4 | UNINTERACTIVE FICTION
4 | UNINTERACTIVE FICTION
by: Leah Thargic
Progress:
- I was able to complete this game in under 30 seconds (impressive, I know). I tried playing a few more times just in case something different would happen. I also tried waiting a bit before clicking through if that mattered. After that, I got bored of trying to figure out if there was anything else to it, went to the game’s thread to see if anyone else found anything, and then felt satisfied that I had experienced the game fully.
Things I Appreciated:
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The game delivers exactly what it promises and no more. Well that’s not true—the sound effect was unexpected. So it actually marginally overshot my expectations.
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I think the attempt to do some kind of troll/meta game has some merit to it. It is reminiscent of that John Cage composition 4’33’’ where the music is just the sounds of the audience waiting awkwardly for it to be over. Uninteractive Fiction performs similarly where the main value to be had is less from the work itself than the discussion it prompts. I suspect that “Leah Thargic” is enjoying seeing how people talk about this game, assuming the melatonin hasn’t kicked in already.
Feedback/Recommendations/Questions:
- There’s one kind of sinister aspect to this game to me, which is the thought that because it is so successfully attention-grabbing and basic, more people will play and score this game than many of the entries whose creators spent hours/days/months/years pouring energy into their projects. Like, based on the structure of judging, I’d imagine this game will get a huge amount of ratings and reviews while other art languishes in the “I’ll get to that eventually” pile. This isn’t so much a critique of the game as just like, a reflection of the attention economy and the feeling of self-exploitation to produce creative work that no one engages with or cares about. I think that’s a feeling that a lot of writers, artists, etc., could empathize with. I certainly feel that way about almost everything I’ve ever made, no matter how much effort I put into it.
What I learned about IF writing/game design:
- If your goal is to make a meta joke, the author’s attentiveness to the audience and context is very important in shaping the impact of the joke. In this case, the creator of the game has successfully leveraged the context of a highly anticipated/prestigious event to get this IF community talking about their work.
Quote:
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“You lose.”
Lasting Memorable Moment:
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The sound effect that plays when you lose.