Penguin launches first 'Digi-Novel'

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

I'm back, I couldn't resist checking: Myst was released on September 24, 1993, my 30th birthday Which makes it very old indeed

Wow! Sweet sixteen.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by acidzebra

I'd have to disagree; the written wor(l)d allows you to build up your own internal world using the author's descriptions as a guide. That is why (I think) people are perennially disappointed with movie adaptations; they take away from your own imagination and impose the view of a director/casting crew (can you now think of Gandalf without picturing Ian McKellen? Exactly).

There will always be books and reading, I think, and it will always be a small subgroup of the total population who love to read. I've read some ancient Greek text where the author laments about how today's youth does not read and how the world is basically going to hell in a handbasket.

But at the same time I am not a snob about formats; a good story/shared experience is a good story/shared experience, whether it is in music, painting, sculpture, a play, a movie, the written word, VR, brainstem interface or whatever.

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[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Wow. A book. With links. Why didn't I think of that?

Why isn't a television show called a "video novel"? Why isn't a movie called a "celluloid novel"? because there are significant differences between reading text and watching video.

To me, this shouldn't be called a "digi-novel" at all. It is a multi-media story or presentation, part novel (or is it novel, if the text itself does not convey the full story?), part video, part web, part whatever else you want to throw in there.

Penguin is obviously trying to revive the reading public's interest with bread and circuses. Me? I'd prefer they find some good stories to tell, and people who can tell them.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

.....

Penguin is obviously trying to revive the reading public's interest with bread and circuses. Me? I'd prefer they find some good stories to tell, and people who can tell them.

EXACTLY!!!!

[zelda_pinwheel]

personally i'm not too convinced by this particular manifestation of a "multimedia" "digi-novel" mainly because it seems completely artificial and poorly implemented (as everybody else here has said already) but it did remind me of The Reprover, an interactive "digital fiction". so as not to derail this thread too much i've started a new one about it. i think we can expect to have liseuses capable of handling real multimedia (video, music...) very soon, so i wonder how many people will be attracted to true multimedia stories ? personally i think they're a distict form in their own right but i would expect the audience for books and the audience for this sort of interactive fiction to overlap somewhat.

[DixieGal]

I decided to give it a trial before passing judgement. The verdict: OFF WITH ITS HEAD!

First of all, you have to register, because the link takes you to a page with a contest and links to the story. Click a link, and it takes you to their registration page. The options are to create and sign in with your ID that you type in, or use your gmail address and allow it permission to plunder your contact list. Yep, it says it right there, and you have to click "yes" that it can plunder before you can move on.

So I cancelled and re-registered with a bunch of phony info. Finally, it let me have access, which took me to the B&N ebooks store so that I could spend $39.95 for the digi-novel experience.

Instead, I experienced the X in the top corner of the tab to close it and get out of there before they reached out of the screen and stole my purse.

Takeaway Point: More trouble than it is worth.

[zelda_pinwheel]

they want 40$ for this thing ???? are they high ????

[DixieGal]

Hey Kenny! Love your llama, you should use it for an avatar!

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Hey Kenny! Love your llama, you should use it for an avatar!

i feel i may have missed a page of this thread somehow...

[MichaelFStewart]

Wow, why do they put up such barriers? You'd think for a new product they'd use penetration pricing, or offer a free sample to get you hooked. Not smart.

[Slite]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Hey Kenny! Love your llama, you should use it for an avatar!

So many MANY ways to abuse that post....

Must... restrain... self....

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

they want 40$ for this thing ???? are they high ????

That's what I assumed when they popped up the box wanting to plunder my contact list.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

That's what I assumed when they popped up the box wanting to plunder my contact list.

yes, i'm pretty sure it's the only possible explanation for *most* of this fiasco.

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

i feel i may have missed a page of this thread somehow...

Originally Posted by Slite

So many MANY ways to abuse that post....

Must... restrain... self....

Click the link in his siggy to view his art. There's a punk rock llama with dyed zebra stripe hair.

[Slite]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

Click the link in his siggy to view his art. There's a punk rock llama with dyed zebra stripe hair.

Well, it was the "love your llama" part of the post that was so abuseable I had to restrain my self yet again