Time in Interactive Fiction

Introduction

When reading a book, either electronic or in print, there are two ways to measure time. The first way to measure time is within the narrative. The next way to measure time is with the reader to see how long it has taken them to read the book. 

Time in Print

With traditional books, time within a narrative usually moves forward linearly making the user's reader experience less confusing. Some books include flashbacks or even past events through character narration or thoughts, but generally, time will always move forward. Time parallel to the reader can be physically measured by number of pages turned. Although pages can be turned can be flipped back but that does not necessarily affect how the narrative is read or how the events of the narrative are understood.

Time in Electronic Fiction

In electronic books, time can be manipulated in any direction. Different forms of media such as text, video, sound, and images create an ambiguous sense of time within the narrative and parallel to the reader. The sequence of events in an electronic book can often be out of order, leaving the reader to figure out a timeline. Electronic fiction can leave the reader in a permanent state of guessing, both for the timeline of the narrative as well as how to read the narrative. So much of the reader's time is spent learning how to read the narrative which in some cases is more important than the narrative. Because of its ambiguous nature, time parallel to the reader cannot be physically measured and time within the narrative may be unimportant.

 

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