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1. Narrative and the Split Condition of Digital Textuality

   With computer games and avant-garde literary experiments, digital textuality has conquered
   both mass audiences and academic readers interested in theorizing digital art, but
   it has not yet reached the middle of the cultural spectrum, namely the educated public
   who reads primarily for pleasure, but is capable of artistic discrimination. This essay
   explores the possibility of curing this split condition by strengthening the narrativity of
   digital texts. After examining the conception of narrative that prevails at both ends of the
   spectrum, I investigate three types of interactive narrative that have been able to reach
   beyond the traditional audience of computer games and experimental literature: embedded
   stories, represented by Myst and mystery-solving games, emergent stories, represented
   by The Sims, and texts with a somewhat prescripted, but variable story, represented
   by Façade, Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern’s project in interactive drama. For each type
   of text, I suggest how to make the structure more appealing to a reader who engages

   Helene Helgeland - 01.09.2012 - 16:56

2. Conclusion: Whither American Fiction?

   Conclusion: Whither American Fiction?

   Eric Dean Rasmussen - 30.10.2012 - 22:14

3. Creating Interactive Fiction with Inform 7

   CREATING INTERACTIVE FICTION WITH INFORM 7 is a jargon-free, step-by-step guide to mastering the basics of creating dynamic, text-based story worlds. Inform 7 is a free multiplatform interactive fiction authoring environment that uses an intuitive natural language syntax. A tool focused on writers, not programmers, Inform allows users construct complex, rich storytelling worlds by writing sentences as simple as "Tom is a person," or as complicated as "Instead of attacking Tom when something lethal is held, now every nearby watchdog owned by Tom hates the player." No prior programming experience is required. Throughout the book, readers develop a full-length, release-quality example game, exploring the real-world issues involved in authoring participatory narratives and gaining skills that can be applied to the creation of future games and stories.

   (Publisher's copy)

   Scott Rettberg - 09.01.2013 - 00:14

4. Experiments in Literary Cartography

   Coover wrote: “The most distinctive literary contribution of the computer has been (...) the intimate layering and fusion of imagined spatiality and temporality.” Of course, by “spatiality” Coover meant the topologies of text non-linear in its presentation, not a more literal representation of space. I discuss my experiments using the Google Maps API as an interface for hypertext fiction. This of course is not in itself new, but there are some possibilities in cartography-oriented fiction I would like to call attention to. In particular:

   1. Using a familiar interface, such works may introduce a broader audience to Electronic Fiction, without dumbing it down;

   2. The Golden Age’s concerns with spatiality are recast now with a third extra dimension, represented space in a more literal sense. The realm of topological possibilities in this intertwining – temporality, textual structure, represented space – is vast. 3. Such works inevitably touch upon our subjective relationship with space, and the shifting modes of our articulation thereof. Three works are presented:

   Audun Andreassen - 10.04.2013 - 11:56

5. New Plots for Hypertext?: Towards a Poetics of the Hypertext Node

   While the significance of hypertext links for the new ways of telling stories has been widely discussed, there has been not many debates about the very elements that are being connected: hypertext nodes. Apart from few exceptions, poetics of the link overshadows poetics of the node. My goal is to re-focus on a single node, or lexia, by introducing the concept of contextual regulation as the major force that shapes hypertext narrative units. Because many lexias must be capable of occurring in different contexts and at different stages of the unfolding story, several compromises have to be made on the level of language, style, plot and discourse. Each node, depending on its position and importance, has a varying level of connectivity and autonomy, which affects the global coherence of text.

   Scott Rettberg - 26.05.2013 - 14:25

6. The End of Books--Or Books Without End: Reading Interactive Narratives

   J. Yellowlees Douglas looks at the new light that interactive narratives may shed on theories of reading and interpretation and the possibilities for hypertext novels, World Wide Web-based short stories, and cinematic, interactive narratives on CD-ROM. She confronts questions that are at the center of the current debate: Does an interactive story demand too much from readers? Does the concept of readerly choice destroy the author's vision? Does interactivity turn reading fiction from "play" into "work" - too much work? Will hypertext fiction overtake the novel as a form of art or entertainment? And what might future interactive books look like?

   (Source: Book jacket)

   Jill Walker Rettberg - 07.06.2013 - 11:03

7. Netprov: Elements of an Emerging Form

   While improvisational theater has a well-documented history, the role of improvisation on the Internet has been only the topic of passing speculation (Laurel; Murray), either applied metaphorically to the user interface or in speculation on the nature of computer-mediated textual exchange particularly in the context of identity formation (Turkle). While improvisation is deeply connected to the authorial practices of players of MMORPGs and their MOO precursors (LaFarge) and to players of story-generation games such as Jason Rohrer’s “Sleep is Death” and to participants in ARGs, we are specifically interested in text-centered improvisation that has as its goal the creation of a narrative or narrative world, rather than primarily the development of a game experience.

   Scott Rettberg - 25.06.2013 - 14:30

8. Textopia: Experiments with Locative Literature

   textopia is a design experiment situated in humanist media studies, and based on a simple idea: Making it possible for someone who is walking through the city with a mobile phone to listen to literary texts which talk about whichever place she is walking by. The aim of this exercise has been to explore the relationship between places and literary texts – not just what the relationship is and has been, but what it can be in the new medium. Inspired by the ideas embedded in hermeneutics, open source philosophy and agile software development, I have outlined a methodological approach that I call "agile media design". In the course of the practical process I have ialso dentified three key principles for locative media design, summed up in the "G-P-S" model: Granularity, Particiation and Serendipity. Together they describe the unique characteristics of designs like textopia – a category I call "annotative, locative media".

   Scott Rettberg - 26.06.2013 - 13:19

9. Blogging

   Thoroughly revised and updated, this new edition of Blogging provides an accessible study of a now everyday phenomenon and places it in a historical, theoretical and contemporary context. The second edition takes into account the most recent research and developments and provides current analyses of new tools for microblogging and visual blogging. Jill Walker Rettberg discusses the ways blogs are integrated into today’s mainstream social media ecology, where comments and links from Twitter and Facebook may be more important than the network between blogs that was significant five years ago, and questions the shift towards increased commercialization and corporate control of blogs. The new edition also analyses how smart phones with cameras and social media have led a shift towards more visual emphasis in blogs, with photographs and graphics increasingly foregrounded. Authored by a scholar-blogger, this engaging book is packed with examples that show how blogging and related genres are changing media and communication.

   Jill Walker Rettberg - 02.07.2013 - 14:35

10. Tangibles and Storytelling

    Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) are systems with the goal of giving a physical aspect to accessing information from a digital medium. Combining physical interactions with digital information in order to evoke a sense of interactivity and control over a system. Coupled with storytelling, these user interfaces become potent information relays, as well as being effective edutainment tools for younger audiences. This is because of physical interactions are extremely significant in providing stimuli for the memory, thus facilitating learning.

    In this paper, we discuss and evaluate several different research papers about various different tangible user interfaces designed to facilitate interactive narratives and storytelling. These systems provide insight to the dynamics of interactive storytelling, and how these tangibles can be used to deliver non-linear storylines and detach the users from the role of a passive observer to an active role in the stories.

    Jill Walker Rettberg - 02.07.2013 - 16:08

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