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Command Lines: Aesthetics and Technique in Interactive Fiction and New Media
The Interactive Fiction (IF) genre describes text-based narrative experiences in which a person interacts with a computer simulation by typing text phrases (usually commands in the imperative mood) and reading software-generated text responses (usually statements in the second person present tense). Re-examining historical and contemporary IF illuminates the larger fields of electronic literature and game studies. Intertwined aesthetic and technical developments in IF from 1977 to the present are analyzed in terms of language (person, tense, and mood), narrative theory (Iser's gaps, the fabula / sjuzet distinction), game studies / ludology (player apprehension of rules, evaluation of strategic advancement), and filmic representation (subjective POV, time-loops). Two general methodological concepts for digital humanities analyses are developed in relation to IF: implied code, which facilitates studying the interactor's mental model of an interactive work; and frustration aesthetics, which facilitates analysis of the constraints that structure interactive experiences. IF works interpreted in extended "close interactions" include Plotkin's Shade (1999), Barlow's Aisle (2000), Pontious's Rematch (2000), Foster and Ravipinto's Slouching Towards Bedlam (2003), and others. Experiences of these works are mediated by implications, frustrations, and the limiting figures of their protagonists.
402 pages, Hardcover
Published December 1, 2007
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About the author
Jeremy Douglass
6 booksJeremy Douglass is a postdoctoral researcher in software studies at the University of California, San Diego, in affiliation with Calit2.
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December 11, 2016
4.5 stars. Certainly one of the better game theory/studies books I've read.
Found the bit on "Autism and Interactive Fiction" (P224) interesting:
"Look at the room you’re in. Chances are it has thousands of objects in it. Imagine having to write a description of every single one of those objects and its relationship to every other. Eeeagh! Instead, you winnow it down to the objects you’ll actually need, plus a bit of scenery. In other words, the author does for the player what the autistic person is incapable of doing for himself. No wonder there seems to be a disproportionate number of autistic-spectrum folk in IF fandom: it must be wonderful to wander around a virtual world where surroundings can be completely apprehended without being overwhelming (which isn’t guaranteed even for graphical adventures).
Then throw in the fact that, yes, other characters generally don’t speak unless spoken to, and when they do speak, stay on point. They don’t make small talk, don’t look at you expectantly, and in the very rare cases that their facial expressions are important, those expressions are translated into words. Throw in the fact that there are usually clear goals, the fact that everything operates according to a set of rules that can be deduced, and that those rules can be synthesized into a strategy for achieving those goals. So it’s not just that the characters in IF appear to be autistic – it’s that the medium is geared towards the preferences of the autist."
Found the bit on "Autism and Interactive Fiction" (P224) interesting:
"Look at the room you’re in. Chances are it has thousands of objects in it. Imagine having to write a description of every single one of those objects and its relationship to every other. Eeeagh! Instead, you winnow it down to the objects you’ll actually need, plus a bit of scenery. In other words, the author does for the player what the autistic person is incapable of doing for himself. No wonder there seems to be a disproportionate number of autistic-spectrum folk in IF fandom: it must be wonderful to wander around a virtual world where surroundings can be completely apprehended without being overwhelming (which isn’t guaranteed even for graphical adventures).
Then throw in the fact that, yes, other characters generally don’t speak unless spoken to, and when they do speak, stay on point. They don’t make small talk, don’t look at you expectantly, and in the very rare cases that their facial expressions are important, those expressions are translated into words. Throw in the fact that there are usually clear goals, the fact that everything operates according to a set of rules that can be deduced, and that those rules can be synthesized into a strategy for achieving those goals. So it’s not just that the characters in IF appear to be autistic – it’s that the medium is geared towards the preferences of the autist."
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