The Line / The Line
Interactive Fiction and Symmetry in Human-Computer Text Exchange
by Nick Montfort
Presented on the panel
"The Pixel / The Line"
SIGGRAPH, 14 Aug 2001, in Los Angeles.
The full text of the presentation is also online.
(click on the '>' in the upper right to advance through the slides)
Interactive Fiction and Interface Symmetry
- Output: Lines of text.
- Input: Lines of text.
From Mindwheel, Robert Pinksy, 1984:
| > Hit the thug. | | | | What do you want to hit the thug with? | | | | > My fist. | | | | You give the thug a good slug with your hand. | | Suddenly, a violent force pulls your body up and westward. The thousands | |of people around you on the stage and in the crowd are like frozen statues. | |Only you and one of the thugs can move or make a sound. | | The two of you float high into the air, while the frozen scene below spins | |and blurs like a roulette wheel. "Now we must duel," announces the thug. | |"You must choose one of these three weapon boxes: the disc, the cone, or the | |staff. Do you know the rules?" | | Gibbering reptiles dressed in antique finery whirl past and away from you. | | | | > Thug, what are the rules? | | | | "I have three boxes," states the thug. [...] |
The Appropriateness of Symmetry
- Laurel: "The desire for symmetry between 'input' and 'output' modalities is strong."
- Particularly sensible in certain contexts, e.g. when co-authorship or co-creation is a goal.
Other Systems Seeking Symmetry
- Stand-alone chatterbots.
- Graphical embodied conversational agents.
- Networked whiteboards, chat systems, etc.
Different Interfaces for Different Adventures
- Myst provides for navigation, not co-creation.
- Point-and-click is often more efficient for moving around.
Defining Interactive Fiction
- A system that simulates a world programmatically and that accepts natural-language text input, providing text in reply.
- Includes: Text adventures such as Adventure, the original Zork, and commercial games from Infocom and Level 9.
- Excludes: Eliza/Doctor and graphical adventure games not using text for interaction.
Attempts to Understand Natural Language
- Interactor: Studies the computer's text to learn about the world and solve puzzles.
- Text/machine: Parses replies to generate actions of the player character.
Winchester's Nightmare
- Published in "hardback," October 1999.
- Novel-length, created for literary fiction readers.
Symmetry in Winchester's Nightmare
- 3rd person POV, so all text is declarative.
- Language repalces the ">" prompt.
- Recognize whole words only, not abbreviations.
- Terse descriptions to improve text balance.
- No "purple prose."
- Something secret at the very end.
Ad Verbum
- Released in the 2000 IF Competition.
- For aficionados of the Oulipo and IF player.
Symmetry Missing from Ad Verbum
- No consistent 3rd person POV.
- ">" prompt is back.
Symmetry in Ad Verbum
- Abbreviations allowed -- but system abbreviates, too.
- Verbal production by interactor and system must follow the same rules.
Furthering Symmetry in Interactive Fiction
- Concentrate on essential, not surface, aspects.
- Symmetrical interfaces allow new experiences:
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- Games with players taking symmetrical roles.
- Exchange based on conversation.
- Artistic and literary co-creation.
Further Reading
- IF and other e-lit free at http://nickm.com
- Reading and discussion of Winchester's Nightmare:
Creative Applications Lab (CAL) Pod 1 (Windows), today, 1pm.
nm 2001-08
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