Worksheet for GDV talk by Heather Albano
- In your own words, explain the difference between a parser interactive fiction game and a choose your path interactive fiction game.
A parser interactive fiction game shows a wall of text and players would type in actions such as “Go to place”, “Interact with item” and so on in response to whatever was said in the text. If the typed in action was in the games database, a new wall of text would appear showing the result of this action. Meanwhile a choose your path interactive fiction game shows a wall of text and provides the player with a set of choices that they can respond to the text with. A player would then choose one choice and move on to the next wall of text showing the results of this choice.
- Name an example of a parser game.
Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (game, not the movie.)
- Name an example of a choose your own path game.
The Zero Escape series.
- Why does she say interactive fiction virtually died out in the mid-1990s?
The main seller of these games, Infocom, was bought by Activision which then shut down the division for Interactive fiction gaes.
- Why does she say poetry is an important element of interactive fiction writing? What example does she use?
Poetry is an important element of an interactive fiction usually these games consist mostly of words. As such these words need to convey what exactly is going on in the game and let the player have a better mental image of what cannot otherwise be seen. For examples, the speaker uses a game in which certain words are highlighted and clicking on them reveals more information pertaining to whatever the word was.
- Why does she say that ambiguity is not only unavoidable but also necessary?
Ambiguity is unavoidable but necessary as it is impossible to describe every little detail of something but is possible to tell the player just enough about something so that they can picture it and wonder what important it might serve in the grand story.
- What’s important about complicity?
Complicity gives the player the feel as if it means something whenever they make a decision. It makes them feel like their every choice will effect the plot in some way.
