Games or Literature?

Due to the large amounts of games that were released during the 1970’s, large amounts of progress in digital literature were able to be made. This created a great deal of advancements in interactive games, where they began to contain complex dialog and descriptions that people couldn’t stay away from. This chapter discussed the differences and similarities between hypertext and video games, as well as the origins of them. As the book describes, hypertexts are based in text, but you’re still making decisions and playing them interactively like a video game, but video games take place in an interactive world. In video games, graphics are more important than the links and text element, unlike hypertext. In the books words, “the principal challenge to the reader of interactive fiction, and its central pleasure, is to find a solution, to achieve the satisfaction of a successful session of deductive reasoning,” (Rettberg 238), when describing the major differences between the two forms of digital literature. 

After reading the chapter, I played around on Zork and really enjoyed it. I loved the detailed descriptions and writing in my own responses instead of clicking for them. I felt as though it made me think harder, allowing for me to be more interested and invested in the game and what was happening. Some of the past hypertext we have gone over I have found myself clicking through towards the end to find some sort of finish to the quest they typically sen you on, but this particular story had me more involved in the decisions so I wasn’t rushing the outcome. This game was incredibly simplistic but it had very detailed dialog and description, so it made it a little difficult to keep track of everything, especially with the text quickly disappearing, which was my only negative comment about the game. 

        For this week, I chose the game Bronze by Emily Short which was created in 2006, 26 years after the release of Zork. The format is almost identical, though the software is notably more user-friendly. With this story, you are able to scroll through your progress and remember all past decisions, as well as easier to read font. However, with this story, the answers are less creative, surprisingly. They don’t allow for as much freedom with what you decide, as it often lists out your options in which you can choose from. I enjoyed Zork’s ability to have less restrictions and have more flexibility with the answers. It makes you feel much more independent in the game, and full of control despite getting upset when the game can’t always follow your commands. Both were very engaging, but I enjoyed Zork’s free rein the most. 

https://iplayif.com/?story=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ifarchive.org%2Fif-archive%2Fgames%2Fzcode%2FBronze.zblorb