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	Title: (Bulletin Board) Electronic Fiction 101
	Author: Computer Entertainment staff
	Source: Computer Entertainment, v3(7)
	Date: July 1985
	Transcription by Steve Derby
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Are computer games like *Witness* and *Amazon* literature? Not quite yet,
according to Dr. Peter Jordan, an associate professor of English at
Tennessee State University, who chaired a seminar that attempted to answer
this question at a recently-held conference of the Popular Culture
Association in Louisville, KY.

"The novelist creates the illusion of complex worlds," explains Dr. Jordan.
"In the so-called interactive novels that I've seen, scenes are described
in complex language, but the possibilities of worlds is limited by
the interaction. Two questions should be asked: What is the artistic
quality of the novels themselves and how effective is the interaction?
In my opinion, parsers are still way too dumb. What we see right now
is the awkward, crude rumblings of a new art form."

<figure class="float-right">
	<img src="/public/img/articles/eg-electronic-fiction-101/amazon-screen-shot.jpg" alt="Amazon screen shot">
	<figcaption style="font-weight: bold;">Spinnaker's <em>Amazon</em>: computer game or fiction?</figcaption>
</figure>

In programs such as *Fahrenheit 451* and *Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*,
Dr. Jordan sees little improvement over the original *Adventure* by
Crothers and Wood. "The adventure version of *Hitchhiker's* does a fair
job only because *Hitchhiker's* is not much of a book," he says. "And
I'm not sure that *Pac-Man* as a game isn't better than *Witness*."
Though Dr. Jordan has yet to "read" Synapse's *Mindwheel*, he contends that
"doubling the size of the parser is still quantum leaps below the effects
of reading a novel. I really think it's a long way off before [electronic
novels] become a form of literature."

Next year's Pop Culture conference will discuss various aspects of
computer entertainment. Proposals for papers should be sent to Dr.
Jordan's attention at Tennesses St. U., Dept. of English, College of
Arts & Sciences, Downtown Campus, 10th & Charlotte, Nashville, TN 37203.
