Interactive Fiction

When I learned that we would be doing Interactive Fiction for class, I was initially excited; I remembered those books as a kid where you could " choose your own adventure" that I loved and I thought IF would be very similar to that. I had no idea that IF provided the player with many more options during the interaction that those old "create your own adventure" books did. Rather than simply choosing between, let's say, entering the cave or going around the cave, the reader is faced with numerous possibilities for interaction that are not clearly defined. The reader must choose the questions to ask, the path to take, the objects to hold as well as any other interactions. One example of this type of interactive fiction is " Galatea"



When Galatea first begins, the reader is introduced to a statue of a women who is standing alone. This is called the prologue From this point on, the reader is essentially in charge; the scene has been set and the reader must now "create" the story as they see fit. Throughout the story, the reader opens up a complex world that is this women's life. Galatea allows the reader to see into her past, her feelings, and her thoughts about her situation. These responses to the questions the reader poses are called "outputs" according to Monfort.







I began interacting with Galatea by saying Hello. She responded to me, and I began to ask questions ( called inputs) to her such as " tell me about your sculptor" or " tell me about hearing." Galatea responds to these questions and her responses oftentimes lead the reader into a new direction and prompts them to ask new questions. When Galatea first begins talking, her responses are short and to the point. She also gets angry or annoyed if the reader asks the same question more than once, responding curtly with " I already told you everything I know." At this point in the story, I noticed that at the top of my screen it said I had a back view of Galatea. This is an important element to the meaning of the story. When the reader first starts out speaking with Galatea, she is not facing them and her responses are vague and cold. She does not seem interested in interaction with the reader. As the story progresses and the reader gets to know Galatea better, she gains more patience with the reader and even begins to turn toward them. This signifies that she is growing increasing more comfortable with the reader and she is willing to share more of her personal life. Essentially, Galatea is like a date; at first she is a bit skeptical and aloof, but as the reader asks better questions and gains her trust, she begins to warm up to the idea of conversation and accept the possibly of some type of connection between herself and the reader.





After the initial introductions, I began to ask "harder" questions of Galatea. As I questioned her, we began to talk about her sculptor. I think this dialogue was essential to the development of the story and a pivotal point in which the relationship between the reader and Galatea begins to grow. We learn that Galatea has feelings for her sculptor and she speaks of him very fondly. She seems a bit hurt that he did not have romantic feelings for her as well.


I played the story numerous times and each time my interactions brought me down a different path. This is exactly what the intention of IF is; it allows the reader to experience different outcomes based on the questions they ask (or don't ask) and the order in which they ask them. The first time I played, I did not know that I needed to slowly peel back the layers of Galatea before asking personal questions and I jumped right in. She got angry with me very quickly and refused to speak to me. The game ended for me and I was given the directives of " Restart, Restore, or Quit." The next time I played, I was much more successful. After much prodding and picking, she eventually stepped off the pedestal and ran away with me, madly in love. What can I say, I'm a charmer. Another time I played, she turned and faced me within the first couple questions I asked of her which is different from the slowly changing views I had experienced up to that point.



One element of the game that I found extremely useful was the "help" feature. There were times throughout the game that I was confused as to how to phrase what I wanted to ask. I felt like I was running out of options, but after reading the help screen, I realized that not only could I ask Galatea questions, but I could tell her about myself as well. Recap was also extremely helpful. At some points, I had made my way deep into the story and I had forgotten some of the questions I had previously asked her. Rather than ask again and risk bothering her, I simply checked out the recap and got to read all my inputs up to that point in the game.



Ultimately, I think Galatea is more like a game than a story, but good arguments can be made for both directions. Galatea can be seen as a story because the creator obviously put great time into developing the character of Galatea. I ask shocked as to how many of my questions actually had responses. At one point, I even asked Galatea about cheese and she had a comment on it. We learn that Galatea is guarded but she has an interesting past and clearly defined opinions on different topics. She is the only character in the story we get to interact with, but the interactions are filling and rich with detail. When Galatea gets asked a question, many times she goes into great description when giving her response. Many of the IF pieces we have interacted with before give shot responses that lack any real substance, but Galatea provides detail. Galatea seemed more like a game to me because throughout my interaction, I kept thinking to myself that I had to "win.' Winning, to me, was avoiding frustrating her and having her open up and continue to tolerate my questions. As I said before, Galatea was like a first date where I was trying to make a good impression and figure out the "code", if you will, to allow myself another opportunity with her. I knew I was making progress in the "game" as she slowly turned and began to face me more and more. I also thought Galatea was similar to a game because the location never changed and we were never introduced to more characters. I feel like for a story to take place, there needs to be interaction between different people. Galatea was the only person the reader was able to have a conversation with. It also lacked a real plot.

Overall, I enjoyed Galatea more than any other piece we have experienced thus far in class. After reading the help section, my interactions with the piece were relatively easy. The author of the piece anticipated a large array of questions and many of the things I asked about were given responses. Galatea was fun to interaction with and I enjoyed getting to know her better as the work progressed.

Work Cited: Nick Monfort's "Twisty Little Passages"