Hi Everyone!
For those who don’t know me, I am Tyler Clark. I got my undergrad degree from Kean in English Writing and I am in my last semester of my Masters! I enjoy writing and reading poetry. I like playing video games, building gundam model kits, and spending time in nature.
I was thinking about the concept of electronic literature and it’s connection to video games.
In the early days of video games when technology was limited there were video games called text based adventures. These games would show you a screen of text which tells you what is going on. Something like how you were exploring an abandoned house with your friends and have now become trapped in the house alone.
The way you play the game is by typing things into a textbook. For example, the game text might say you are in a room and it is dark. So you might type in, “turn on the light”. The game would then say something like “You turn on the light and can see x,y, and z.” Then you would type something like “pick up object x”. And so on and so forth. So basically the game is entirely text based and your text input moves the story along. While being extremely basic, these text based adventures are some early examples of what I believe electronic literature is.
Another style of electronic literature through video games are visual novels. These visual novels are just what they sound like, text based novels with visuals and sounds on the screen. You don’t really play these games so much as you interact with them. You read the text on the screen and press a button to advance it. There are opportunities in the story to make decisions which alter the story. While the text is displayed on the screen, you will see visuals of the characters and locations within the story as well as sounds related to what is happening.
These types of games were never my cup of tea as there wasn’t much “gameplay”, but visual novels are an interesting way to read a novel while getting the same dopamine rush video games offer. These types of games are such an interesting evolution from the text based adventure games that I mentioned earlier.
As I reflect on the connection between video games and electronic literature, I start to realize how much literacy is required to play certain games as some can be very text heavy, especially with earlier video games before voice acting was a regular feature in games. Video games as electronic literature might seem like a stretch at first, but I feel they share a deep connection that is worth exploring.
