Ever since I could finally track reader’s paths through my longer works of electronic fiction, I have been reflecting on ways to motivate readers through my stories, especially when there’s some plot-level pay-off I have written in. On the one hand, it’s a very typical web (and writerly) dilemma: How to keep the eyes […]

By Rob Wittig and Mark Marino
[Cross-posted at Netpoetic]
On a recent trip to the University of Bergen, we had the opportunity to meet, discuss, and compare notes on some of our mutual interests in Internet art, specifically in a highly performative, “real-time,” spontaneous form of writing that seemed to run through our various projects. As […]

Last year, I wrote the cut scenes for a Nintendo DS title called “WireWay” by Konami (now available for iPhone and iPad). The game features a mischievous character named Wiley, who spends his days hanging out with his buddy ReFresh and collecting Elan (stars) to reach various goals (to get rich, win the girl, […]

This summer Mira Zimet of USC’s College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences asked me to explain electronic literature in 60 seconds. Here was my answer (in a minute and a half).
Featured in the video (in order):
Jason Nelson’s Sydney’s Siberia, Kate Pullinger’s Inanimate Alice, Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries’ Nippon, and Michael Mateas […]

In the most recent step toward the conversational agent takeover (a conversonator apocalypse), the new video game Bot Colony by Montreal-based North Side is nearing completion. The game’s website promises “Unrestricted conversation in English between players and characters.” WRT took some time out from rearing our own chatbots for some unrestricted conversation with Bot Colony chief designer, Eugene Joseph.