So I have been thinking about the possibility of using IF for something different than the standard IF. The main question I have been working on is this: Can I turn this medium into something that would be more literary as an alternative to standard book publishing. The real question for me has been can IF be tweaked in such a way to create the story I want to create.
Now before I go into my thoughts let me just give you a disclaimer. I’m not trying to put down the standard use of IF as it has developed. If anything I say sounds like that please understand that as a game IF is enjoyable and has it’s own raison d’etre. If the reason you play IF is primarily for the game aspects do continue to enjoy it! If you wish to absent yourself from this discussion I won’t mind. That being said I still expect a certain amount of blow back on what I’m about to write. But please, if you are thinking I’m attacking the medium I am not. I am writing this for, perhaps, the few, maybe not, that might be experimentally curious about whether this medium, or games in toto, can be made into something artistic. If an experience different than what is achieved through gaming can be had. That’s it. Having said that the following might be seen as a fairly radical reexamination of what IF is.
My first thought is this IF really isn’t IF. More properly it should be called IFG. That is the literary qualities definitely seem to take a backseat to the gaming aspects. So if I want to write something there are expectations of what should and shouldn’t be part of IF. If I really wanted to make interactive fiction though I would have to by necessity look at some of the tropes that have evolved, pull them out, and ask questions about them. Just to be clear, this has nothing to do with IFG. None of what I’m about to say has anything to do with why most people are here - to play and invent games that give the player a degree of autonomy. But it’s funny, I wandered into this, obviously, from the realm of the writer first and foremost, with the notion that Interactive Fiction could be exactly that. Interactive and Fiction. That is a fictional story which could allow the writer to create a maze of choices that the reader would have to make decisions about. But I was thinking about it as possibly literature of a type, not a game.
But the more I have exposed myself to both the games and the forums the more I realized that for my purposes I would have to seriously tweak things.
So one trope I noticed instantly, which may indeed work for the games, but won’t work for serious writing, is the use of Second person narrative, especially when combined with first person choices. This is obviously a gaming trope. (You do this… then you do that… now what. a) I talk back while being sassy. b) I shoot the villain. c) I eat my shoe.) I don’t know how many times I have been reading along, and some writers do have a better sense of story, and then suddenly stumbled on the language of the choices. And part of it is simply the second person. Second person works well if I am giving directions on a city street. The best second person writing of all is in letters. The reason it is so good is that ‘you’ is extremely well defined. A letter is addressed to a very specific person. And therein lies the problem.
For the game ‘you’ is you the player. And it is assumed that ‘you’ want as many choices as you can get get. Thus ‘you’ remains as undefined as possible. In one forum post I read a game maker say that the MC was essentially a black hole and that it was in the secondary character and world creation that the real enjoyment came. And maybe in the game that is what works best. But in my possible conception of IF that can’t work. A writer doesn’t leave the central protagonist or antagonist to the whims of the reader. That might work on a postmodern level. But it doesn’t work if your idea is to create quality literature. And I believe that part of the reason for any good story is to identify with someone other than yourself. I just read a short story that left me absolutely breathless by its conclusion. Though I had very little in common with the central character.
And that means I have serious issues with the ‘gender choice’. Again for the game? Be that as it may be. But if I wish to use this form for something else? Again it’s the black hole issue. I don’t know how many times I’ve read an IFG where I started to get involved in the tale, and then ten pages in I’m asked whether I should be addressed a Sir, Madam or as an individual? It’s like driving down the road and hitting a massive pothole just as you are getting the vehicle up to speed. And then it rarely matters except for pronouns. (And yeah yeah I know pronouns are a touchy issue.) And more importantly it’s rare, again except for the pronouns, that the story changes radically because someone is a he or she or elsewise. I mean it seems rare that having chosen female I would later get stuck in a long line for the restroom rather than get through it all quicker in the men’s room.
And then even more bizarre is the name choice that often follows a few pages later. You are addressed and then I give one of the names you’ve written or I invent my own. Again maybe for gaming. But for writing it’s really the wrong part of story creation to be giving away. Let’s say I’m writing on a serious theme. Then someone names themselves Sluffy McNuggets. It’s over. Period. I mean the writing. Again in all but the most postmodern way. Why would I want to spend days thinking about a plot that might have a modicum of mystery and suspense to it just to have someone turn it into their personal joke?
Now don’t get me wrong. I’ve read worthy writing here. Tin Star is fairly well written. He also does a great job of trying to hide the second person narrative by making most of the choices as answers to questions. So that the ‘I’ is motivated by logic. You still get the potholes of the identity choices, which then are more disturbing because the writing is actually better. But then again the western themed writing might be approaching Louis Lamour, but it’s still nowhere is sight of Mark Twain or Cormac McCarthy. And I don’t think simply in game play it can get to the serious level. Not without raising serious questions about the tropes.
And lastly, for now, the use of stats. I must confess I am rarely a gamer. Thus the stats just seem downright absurd to me. This is probably going to get me lynched. But my take is this: If my point is to write IF rather than IFG what need do I have of statistics? Stats are important if you need to know how many bullets you have left, how many trinkets you’ve collected, maybe how much of a certain characteristic you’ve acquired. But for fiction? Not so much. I’ve been thinking of alternative uses for them. But I’ll sit on those for a while.
So then what I see as possibilities are these for turning IF into real IF: First person seems to be what would work best. Main character creation that allows the reader (not player) to empathize with the actions and choices of a specific individual, not yourself. The avoidances of meaningless loops and traps that create compulsiveness as often happens in RPGs. An emphasis on real choices that have emotional effects. Or excellent laughs, if we are dealing with a comedy. Avoidance of grammatical potholes that disturb the story. And that’s all I have at the moment. I do have a very specific idea for a story.
I expect to take flak on what I’ve written here. Particularly from people who think I’m attacking IFG. I’m not. I’m just wondering if I can use this for my own devious experimental ends. And if I simply get firebombed for writing these things, that might be a good indication, since you would be the first readers, that the answer would be no. So let me know what you think. And especially I’m interested in your ideas too.