Addventure
Encyclopedia
An addventure, also known as a collaborative gamebook, is a type of online interactive fiction
that combines aspects of round-robin stories
and Choose Your Own Adventure
-style tales. Like a round-robin story, an addventure is a form of collaborative fiction
in which many authors contribute to a story, each writing discrete segments. However, like a gamebook
, the resulting narrative is non-linear, allowing authors to branch out in different directions after each segment of the story. The result is a continually growing work of hypertext fiction
.
s, mailing lists and USENET
news groups, and many variations of the format were tried. One early form of branching story that emerged, where participants of such a round-robin group would start telling side-stories in parallel with the main story as it was still being created, led to very confusing and hard-to-follow stories if multiple branches were concurrently being extended on the same board or mailing list. Soon systems emerged in which such branches were formalized and easily separated from the main story.
The portmanteau word “addventure” was coined by Allen "Prisoner" Firstenberg when he created an add-on story for the Nyack High School BBS in 1987-88 and called it “Add-venture”. In 1994 the story was transplanted to the World Wide Web in HTML format, where it garnered some attention — and soon many imitators.
The magazines Internet World and Wired
both wrote about Firstenberg's addventure. Firstenberg's addventure site is still accessible, but all three stories that he ran have been closed for new additions for many years.
Since then, a number of other addventures have been launched on the Web, some using Firstenberg's software and others using their own code. At least two of these stories have been running continuously for over ten years:
The uses of hypertext fiction whose content is goal-driven include exploration of the concepts of alternate history, so-called Many-Worlds interpretation
, collaborative fiction
and the older idea of the mosaic novel
.
, usually with one parent node and zero or more child nodes. Extending the addventure with new writing then becomes a task of choosing the node that one wants and adding a new child to it, with the new material comprising the content of the child. An addventure generally begins with a single room or chapter (the root node of the tree), and is extended by writers from that point.
The contents of nodes of the addventure are typically stored in a database
, and each new node is assigned a unique identification number. In addition to identifying the node and serving as a primary key field for searching and indexing, the number is used to specify URLs that lead directly to that node and manipulate the tree, usually to allow a node to be moved from one parent to another or to give it new children.
The stories produced on an addventure are usually meandering, of uneven quality, and — more often than not — forever unfinished. For many users, it is the process, and not the end result, that creates their enjoyment of this format.
For them, the interaction and collaboration are the point of an addventure, not merely the means by which it is produced.
Sometimes as with any fiction, whether collaborative or not, it is the boundaries and restrictions that produce moments of real greatness.
The ability to add only a small piece of a narrative rather than a whole conventional 'chapter' or even page of text allows those who are not as gifted at writing to still participate. This is psychologically extremely rewarding for people of all walks of life and explains the continuing and in fact growing niche popularity of the addventure genre. Some threads have attained an almost novel-like length and complexity, particularly in Never Ending Quest.
Apart from the obvious variations of story genre, addventures can vary in their access restrictions for writers and in the restrictions they place on branching.
Some addventures leave the continuation of a finished segment completely open, allowing any number of continuations in any direction imaginable, while others allow the author of the segment to influence the continuation by explicitly listing a set of possible directions.
Interactive fiction
Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, describes software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives and as video games. In common usage, the term refers to text...
that combines aspects of round-robin stories
Round-robin story
A round-robin story, or simply "round robin," is a type of collaborative fiction or storytelling in which a number of authors each write chapters of a novel or pieces of a story, in rounds. Round-robin novels were invented in the 19th century, and later became a tradition particularly in science...
and Choose Your Own Adventure
Choose Your Own Adventure
Choose Your Own Adventure is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actions and the plot's outcome. The series was based on a...
-style tales. Like a round-robin story, an addventure is a form of collaborative fiction
Collaborative fiction
Collaborative fiction is a form of writing by a group of authors who share creative control of a story.Collaborative fiction can occur for commercial gain, as part of education, or recreationally - many collaboratively written works have been the subject of a large degree of academic research.-...
in which many authors contribute to a story, each writing discrete segments. However, like a gamebook
Gamebook
A gamebook is a work of fiction that allows the reader to participate in the story by making effective choices. The narrative branches along various paths through the use of numbered paragraphs or pages...
, the resulting narrative is non-linear, allowing authors to branch out in different directions after each segment of the story. The result is a continually growing work of hypertext fiction
Hypertext fiction
Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links which provides a new context for non-linearity in "literature" and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text to the next, and in this fashion arranges a...
.
History
The emergence of computer networks and electronic communication made the writing of collaborative fiction faster and more convenient than previous forms of correspondence. Round-robin stories were being written on bulletin board systemBulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
s, mailing lists and USENET
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
news groups, and many variations of the format were tried. One early form of branching story that emerged, where participants of such a round-robin group would start telling side-stories in parallel with the main story as it was still being created, led to very confusing and hard-to-follow stories if multiple branches were concurrently being extended on the same board or mailing list. Soon systems emerged in which such branches were formalized and easily separated from the main story.
The portmanteau word “addventure” was coined by Allen "Prisoner" Firstenberg when he created an add-on story for the Nyack High School BBS in 1987-88 and called it “Add-venture”. In 1994 the story was transplanted to the World Wide Web in HTML format, where it garnered some attention — and soon many imitators.
The magazines Internet World and Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
both wrote about Firstenberg's addventure. Firstenberg's addventure site is still accessible, but all three stories that he ran have been closed for new additions for many years.
Since then, a number of other addventures have been launched on the Web, some using Firstenberg's software and others using their own code. At least two of these stories have been running continuously for over ten years:
- The BE Addventure This began on June 20, 1998. As of February 22, 2009 over 150,000 episodes had been written. Note that this addventure's subject matter is pornographic.
- Extend-A-Story: The Never Ending Quest This began on February 9, 1999. As of February 22, 2009 over 25,000 episodes had been written.
The uses of hypertext fiction whose content is goal-driven include exploration of the concepts of alternate history, so-called Many-Worlds interpretation
Many-worlds interpretation
The many-worlds interpretation is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that asserts the objective reality of the universal wavefunction, but denies the actuality of wavefunction collapse. Many-worlds implies that all possible alternative histories and futures are real, each representing an...
, collaborative fiction
Collaborative fiction
Collaborative fiction is a form of writing by a group of authors who share creative control of a story.Collaborative fiction can occur for commercial gain, as part of education, or recreationally - many collaboratively written works have been the subject of a large degree of academic research.-...
and the older idea of the mosaic novel
Mosaic novel
A mosaic novel is a novel where individual chapters or short stories share a common setting or set of characters with the aim of telling a linear story from beginning to end, with the individual chapters, however, refracting a plurality of viewpoints and styles.Examples of mosaic novels as opposed...
.
Structure
Addventures, by their nature of discrete segments of writing connected to each other by paths, generally follow a conceptual tree structure. Each individual written section is a nodeNode (computer science)
A node is a record consisting of one or more fields that are links to other nodes, and a data field. The link and data fields are often implemented by pointers or references although it is also quite common for the data to be embedded directly in the node. Nodes are used to build linked, often...
, usually with one parent node and zero or more child nodes. Extending the addventure with new writing then becomes a task of choosing the node that one wants and adding a new child to it, with the new material comprising the content of the child. An addventure generally begins with a single room or chapter (the root node of the tree), and is extended by writers from that point.
The contents of nodes of the addventure are typically stored in a database
Database
A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...
, and each new node is assigned a unique identification number. In addition to identifying the node and serving as a primary key field for searching and indexing, the number is used to specify URLs that lead directly to that node and manipulate the tree, usually to allow a node to be moved from one parent to another or to give it new children.
The stories produced on an addventure are usually meandering, of uneven quality, and — more often than not — forever unfinished. For many users, it is the process, and not the end result, that creates their enjoyment of this format.
For them, the interaction and collaboration are the point of an addventure, not merely the means by which it is produced.
Sometimes as with any fiction, whether collaborative or not, it is the boundaries and restrictions that produce moments of real greatness.
The ability to add only a small piece of a narrative rather than a whole conventional 'chapter' or even page of text allows those who are not as gifted at writing to still participate. This is psychologically extremely rewarding for people of all walks of life and explains the continuing and in fact growing niche popularity of the addventure genre. Some threads have attained an almost novel-like length and complexity, particularly in Never Ending Quest.
Apart from the obvious variations of story genre, addventures can vary in their access restrictions for writers and in the restrictions they place on branching.
Some addventures leave the continuation of a finished segment completely open, allowing any number of continuations in any direction imaginable, while others allow the author of the segment to influence the continuation by explicitly listing a set of possible directions.