We've been discussing the 'Hypertext' and it's applications in narrative recently, I brought up the question "Can Video Games be hypertext?"
— Jake Baldwin (@aLearningMind) September 21, 2013
Two responders said no quite thoroughly (http://t.co/zq7mnr6fpL & http://t.co/vMyzF7G1qS) and it's something I can agree with.
— Jake Baldwin (@aLearningMind) September 21, 2013
A 'Hypertext' by definition is something that offers multiple branches of links. Hence it's narrative would have no one shape.
— Jake Baldwin (@aLearningMind) September 21, 2013
By that definition a 'Hypertext' would have to mechanical right? Simply the scope of options and dynamic form would make it as such.
— Jake Baldwin (@aLearningMind) September 21, 2013
Games generally do not offer expansive branches of narrative options, nor do they often have more than a few different endings. I expect this is a temporary restraint though and I imagine somebody is probably designing a game that offers that ‘Hypertext’ experience somewhere out there already.
I doubt there's a threshold for the number of links or endings that fully define a 'Hypertext' though, which makes it difficult…
— Jake Baldwin (@aLearningMind) September 21, 2013
At what point does a text with multiple choices and endings become a 'Hypertext'? I feel I can refer to Dear Esther again for this.
— Jake Baldwin (@aLearningMind) September 21, 2013
Dear Esther's narrative – it's dialogue – is ambiguous. It treats itself as stimulus, not content. The narrative exists by the reader.
— Jake Baldwin (@aLearningMind) September 21, 2013
It is a broken, sporadic script that offers itself up to a handful of interpretations. The path is the same, the reading is not.
— Jake Baldwin (@aLearningMind) September 21, 2013
I would LIKE to say it's 'Hypertext' but it doesn't quite fit in the mechanical definition I put down before…
— Jake Baldwin (@aLearningMind) September 21, 2013
…story wise there is no input, but the links and multiple interpretations are there.
— Jake Baldwin (@aLearningMind) September 21, 2013
Honestly I think the delivery of this concept is making it hard to define it. I'm leaning toward the mechanical definition myself.
— Jake Baldwin (@aLearningMind) September 21, 2013
We looked at it in the context of file architecture and the inception of hyperlinks. Mechanical input/output makes sense as 'Hypertext'.
— Jake Baldwin (@aLearningMind) September 21, 2013
What I’d like to find out now is, at what number of links does a text become a Hypertext? Is it more than 2 options at any given point, with more than 2 endings as such?