Digital Literature Topic: Play and Game Designs in Digital Literature (3)

1. Digital Literature Topic:Play and Game Designs in Digital Literature (3) @Shuen-shing LeeUnless specified otherwise, texts quoted in the lectureare mostly taken from Shuen-shing Lee’s “Explorations of Ergodic Literature” (dichtung-digital 2002) and Code at Work, Text at Play (Bookman 2004).

2. 電玩作為傳播文學的管道Game As a Disseminating Venue for Literature • Game Design and Literature Dissemination (遊戲設計與文學傳播) • Jorge Luis Borges (波赫士) ,“The Intruder” (summary; print) • Natalie Bookchin (布欽) , “The Intruder” (see list.htm) • Compare Bookchin’s modification with Su Shaolian’s “Heart Changes” (English and Chinese; see list-chinese.htm).

3. The Intruder［中文翻譯，網址見下］. . . .passing the love of women. 2 Samuel 1: 26 • The woman attended both men’s wants with an animal submission, but she was unable to keep hidden a certain preference, probably for the younger man, who had not refused sharing her but who had not proposed it either. . . . (p. 55) • One Sunday . . . , Eduardo [the younger brother], on his way home from the corner saloon, saw that Cristian [the elder brother] was yoking the oxen. Cristian said to him, ‘Come on: We have to leave some hides off at Pardo’s place. I’ve already loaded them; let’s make the best of the night air.” . . . . • They skirted a growth of tall reeds; Cristian threw down the cigar he had just lit, and said evenly, ‘Let’s get busy, brother. In a while the buzzards will take over. This afternoon I killed her. Let her stay here with all her trinkets, she won’t cause us any more harm.’ • They threw their arms around each other, on the verge of tears. One more link bound them now—the woman they had cruelly sacrificed and their common need to forget her. (p. 56-57) • --Borges, From Doctor Brodie’s Report. Trans by Norman Thomas di Giovanni. New York: Penguin, 1976.

4. The form of “Pong” runs in the first level, wherein the player is obliged to bounce back words of the title and quote, by scrolling a bar up and down. (〈介入者〉電玩版的開場遊戲，形式改編自古典電玩《乓》(Pong)。遊戲規則跟乒乓球差不多，玩家與電腦各據一邊，相互推球，若對手漏接，可得一分。圖中的The Intruder為原作名稱，玩家必須繼續得分，方能引出副標題。) To have a try of the original “Pong,” see list-games.htm

5. One of the most interesting moments in the game happens in the Pong screen [the sixth game], in which the viewer and the computer compete for points by batting a female icon back and forth. The war takes place atop a field of flesh—photographs of a nude female body appear each time one of the players temporarily takes possession of the woman. The “field” metamorphoses from skin into turf—the body becomes territory to possess in a game of football. (Tiffaney Holmes 2002: 136) (〈介入者〉第六個遊戲，仍是沿用《乓》的形式。此圖背景為一局部女性胸圖。背景圖會隨著得分而變換。)

6. The fourth one, a shooting duel between the player’s avatar and a computer-controlled gunman, evidently modeled upon the classical arcade version, Gun Fight. The lady in the game instantly moves to the victorious gunman. Since the shooting can go on for some time and both sides have their winning and losing moments, the lady is observed to switch back and forth between them. (〈介入者〉第四個遊戲，形式取自古典電玩《比槍》（Gun Fight）。圖中女子的位置並不固定，端看誰是決鬥的贏家。) (a mame version is available; see list-games.htm)

7. The Intruder • 更多中文解釋：李順興。〈《介入者》：創意的文學傳播方式〉。http://benz.nchu.edu.tw/~garden/cyb-crit/hyp-intruder-web.pdf

8. ExtrasA screen shot from “Luigi”

9. EXTRASA screen shot from “Game, Game, Game, and Again Game”; to be compared with “Arteroids.”

10. Literary Games／文學電玩 • Compare Su Shaolian’s “Heart Changes” with Bookchin’s “The Intruder.”“The Intruder”: Content X Form“Heart Changes”: Content = Form • Compare Andrews’ “Arteroids” with Nelson’s “game, game, game, and again game.”“game, game”: text - representational elements“Arteroids”: text - simulative elements