Foundations

After reading and watch Nick Montfort’s article and video on interactive fiction, I started to see a similarity between interactive games and the role-playing games that I play today. Obviously before computers or video devices, people could only play role-playing games in either text based books or oral games. These two forms however were very limited in either the imagination of the person the player was playing with, or the story/plot of the book the game was based in. Furthermore, players could cheat by reading ahead in books, or would have trouble keeping up with what was going on in an oral game if any of the other players were also having trouble. These limits were overcome with the creation of the personal computer, which allowed texts to be created in endless possibilities. However, with the lack of anything visual being visible on the computers, the text became even more important to the whole experience of the role-playing game. While books could have drawings and in oral games you could draw pictures, in text based interactive fiction games the player had to picture the entire world based on the worlds that were given to him. This made text based interactive fiction the first step towards today’s modern role-playing games, in that it forced the player to picture the entire world in their heads, it kept them from cheating by reading ahead in the books, and allowed for players to play by themselves. These abilities transformed the role-playing experience for many players, and allowed the genre to become more and more open ended. The less structure a game has, the greater a player’s ability is over his or her choices in the game. This in turn, leads to the production and creation of many possible styles of game play and story paths on which a character can follow. With the rise of better graphics and video capabilities on computers, it was only a matter of time before the visual components of the gaming world replaced the dominance of textual components. This underlying foundation in the role-playing genre of games can still be seen today in games such as Skyrim. In which the player after doing the introduction is free to go do whatever and talk to whomever they wish to, with only a slight overall story arc guiding them—just like the text based interactive fictions of old. While a game’s world is no longer described in words alone, thanks to the advancements in video games, the influence of open ended play that developed under the texted based interactive fiction is still the foundation that modern role-playing games use.

One thought on “Foundations

  1. Professor Sample

    I’d argue that a game like Skyrim actually allows for more freedom than interactive fiction. Most IF games—while supporting exploration—have a very set storyline, punctuated by puzzles that must be solved.

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