Exercise: “Blue-Ribbon Panel” Evaluation of Digital Literature

1. Individual Evaluation. From the list below, choose three examples of what you consider successful works of digital literature, and three examples of works that fail as digital literature. For each, write a sentence justifying your choice. You might want to consider the criteria for the digital (multimedia, interactive, immersive, and database) and literature on the class blog. NOTE: for each example that is an archive [in brackets], choose individual works that you think are successful or unsuccessful (rather than praising or condemning the entire archive). Leave your list in your online lab folder.

2. Group Evaluation. From the list below, choose three examples of what you consider successful works of digital literature, and three examples of works that fail as digital literature. For each, write a paragraph (3-4 sentences) justifying your choice. You might want to consider the criteria for the digital (multimedia, interactive, immersive, and database) and literature on the class blog. NOTE: for each example that is an archive [in brackets], choose individual works that you think are successful or unsuccessful (rather than praising or condemning the entire archive). When you are finished, paste your findings into a comment to this blog entry. Make sure your group number is included.

Neil Hennessey, Jabberwocky Engine: <http://www.poemsthatgo.com/gallery/winter2004/jabber>
W. Bradley Paley, Textarc: <http://textarc.org>
The Blake Archive: <http://www.blakearchive.org>
Frankenstein Electronic Edition (at Romantic Circles): <http://www.rc.umd.edu/editions/frankenstein>
Electronic Literature Collection: <http://collection.eliterature.org/1> [archive]
Shelley Jackson, Patchwork Girl
Geoff Ryman, 253 <http://www.ryman-novel.com>
Jason Nelson, Poems: <http://www.heliozoa.com> [archive]
Poems That Go: <http://poemsthatgo.com> [archive]
Interactive Fiction Archive <http://www.ifarchive.org> [archive]
Interactive Fiction Database <http://ifdb.tads.org> [archive]
Stuart Moulthrop, Pax <http://iat.ubalt.edu/moulthrop/hypertexts/pax/>
Natalie Bookchin, The Intruder: <http://www.poemsthatgo.com/gallery/fall2003/intruder>
Julian Dibble, A Rape in Cyberspace: <http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle.html>
FrankenMOO (or the MOO in general): <http://www.rc.umd.edu:7000/>
Jillianne Hamilton, Flogalicious <http://www.jillianne-hamilton.com/flog>
Newsgroper <http://newsgroper.com> [archive]
“Horton Carew,” Horton’s Folly: <http://hortonsfolly.blogspot.com>
“Jason X,” The User Pool, <http://www.theuserpool.com>
Fiction Wikia <http://fiction.wikia.com/wiki/Novelas> [archive]
Conworlds Wiki <http://conworld.wikia.com>
Wesley Allsbrook, Leviathan <http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=comic&id=625&page=1>
TOR website <http://www.tor.com> [archive]

wiki exercise

Today we’ll be playing around with wikis. Anyone who has been to Wikipedia knows what a wiki is: a collaboratively created and edited web page. Whereas any decent Wikipedia editor aims to eliminate fiction from the wiki, we will be doing the opposite: using a wiki to create a fiction. Luckily there are plenty of sites out there that do the same. I would like us to concentrate on one particular area: Wikia, a free (ad-supported) wiki for creating fictions. Here is the address:

http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Creative

Here is how I suggest we proceed:

1. Everyone create an account at Wikia

2. Gather with your groups to survey different Wikia Creative sites.

3. Decide upon the basic plan for a story that you will collaboratively create.

4. Write the story! Each member of the group will compose at least one chapter. Each member of the group is responsible for sending me the URL for his/her respective pages. My address again:

byrnejo@umd.edu

NOTE: You should be able to upload images (and maybe other media) to your wiki. So think about how you might utilize this function.

If you’re feeling particularly lazy as a group, here are some ideas (off the top of my head) for wiki stories.

* Tell a story of a central incident told from the perspective of seven different people (or as many folk who are in your group today).

* Tell the same story occurring at different times; that is, each person in the group would continue the story at a different time.

* My Own Worst Enemy story: tell a story from the viewpoint of different aspects of a person (or actual personalities).

* Avatars Take Over: Imagine if your avatars took over your computer and starting telling a story about you.

* Dream Journal: You keep have a repeating dream that nonetheless is slightly different each time, building to a “big reveal.”

* 10 Days Later: A virus has turned nearly everyone in the world into zombies. You are survivors. How will you continue to survive? This story would be your wiki journal.

* Cyborg Reflections: do a random Google search and paste together parts of what you find (editing those entries might be even more amusing).

ENGL278W MOO exercise

We will be spending most of our class period in the RC MOO today. To get there, follow this link:

http://www.rc.umd.edu:7000/

IN RC MOO:

1. If you haven’t created an account, please do so now. Please use your real name (no spaces between first and last name) in setting up your account so I know who is where and doing what.

2. Once you have an account and have logged in, spend some time wandering around the RC MOO space. You’ll particularly want to familiarize yourself with the blue buttons at the top of your screen.

3. You’ll also need to describe yourself. You do this in OPTIONS (choose EDIT DESCRIPTION from drop down menu)

4. Around 9:50 or so we will move to the FrankenMOO. To go there, just type @go FrankenMOO in the dialogue box. (Make sure the NORMAL radio button is selected).

IN FRANKENMOO:

1. Spend some time wandering around the FrankenMOO space.

2. After ten minutes or so, you’ll be meeting with your group in your assigned area. These are listed immediately below.

GROUP 1: Costume Closet
GROUP 2: Ingolstadt Gates
GROUP 3: Forest
GROUP 4: Road to St. Petersburgh
GROUP 5: Geneva Gates
GROUP 6: Great Britain
GROUP 7: Trail of Terror

3. You will spend some time exploring your particular area, following links, etc.

4. After ten minutes or so, you will re-gather in your original assigned area.

I will then meet with each group, in your assigned area, and give you further instructions.

If we have time, we will re-group as a class at FrankenMOO home (again, type @go FrankenMOO in dialogue box) and share our experience.

If you need help at any point, there are a number of possibilities.

a. You can click on the blue HELP button in the top menu. You can look through the ENCORE HELP menu, the HELP DATABASE, or search by keyword.

b. In the dialogue box (with NORMAL radio button selected), you can type help index, which will bring up a couple other options. You can then type help gen-index, or type help full-index, depending on how much information you want to access.

c. And for the basics, you can refer back to the USING THE MOO page (listed on the class syllabus, so you should have seen this already), and the MOO PRIMER (also on the class syllabus). This second page has a lot of the commands you would use in the MOO. But please note: enCore is a semi-graphical interface. There are icons/buttons for many of the commands. For instance, if you want to look around a room, you can click the blue-button LOOK in the top menu.

Have fun in there!

Interactive Fiction Exercise

For your first game, choose one to play from this site (website of Andrew Plotkin). Be sure to choose and play one that has a Java version.

http://www.eblong.com/zarf/if.html

For your second game, it gets a little more complicated. You’ll need to download and install a Z-code interpreter. I suggest Windows Frotz, which can be downloaded here:

http://www.microheaven.com/IFGuide/IFGuide.pl?step=7&c=0&i=0

Then you’ll want to find a Z-code game, many of which are listed here:

http://www.microheaven.com/IFGuide/IFGuide.pl?step=6&c=0

And here:

http://ifarchive.org/indexes/if-archiveXgamesXzcode.html

There are more Z-code games here–and many that aren’t. You can also try the interactive fiction wiki at this URL:

http://www.ifwiki.org/index.php/Main_Page

There are many other different kinds of interactive fiction games, such as those at this site:

http://ifdb.tads.org/

If you’d like to try another game platform, feel free. But only after you’ve played your first game, and looked at the Z-code games first.

For a general orientation to interactive fiction gaming, you can try these two sites (the first of which I asked you to look at already):

http://www.microheaven.com/IFGuide/index.html

http://brasslantern.org/beginners/

Have fun out there (or in there, or whatever)!

Questions for Interactive Fiction Game Exercise

GAME 1

1. Identify and describe your game.

2. Describe your game play, both individually (different tasks) and as a group.

3. What problems or insights did your encounter in your play? (Any technical difficulties?)

4. Would you best describe your role as player as a. reader, b. author, c. combination of both, or something else?

5. Was your game really a game? Was it literature?

GAME 2

Same questions as above.

Digital Poetry Group Exercise

There are three requirements for your exercise.

1. You will need to cite another digital poem as inspiration

2. You will need to incorporate multimedia, either an image or sound, into your poem design.

3. You will need to answer the questions below and report back to the class.

To fulfill the first requirement, you can find digital poems at these sites:

Poems That Go <http://poemsthatgo.com>

Electronic Literature Organization Directory: Poetry
<http://directory.eliterature.org/browse.php?g=3874e6192>

Heliozoa (Jason Nelson) <http://www.heliozoa.com>

Here are the questions for your consideration:

1. How is your digital object a poem?

2. How is your poem a digital object?

3. What are the pieces of your digital poem, and how did you acquire/make them?

4. How did you put those pieces together to create your digital poem (what software did you use, etc.)

5. What digital poem did you use as inspiration?

6. How would you describe the group process in creating your digital poem?