digital game-based learning

Interactive Fiction and Digital game-based learning

4
2 weeks ago
by Joe Pereira in

So, I’ve discussed what IF is and suggested how to choose a game for use with students. I think it’s a good idea now to look at why we should be using IF for learning in the first place, which will be done over 3 posts:

  • This first part will focus on the inherent educational qualities of IF as a video game, and these will be mapped to the ‘learning techniques found in video games’ posited by Marc Prensky (2001).
  • The second part will present the educational qualities of IF mapped to the literacy-based ‘learning principles of good video games’ argued by linguist James Gee (2003).
  • The final part, following the premise of this blog, will focus on the language learning affordances of IF as a story/game.

 

 

“Let my playing be my learning, and my learning be my playing” – Johan Huizinga (1971)
 

Because IF is a form of video game, it can be used for digital game-based learning. DGBL is the field of study that looks at how video games, either specifically designed for learning – called “serious games”, or  regular games, not specifically developed for educational use – called “commercial off-the shelf” games (COTS), can be applied to teaching and learning scenarios.

Video games are  inherently educational because they have the following characteristics:

 

  • they allow you take control of characters and see the world through their eyes and from different perspectives;
  • they present problems which need to be solved through critical or lateral thinking;
  • feedback is given immediately – you are encouraged to make mistakes and learn from them;
  • the simulated environment is safe  – players are encouraged to take risks and evaluate their actions;
  • they give practice in thinking about and doing more than one thing at a time – multi-tasking;
  • they present a conflict which must be overcome -  this creates excitement and provides unexpected and stressful situations which must be resolved, paralleling real life;
  • they provide an environment for social and collaborative learning.

Video games can also allow for the transfer of factual knowledge to learners, without them even knowing – a concept known as “stealth learning”, which occurs when “learners are not overly aware of the fact that they are learning, how much they are learning, or how difficult it is”, Gee (2007:124).

We’ve all either been in the situation or noticed another person playing a video game for hours on end, without even realising it. The expression “time flies when you’re having fun” could not be more in tune with the engagement offered by video games. This distortion of time is one of the results of being in the state of deep concentration known as “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991), which occurs when one’s attention is completely focused and there is total engagement in achieving their goals. The Flow experience is commonly attained when playing video games (and during other pleasurable activities such as sports) and is one of the reasons why DGBL is such a worthwhile endeavour. If we can teach through games, learning may become a more pleasurable & more engaging experience – with more fruitful outcomes.

 

Where’s the fun?

 

Of course, we shouldn’t forget the reason why we people play games at all – because they are fun. Or should we? Arriving at a clear definition of “game” is universally considered to be a difficult task, given the multiple definitions found in dictionaries and the way “play” and “game” are used in the English language and in diverse fields of study. Huizinga, in his seminal work ‘Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-Element in Culture ‘(1971:28) provides us with a definition of “game” that is interchangeable with the meaning of “play”:

A voluntary activity or occupation executed within certain fixed limits of time and place, according to rules freely accepted but absolutely binding, having its aim in itself and accompanied by a feeling of tension, joy, and the consciousness that it is “different” from “ordinary life”.

Salen & Zimmerman in ‘Rules of Play’ (2003:81), have gone further and constructed a definition of game with a more comprehensive scope, basing it on the linguistic use of the words “game” and”play”, while taking into account their meanings in French and German. Furthermore, it is an amalgamation of eight definitions from various fields of study including two from video game design experts, Greg Costikyan (1994) and Chris Crawford (2003):

“A game is a system in which players engage in an artificial conflict, defined by rules, that results in a quantifiable outcome.”

More recently, DGBL researcher Nicola Whitton (2010:23)  has proposed a more open definition of game, which includes the following 10 characteristics: Competition, Challenge, Exploration, Fantasy, Goals, Interaction, Outcomes, People, Rules & Safety.

Alternate-reality game designer Jane McGonigal (2011) has gone back to the basics and produced a more simplified definition made up of 4 points: Goal, Rules, Feedback System & Voluntary Participation.

If you’re still with me, you might have noticed that the one element that is missing in every definition of game is what for many may seem to be the most obvious: fun.

Crawford (2003:34), illustrates the relationship between game, play and fun:

  • “Game” is the formal activity that you perform.
  • “Play” is the actual behaviour that you engage in.
  • “Fun” is the experience or emotion that you derive from that behaviour.

This relationship leads to a simple conclusion: games and play must lead to fun. If a game isn’t fun, it’s a bad game. It sounds perfectly logical, and it is flatly wrong.

He then goes on to note that:

the problem with this reasoning lies in the fact that the words “game”, “play,” and “fun” are in flux. They have historically been associated with the behaviour of children, yet in the last century, with the creation of significant amounts of leisure time, adults have taken up play as well. This new, adult kind of play is still play by any definition, but the word “fun” doesn’t quite fit the adult’s experience…”

It can be said then, that in addition to this constant lexical metamorphosis and being a concept historically linked to children and their games, fun is not a required component of a game, as many games are not “fun” per se (think of chess or any sport you hate), nor can “fun” be designed into the game, as what is “fun” for one person might not be “fun” for another. Michael & Chen (2005:20), put this into perspective: “it is not an ingredient or something you put in. Fun is a result.”

 

The 13 Learning Techniques of video games

 

The person who started the DGBL ball rolling (coining the name in the process) was Marc Prensky, with his book ‘Digital Game-Based learning” in 2001. While making a huge impact by raising awareness and interest in using video games for learning in educational circles, Prensky has come under fire for not being very ‘academic’ in his writing (to the point of it not being considered real ‘research’ by some academics) and for instigating the ‘digital native’ vs ‘digital immigrant’ debate  – which has been debunked (see Bennet et al, 2008; Selwyn, 2009). Despite this, his was the first major work on the educational properties of video games and his list of 13 ‘learning techniques’ are a good starting point to see how video games – and in this case, IF, are inherently educational. I have been thinking about how IF fits into the more general theories of DGBL for some time and so at last, in the following table, I present Prensky’s learning techniques (by title and a brief description – using his words) and commented if and how they are represented in IF.

 

Prensky’s 13 learning techniques used in digital games (2001:157-163):

Technique Description Present in IF?
1. Practice and feedback The game tells you things – provides drilling practice YES
In IF, input needs to be understood by the parser – typing and spelling need to be accurate – finding synonyms for commands and rephrasing  is mandatory. Feedback is constantly given – replies of ‘ I don t know how to do that’ are given if the player has not succeeded in their command or a new passage of text when successful.
2. Learning by doing Active participation by the learner YES
IF is based on the constructivist theory of learning, where knowledge of the world is built by direct interaction with it through exploration, discovery and problem-solving. Interacting with the game-word requires imagining actions and the specific micro-action they involve and thinking about the language necessary to command the protagonist to perform them.
3. Learning from mistakes Motivation stems from failing and trying again YES
Feedback reflects the player’s success at navigating and interacting with the story/world. Successful navigation of the story results in more narrative being produced. Replies pertaining to non-comprehension of commands and the text created upon failed attempts at solving puzzles, overcoming obstacles and even abrupt endings or death, serve to motivate the player to try alternative words and strategies.
4. Goal-orintated learning Learning to do something vs learning about something YES
Every work of IF has a goal – depending on the perspective of the player: either to reach the end of the story; or producing as much of the narrative as possible. Being a form of digital literature, fact-orientated learning is also implemented as literature encompasses factual and cultural notions in addition to language (vocabulary and grammatical structures) and literary concepts (point of view, etc) however, these are all by-product of the engagement with the game.
5. Discovery learning and guided discovery You learn something better if you find it out for yourself, rather than have it told to you YES
This is certainly implemented in IF as problem-solving (one of the defining characteristics of IF). Guided (or structured discovery) is also implemented as the logical puzzles act as ‘narrative curtains’, which act as a pause mechanism for the player to re-access the state of the narrative and the protagonist’s place within it. While finding the solution to a puzzle may be difficult, obstacles are usually made clear in the narrative and there are clues that guide the player to their solution. Modern hint systems also exist to guide the player when stuck.
6. Task-based learning Skip generalized explanations and go straight into interaction with problems YES
In most cases, IF is made up of a series of logical puzzles – tasks, which need to be completed and which usually get more difficult as the narrative progresses (and the player’s familiarity with the game world and its conventions increases). Additionally, like TBL in TESOL, the player is introduced to these tasks during gameplay in context and they are not pre-practised or decontextualised.
7. Question-led learning Thinking about information available in order to anser questions, rather than just being told YES
Although directly associated with quiz and trivia type games, many IF games implement Non-Player Charcters, who ask questions and many puzzles revolve around giving information based on general knowledge or specific knowledge gained through exploration of the game world. The genre of IF itself, has been compared to the construct of the classic ‘riddle’ (Montfort, 2003) – thus allowing its inclusion in this point.
8. Situated learning Learning is set in an environment that is similar to or identical to where it will be applied in the future YES
IF, characterised as being a simulated world with its own particular rules, naturally lends itself to situated learning. Actions taken in the simulated world must abide by its rules and the player must put themselves in the place of the protagonist and try to understand the world from their perspective. This is especially relevant to the language that is used, which must be understood and manipulated by the player in order to progress in the game. Obviously, games taking place in a ‘real-world’ setting will allow for more situated learning to be later implemented in real-life than a game involving fantasy elements, however even these require thinking about how an action may be completed following the rules and respecting the environment and language used.
9. Role-playing  Role-playing YES
IF inherently involves taking on the role of another person and seeing the world their eyes and acting upon it through this perspective.
10. Coaching Support systems and ‘practice missions’ YES
Although not implemented in every IF game, coaching is often done through the implementation of non-player characters, which in addition to often being part of a puzzle which needs to be solved, they can also be conversed with, resulting in the player learning more about the game world, solutions to problems and a clearer sense of the goal and what needs to be done to attain it (eg. Lost Pig). Modern hint systems (ex. Lost Pig, Bronze) can also take on this role of ‘coach’ giving out only that information which is needed to solve a problem at hand in order advance the narrative.
11. Constructivist learning A person learns best when he or she actively “constructs” ideas and  relationships in their own minds based on experiments that they do, rather than being told. YES
IF actively encourages the construction of ideas an the linking of information discovered upon exploration. According to Kozdras and Haunstetter ( 2006), the underlying theory of IF is constructivism – IF places the learner into a situation, in which she will actively make meaningful choices and receive meaningful feedback in the way of plot movement.
12. Accelerated learning (multisense learning) Learning involving multi-sensory experiences NO
Prensky is describing something akin to the TESOL method of TPR, which obviously does not apply to IF (and any other video game not involving movement – DDR, Wii, PS Move, Kinect).
13. Selecting from Learning Objects Pieces of a program are built as stand-alone units with input and output hooks to link them together the particular task at hand NO
Perhaps implemented in IF game authoring using Inform 7 libraries, which extends the capabilities of the default Inform 7 library. Exists in other genres of games that allow for modding and building (eg. Little Big planet, Minecraft).
14 Intelligent tutoring An intelligent tutor looks at a learner’s responses and tries to decide why he or she made the error and give specific feedback NO
Many modern games are progressively trying to implement in-game responses which try to offer suggestions on possible commands or tips. Still not widely implemented in IF, current research in using IF for language learning is looking into using adaptive feedback based on the player’s level of linguistic mastery (Cornillie et al, 2010).

Summary:

All of Prensky’s learning techniques, except for Coaching, Accelerated Learning (TPR), Selecting from Learning Objects and Intelligent tutoring can be found in ANY IF work.

Coaching and Intelligent Tutoring can be found in some IF works (with advanced help systems such as Lost Pig and Bronze or games with tutorials such as The Dreamhold).

Selecting from Learning Objects is more related to the design of games, and not actual game-play, but may be implemented when authoring IF with Inform 7 libraries.

Accelerated Learning, as it is based on the principles of Total Physical Response, can naturally only be found in video games that implement control mechanisms such as those found on the Wii, Move or Kinnect. This is obviously not compatible with the notion of a text-based virtual world, although if one considers state-of-the-art adventure games such as Heavy Rain, which can use movement controls, to be extensions of IF, then it may yet be considered.

 

10 out of 14 for ALL IF games is not bad – and shows that IF implements these ‘learning techniques’ and can therefore be considered as an educational tool.

Next up: We go a bit deeper and look at Gee’s 36  learning principles and 13 revised principles.

 

 

 

clock

Choosing an Interactive Fiction game for use in the classroom

18
2 months ago
by Joe Pereira in

Choosing the right IF game to use in a lesson for the first time is a very important decision – the students’ first impression can make or break the idea of using IF as a pleasurable and useful learning tool in and outside of the classroom. One of the main reasons I use IF with my students is to promote their use as an autonomous tool for practicing reading fluency. Most of my students do not read books in English at home (and many not even in their native tongue). If by using IF in a lesson I can get 1 student interested enough to try it at home afterwards, then I have succeeded in my mission (and this is usually the case).

However, in order to instill this sense of wonder in students (remember, this is very likely the first time many of them have ever seen anything like IF – imagine being shown a book for the very first time, or YouTube), then we have to tailor their first IF experience to be fun and memorable – while at the same time fitting in with the context of the group and setting. There will always be those students who are just happy to get out the usual classroom situation and won’t think too much of the game you’ve chosen in any case. Other’s might actually believe their precious class time is being wasted and would prefer to do some exam practice from the course book (this has actually happened to me with one of my students!). However, if we can captivate them with the first game they play, chances are they will want to try another – on their own or as part of a lesson.

Like using any other kind of media with learners, it is very difficult to match the tastes of everybody in the class. We all have stories of that great song or film we brought into class, hoping that our students would love it – but for some reason, incredibly, some just didn’t appreciate your good taste. This happened to me the other day – I decided to show one of my favourite films – ‘Scott Pilgrim VS The World’ as it is incredibly funny and innovative both in story and cinematic presentation. I thought that it would appeal to MOST of the students as it is deals with topics that the majority of young people are interested in: relationships and music. Mix it with a concept of ‘gamification’ beyond anything McGonigal (2011) could ever hope for and you have a very original and entertaining movie. And I think it is precisely here that the film fails to captivate many students – it flows in-between reality and fantasy too smoothly and many of today’s younger generation are just not imaginative enough to process this. In the first class I showed it to – on a Friday night with some very imagination-challenged students, only about a third of the them enjoyed it. In the second, a Saturday morning class, mostly made up of very motivated and open-minded students, only a third didn’t seem to be overly-enthusiastic about it. To sum up, every student and every class is different. Even the day of the week or the time of the class can have an impact on how students react to an activity.

 

Guidelines for considering IF to use with learners

 

When considering IF games to use with learners (and indeed, even to play yourself), I suggest thinking about the following 10 points:

 

  •  1. Genre/theme – While the genre associated with most early text-adventure games is standard dungeon & dragons/Tolkien inspired fantasy, Infocom released classic games in the genres of detective, mystery, horror, and science fiction, amongst others. Taking this much further, modern IF has been created in every conceivable genre steeped with literary innovation, from Lovecraftian horror and futuristic spy thrillers to real-world drama involving the death of a loved one, writing a dissertation or conversing with a statue. To sum up, there are as many genres of story in IF as there are in books and choosing one that appeals to all your learners is a difficult task. However, in my experience, I have found that games somewhat grounded in reality are better to introduce IF game-play mechanics. Because students will likely have the schema of how to act in common situations and are familiar with most real-world objects and how they may be used, they have an easier time solving puzzles and progressing in the game. I would suggest using a game with a familiar theme with students the first time around, and then move on to a more fantastical setting afterwards, so they get a idea of the flexibility of IF and how it caters to different tastes.

  •  2. Plot – The vast majority of early text adventures had very little plot to speak of besides collecting a certain number of treasures or escaping from one’s current location. Modern IF can have plots as complex as a Christopher Nolan movie, with surprises around every corner. Based on experience, I would suggest using a game with a specific (supposed) goal – for example, getting to work or finding a lost pig. Of course, being examples of good literature, the twists and turns the story will take before allowing the player to reach that goal are what make it a worthy reading/paying experience.

  •  3. Length – Much of the pre-modern era IF could take weeks, months and even years to complete because of a badly implemented parser or fiendishly difficult puzzles and the lack of easily accessible hints or walkthroughs. I often tell the story of how it took me 15 years to finish Zork. In the days before the ubiquity of the World Wide Web, when a player got stuck in a game, he would have to write to a specialty magazine and ask for help or hope that someone else would submit clues. Because of this reliance on hints in magazines, I was only able to get past one of the puzzles in Zork many years after giving up and moving on to other games. There are still difficult and geographically vast IF games created today, but most of what is released is promoted through the various annual IF competitions, which require that submissions be short enough to be finished in 2 hours. Being able to do this, may of course depend on the player’s prior familiarity with IF and puzzle-solving ability. However, thanks to the Internet and numerous IF communities, a hint or walkthrough is never out of reach. Many games have been written which can be played in under 30 minutes or 1 hour. I strongly recommend introducing IF with a game which can be completed in the time available in a given lesson (for ex, a 45 minute computer room slot). If it proves a success, then longer games can be attempted over a series of lessons (using the SAVE command, which functions as a bookmark).

  •  4. Geographical Size – In IF, locations are called ‘rooms’, even if the ‘room’ represents an outdoor space such as a garden or the interior of a vehicle. The rooms in IF are what constitute the game world and movement within these rooms is what immerses the player in the narrative by giving her a sense of spatial orientation. Older text adventures would boast hundreds of rooms to explore as a selling point (and many of these were often mazes – now considered to be taboo in good IF). This of course led to the need for ‘mapping’- drawing little boxes to represent locations and listing the object found within them and all possible exits. Mapping is still an important skill to have when playing IF and can certainly add to the enjoyment when playing certain geographically complex games. These days, most writers prefer having a good story and innovative puzzles compared to numerous rooms which serve no purpose but to confuse the player. This is evidenced by the numerous single-room games that have been created in the modern era of IF. However, I would not recommend using a 1-room game to introduce IF with students. Firstly, because we want to introduce IF as a simulated WORLD, not a simulated room. Students might get the wrong impression that all IF takes place in a single location. Secondly, my own students have shown a preference for multi-room stories because of the sense of movement and exploration they entail. This is in line with the theory of spatial immersion mentioned earlier. Commanding the player-character in ‘Bronze’ to move West into The Great Dining Hall is like the reader herself moving there as well and the flooding memories of Beauty, likewise become the memories of the reader. Until students become experienced with how to communicate with IF and what is expected of them, I would advise not using a multiple-location game that is too vast or too confusing (ie. with many UPs and DOWNs, and NEs and SWs, for ex.). Adding the need to map the game as they play while they are still grappling with basic IF mechanics may lead to cognitive overload.

  •  5. Puzzle or no puzzle – IF games are often categorized as being ‘easy’ or ‘difficult’, related to the level of difficulty and importance given to puzzles in the game. Text adventures, by definition, are narratives with logical puzzles which need to solved in order for the story to progress. Indeed, the earliest text adventures were basically a series of puzzles with the barest of narrative to string them together. One of the innovations of modern IF was for the puzzle aspect to take a back-seat to the storytelling. This has led to the creation of ‘puzzle-less’ games where the player still interacts with the story (albeit, in a perhaps less-immersive manner). With regards to puzzles, for an introductory IF game, because it is important to give learners a general idea of what IF is, I would recommend a game WITH puzzles – but which are not too difficult, nor numerous in quantity. Puzzle-less games, although satisfying on a literary level, are usually not as well-received by students because of the large quantity of uninterrupted text and because reduced input removes the interactive element of IF, making it solely a reading experience and not a reading/playing experience. It is also important that you, as the teacher, know how to solve the puzzles yourself so that you can guide students towards a solution, if needed. In IF, getting stuck at a puzzle can lead to frustration and without some support, this can lead to giving up. Some learners like problem solving and are good at it, and others don’t. Again, like choosing a genre, predicting how well students will be able to solve a game’s puzzles is difficult.

  •   6. Quality of parser – A game that understands a wide range of input and which provides more varied responses will be more pleasurable to play and able to captivate players for a longer time. In general, modern IF games will have better implemented parsers than older games, especially pre-Infocom and 2-word parser games, which should mostly be avoided.

  •  7. Humour – Many games have humorous text (especially in responses) or involve humorous situations. I personally think that using humour is a great way to introduce anything, as it makes things more memorable. Introducing IF with game with a humorous slant might make it a more enjoyable and memorable experience.

 

  • 8. Hint system – As you, the teacher, will be there to offer the learners support, a built-in hint system, available in many of the better-quality modern IF games is not strictly necessary. However, it does offer the learners a chance to be more autonomous while they play. Of course, the system can also be abused, but if told that their enjoyment of the game will suffer from using hints, most students will persevere until they are really stuck. Games with hint systems are ideal for autonomous learning scenarios.

  •  9. Replay value – One of the unique aspects of IF is the ability to go back to a point in the game and make different choices and take different roads. Despite this, most games still have only one true ending which players will be guided to by overcoming the various obstacles set in their way. However, some IF games require multiple playings in order to reach various different endings or to see a more complete picture of the narrative.

  • 10. Language difficulty – Because the whole reason we are talking about IF is to use it for language learning, some consideration needs to be given to the difficulty of the language presented in the game. Almost all IF games are examples of authentic language, they haven’t been scripted for language learners. There are a few works of IF which were created especially for language learning, but as with any ‘educational’ game, something gets lost while making them educational and many of the ‘fun’ elements of the game are no longer present. It is said that we should ‘grade the task, not the language’. This may be especially difficult given the fact that the whole text is authentic and often above the language proficiency level of most non-native speakers and that the task at hand is reading that text and progressing until the end of the game. Despite this, playing IF entails focusing on the process, not the product. Fluency and comprehension are stressed above linguistic analysis. By pre-teaching the vocabulary you deem to be more difficult, learners will be better prepared to interact with the text and students will additionally be forced to infer meaning from context. It is of course, necessary to go through a game yourself first and decide if the language is appropriate and at a level where your learners, with support, will be able to understand the text.

 

This last point is very important: play through the game beforehand so you know what vocabulary to pre-teach, the solution to puzzles and whether there may be certain paths worth taking in order to produce interesting narrative results. To help you with this, hints, maps and walkthroughs are for the most part, readily available on Internet.

 

Games and walkthroughs can be found here and here and can be searched using the above criteria on the user-created lists and polls.

 

 

My recommended game as an introduction to IF ?

 

9:05 by Adam Cadre

 

 

Based on the guidelines above, 9:05 is the perfect introduction to IF for the following reasons:

 

1. Genre/theme – the game is real-world based and the world model is easily assimilated by newcomers. It starts off with a basic everyday problem.

 

2. Plot – having one of the best twist ending in IF, the plot seems to be to get to work ASAP!

 

3. Length – this is a very short game- it can be completed in 20 minutes, leaving time for further replays.

 

4. Geographical size – although it takes place in 2 separate locations, with a car-drive in between, the number of rooms is very small and mapping is unnecessary.

 

5. Puzzle or puzzle-less – the only ‘puzzles’ involve the simple manipulation of every-day objects.

 

6. Quality of parser – the parser, while not a poor one, is the weakest element of the game.

 

7. Humour – an excellent example of dark humor, only to be discovered at the end.

 

8. Hint system – there is no hint system, but then again it is not necessary as there are no difficult puzzles.

 

9. Replay value – there is immense replay value as there are 2 different endings (a ‘good’ one and a ‘bad’ one) and students should be encouraged to go back and find evidence to corroborate the ending.

 

10- Language difficulty – the level of language is not too difficult and by pre-teaching 20-25 words, it can be easily completed by upper-intermediate students.

 

 

9:05

The phone rings.

Oh, no — how long have you been asleep? Sure, it was a tough night, but — This is bad. This is very bad.

The phone rings.

9:05 is an award-winning work of IF and rightly so – it deftly places you in the story and then yanks the floor out from under you! Devised as an experimental piece of IF, it plays on standard IF tropes and demands replay in order to prove the narrator wrong. I always discuss the ending(s) with my students afterwards and mention how this type of story would be impossible to do in a traditional book. It is usually an enormous hit with students and they remember the ending long after playing it. As I don’t want to give anything away, you will really need to play through it first in order to decide if the content is suitable for your learners – it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it is a MUST-play for anybody curious about IF.

Compass

The semantics of Interactive Fiction

3
2 months ago
by Joe Pereira in

Throughout the articles in this blog, I’ve used multiple words to refer to the same concept, for example: ‘game’, ‘story’, ‘work’ – when referring to a single example of Interactive Fiction.

Although this may seem like a confusing thing to do, there are 2 reasons why I’ve done this:

  •  it is not as straightforward as it might seem
  •  it gives a more complete idea of what IF is

When referring to 9:05 – do we say: “9:05 is an Interactive Fiction game” or “9:05 is a Interactive Fiction story” or “9:05 is a work of Interactive Fiction” or “9:05 is an Interactive Fiction (with the plural being Interactive Fictions). I have seen them all being used and I would agree that they are all perfectly acceptable. In the end, it may all come down to one’s personal preference. However, I have purposely interchanged these words because I think it is important to stress the different facets of IF, especially to those who are hearing about it for the first time. If I were to say to a teacher:

“Hey, you should try out this great IF game with your class”, it would generate a response ranging from “Fantastic, what’s it about and how do I play it” – from a teacher familiar with the principles digital game-based learning, to “I have adult students, they don’t like games” from a teacher who doesn’t know how a video game can be applied to a learning context .

We all know the popular saying: “work and play do not mix”.  When it comes to using video games for learning, Gee (2003) disagrees:

“When we think of games, we think of fun. When we think of learning we think of work. Games show us this is wrong. They trigger deep learning that is itself part and parcel of the fun. It is what makes games deep.”

For this reason, I have made a point of stressing that IF is indeed a ‘game’ – which will interest those looking for a ‘fun’ and challenging experience and that it is also a ‘story’ – for those who wish to concentrate on the more literary virtues of IF. I also personally like the word ‘work’ to describe an author’s effort at IF as it equates the game/story construct to that of an artistic endeavour. The expression ‘Interactive Fictions’ seems a bit confusing to me with all the possible references made to interaction and Interactive Fiction (as a genre).

Along similar lines, we have also run into the words: ‘read’ and ‘play’ when referring to the action that takes place while interacting with IF. Again, I have used both to indicate that each of these actions take place - all the time. I would say they are inseparable (otherwise, it wouldn’t be IF). However, to appease both camps -the game players and those looking for more serious stimulation, both can be used interchangeably.

This, naturally, has an effect on the word used to describe the person that interacts with IF: is she a ‘player’, a ‘reader‘, or something else?

Saying ‘player‘ again brings with it, for many people, the idea of ‘”not serious”. Saying ‘reader‘ also leaves out any indication that one does more than just read lines on a screen, and that there is therefore no interaction between the reader, the text and the simulated world within it. As an attempt to break free of this twisty maze, some IF scholars have suggested using the word ‘interactor’ instead (Montfort, 2003), which actually makes a great deal of sense. After all, we call it Interactive Fiction.

And that brings us to another age old question: ‘Text adventure’ or ‘Interactive Fiction’?

This, like all the other cases I’ve mentioned, comes down to personal opinion.

I like to think of the history of IF as divided into 3 parts:

Pre-Infocom (1975-1980) – 2 word parser

The Infocom Age (1980-1989) – the classics

The Modern Era of IF (1995- present) – experimentation/narrative focus

Infocom was the company that produced some of the most most loved and critically acclaimed IF of all time. It was also the first to produce works which tried to be more than simple treasure-hunts and dungeon crawls. Infocom produced IF in many different genres other than in the completely overdone Tolkien-esque fantasy setting, with quality writing and often, a great sense of humour. However, what really made Infocom initially stand out amongst other IF publishers was their superior parser – able to understand complex sentences compared to 2 word commands, which were still found in many text adventures throughout the 80s.

It is here that I make the grand distinction:

  •  text adventure – basic parser, weak narrative/sparse textual descriptions – essentially puzzles strung together in a fantasy or fantastical setting. And lots of mazes.
  •  Interactive Fiction – complex parser – an engrossing narrative – varied genres – experimental.

There are of course, those who are adamant that IF are just text adventures trying to be highbrow and something other than a mere game. So be it. I played text adventures when I was 10. I like to be surprised by the IF I play today. Things have come a long, long way since Colossal Cave.

It might be a good idea to mention here that IF can still mean different things to different people, especially in academic circles. The genre of games we are discussing evolved from Colossal Cave, released in 1975. In 1982, Robert LaFores coined the term ‘Interactive Fiction’ to stress the interactive element in his games (thanks to the Digital Antiquarian for this info). Infocom then borrowed the label and capitalised on it – so much so,  that Infocom and Interactive Ficiton are still synonomous to this day (at least for fans of old-school IF).

While IF was the first type of digital literature (and is still a unique form), it was followed by Hypertext Fiction, or Hyperfiction, which captivated the hearts of literary critics and academics who would shun IF for merely being a game, never taking it seriously as a new form of literature. To make matters worse, academics would later use the term ‘Interactive Fiction’ as an umbrella term for all types of cybertext (narrative-building machines; Aarseth, 1997) – while never giving real IF a chance to grow and evolve into something more literary. Don’t get me wrong – I can see the interest and value of Hyperfiction. It’s the electronic literature critics that disdain IF – eg. J. Yellowlees Douglas, that I am not particularly fond of. In his book “The End of Books or Books without End (Douglas, 2000)”, he states:

“Moreover, digital narratives primarily follow the trajectory of Adventure, a work considered venerable only by the techies who played it in the 1970s, cybergaming geeks, and the writers, theorists, and practitioners who deal with interactivity. Hypertext Fiction, on the other hand, follows and furthers the trajectory of hallowed touchstones of print culture, especially the avant-garde novel.”

Sure. And who exactly is publishing hyperfiction these days? I can name quite a few works of IF that seem to fit quite snuggly in that description. If this book was published in 2000, why is there only a reference to the first ever IF game – Adventure, written in 1975. Why not mention how IF had evolved in literariness since 1975 – eg. A Mind Forever Voyaging (Infocom, 1985), Trinity (Infocom, 1986), Photopia (Cadre, 1998), Spider and Web (Plotkin, 1998) and Anchorhead (Gentry, 1998). 1998 was a good year indeed!

My favourite example of Hyperfiction (although a much simplified and multimedia, not text-based example ) can be found here: www.otnemem.com. It was created as publicity material to go along with the release of my favourite film – Memento. In fact I love the film and site so much, I made a language learning website about them: http://www.theswanstation.com/memento/. However, I must warn anyone who is curious enough to click on the link that it looks REALLY bad, but it was my first attempt at making courseware and I think there were some good ideas in it.

So, Interactive Fiction or text adventure? From a historical perspective, looking at what has been done in the last 10 years or so, I believe it is an injustice to consider these high quality literary and experimental works to be simple text adventures. Modern era IF is continually being pushed in new directions – as it has become more literary and video games have started being recognised as ‘serious’ learning tools, I believe that 35 years later, IF is finally being taken seriously as ‘game’ and ‘story’- and that it is finally going to get the attention it deserves from language teachers and learners.

In the meantime, what really matters is that whatever words we choose to describe it, IF continues to be played, read, and written.

 

 

 

 

 

IFDB

Where to get Interactive Fiction

0
2 months ago
by Joe Pereira in

In the beginning…

 

Adventure, also known as ADVENT (due to the restricted naming conventions of early computers) or Colossal Cave, was the first text adventure game, released in 1975. Being one of the first forms of entertainment available on a computer that could be interacted with in natural language, it instantly went viral on university mainframes and is reported to have caused a loss of 2 weeks of productivity wherever it was played. In 1976, a re-worked and improved version was released onto university networks and the text adventure phenomenon exploded, with extended versions of Adventure and similar treasure-hunt/fantasy-based text adventures appearing all over America and England. In 1980, Scott Adams would release Adventureland (having more than titular similarity with the original Adventure), the first computer game to be sold to the general public, thus igniting the computer game industry. However, It wasn’t until a group of students at MIT, who had developed a sprawling text adventure with an advanced parser called ‘Dungeon’, that the genre began to mature. The creators of Dungeon would go on to form Infocom – the most influential Interactive Fiction software company of the 80s, and Dungeon would sell millions of copies distributed as the classic Zork trilogy. Throughout the first half of the 80s, multiple Infocom titles, selling at $40 each, could be found on the Top 10 selling software chart each month. Then, with the growing quality of graphics and the evolution of video games themselves, the commercial appeal for Interactive Fiction simply faded away. Who would have known that this was the necessary step for Interactive Fiction to truly evolve?

 

Phoenix Rising

 

With the demise of Interactive Fiction in the marketplace, many fans continued to make their own games using commercially available software. But it wasn’t until the mid-90s, with the introduction of powerful Interactive Fiction programming languages, such as TADS and Inform, that a new, innovative and free era of Interactive Fiction would rise form the ashes.

Thanks to the Internet, a global community of Interactive Fiction fans were brought together through USENET discussion groups, which led to the creation of a central IF repository for fan-created works – the IF Archive, and the organising of the first of various annual Interactive Fiction competitions. These competitions are largely responsible for the bulk of Interactive Fiction that gets written today, and have had a tremendous effect on the quality of games created as well as having pushed the genre beyond it’s self-constructed boundaries of the 80s. Experimental works began to appear: single location games, puzzle-less games, use of different voices (instead of the traditional second person) and above all, the literary aspect of Interactive Fiction was finally given the chance to blossom. Free from the shackles of needing to sell and make a profit, the current era of Interactive Fiction has truly embraced the art of participatory storytelling – the narrative has won over the crossword. Another pivotal change introduced by the competitions was the compulsory creation of Interactive Fiction that could be played in less than 2 hours – making it much easier to introduce IF to new audiences and of course, to incorporate into the language classroom!

 

While many of the game files for text adventures from the 1980s and early 90s can be found in the repositories listed below, many published works are still under copyright and are not available. Included amongst these, unfortunately, are the Infocom canon, except for a handful of the games from the Zork series. However, some of the Infocom games are available to play online here.

 

Where to find free Interactive Fiction games:

 

The IFDB is my preferred platform for finding IF games and learning more about them. The layout is attractive and very clear. Game files and information can be found by using a search engine (by game name, author or tags, etc.) or by browsing through lists. The best aspect of the IFDB is its community based wiki-like interface, where users can leave comments about games and create lists of games based on topics, such as:

·        Various Top 10 and recommended lists

·        Fun for Beginners

·        It’s a pleasure to READ 

·        IF for a laugh

·        Good games, bad parser

 

 

Users of the IFDB can also ask the community for recommendations or help in finding specific games or information about them. Each page devoted to a single IF game will contain downloads for various game files (if available), any existing documentation (including walkthroughs) and links to play online. Additionally, links to reviews of the game and further recommendations are to be found.

 

 

 

 

 

Baf’s guide is a front end to the Interactive Fiction Archive, which is a nightmare to navigate due to the quantity of files contained within it. Like the IFDB, it offers a well-implemented search engine and various categorised lists to browse. The site itself posts the following warning:

“The Archive is the principal place from which new text adventures are disseminated, but it’s also a repository for old games, enabling veteran players to take a nostalgic look at what they played on their TRS-80′s back in the late 1970′s. The result is that, although the if-archive contains many good games, it contains many more bad games”.

 

 

 

  • The Interactive Fiction Archive – http://ifarchive.org/ - not even worth the time trying to explore it – just use Baf’s guide instead.

 

 

 

 

 

Although the submitted games are already available from IFDB, you might like to have a look at the site for the 17th annual Interactive Fiction competition.

 

In this blog, I will recommend IF to use in with English learners, as I get around to playing them myself and experimenting with different activities. However, between the IFDB and Baf’s guide, you have a whole world of IF at your fingertips – a lot of it very bad, but some of it very, very good. Explore the sites, browse the tags that interest you and importantly, read player reviews and comments to help you make your selections.

 

For the ultimate history lesson in Interactive Fiction, Jimmy Maher’s ‘Let’s Tell A Story Together’ is an incredible resource. Read it here.

 

I couldn’t finish this article without linking to this fantastic YouTube clip by The Game Shelf, which beautifully summarises much of what I’ve been talking about in the last 4 posts. A must watch!

                         The Gameshelf – Episode 8: The state of modern Interactive Fiction

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Play IF card

The lexicon of Interactive Fiction

0
3 months ago
by Joe Pereira in

If the parser (the software component that analyses natural language and responds to it) in Interactive Fiction is what makes it stand out from other forms of electronic literature and what allows the reader to become a co-creator of the narrative, it is also the element that makes entry into the genre so confusing for newcomers. Noted IF author Emily Short, has stated in her classic blog-post “So, do we need this parser thing anyway“ that the command prompt (the blinking cursor after the ‘>’ symbol indicating that the story is waiting for input) “is a lie. It tells the player “type something, and I’ll understand you.” Which it won’t.” Indeed, seeing a blinking cursor will most probably invite an inexperienced player to type the first thing that comes into their head – not the clear and concise imperative command in line with the rules of the game-world, which is expected by the parser. For the uninitiated in IF-speak, without some kind of support, frustration and resignation are not far off. The better quality IF of the past would include instructions and examples of language use in the included documentation (if the games were purchased, that is). However, the vast majority of IF written today is distributed online for free and does not come with paper-based documentation. Not only that, but we should not need to read instructions to be able to play a video-game. Well-designed graphics-based video games include tutorials built into the game-play that teach you the game-mechanics as you play or have optional tutorial mini-games. In comparison, the only support that most IF games have to offer (there a few key games that do cater specifically to beginners) is indicating straight away the existence of a command which will call up a list of some of the more commonly used verbs. This is exactly the reason why blogs like this one and others exist – to show you which initial commands can get the story moving forward so that you don’t lose hope at the first sign of a “>“. On the plus side, the good thing about learning these commands is that many of them are universal and will be understood by the vast majority of IF works.

 

Guessing the Verb

As I’ve mentioned before, the first generation of text adventures would only understand 2 word verb-noun collocations, such as: get lamp, climb tree and throw axe. Later parsers would understand more complex sentences with articles and prepositions, such as: turn to page 569 in the book, examine the writing with the magnifying glass, and put the torch in the cage and lower it.   After the initial task of learning some basic commands and getting the story moving, at some point new players will invariably get stuck at a puzzle because they simply do not know how to express themselves in a way that the game will understand them. This common obstacle of older adventure games is known as “guess the verb” syndrome because the games were incredibly strict in recognising synonyms and related concepts. You had to guess the exact verb, or the game simply wouldn’t understand your command. I can give you a good personal example of  “guess the verb”:

The first computer game to be commercially sold, in this way kick-starting the computer game industry, was a text adventure called Adventureland. It was also the first computer game I ever bought and the first text adventure I ever played. Although very basic in plot and execution, it nonetheless took me years to complete the game – and not because of the difficulty of the puzzles, but because I couldn’t guess the exact verb the game was expecting to solve one of those puzzles. Adventureland had a vocabulary of 120 words (not to say that it didn’t use more words in its descriptions, it did – but these were not recognised upon input). However, in order to make the software fit in the small memory of the home computers of the era, only the first 3 letters of each word was recognised by the game – so OPEN DOOR and OPERATE MACHINE would both be recognised as the verb OPEN. One of the puzzles, and the one that kept me stuck for years, was to get past a very thin bear on a ledge. I tried every verb I could think of to get past the bear: PUSH BEAR, PULL, MOVE, HIT, KILL, THROW, KICK, JUMP, etc. I effectively gave up playing the game. Many years later, I found the solution in a computer magazine (this was well before the Internet and the availability of walkthroughs) – a player, having got so frustrated at the game for it not understanding any verb he threw at it, typed in “SCREW BEAR” – and the bear duly fell off the cliff! The creator of Adventureland, Scott Adams, explained that because the bear was thin, he was hoping that players would consider making a loud noise so the bear would fall off the cliff – thus the solution to the puzzle was SCREAM BEAR.

An example of a badly designed puzzle? I would say so. A screaming (pun intended) example of “Guess the verb”? Without a doubt. Thankfully, most modern games created by the IF community have well-designed puzzles and are much more merciful in recognizing synonyms and related concepts, and are better able to guess what the players was trying to say and, in turn, produce error messages that can guide them in refining their input. Most modern IF can understand several hundred verbs and most objects referred to in the text descriptions are implemented as objects in the game with multiple references; eg –  COLT. 44, PISTOL and GUN, might be equally recognised.

Magic Words

The most commonly implemented verb commands are related to object manipulation: GET LAMP, WEAR DRESS, OPEN CHEST, TOUCH WALL, etc. Other conventional IF verbs are used to navigate the environment and control the player-character:

LOOK – a general refresh of the description of the current room. Useful in getting a more verbose description of a room that has already been visited.

EXAMINE – when wanting to look more closely at a specific object. This is possibly the most important verb in IF!

INVENTORY – shows a list of what is being carried.

In order to move around locations in IF , we use compass headings: N, S, E, W. It is not necessary to type GO NORTH – just typing N or S will suffice. The use of compass headings was implemented in the very first adventure game “Colossal Cave”, aka Adventure, because it was developed as a caving simulation and this is how directions are given by spelunkers. The convention has pretty much stuck throughout the years because it is straightforward and easy to understand.

Many games also include non-player characters (controlled by the game), which you may attempt to have a conversation with. Depending on the complexity of the game, this may simply be a way to get information from the NPC by using TALK to THIEF, or you may need to find out something specific: ASK THIEF about EGG. In some games, it is possible to give orders to NPCs (which they or may not accept): TELL THIEF to GIVE ME THE BAG or THIEF, FOLLOW ME.

For the sake of expediency, most commands can be given omitting articles and adjectives, so instead of having to type:

>GET THE BLUE ORNATE VASE It would suffice to type >GET VASE.

Using this form of pidgin English is entirely optional. Players can choose  to type complete sentences and use commands such as EXAMINE instead of the common X abbreviation.  However, not doing so may seems at odds with the idea of using IF for language learning. But if we consider what kind of learning actually takes place during these interactions, nothing is lost. Improving typing skills, in this case (although certainly practised), is not one of the main goals. Whatever command a player types is first cognitively processed – the player knows that the vase she is referring to is the only blue and ornate vase it the vicinity, and omitting articles, prepositions and adjectives in commands does not mean they have not been assimilated by the player – it is merely a quicker and less tedious way of getting through the narrative.

In addition to action and reporting verbs, meta-commands, which affect the program and not the story are also used:

SAVE – allows you to save your position in the story so that you can return to it later. Very useful in case your character suddenly dies – all too common in IF from the 80s.

RESTORE- allows you to continue the story from where you last saved your position.

UNDO – not all games implement this veritable magic word, which allows you take back your last (possibly fatal) move.

TRANSCRIPTION – an incredible boon for language teachers/learners, this command begins outputting all in-game text and exchanges to an external text file. Useful for post-play language analysis.

 

The save and restore commands, first implemented in adventure games, are now a staple of most modern video games. In IF, they allow for experimentation and the exploration of different pathways through the narrative. It can be said that if one plays through a work of IF without ever restoring or restarting the game and making different choices, they are not experiencing the whole story, nor will they be privy to all that the author has built into the game-world. In IF, even dying and failing produces text, which should be considered as being part of the overall narrative. The implementation of the UNDO command, in this way, allows for the narrative to be more fully explored.

 

One of my top recommendations before playing IF for the first time is printing out and distributing this post-card sized list of common verbs, created by famed IF author Andrew Plotkin (available here in PDF format).

IF for beginner's card

IF for beginner's card

 

 

For a more in-depth analysis of commands that can be used in IF and a sample transcript of exchanges, do yourself a favour and read Emily Short’s ‘Introduction to IF’ manual. For teachers and learners of French, you can find a translated version here.

If you’d like to see a step-by-step guide of an actual session of playing IF, with very clear explanations, look no further than here.

 

 

Next up: Where to get Interactive Fiction (and by the way, it’s FREE!)

905 instructions

How to play Interactive Fiction

0
3 months ago
by Joe Pereira in

Now that we have an idea of what IF is, we can start playing through an example.

In order to play an IF game, you’ll need 2 things: a game file and an interpreter.

The game file is a very small document, usually ending in a a .z5, .zblorb or .gblorb extension.

For the purpose of this tutorial, the example game I’m going to use is “9:05″ by Adam Cadre. You can get the .z5 file here.

This is a game I’ll be coming back to quite a bit in this blog, and it is a great start to IF (in and out of the classroom – for reasons I’ll explain in a future post).

 

An interpreter is the software than can play these game files and each one will have different presentation options. There are many interpreters available for pretty much every digital operating system.

For the most common operating systems, I recommend the following:

 

For other operating systems, this site, while outdated, may still be useful.

Many games are also playable online using the Parchment interpreter – http://parchment.toolness.com/ or http://iplayif.com/. However, in most cases I would recommend playing IF in an executable interpreter because of the extended presentation options. I’ll be coming back to browser-based IF in a future post.

Once you’ve installed your chosen interpreter, you’re ready to load up your game file.

This is done through the traditional FIle – Menu – Open dialog or dragging the game file onto the interpreter icon in the dock (on a Mac).

The story will open in a window, and you’re ready to play!

 

First screen of 9:05 by Adam Cadre

 

The screenshot of 9:05 shows the layout of a typical IF game. Depending on the game and its specific mechanisms, these elements may change.

Here is a breakdown of the information shown on screen at the beginning of 9:05:

 

  • The information bar at the top of the screen, known as the ‘Status Line’, usually shows the current location of the player-character on the left and some sort of game-specific counter on the right – often an indication of progress through points, moves or time. In this case, it displays a clock, moving on from 9:05 – the time at which you wake up. Playing through the game will show the relevance of the time counter.

 

  • The introductory narration serves to set the characters, place and tone of the story. Simpler games may give a straight-forward indication of the goal of the game, while other more experimental works, such as 9:05 require that you discover it though playing the game. In this case, the constantly ringing phone is clamoring for your attention and is the first barrier towards learning the plot.

 

  • You are then presented with the name of the room you are in (you, being the person in the bed), identical to what is shown in the top left-hand corner (any location in IF is called a ‘room’ so as to facilitate mapping the geography of a game – more on this later) and a description of the room, with all visible exits listed and potentially important objects that deserve closer examination.

 

  • The blinking cursor after the “>” symbol is the command prompt and indicates that the game is waiting for you to give it a command – either a meta-game command such as SAVE or RESTORE, or a command to the player-character such as ANSWER PHONE or GET UP.

 

The element of IF that understands player commands is called a parser. Most of the early text adventure games had a 2-word parser and would only understand verb-noun collections. The games made by Infocom, who would truly live up to their ‘Interactive Fiction’ marketing hype, boasted parsers capable of understanding complex sentences such as: “Pick up the book and the candle. Light the candle and drop it on the altar”. “Zork”, the most famous Infocom game, if not the most famous IF game ever, had a vocabulary of 600 words, although many of the words used in the descriptive text of the game is not actually recognized by the game’s parser – considered by modern IF authors to be a major design flaw. Most IF games created in the last decade have well implemented parsers. We’ll be looking at words understood by IF in the next post.

 

From the screenshot of 9:05 depicting the first few moves in the games, you should be able to deduce what the goal of the game is and we’re already finding out more about the people who live in this game-world and the player-character’s place in it. The ‘examine me’ command results in some back-story as to why we overslept in the first place. This is an example of great IF – your curiosity in finding out more about the player-character and the situation they are in is what drives you towards wanting to advance the narrative just as much as reaching the goal and finishing the game.

 

Next up: The IF lexicon

 

Infocom's classic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

What is Interactive Fiction?

3
3 months ago
by Joe Pereira in

IF is a genre of computer game which is completely text-based . It is literature and it is a game,  often quoted as being “a narrative at war with a crossword”. It is a narrative – one that is shaped by the player as she explores and interacts with the game world, and it is a series a logical puzzles within this world, which must be overcome in order for the narrative to advance. The narrative will only reveal itself with interaction from the player and unlike a traditional book, the narrative is not linear, but is brought to life and forks in whichever way the player decides to explore the game world. As such, IF is a unique form of non-linear and participatory story-telling.

 

Montfort (2003) describes IF as having 4 characteristics:


  • it is a text accepting and text generating computer program, and thus can only be played on a digital device. Additionally, it understands natural language (to an extent) and replies to this input in a meaningful way

  • it is a simulated world, which can be explored and interacted with and a player’s actions have an immediate effect on that world

  • it is a potential narrative and as a form of new media, it allows for the discovery of new texts upon replay with different explorations

  • it is a game, meaning that it has a specific goal, rules which must be followed and is played voluntarily

IF at its best, is a both a rewarding reading experience and a challenging game.

 

 

First screen of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Infocom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Exploring Interactive Fiction with IF author and scholar Nick Montfort 

 

Next up: How to play IF

The adventure begins…

0
3 months ago
by Joe Pereira in

Hello and welcome to IF only – a blog on using Interactive Fiction (IF), also known as text-adventure games, for language learning. There are many fantastic blogs on IF focusing on design theory, programming and game reviews, but this blog aims to give practical advice on using this venerable game genre for language learning, along with some theory behind why we should use them for learning in the first place. It is my view that Interactive Fiction is perfectly suited for digital game-based language learning and I invite you to share your thoughts with me. Although I will be focusing on teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL, TESOL), the concepts covered can of course be transfered to language learning in general, and even to other disciplines.

 

 

Go to Top