically get a nonsense string of real words or even whole phrases.
I wanted to capture the feeling of going 'deeper inside' the story as choices were made, and of choosing--even choosing not to choose--constantly. Also, in Dasher, all the other letters you can pick from are always there for you to see. I wanted this feeling that the other bits of the story are always there, even if you don't happen to read them.
I was originally inspired by comics, actually: a word balloon might be accompanied by a little text representing the character's thoughts, which could expand upon or even refute what they said. It struck me that there's always a little context that could be added to a story--and sometimes that context could be enough to change the meaning of it. So the kinds of choices I envisioned were the player choosing to learn things that would impact the meaning of the story (and potentially, the actual events).
You're not accidentally going to find it and play it if you're not already sympathetic to the cause. But it may help to entrench existing views, or more specifically to let the choir know about the existence of this charity and some of the specific work they do -- and how the player can help (to fund them).
This is my feeling as well, and it seems unfortunate. The games are kind of like fundraising letters, mostly seen by people who don't need more convincing of the righteousness of the cause. It'd be more useful if 'ordinary' games took a stand on issues, but when they do, they usually focus on more abstract issues (e.g. Mass Effect very shallowly treats some very broad ideas related to human rights and ethics).
Definitely games are successful at teaching people how to play games.
Which is kind of the problem, isn't it? Does Carmen Sandiego really teach much about geography? It's fun, but devoting the same time to actual study of geography would probably be more fruitful. It seems to me like it's quite difficult to achieve a good balance between being-educational and being-a-game. Of course, you then have things like Fitocracy or HabitRPG or Farmville or slot machines that exploit the feeling of being a game to get people to do something else, so maybe being an actual game isn't required.
That's the kind of bold stand we all hope to see more of!
If it weren't for the long view, I'd have no view at all!
Don't you hate it when people comment on a post, weeks late
ReplyDeleteSorry to back up here, but if not for your reply, I would never have noticed that I'd left the paragraph break tags out of the original post!
Not really. It was a collaborative work inspired Snow White, but it was essentially original.
Ahh, I got the feeling that it was an exploration of the spectrum of Snow White possibilities through different versions, but I probably have no source for that feeling (beyond, well, a feeling.)
a bit more description will be required, I think.
For other comment-readers (he said optimistically), a picture is worth a thousand words:
(But Google won't allow me to embed an image in a comment I make on my own blog. well, it's at http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/images/largedasher.gif )
That's a trip and a half! It's kind of like the Super Hexagon of text-generation tools.
It struck me that there's always a little context that could be added to a story--and sometimes that context could be enough to change the meaning of it. So the kinds of choices I envisioned were the player choosing to learn things that would impact the meaning of the story (and potentially, the actual events).
I don't have anything to add to it, but it's good. So... "quoted for truth."
It'd be more useful if 'ordinary' games took a stand on issues, but when they do, they usually focus on more abstract issues (e.g. Mass Effect very shallowly treats some very broad ideas related to human rights and ethics).
If Metroid was made today, I don't think Samus could be a woman. It's tough to have a progressive stand on issues be part of a game without becoming the tail wagging the dog: gamedevs aren't used to the light touch. While parts of it were pretty ham-fisted (sorry), I thought that this was something that Beyond Good & Evil did well -- not preachy about the ecology, just presenting it as something beautiful and valuable.
Bioware are the kings of shallow treatments of broad ideas.
Does Carmen Sandiego really teach much about geography?
It is a good introduction to an almanac, which was bundled with the game, demonstrating the kinds of knowledge that might be further unearthed from its pages once the computer is turned off. Would a book that teaches you how to research at a library be educational if the actual education is in the library rather than in the game?
It's fun, but devoting the same time to actual study of geography would probably be more fruitful.
So where does the Tetris world map fit in?
It seems to me like it's quite difficult to achieve a good balance between being-educational and being-a-game.
I thought that something like Sid Meier's Colonization had high coincidental education value without that being the point of the game. Why massacre Natives? Oh: riches. Why colonize with convicts and indentured servants? Oh, versatile but expendable cannon fodder.