I somehow get the nagging feeling that differences between hypertext fiction and interactive fiction are purely contrived out of some inane human urge to always perpetuate an “us versus them” attitude. Allow me to state my case.
Montfort uses the following definition of hypertext fiction:
“[A] system of fictional interconnected texts traversed using links; an inter-connected text referred to as a lexia.”
According to Montfort, the key differences between hypertext fiction and interactive fiction are that, one is unable to respond by inputting text unlike in an interactive fiction, there is no maintenance of an intermediate, programmatic representation of the “world” in which the narrative activity takes place and that there is no method for the computer to understand natural language.
Firstly, it has to be said that Montfort has a rather limited appreciation for the multitude of ways in which interaction may take place other than via typed responses. His narrow view may arise as consequence of giving a great deal of attention to text-based games as the first forms of interactive fiction. Looking around, we now know we have transcended that era with World of Warcraft and other visual games. Interaction in these modern interactive fictions takes place on multiple levels with voice activated commands, hotkeys and clicks, none of which can be considered “natural language”. Which is why, I am very reluctant to accept arguments that revolve around text-based input as a differentiator between hypertext fiction and interactive fiction. If anything, this perceived difference is a result of having not pushed the boundaries of interactive and hypertext fiction. If I start using voice activated commands on my computer to navigate Ryman’s “253” novel, what does that mean?
With regards to hypertext narratives not maintaining an intermediate representation of the narrative world, I wonder if Montfort has read Ryman’s “253” novel which breaks down his argument entirely. There is a deliberate determined structure of moving between train carriages and moving from seat to seat, which I feel is similar to the feeling of intermediate world representation say, the Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy gives me.
Something that I believe deserves mention level of technical ability required to create a work of interactive fiction as compared to a hypertext work. A lot of things Montfort mentions such as the program’s in-built ability to recognise text input in natural language stems from a having coding background to make such work possible in the first place. In that respect, hypertext fiction is more accessible and hence more widely accepted and studied.
2 comments:
There *are* structural differences between hypertext and IF. But some of the biggest diffs are connected to the set of formal expectations one brings to the different works. Space and visual material are handled differently. There is also a difference (technically, and in audience expectation) between text input and mouse input. There are also greater encyclopedic, documentlike expectations brought to hypertext.... etc.
Note: if you're not going to allow anonymous comments, it might be charitable to have a less anonymous blog. Otherwise, good luck with the effort!
I think another major difference, which rubberpaw didn't mention, is what Montfort calls "intermediate representation". It may not always be apparent to the user/reader, but IF maintains an internal state of the "world", which is used to generate responses. In contrast, most hypertext (and especially Storyspace-based hypertext) tends to consist of a database of pre-defined lexia, which are called up when the user follows links, and may be somewhat conditional based on previously visited lexia, but they are pre-defined. IF, on the other hand, uses the intermediate state of the world to (potentially) dynamically generate the system's response.
Unfortunately, in many IF works, the text is largely predefined. More sophisticated works make good use of the intermediate state. This is approaching the sort of dynamic story generation that Ryan mentions in her paper, and also is similar to what Mateas and Stern are attempting with Facade.
So in this sense, I'd say IF can potentially be much different that hypertext...
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