The literary specificity of the textual adventure game as a form of ergodic literature

Abstract

In this article we present the textual adventure game, analyzing its literary specificity and the way in which the playful and the narrative interact in its structures. Marked by cybertextuality, the game can be seen as a narrative and analyzed semantically, semiotically and emotionally. The narrative experience offered by it is accessible only in the digital space, in wich the character becomes the player, and the concept of homo ludens represents a hybrid of the reader and the writer. Based on the theoretical visions of J. Derrida, K. Veale, B. Kuhn, H. Jenkins, O. Laas, J. Gogging etc., this article presents the textual adventure game as a literary form, with narrative functions, able to generate alterbiographies and represent a varied narrative architecture. The spatiality of the textual adventure game is defined by the four types of narrative architecture: evocative spaces, enacted stories, embedded narratives, and emergent narratives, which take this form of ergodic literature beyond what a traditional narrative entails. This study analyzes both pre-digital works, in which the game was just a strategy, such as G. Boccaccio’s “Decameron”, “Composition No. 1” by Marc Saporta as well as adventure text games such as Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011), World of Warcraft etc. The evolution of the game from narrative technique to the form of ergodic literature is a premise of the initiation of an individualized theoretical approach.

Keywords

• adventure text game
• literature
• ergodic text
• cybertext
• hypermedia
• video game
• digitization