E-Publishing - Week 8

Disaster!! I had an accident in reading week resulting in me tearing ligaments in my ankle. Ouch! Unfortunately this meant that I was unable to attend lecture 8 of E-Publishing. But nevermind I have found the lecture outline on Moodle and have decided to have a go at teaching myself this week.

So on the lecture plan it says that we will be looking more indepthly at interactive fiction, carrying on from Week 6. Starting with a man called Dennis G. Jerz. But who is Dennis G. Jerz? Jerz is a well known writer and scholar of interactive fiction, he is currently a professor of English and New Media Journalism at Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania. He is mostly interested in blogs, interactive fiction, web design, creating games and lecturing on games.

http://tlrg.bangor.ac.uk/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=1381

The link above shows the script of a talk that he did on interactive fiction. In the talk he explains about interactive fiction and his views on the subject. He feels that it is very complex and it is a technology to be 'mastered' not to just come into lightly, and feels that many experience a love/hate relationship with interactive fiction for its' complexities and it taxing the gamer's brain. I feel that it is important for anyone who is interested in gaming and interactive fiction to look more into Dennis Jerz as he has some fascinating views on the subject.

I have had a look at "The Breathing Wall" which is an interactive fiction similar to Inanimate Alice. There is a taster demo online for The Breathing Wall but you will need to order the CD in order to interact with the narrative. Stories such as these only really come to life when the reader is interacting with them, when the reader is controlling them, that is what makes them stand out as interactive fiction rather than merely fiction novels.

I'm hoping that next week's blog will have more detail than this one! This is the best I could do I'm afraid!