After reading Subcutanean
I love this book. The plot goes naturally, though sometimes I find it hard to picture the space in my mind. The writing is powerful. I collected many many great sentences. Those descriptions made me, a non-native speaker of English get Ryan's sensations vividly. Before I read the last chapter About This Copy, I did not notice the other possibilities behind the story told. After going through the decisions that made this copy, I found each copy might be like a path in a text adventure.
What is this experiment for? Why does this extremely unrealistic work arouse real feelings in me? I somehow got the answer from the author's personal experience. The author shared worries with the protagonist, Ryan. Each version of the generated stories could be one of the possibilities the author thought about. And that might be why the inward descriptions are always touching. They are kind of real.
This text experiment is an exploration of oneself. Reflections make identities vague. What one has done and what the reflections have done are mixed. The Ringers force Ryan and Niko to deal with their relationship with themselves.
Final Project Idea
Idea 1. Hexi Corridor
I am watching a documentary series about Hexi Corridor(河西走廊) in western China. It was extremely hard for the early people in the Han dynasty to discover and map the land. Getting lost in the desert, being captived by the nomadic people, and dying in extreme weather could all lead to the failure of opening up the Silk Road. It could be fun to create an adventure game based on the Hexi Corridor map. The concern is the form of text adventure may not show the various sight along the road. Just like 80 days.
Idea 2. Narrative by Q&A.
I may create an interactive dialog project. The program generates answers according to the questions the player input. And the answers could be assembled and form a story. The point of this project is that all the narrative elements are input by the player. The player no longer makes decisions among given choices but directs the computer to create a story.