Quote:
Originally Posted by ahi
Well, I think there are two main types of CYOA type books:
In one, the book attempts to become a game, as you said. In this mode, with some regularity seemingly mundane tasks must be offered as possibilities to the reader, to give the impression of "doing".
The other type is where the story branching is used to add literary depth... in effect permitting the author to write several stories out of one. Such stories would not offer choices whose results are trivial, but would instead offer them in literarily/story-development-wise/character-development-wise significant places/ways (and presumably far more infrequently than in the first type).
Type 1: Do you open the box on the table, or do you check behind the paintings for a hidden safe?
Type 2: Do you give Zoltan the benefit of the doubt, and meet him as he asked, or do you search for evidence that he is behind the robbery?
Does this make sense? The former aims for primarily out of what happens, whereas the second realizes that the how is almost as important, and cannot be left to the reader's whims to be strung together in whatever order, lest they fail to convey what the author intends.
- Ahi
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Makes total sense, the Kim Newman book does what you suggest and adds 'literary depth' to the fiction. The choose-your-own portion is there to enhance the fiction, rather than provide a 'game'. It gives us a significantly differnent story and meaning dependent on the choices made. The original CYOA books were basically games, some even had dice printed on the bottom right hand corners of pages so that you could roll them to make choices/fight battles against monsters (a lot of fun).
The mystery genre is a 'game' genre, so it would have to be the kind of solve-the-puzzle-and-don't-get-killed or don't-let-the-murderer-escape kind of challenge to make it work. If it was a literary endeavour I would think it would be a lot easier to make it work, as you wouldn't have to be so concerned with the logical outcome of the story strands, if they have an outcdome at all.