Playing Fiction: On the Literary Video Game By James C. Moore A senior thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey April 7, 2015 Acknowledgements Thanks to: Zahid Chaudhary, for advising me for the past year, for helping me figure out what I’m actually saying, and for making sure I actually finished. Diana Fuss, for her help on the junior independent work that became the basis of this thesis. All of the video game developers and commentators who inspire me, including but not limited to Jordan Mechner, Edmund McMillen, Brad Borne, Raigan Burns and Mare Sheppard, Lucas Pope, Derek Yu, Jenova Chen, Greg Kasavin, Fumito Ueda, Shigeru Miyamoto, Ben Croshaw, and the Extra Credits team. And especially Jim Sterling: thank God for him. Joe, Scot, Daphna, Miriam, and all of my friends for getting me through college. Everybody at Theatre Intime for making me feel welcome and at home. Tom and Erik, with whom I hope to always play games. Lola and Woodhouse, for being the best dogs. My mom, dad, and sister, for all of their love and support. For realizing before I did that this was something I wanted to pursue throughout my life. For listening to me ramble about video games. For playing games with me instead of sports. For being consistently amazing. And for getting me a Nintendo 64 for my sixth birthday. Table of Contents Introduction: “Press Start” The Origin of the Literary Video Game.....……………………………………….3 Chapter 1: “The Price You Pay May be Heavy Indeed” The Video Game As Literature………………………………………………….17 Chapter 2: “Do You Feel Like a Hero Yet?” The Video Game As Critic………………………………………………………44 Chapter 3: “…” The Video Game and Storytelling Through Play………………………………..69 Conclusion: “Game Over” The Future of the Literary Video Game...........………………………………….92 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………….100 --Introduction-- “Press Start” The Origin of the Literary Video Game An example: three times a year, a “game jam” called Ludum Dare is held. The organizers announce a theme at midnight, and for the next 48 hours, amateur and professional video game developers create games based on that theme. This “Accelerated Game Development Event” challenges designers’ creativity and endurance. Interpretations of the themes vary wildly. Designers interpret prompts in ways other developers never would have imagined. The wide variety of submitted games shows just how diverse the video game field has become; individuals with passion for game design can create small experiences unlike any other entry to the game jam. One such entry came from independent developer Hannes “Crabman” Flor. In December of 2012 he made a game called The Day the Laughter Stopped in response to the theme “You Only Get One.” Among video game genres, The Day the Laughter Stopped falls into the category of interactive fiction, meaning players simply read a story and at various points pick between two options of how to proceed, leading to different endings. If you have a working internet connection I encourage you to go play The Day the Laughter Stopped now.1 It’s short, and I’m about to tell you what happens, but like all games, it’s meant to be played. The Day the Laughter Stopped only has two elements. The narrative element is delivered via white text on a black background, and it tells the story from the perspective of a fourteen year old girl who wavers on the edges of a romantic relationship with an 1 Even if you’ve never played a video game before, you can play an interactive fiction game. The Day the Laughter Stopped can be played for free online at http://hypnoticowl.com/theday/play/ 3 older boy. The interactive component comes throughout the story, where the player chooses how to proceed by clicking on one of two buttons, each labeled with a different course of action. These two elements collide during a horrifying scene in which the boy rapes the female narrator. Throughout the assault and the aftermath, the game continues to offer the player choices as to what to do, but now one of the options will not work. The player can press the button to “push him away” or “tell them what happened,” but the game does not register the action. Eventually, the player must click the button marked “stay still” or “stay silent.” Choice, which was initially offered to the player, has secretly been taken away. This small game showcases the power and effectiveness of a story that is carefully combined with interactivity. The game presents a story and a set of rules, then changes one to upset the other. Despite its limited interactive scope and overlong narration, The Day the Laughter Stopped succeeds because of its focus on how players experience the story. The developer generates a response from the player through the execution of a single interactive metaphor that informs the purpose of the story. As Flor wrote in a blog post about the game: The whole point is obviously that you have zero control over that because it’s the guy making it happen. But even this tiny bit of interactivity makes you part of this story, and that makes a huge difference… it makes you feel powerless and out of control, which is not a very pleasant feeling. You’re getting a glimpse into what it’s like to be a victim. It’s empathy.2 The Day the Laughter Stopped tries to share one person’s experience in an original manner not just by describing or showing that experience, but by making the player take part in it. In doing so the game aspires to raise questions in the mind of the player. It is a 2 Hannes Flor, “The Moment the Choices Stopped,” Hypnotic Owl, December 22, 2013, accessed March 15, 2015, http://hypnoticowl.com/the-moment-the-choices-stopped/ 4 methodology worth thinking about, analyzing, dissecting, and questioning. It is art worthy of criticism. It is a literary move. It is this union of story and interactive gameplay that I want to consider. Where We’ve Been Interactive fiction did not begin with video games. Of course, people have been sharing and interacting with stories personally for thousands of years. On a mass- produced scale, however, the most basic application of interactivity to storytelling appeared in the Choose Your Own Adventure series of children’s books. The concept is simple: take a story, insert branching paths, and allow readers to pick where the story goes. Readers essentially create a manual version of the interactive fiction game. Edward Packard came up with the idea for Choose Your Own Adventure from his experience telling stories to his children: “He often told his kids bedtime stories, and whenever he couldn’t figure out how to resolve a story, he asked them to weigh in with options. He soon realized that they enjoyed the stories more when they helped choose the endings.”3 The series launched in 1979 and succeeded almost immediately. The series was not only fun for children; it also played an important developmental role, as co-author and former teacher R. A. Montgomery observed in an interview: “Experiential learning is the most powerful way for kids, or for anyone, to learn something.”4 The additional level of engagement offered by these books also helped children expose themselves to new experiences, both fictional and real: “The reading happened because kids were put in the driver’s seat. They were the mountain climber, they were the doctor, they were the deep- 3 Jake Rossen, “A Brief History of ‘Choose Your Own Adventure,’” Mental Floss, April 10, 2014, accessed March 16, 2014, http://mentalfloss.com/article/56160/brief-history-choose-your-own-adventure 4 Ibid. 5 sea explorer…They made choices, and so they read.”5 The fictional impact of the story interested children in the act of storytelling. While R. A. Montgomery clearly appreciated the effect these books could have, publisher Bantam had a different focus: “To capitalize on the momentum, Bantam decided to roll out one title a month.”6 Choose Your Own Adventure books began as children’s books, and the angle the publisher took essentially insured that they remained that way. There was a value to the series; it touched on an untapped desire for people to experience fictional universes, to imagine themselves in impossible places, but that desire was not explored beyond its most basic principles. The initial run of Choose Your Own Adventure books included hundreds of titles, plus various spin-off and tie-in books, its success showcasing the unique value that an interactive story can have. The format may not make for traditionally great literature, but it begins to unlock the potential of the interactive through the way children responded to the stories. On the opposite end of the spectrum, games and stories have coexisted as well. Dungeons and Dragons is the most noteworthy example of player-led stories in games. Originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974, players in this pencil- and-paper role-playing game spend some of their time rolling dice to fight imaginary monsters. However, the real heart of the game is less about numbers and fighting and more about a shared storytelling experience. The “Dungeon Master” outlines the story and objectives for an individual play session, but the other players get complete control over how to proceed as the game progresses. In his book Of Dice and Men, David M. Ewalt writes, “Players are both audience and author in D&D; they consume the [Dungeon 5 Rossen, “A Brief History of ‘Choose Your Own Adventure.’” 6 Ibid.