Preparation for Final

I am thinking about two different subjects which would involve first-person shooters and adventure games.

With adventure games I would like to compare Montfort's article on Interactive Fiction with games that are not traditionally text-based but that resemble those like Adventure and Zork. Mainly I would focus on Montfort's points about Interactive Fiction incorporating elements of both game and story as the new media could not really be defined by one or the other. I would like to compare Adventure and Zelda:Twilight Princess and show their similarities even as the medium developed past text based games but retains many similar qualities.

First, Zelda like other interactive fiction tells a story through the players interaction with the machine. The story of Link and his quest to save Zelda and defeat Gannon is related through the player's interaction with the game, characters in it, and the items he collects. This is similar to Adventure in that the player reads the text and decides how and where to proceed in order to discover the story of the deserted house, what lies beyond the grate in the yard, etc. Although Zelda is distinctly linear and the story line the character follows is more developed than the one the player imagines in Adventure, the basic elements are the same so that the player interacts in order to "read" the story.

Second, Zelda is definitely more game than some interactive fiction as the player is constantly rewarded when he advances his character past bosses to reach the final boss Gannon and beat the game. However, one could see Zelda as game embedded in story, like Adventure, as the player must interact with other characters and write a simple story in order to figure out how to progress to the next level. Especially in Zelda there are riddles that the player must decipher in order to unlock a door or locate items. Montfort explains that this is a feature of Interactive Fiction that helps remind the player of the puzzle qualities of games like Adventure and Zork. Solutions to riddles can provide the player with a sense of reward as well as help to elaborate more about the story that is being "played."

Both Zelda and Adventure contain these elements of puzzle and story that help to illustrate the importance of both elements in the new media of video games. What is important is that the player is given a world through which he must interact in order to solve puzzles and thereby progressing through the sessions of a narrative that follows his actions. As Interactive Fiction they help to bridge the gap between the two sides of the debate about video game theory as well as provide good examples of the evolution of video games.