Excerpts from Espen Aarseth, Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature

"adventure games are not novels at all. The adventure game is an artistic genre of its own, a unique aesthetic field of possibilities, which must be judged on its own terms." (107)

"the bewildered reader of a narrative can safely assume that the events that are already encountered, however mystifying, will make sense in the end (if the plot is to make sense at all); whereas the player of an adventure game (Deadline is a good example) is not guaranteed that the events thus far are at all relevant to the solution of the game. Hence it could be argued that the reader is (or at least produces) the story." (112)

Interactive-Fiction: n hyphened; abbr -- IF 1 : fiction a reader/player can interact with 2 a : computer games b : slang : adventure games c : archaic : all-text adventure games -- present-day IF may contain graphics and/or sound 3 : computerized short stories or novels 4 : a computer game or story in which the player plays the protagonist and can seem to affect the plot's development and/or outcome 5 : may have puzzles (i.e. find the key/code/magic spell to unlock a door), or be puzzleless 6 : warning: highly addictive (Doe's IF page)