First Person: New Media As Story, Performance, and Game

by Noah Wardrip-Fruin (Editor), Pat Harrigan (Editor), Michael Crumpton (Designer)

Electronic games have established a huge international market, significantly outselling non-digital games; people spend more money on The Sims than on "Monopoly" or even on " the Gathering." Yet it is widely believed that the market for electronic literature—predicted by some to be the future of the written word—languishes. Even bestselling author Stephen King achieved disappointing results with his online publication of "Riding the Bullet" and "The Plant."

Isn't it possible, though, that many hugely successful computer games—those that depend on or at least utilize storytelling conventions of narrative, character, and theme—can be seen as examples of electronic literature? And isn't it likely that the truly significant new forms of electronic literature will prove to be (like games) so deeply interactive and procedural that it would be impossible to present them as paper-like "e-books"? The editors of First Person have gathered a remarkably diverse group of new media theorists and practitioners to consider the relationship between "story" and "game," as well as the new kinds of artistic creation (literary, performative, playful) that have become possible in the digital environment.

This landmark collection is organized as a series of discussions among creators and theorists; each section includes three presentations, with each presentation followed by two responses. Topics considered range from "Cyberdrama" to "Ludology" (the study of games), to "The Pixel/The Line" to "Beyond Chat." The conversational structure inspired contributors to revise, update, and expand their presentations as they prepared them for the book, and the panel discussions have overflowed into a First Person web site (created in conjunction with the online journal Electronic Book Review ).

Genres: Games, Game Design, Nonfiction, Video Games, Writing, Gaming, Theory

350 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[David Blanar · Rating 3 out of 5]

A thoughtful primer into a wide range of issues, there's lots in here to kick around. It was published moments before the gaming world was changed dramatically by World of Warcraft and the next generation of platform gaming, so some of the pieces are inevitably weakened but it's a fascinating insight into pre-WoW philosophy. The first two sections are particularly smart.

[J · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very good introduction to academic writing about games and creative technology. While the contributions to this anthology are great and offer a wide range of perspectives, the book is improved by the addition of response and conversation between the contributors about their fellow contributors' pieces. One of the great values is the multidisciplinary approach to games that this book puts on display: it has something to offer any reader.

It feels a little dated because so much has happened in the technology and culture surrounding games, but because it offers such a wide range of perspectives it's worth reading for the diversity of approaches.

[Tim Lepczyk]

Used in independent study of video game criticism and interactive fiction. We didn't read much from it.

[Morbus Iff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense, but made me realize a few things.