Interactive Fiction: History and Theories

Welcome to Week 1!

Welcome to the first week of Track 1: Game Studies of Interactive Fiction! We begin our foray into the exciting world of Interactive Fiction (IF) with academic readings of the history and theories of this literary genre. While the term "Interactive Fiction" may sound foreign to you, chances are you have read or played an IF work sometime in your life. Popular game titles, such as Zork, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Myst, Cypher: Cyberpunk Text Adventure, or The Walking Dead, are all considered various types of IF works.

As the introduction of this track reminds us, the term, "Interactive Fiction," does not automatically refer to games that allow players to make narrative choices. The term should not be conflated with terms that refer to various narrative-based media, such as Parser-Based Games, Adventure Games, Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) Books and Games, Hypertexts, Electric Novels aka Visual Novels, Interactive Stories (IS), and more, in which the IF genre structure is present. Game Studies scholars are particularly interested in the interactivity and narrativity present in IF, and have questioned the claim that all IF works are "games."

Below is a small collection of articles that I have organized under specific sections. Please feel free to choose one more more texts you would like to read from each section (note that you are not expected to read all of the texts!). We will have a live discussion on some of the reading materials at the #Metagame Book Club G+ Community website on Sunday, March 29, 2015 at 4 pm ET (use this nifty time zone converter to figure out when the live discussion will occur in your time zone). Join our G+ Community to receive the latest notifications of upcoming webinars and discussions.

Enjoy the readings! Onward~

-- Sherry Jones (Track 1: Game Studies Facilitator)

**This week's recorded live streaming video is published at the end of the page.

History of Interactive Fiction

• [ARTICLE] “A History of the Computer Game” by Jesper Juul (2001) (selection from A Clash Between Game and Narrative: A Thesis on Computer Games and Interactive Fiction)
• [ARTICLE] “Storytelling and Computer Games: Past, Present and Future” by Dennis G. Jerz (2001)
• [ARTICLE] "The Interactive Fiction Collector’s Guide” by Manuel Schulz (2001)
• [ARTICLE] “Interactive Narratives: 10 Years Revisited: Ten Years of Research” by Ernest W. Adams (2005)
• [PODCAST] “Interactive Narratives: 10 Years Revisited: Ten Years of Research” by Ernest W. Adams (2005)
• [ARTICLE] “The History of Zork” by Matt Barton (2007)
• [ARTICLE] “A Brief History of Interactive Fiction” by Stephen Granade (2010)

Theories of Interactive Fiction

• [ARTICLE] “Interactive Fiction as Literature” by Mary Ann Buckles (1987)
• [ARTICLE] “Interactive Fiction and Narrative Theory: Toward an Anti-Theory” by Michael P. Campbell (1987)
• [BOOK] A Clash Between Game and Narrative: A Thesis on Computer Games and Interactive Fiction by Jesper Juul (2001)
• [PDF] “The Gameplay Gestalt: Narrative and Interactive Storytelling” by Craig A. Lindley (2002)
• [ARTICLE] “Interactive Fiction” by Nick Montfort (2005)
• [BOOK + PDF] “Generating Narrative Variation in Interactive Fiction” by Nick Montfort (2007)
• [ARTICLE ] “From Narrative Games to Playable Stories: Toward a Poetics of Interactive Narrative” by Marie-Laure Ryan (2009)
• [BOOK + PDF] “Toward a Theory of Interactive Fiction” by Nick Montfort (2011) (p. 25-58 in IF Theory Reader)
• [BOOK + PDF] “Not that You May Remember Time: Interactive Fiction, Stream-of-Consciousness Writing, and Free Will” by Mark Silcox (2011) (p. 67-88 in IF Theory Reader)
• [BOOK + PDF] “IF as Argument” by Duncan Stevens (2011) (p. 101-110 in IF Theory Reader)
• [BOOK + PDF] “The Success of Genre in Interactive Fiction” by Neil York Smith (p. 111-128 in IF Theory Reader)
• [ARTICLE] “Emergent Narrative in Interactive Media” by Richard Walsh (2011)
• [PDF] “Performing Digital Aesthetics: The Framework for a Theory of the Formation of Interactive Narratives” by Neil C.M. Brown, Timothy S. Barker and Dennis Del Favero (2011)
• [ARTICLE] “An Interview with Janet Murray, Expert on Interactive Narratives” by John Michael (interview with scholar Janet Murray)

Narrative Architecture of Interactive Fiction

• [PDF] “Game Design as Narrative Architecture” by Henry Jenkins (2004)
• [PDF] “A Game Architecture for Emergent Story-Puzzles in a Persistent World” by Federico Peinado, Pedro Pablo Gómez-Martín, and Marco Antonio Gómez-Martín (2005)
• [PDF] “Player Agency in Interactive Narrative: Audience, Actor & Author” by Sean Hammond, Helen Pain, and Tim J. Smith (2007)

Design of Interactive Fiction

• [ARTICLE] “Developing a Setting for Fantastical IF” by Emily Short (2001)
• [ARTICLE] “The Player’s Character’s Role in Game Design” by Duncan Stevens (2001)
• [PDF] “Interactive Digital Storytelling: Towards a Hybrid Conceptual Approach” by Ulrike Spierling (2005)
• [ARTICLE] “Making Better Puzzles” by Stephen Granade (2008)
• [ARTICLE] “The Room as Metaphor in Interactive Fiction” by Nathan Jerpe (2009)
• [PDF] “Experiential Narrative in Game Environments” by Gordon Calleja (2009)
• [ARTICLE] “Creating Autonomous Non-Player Characters in Interactive Fiction” by Stephen Granade (2010)
• [ARTICLE] “Where Mazes Come From” by Stephen Granade (2010)
• [BOOK + PDF] “Challenges of Broad Geography” by Emily Short (2011) (p. 203-227 in IF Theory Reader)
• [BOOK + PDF] “Landscape and Character in IF” by Paul O’Brien (2011) (p. 261-278 in IF Theory Reader)
• [BOOK + PDF] “Mapping the Tale: Scene Descriptions in IF” by J. Robinson Wheeler (p. 299-323) in IF Theory Reader)

Recorded Live Streaming Video (Review of This Week's Readings)

Published: March 29, 2015.