Explode

That’s a command I often used. I bounced back and forth Varicella and Violet, spending most of my time with the former. I found the entertainment I got from these games to be peculiar. Even though these are ostensibly stories and works of fiction, much of the satisfaction I got from these works was when I choose an action that yielded tangible results. Often I was frustrated by trying to do something the constraints of the game or something that did not advance the story, for example using the verb “wait” in Varicella. Doing so only prompts the response “Time Passes” Ah, sweet progress, what a fine thing you are! But when I did do something of consequence in a game, for example finding the airplane tickets, I felt a sense of accomplishment. This is something I usually associate with “conventional” games more than with interactive fiction. When you’re reading a choose your own adventure story, I think the enjoyment stems from exploring the various storyline. There isn’t necessarily a right or wrong answer, just different narrative conclusions. I immediately think of the game shown in our last class. With these games however my enjoyment was more along the lines of just “playing correctly.” That is to say, when I did something like find the tickets, it was like preforming a fatality for the first time in mortal combat. SEARCH JACKET!!! Oh man I found the tickets! Sooo dope.

I think this might stem because I never spent much time with these games and for all practical purposes am still a novice, so when I attempt to do something it is usually ineffectual, those increasing the satisfaction from typing in an action that pays off. I think this hampered my experience of these games. As many have pointed out in their own posts, the role of the gamer with these games is storyteller. Since I’m having trouble conforming to the rules of these games, my capacity to act as story teller is impaired. I found this frustrating when I wanted to find out if anyone was coming up the stairs in violet are when I wanted to investigate what scuffed my foot in Varicella. But I couldn’t figure out how. Whether I used the command “x” or “search” or “find”. It was these points I instructed my character to explode. Or kill, though much to my dissatisfaction I could not kill the peanut butter in my apartment.