Commenting on Parsing interaction in Emily Short’s Bee (by Alex Pieschel on Games that exist) I remembered some stuff about the genesis of my story/game Úrquel, the black dragon.
The short story actually started as not that much more than a joke. In all interactive literature I know, when the word "you" barely appears, we all know this "you" dude is the character whose actions will be controlled by the reader. I thought it was interesting that a reader, knowing this fashion, would start playing a story in which little by little she discovers the character she's controlling is not that "you" guy, but some other, less important character.
I was considering that actually from a long time ago, more as a complaint than a joke. It seemed ridiculous to me that thing of always bringing this second person singular to the story that always, no exceptions, ends up determining the reach of the reader in an interactive story. The original idea was to create a text adventure where the player could control several characters' actions, or even the environment. Some day I might do that.
I'm happy though, seeing how my general thoughts about different art forms can lead me to create my own works to subvert narrative habits I don't like. It makes me feel my hours of thinking about this stuff don't end up in nothingness, but become objects other people can hopefully enjoy.
