Well, after two weeks of essentially beating my head into a concrete wall and losing sleep (more valuable than gold in my book) over the program, I have determined that as far as the electronic world goes Interactive Fiction, or IF for short, is quite possibly one of the greatest threats to not only the sanity of aspiring writers but also to global security.
(I’m sure it’s not that bad when you know what you’re doing… I didn’t)
Initially I was kind of excited to work with Inform 7. I’ve always liked the premise of IF- I had read and loved several books, most of them of the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine, which allow the reader to control the outcome of the story based on decisions they make along the way. The interactivity makes for a very compelling experience- it’s one thing to be watching or reading about a character, but to actually be in their shoes and affecting their life (or sudden lack thereof) means a much more adventuristic feeling can be had. I had also done some basic HTML coding before, so I figured this would be a fun exercise and a way to use some of my creative power.
My basic premise with my story was that the main character- whom I didn’t plan on giving a legitimate name- is a prisoner aboard a space station (I’m a science fiction nut so this came naturally to me).The character, who would only be known by his prisoner number, has no memory of how he got there or why he is there, and now has to find a way to escape the station. My initial plan was to have four rooms- the cell the character starts off in, the cell hall that room is located in, an air-traffic control room adjacent to the small prison ward, and a hangar where the character would steal a ship and escape. Along the way, there were to be clues the player would pick up on to figure out who they were and why they were on this station, and would be able to use that information to enhance their ability to progress in the game. Additionally, each room would require at least one puzzle to be solved before the character could advance, and there would be two guards on duty for the character to interact with, one of whom would end up being an ally to the player and one who is horribly fearful of them (if the player allows them to live). Finally, as a fun addition, at every opportunity possible I wanted to include as many ways for the player’s character to die as I could within reason- in the cell alone I came up with two scenarios in which the player could die, and several more in the security foyer outside the cell. The feel I was going for with this story was that of a desperate struggle for survival, and I felt the more opportunities there were for the player to die simply from touching the wrong thing or not reacting quickly enough it would add to the pressure the player would feel.
Rapidly and regrettably I realized that this was a bit too ambitious for my first use of Inform 7. As previously noted I’ve done some basic programming before, but that foreknowledge didn’t help one bit with this new language, where all of your specifications for the code have to be typed out in English and forgetting a stupid period somewhere can result in your program failing altogether (not that this isn’t possible with other languages, but it’s more annoying and much easier to miss a comma or misplace a period than to forget to put brackets around an I for italics.
In addition to the confusing nature of the syntax of Inform 7, I also found the help guides for it- both those that came with the program and another one that was provided by my instructor- to largely be a headache to sift through. The way that I learn things best is if material is presented to me as “Doing this causes that” and then playing around with that material to see what happens. The formats of both guides were in essay form, which in and of itself is not a bad thing , but a list of commands would have been considerably more helpful than the wall of text the two guides were. And worse than that was that it always presented commands as “alternatives,” never saying what they were an alternative to (an example is the if/then commands: I want to be able to say plainly that the character needs to do a particular thing to be able to advance or get somewhere in a conversation or puzzle). Even the most exciting thing about IF to me, the ability of the player to alter the storyline to their liking, was hindered (or, more appropriately, ruined) by the baseless hypothetical syntax of Inform 7. I enjoyed coming up with the storyline and all of the avenues it could take- I used to write short stories as a hobby and as a gamer my favorite video games are RPGs, or “role-playing games,” so interactivity with the plot of a story is something that I love dearly and get a lot of fun out of. Being utterly unable to program my thoughts into something that Inform 7 could read or work with killed any passion for this that I may have possessed initially as far as electronic-text IF is concerned. I don’t blame the program entirely for this exercise being a disaster for me, though. Despite having done programming before I’m not good at it, and I have no doubt that this played a large part in my lack of comprehension and ability to write IF.
While not my cup of tea, as must surely be obvious by now, electronic IF has a lot of room for creativity for people who understand how to use Inform 7, much in the same way that hard-copy IF and RPGs do, have had, and have seen huge success because of. It can mutually inspire all concerned with the process- the author is challenged to thin k of every possible action a player may want to take in a situation and come up with an avenue for the reader to explore through that action, which was the case for me while writing it, and the reader can manipulate the plot(s) to their liking, inspiring a huge bout of creativity and intrigue on their part. Many humans play the “what if” game- some, such as theoretical physicists, even turn it into a career- and IF allows them all the space in the world to make their own fate in the story (I think the reader having power over the outcome of a story instead of being along for the ride is another draw to IF, but that’s just me).
It’s cool if you know what you’re doing. I’d much rather sit down with a cup of coffee and a good RPG.
-Actorbass33 the Triumphant
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
PowerPoint with a side of Insight
Well then, it seems e-poetry can really give you a visual of your own mental state. This is a pretty intriguing concept, and one I’ll have to experiment with in my writing in the future.
For this week, I wrote a poem called Inferno. The underlying theme for Inferno isn’t some deep, complex mystery (I’d like to claim that I’m so brilliant with English and computer skills that I could have written a rival for Homer’s Odyssey on my first shot but sadly this is not the case)- it references a struggle with rage and hatred that I have had to deal with for years due to a certain individual’s betrayal of my entire family, which altered our lives in ways we could never have imagined possible. I hated this person for what they did and still do to an extent- even though I have always been against having such feelings about anyone and I know it’s wrong (personal conviction, not admittance to some social taboo) , it has just been unavoidable for me. The thing of it was that it wasn’t an explosion that never died down, as with a sun; instead, it crept in slowly, affecting my mental processes like an evening mist, and continued to sink its way in until I finally realized that I was carrying a giant ball of hatred within me.
I convey these ideas in the poem through the positioning and font of the text on each page. Starting with the title page, “Inferno” is written in all lower-case letters and in a small font but bolded, meaning that such a disastrous mindset can spark below one’s notice.
For the first actual page, I put the first two lines in small fonts to illustrate the silent debut of the inferno, with the first being in the elegant Blackadder font (the only fancy font I could still read accurately) for its ghostly entry. I followed this up with a relatively huge line, which strongly enforces the ideal that was sometimes the only fact I was able to hang on to- that I hated the inferno’s existence. The conclusion of slide one describes a forest (my cheerful disposition toward life) being slowly destroyed and parts of my heart being lost.
Slide two starts off with my belief that what one invests their time in carries a bit of their heart in it by having the first line “carry” the second one, which trails behind it. Simple color combination illustrates the inferno and I melding into one and the end lines that describe my frustration with myself only worsening the problem, highlighted by the middle line that basically screams at the reader.
The final slide in my opinion lacks a bit in creativity but was the best I could come up with given the content. In this slide I acknowledge that the inferno will one day die, which is why there is a change in the background- a dead fire and the destruction it leaves in its wake doesn’t necessitate a blindingly bright backdrop. Using color changes with the text, I make the transition from the fire’s death to the salvage and regrowth of whatever of my heart was destroyed in the fire and giving new life to the forest that was lost to it.
I’ve had some previous experience with the PowerPoint program, so creating this slideshow wasn’t an impossible task for me, but my inability to access the deeper functions that are supposed to be there stifled my creativity. I wanted to, as I’ve said, do some tricky stuff with the text, like have the lettering of “wasting ticks” do something resembling time ticking by, that may have added to the poem’s message. Having said that, my experience with PowerPoint was otherwise fairly positive. I was able to figure out all the key functions intuitively- and even picked up a few new ones- with no help and with fading transitions, in my opinion, illustrate the rage and hatred I felt accurately.
- His Imperial Excellency Actorbass33 the Triumphant
For this week, I wrote a poem called Inferno. The underlying theme for Inferno isn’t some deep, complex mystery (I’d like to claim that I’m so brilliant with English and computer skills that I could have written a rival for Homer’s Odyssey on my first shot but sadly this is not the case)- it references a struggle with rage and hatred that I have had to deal with for years due to a certain individual’s betrayal of my entire family, which altered our lives in ways we could never have imagined possible. I hated this person for what they did and still do to an extent- even though I have always been against having such feelings about anyone and I know it’s wrong (personal conviction, not admittance to some social taboo) , it has just been unavoidable for me. The thing of it was that it wasn’t an explosion that never died down, as with a sun; instead, it crept in slowly, affecting my mental processes like an evening mist, and continued to sink its way in until I finally realized that I was carrying a giant ball of hatred within me.
I convey these ideas in the poem through the positioning and font of the text on each page. Starting with the title page, “Inferno” is written in all lower-case letters and in a small font but bolded, meaning that such a disastrous mindset can spark below one’s notice.
With the other pages, I wanted dearly to make the text do some special stuff- I saw a lot of really cool effects in class that I wanted to duplicate that would have given my poem a special edge and bring out the pain and rage I’ve felt over the course of the last few years. Unfortunately, I am not skilled with PowePoint in any way, and therefore spent a lot of time looking for text manipulation options that I simply could not find. In the end, I had to settle for simple manipulation of transitions and line textures/positions much as I did with the title page, which I personally consider to be boring in the face of all the opportunities I know I’m missing out on but in the end didn’t turn out too badly.
For the first actual page, I put the first two lines in small fonts to illustrate the silent debut of the inferno, with the first being in the elegant Blackadder font (the only fancy font I could still read accurately) for its ghostly entry. I followed this up with a relatively huge line, which strongly enforces the ideal that was sometimes the only fact I was able to hang on to- that I hated the inferno’s existence. The conclusion of slide one describes a forest (my cheerful disposition toward life) being slowly destroyed and parts of my heart being lost.
Slide two starts off with my belief that what one invests their time in carries a bit of their heart in it by having the first line “carry” the second one, which trails behind it. Simple color combination illustrates the inferno and I melding into one and the end lines that describe my frustration with myself only worsening the problem, highlighted by the middle line that basically screams at the reader.The final slide in my opinion lacks a bit in creativity but was the best I could come up with given the content. In this slide I acknowledge that the inferno will one day die, which is why there is a change in the background- a dead fire and the destruction it leaves in its wake doesn’t necessitate a blindingly bright backdrop. Using color changes with the text, I make the transition from the fire’s death to the salvage and regrowth of whatever of my heart was destroyed in the fire and giving new life to the forest that was lost to it.I’ve had some previous experience with the PowerPoint program, so creating this slideshow wasn’t an impossible task for me, but my inability to access the deeper functions that are supposed to be there stifled my creativity. I wanted to, as I’ve said, do some tricky stuff with the text, like have the lettering of “wasting ticks” do something resembling time ticking by, that may have added to the poem’s message. Having said that, my experience with PowerPoint was otherwise fairly positive. I was able to figure out all the key functions intuitively- and even picked up a few new ones- with no help and with fading transitions, in my opinion, illustrate the rage and hatred I felt accurately.
- His Imperial Excellency Actorbass33 the Triumphant
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
In the beginning there was a post...
My initial response to e-poetry based on the pieces assigned so far is that it's a really interesting concept. Before coming to this course I actually had no clue that the world of electronic literature- and by extension e-poetry- had such a huge and firmly-established thing going, and being disillusioned as to the complexity of this new world is a fun experience.
While intriguing in many ways, what draws me to e-poetry more than anything at this juncture is the infinite number of ways in which an artist can convey meaning in their e-poem. I have always enjoyed reading into the deeper meaning of what appears before my eyes or enters my ears, be it interpreting the written word, deciphering a work of visual art, or trying to find the underlying emotions in a symphony. The intellectual stimulation provided by an e-poem is like wrapping all three of these media in one awesome package- now not only am I decoding this aspect or that, but also figuring out how it ties in with the rest of the work as without a vision of the bigger picture one can’t really understand the poem’s individual aspects properly.
My favorite example of this sort of tie thus far has been The Mermaid by William Yeats. The text of the poem tells the tale of a mermaid who has caught sight of a young human man whom she was instantly attracted to and tried to pull him underwater to be with her, but in the heat of the moment failed to consider that he would drown if he did so. The message that the text conveys is that love is blind on multiple levels, and not all are in a good way (as evidencedby her unthinkingly and selfishly dragging the human underwater for herself), but the electronic presentation takes it a few steps further by presenting the first line of the poem solidly, and the rest of the poem in several blocks of text in various arrangements, all too sall to be read unless you move your mouse over them, and even then they are jittery and almost illegible. I’m not sure how accurate my take on this is (that the fuzzy/”drowned” arrangements of the text signifies that what makes sense in the heat of passion and lust is not necessarily right) but the fun thing is that there are so many interpretations possible with it that it almost doesn’t matter. The exploration of its meanings can just be fun, rather than trying to arrive at a certain answer.
More to come. Viva la literary revolution.
- His Imperial Excellency Actorbass33 the Triumphant
While intriguing in many ways, what draws me to e-poetry more than anything at this juncture is the infinite number of ways in which an artist can convey meaning in their e-poem. I have always enjoyed reading into the deeper meaning of what appears before my eyes or enters my ears, be it interpreting the written word, deciphering a work of visual art, or trying to find the underlying emotions in a symphony. The intellectual stimulation provided by an e-poem is like wrapping all three of these media in one awesome package- now not only am I decoding this aspect or that, but also figuring out how it ties in with the rest of the work as without a vision of the bigger picture one can’t really understand the poem’s individual aspects properly.
My favorite example of this sort of tie thus far has been The Mermaid by William Yeats. The text of the poem tells the tale of a mermaid who has caught sight of a young human man whom she was instantly attracted to and tried to pull him underwater to be with her, but in the heat of the moment failed to consider that he would drown if he did so. The message that the text conveys is that love is blind on multiple levels, and not all are in a good way (as evidencedby her unthinkingly and selfishly dragging the human underwater for herself), but the electronic presentation takes it a few steps further by presenting the first line of the poem solidly, and the rest of the poem in several blocks of text in various arrangements, all too sall to be read unless you move your mouse over them, and even then they are jittery and almost illegible. I’m not sure how accurate my take on this is (that the fuzzy/”drowned” arrangements of the text signifies that what makes sense in the heat of passion and lust is not necessarily right) but the fun thing is that there are so many interpretations possible with it that it almost doesn’t matter. The exploration of its meanings can just be fun, rather than trying to arrive at a certain answer.
More to come. Viva la literary revolution.
- His Imperial Excellency Actorbass33 the Triumphant
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