INTERACTIVE FICTION: Getting Into It

Okay, so I’m into it now. I have just added a new category to this log, Literature just for times such as these. In approaching Interactive Fiction, I came to it with reluctance and suspicion (I am one of those folks who still cannot compare hand-drawn art with computer graphics on the same level) and felt it was “cheating” for some reason. Also brought with me my own feelings against interfering with another’s work, or accepting the text of others as my own. Well, tonight I lost my inhibitions, and suddenly I was no longer a writer but an honest-to-God game player! Yes, I got caught up in the thrill of the journey, and reader and writer both had a hell of a lot of fun. These posts are more just notes to myself I think, so that in analyzing the process, I will remember the turn of events. Speaking of which, and despite being warned to write down what I was doing during interaction, I scribbled but a few. This is very like the way I have approached fixing computer software problems–trial and error–but getting so involved in what I was doing that I’d fail to write down what I’d done in case it didn’t work (or the problem came up again in the future, which with computers, it invariably does). Very similar indeed to where I left myself crashing into the crystal labyrinth walls in PHOTOPIA. I’ll write again on this subject as soon as I find my way around.