During this morning's game seminar session, Jason Mittell has been speaking to gameplay in terms of diegesis, story worlds and spatial narrative. This is a very rich topic, with a tradition in digital media studies, but I was struck by one predigital text that could serve as a useful antecedent.
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (1499) isn't readable for the plot, but consists instead of a sustained exploration of a complex landscape, dotted with static buildings, fountains, animals, gardens, and characters, which can remind us of Zork. There's a history of looking for puzzles in the book, again like Myst and other puzzle games.
There's an MIT web text available, but the new print edition is grand.
I won't speak to The Rule of Four, which is awful and uninteresting.
Thanks for the tip Bryan. My new print edition has just been ordered.
Posted by: Jim | July 12, 2005 at 19:15
Diegesis is one of my favorite words. It's a major component of the narratology wing of film studies/film theory, as you can imagine. I think that notions of diegesis line up very interestingly with notions of perception, cognition, and consciousness.
Posted by: Gardner Campbell | July 14, 2005 at 16:24
I am sad that you say that The Rule of Four is awful and uninteresting. The fact that it is about one of the most treasued books to ever be printed in the history of man is enough to give it praise. It is with sadness that i say: you obviously don't understand it. You have read it, and thought about it, yet you are unable to interpret it.
Posted by: Jeff wakefield | August 29, 2005 at 02:20