Literature You Make Up As You Go Along

When I was a kid, a new "interactive" book came out where you could choose one of two or three ways to respond to a given situation. The book of course could be read many times if you chose different courses of conduct each time at different locations. But as the book was limited by pages and only offered two or three choices, the concept had limited appeal. These limitations don't exist with computers.

This site is quite interesting. You can choose from many different choices that only grow the longer the site exists. Why? Because, like story games that we have played at Villainous Company, the readers add to the story. At this site, however, the new part of the story you write then becomes a choice that is plugged into the many options, along with your version of the next paragraph. You might write a choice to follow that choice, or others might pick up where you left off and add to it. But since the choices can only grow, many people can go different directions with the story.

On the first page, you find yourself "in front of a creepy looking cave. There is a tree nearby. Behind you lies the ocean, on which sits a pirate ship at anchor." What do you do? You have about 70 choices, one of which is Blame Bush.

I played around with it for a few minutes last week. I probably will never go back to it again, but it is still pretty neat.