| rdfs:comment | - Interactive fiction (often abbreviated IF) describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment.
- Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as computer games. In common usage, the word refers to text adventures, a type of adventure game with text-based input and output. The term is sometimes used to encompass the entirety of the medium, but is also sometimes used to distinguish games produced by the interactive fiction community from those created by games companies. It can also be used to distinguish the more modern style of such works, focusing on narrative and not necessarily falling into the adventure game genre at all, from the more traditional focus on puzzles. More expansive definitions
- When people think back to video games in the 80's, usually arcade games like Pac-Man or Galaga come to mind - simple hand-eye coordination skill tests which relied on high scores for replay value. Games with a linear progression through a series of levels weren't prevalent until later in the decade. Few of these sorts of games attempted to tell a story.
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| abstract | - Interactive fiction (often abbreviated IF) describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment.
- When people think back to video games in the 80's, usually arcade games like Pac-Man or Galaga come to mind - simple hand-eye coordination skill tests which relied on high scores for replay value. Games with a linear progression through a series of levels weren't prevalent until later in the decade. Few of these sorts of games attempted to tell a story. Today, video games are sometimes compared to movies. Many modern console / PC games have cutscenes, voice acting, motion capture acting, and some static dialogue. Segments of some games are referred to as 'scenes' or 'chapters' rather than levels. Over the course of the game, the player character meets several other characters who face some sort of conflict to resolve or obstacle to overcome, and they are developed as the game progresses. (Sometimes the player character is developed as well; occasionally the player is left to control most of the silent protagonist's actions.) Although the medium has certainly come a long way, video games still tend to rely on atmosphere, presentation and interactivity to entertain the audience; the story is merely there to loosely connect each encounter together, and usually that's all we ask of it. However, there are some games that are centered around a well-written plot. They exist solely to tell a story. Most of them are written by professional authors, who make use of their interactive nature to convey ideas and emotions in ways that are difficult or impossible to pull off in books or movies. Even in the 80's, companies such as Telarium and Infocom were publishing these games to market; afterward, individual authors such as Graham Nelson, Stephen Granade, Andrew Plotkin and Adam Cadre continued to release games as freeware via the internet.
- Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as computer games. In common usage, the word refers to text adventures, a type of adventure game with text-based input and output. The term is sometimes used to encompass the entirety of the medium, but is also sometimes used to distinguish games produced by the interactive fiction community from those created by games companies. It can also be used to distinguish the more modern style of such works, focusing on narrative and not necessarily falling into the adventure game genre at all, from the more traditional focus on puzzles. More expansive definitions of interactive fiction may refer to all adventure games, including wholly graphical adventures such as Myst. As a commercial product, interactive fiction reached its peak in popularity in the 1980s, as a dominant software product marketed for home computers. Because their text-only nature sidestepped the problem of writing for the widely divergent graphics architectures of the day, interactive fiction games were easily ported across all the popular platforms, even those such as CP/M not known for gaming or strong graphics capabilities. Today, interactive fiction no longer appears to be commercially viable, but a steady stream of new works is produced by an online interactive fiction community, using freely available development systems. Most of these games can be downloaded for free from the Interactive Fiction Archive (see external links). The term "interactive fiction" is also occasionally used to refer to addventure games, which are also called hypertext fiction, collaborative fiction, or even a participatory novels, according to the New York Times. It is also used to refer to literary works that are not read in a linear fashion, but rather the reader is given choices at different points in the text; the reader's choice determines the flow and outcome of the story. The most famous example of this form of interactive fiction is the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. For others, see Wikipedia:gamebooks.
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