Breaking the 4th Wall, Sort of.

I was browsing Slashdot and ran into an engaging article from Game Career Guide regarding the relationship that is built between the player and the video game and how self reference within a game isn’t inherently cheesy or unnecessary:

“It is useful to think about the boundary between player and fiction as an elastic membrane — a threshold — rather than a wall, like Adams does. Drawing attention to how this threshold functions through self-reference can actually enhance fiction rather than destroy it. It can draw the player and game fiction together rather than driving them apart.”

Weise goes on to examine self mention prevalence in Text based games namely, Zork:

“It was common in text-based adventure games to address the player directly, partially because of the interface device. Players had to use the keyboard to type in words to determine their next action. Since the words recognized were finite, the game had to give the player a lot of feedback and guidance. This often took the form of humorous commentary on the player’s failed actions, which games like Zork ridiculed with zeal. (For example, the command “eat self” would return, “Auto-cannibalism is not the answer.”) Self-reference in Zork can be seen as a strategy to deal with the fact that it was impossible to ignore the technological apparatus of the keyboard.
Text adventure designer Graham Nelson sees self-reference as an inherent part of the genre. There are several “voices” in text adventures that refer to multiple layers of reality. One of those voices, what Nelson calls the narrator, frequently straddles the line between reality and fiction. The player makes a request to the narrator (“throw rock”) through the threshold object of the keyboard. The narrator then attempts the request and reports back (“I don’t know the word ‘rock.’”). “Like the player, but unlike every character in the game (including the protagonist), the narrator knows that it is a game,” says Nelson. Since text is the only communication device, there must be a narrator of sorts to “talk” to the player and this cannot happen unless the narrator acknowledges the player’s existence.”

The article is relevant to the New Media curriculum and gives a brief history of self reference in games as well as some great reference points and “mind openers” within the general realm of game writing, thinking and playing.

“The self-referential aspects of games like Zork, Sonic the Hedgehog, Eternal Darkness, and Metal Gear Solid are examples of what Rune Klevjer refers to as “extended fiction,” the act of pushing out boundaries of make-believe to include certain aspects of the user’s reality. Because games are complex artifacts that function on different levels of reality simultaneously they are not “breaking” anything by sliding between the different levels of reality already at play. They are simply making use of the unique affordances of the video game medium, and trusting the player to be able to parse the different levels of reality into a coherent whole“

I can’t read that last paragraph without involuntarily thinking “Whoa, dude.”  Isn’t it amazing how games  basically allow us to exist and function on several planes of existance?

Hypertext Update

Recently I decided to edit my hypertext, mainly visually, but also in order to add some more structural changes. Unfortunately, I don’t own a Mac and Storyspace is quite pricey. I searched for some free “Mind Mapping” software and came upon this list of various programs that work in a similar ways to Tinderbox. However, none really had the HTML output, web abilities and media integration that I desired so I was forced to use Microsoft Publisher.

The software is a simple website making tool with many elements of Microsoft Word. It allowed me to take images and juxtapose them within my already existing hypertext. The process entailed a simple plug in of text, reformatting and then adding images that I had taken previously and just had “laying around” my computer. I would not have chosen to write a work of Hypertext fiction from scratch in Microsoft Publisher but it did make for easy media integration and editing.

As far as structure goes my main goal was to provide better navigation and clarify some points of the hypertext. Those who read Frank & I may have noticed that the last link leads back to the third page. I did this in order to relate back to the original subplot as presented by the narrator. However, once the reader had looped back to that point they were then stuck and would have to click back until they had reached the beginning again. Because of this reason I added a “Home” link only on that page. This adds the needed navigation but also may just confuse readers. I hope that when I can purchase Storyspace I will be able to make the link inactive until the reader has gone through the story. However, I feel that the first half of the story could be read alone and want to improve on how linear my hypertext is so I truly am torn on the issue.

Additionally, I cropped the image on the last page into four sections and linked those sections to the first, second and third pages and the last section simply refreshes the current page. Thus, creating the loop of the story again and re-iterating that those four sections could be read as an independent entity.There is still much work to do as far as the hypertext itself goes and I still feel like it is much too linear and has incredibly frustrating navigation. At this point it is just a matter of adding content and variation.

I am learning that hypertext requires a writer to give up many aspects of control over what is read by their reader. The traditional storytelling allows one to craft a tale and say “This is it, read it.” whereas Hypertext is more “Well this is it, and that can be this. But if you read that,  it will become this and won’t be that at all.” I look forward to editing further to make my hypertext, more of a hypertext.

Hypertextuality: Elephant

This weekend while re-watching one of my favorite movies, Elephant, I noticed that it contains several elements of hypertextuality. Elephant is a Gus Van Sant film that follows several high school students separately through an average day that leads to a violent school shooting.The video below shows an example of 4 scenes that are shown separately in the actual film but have been edited to show how they actually occur simultaneously in real time .

Warning: The video contains graphic violence.

“>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ7aAuGukps]

The way in which each character is shadowed by the camera throughout the film reminds me of the winding paths that are created within a hypertext. At times the film even loops back to the beginning and shows the entire day from a new characters viewpoint and then catches back up to the origin character and picks up where they had left off. There is also something to be said about the way in which Van Sant takes film on the way a writer does hypertext. Fresh eyes and possibilities, wide open spaces and a definite feeling of movement that can be used to push along and support written word or moving image.  It would be interesting to further explore the hypertext possibilities within the film. The chains of events could be separated and linked. Possibly a DVD special feature a la “Choose Your Own Adventure” novel ?This really gets me thinking about the ways hypertext can lead to and interact with “hypermedia”.

Hypertext Project: Semantic Romances

My hypertext project is a short fiction story with embedded semantic links that I attempted to use to keep the storyline moving in a congruent and relevant way. I also tried to have careful link word choice so that the links would set up the reader for the text they were about to experience. I broke the original story up by  what felt to be “scenes” and divided flashbacks from current time to improve clarity. I was and still am uncomfortable with the linearity of my hypertext  and still want to revise and add more modularity and variation. I also want to add more content to improve the story and want to change various visual aspects such as the numbers that appear at the top of each page. I think it would be interesting to modify the text further especially as far as format goes and possibly add some images.

At first, I didn’t really see the point of Tinderbox but quickly realized that it really helped me organize my thoughts in a more visual and natural way. It is much more similar to the way my mind actually forms ideas and written word. I conceptualize and analyze then connect the idea to other ideas or experiences to form a bigger thought and it builds a web from there. The way in which Tinderbox allows you to switch views from map, lists, html , etc. enables you to view your thought process and the paths that it is following better than  more traditional methods.

Another interesting aspect of the project for me was working with the Macbook itself. I was raised in a strict PC only household and had only worked with macs briefly within the public school system. So, this project required me to jump right in head first to the “mac world” and, really, it wasn’t bad at all. The OS took some time to adjust to but I definitely see why Apple is gaining such a foothold in the computer world . I felt odd returning to my Frankenstein of a PC that I’ve built with a mish mash of parts over the years.  However, I still consider my Windows machine to be home.

Production:Twists and Turns

Shark Bait has changed quite considerably since its first conception. Some basic aesthetic aspects have changed such as switching the sea horse to an octopus and the addition of various objects in rooms that are not completely necessary to plot but add to the overall ambiance of the game. Some more structural aspects have changed as well in an effort to beef up the game play and add substance.

One outcome is already in place that is somewhat simple and I feel as if needs to be “bucked” up a bit by adding more variation and player action because the first outcome as is feels as if it is too passive and doesn’t involve the player enough. However, I’ve decided that I still want to keep the first outcome more skeletal than the second so that the game has a feeling of depth and versatility. I am still finding that it is important to remind myself that the player will not have A priori knowledge of certain game objects or outcomes so it is necessary to look at the game from all angles and foreshadow where applicable. This process is also aided by having others test the game at various stages. A fresh player can notice mistakes and convoluted game aspects more readily than someone who has been repeatedly testing the game.

Another more complicated outcome is currently in the works that will run parallel to the first rather than fully intertwine. It involves transforming the already existing octopus into an unlikely superhero named Octogirl who fights for “Sweet, sweet fishy justice.” Because this character is going to be partially human her interactable nature will add modularity and further plot possibilities. Hopefully the maneuver from rideable animal to super human octopus can be made with an instead rule that is reliant on a specific interaction with the octopus.

At this point in the game’s production Inform’s language is feeling more natural and isn’t causing many problems. It is proving more of a challenge to produce interesting problems and codes for the player to solve. I’m having a bit of writers block when it comes to the specifics of the aforementioned second ending but am fighting it by brainstorming and running over in my mind ways in which to develop further. Listing character characteristics, objects and possible actions is also helpful in this process so that you can clearly see the “cards in your hand”, so to speak, and then mix and match and add to them in order to further the story.

A program such as Tinderbox would actually prove to be a great companion to Inform  during this thinking process so that several characters and objects could be visually connected with notes of ideas for actions and descriptions, especially if I was creating a more complex and complicated game. One could actually create a note for each room that has been created in Inform and then add objects and play with ideas from there in a way that is more accurate to the way of thinking when creating a game.