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From: schweda@iastate.edu (Christopher Schweda)
Subject: Re: Interactive Fiction as Literature
Message-ID: <schweda.733251021@vincent1.iastate.edu>
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Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
References: <1993Mar26.162906.14760@ultb.isc.rit.edu> <1993Mar27.113721.24786@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>
Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1993 16:50:21 GMT
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In <1993Mar27.113721.24786@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> mwoodwar@nyx.cs.du.edu (Mark Woodward) writes:

>In article <1993Mar26.162906.14760@ultb.isc.rit.edu> jsvrc@rc.rit.edu (J A Stephen Viggiano) writes:
>>I was interested in a discussion on Interactive Fiction as literature. Look
>>at all the elements of literature in some of the games: there's a lore
>>surrounding certain things, even the games themselves (but that's beside the

>John, I am interested, but perhaps unable. What I know about IF, I have
>learned right here on rec.. It was my first exposure, and I was
>immediately drawn to it, but I have no affinity for the 'game' part of things.

>I have planned out a training game, but as yet been negligent about
>implementation. My first impression was that as a medium it had real
>promise, but it seems hard to break the 'game' mode.

At first, this was my impression, too. 
But I read Robert Graves's White Goddess and changed my mind.

I was drawn to IF several years ago
after reading Joseph Campbell's _Hero With A Thousand Faces_; I realized
quite quickly that Infocom's fantasy/sorcery games possess many of the same
mythological elememts of which Campbell frequently wrote about -- the idea
of the lone hero beginning a quest, deciding whether or not to continue
the quest, receiving help, etc. etc. In other words, I think IF -- if it's
well-written and well-implemeted (Infocom's early games, the Unnkuulian
Series, etc.) are quite literate and, IMHO, a definite subset of any
so-called "literary" genre.

My only gripe with IF is that -- on occasion -- it chooses "cutesy" humour
over good writing. But I wonder, in fact, if the humour -- I'm thinking
here of the cleverness of the Unnkuulian World -- I wonder if the humour
is actually necessary. I mean, would a literate IF game be almost
unplayable if its aim were more highbrow and more (strictly speaking)
"literate?"

I realize humor is a necessary part of any mythological world -- and I'm
not advocating an absolute abolishment of humor. But I wonder if the
"game" aspect that turns off certain readers may actually be another
way of griping about the occasional over-abundance of cleverness. BTW,
this is in no way to denigrate what ADVENTIONS has done with the
Unnkuulian Series. I've played I,II, 1/2 and loved each one of them.
I'm merely wondering about certain aspects of the games -- both Unnkuulian
and the original Zork Trilogy -- that have, at times, taken me out of their
otherwise flawless (IMHO) fictional fantasy worlds.

Any other opinions?


Chris Schweda
--







>Let me know what you think,
>Mark Woodward


