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Interview with Howard ShermanInterview by Mehroo Siddiqui
You founded Malinche Entertainment in 2002 with the goal of “introducing interactive fiction to an entirely new generation of fans.” How far would you say you have succeeded in achieving this goal? How accepting are people of interactive fiction? Malinche has made excellent inroads with the greater book market. Public awareness is growing as more and more people become intrigued by the idea of becoming the main character in the stories we publish. Modern computer game players have all heard of Zork and text adventure games in general. A lot of people are curious to see what 21st century technology can do for interactive fiction today. Do you really think that the future of the novel will be interactive fiction? What about die-hard fans of the printed word? They don’t believe that the novel can ever be completely replaced. How do you think they can be brought around to being more open to the idea of interactive fiction? I agree that novels will never be completely replaced. There’s something magical about a book that will never fade with time. I suppose it’s the promise within the pages. Reading a book is a passive activity and sometimes that sort of activity is just right. At the same time, all of us as readers have had our own ideas about a story we were reading. Why didn’t the detective ask the neighbor more about the broken window? How come the last victim didn’t try to climb a tree and get away from the monster? And so on. Interactive fiction gives the reader the opportunity to get inside the story and take control of the situation he finds himself in. More to the point, we’re living in an interactive entertainment age where more and more people are accustomed to getting their entertainment from a little electronic box. Where the dangerous downward trends in reading by adults is concerned, Malinche’s interactive fiction titles may well be the catalyst to a renaissance in reading. Consumers can have their interactive entertainment and a good dose of quality fiction at the same time. How would you define interactive fiction and what do you think is its mainstream appeal? Would you argue that it is better than the printed novel? Why or why not? Interactive fiction is a fusion of books and technology that places the reader in the center of the story as the main character. And as the main character, the reader is the one making the decisions as to how the story turns out. I think the single most engaging idea behind interactive fiction is the power of possibility. With a printed novel, the ending of the story has already been decided by the author. We, as readers, need only turn the pages and act as a silent witness to what has already been determined. Due to its inherent nature as a computer-based medium, interactive fiction is very non-linear, giving the reader several different avenues to explore at any given time. This delivers a captivating experience that can bring the story to an end in a number of different ways depending entirely upon the actions taken by the reader. Once we’re done with a book we place it on our bookshelf and fondly remember the story. A Malinche title may never gather dust since there are so many different possible branches and endings. A reader could play any of my titles a dozen or more times and be surprised every single time. No book can ever do that. You were a great fan of a computer adventure game Zork, I believe. Was that an inspiration for Malinche Entertainment? What about the works that have been produced by this company-- were they also inspired by Zork? How so? Zork, in and of itself, was not what motivated me. Infocom, the publisher of Zork, was my primary source of inspiration. What really moved me to launch Malinche and bring an almost forgotten art form back to the commercial market were the fans of Infocom. So many people loved those titles and wished there were more like them. But there weren’t any. Enter Malinche. How is writing interactive fiction different from writing fiction for a print publication? Would you consider the former more challenging? In what way, or why not? Authors write books and stories while implementers write interactive fiction. Authors and implementers are members of different tribes; they have so much in common and yet so much is different. My cousins in the world of conventional fiction must be talented to engage the reader and keep him hooked with the ever-burning question, “What’s next?” where the story is concerned. I wish my job as an implementer was that easy. Not only do I need to captivate the reader, I need to motivate him or her. I need to keep him going. I must make him afraid. Proud. Angry. Jubilant. Curious. Even frustrated at times. I have to anticipate what the average reader may try at any turn and allow for a reasonable response from the story in turn. I have to write the other characters in the story in such a way that they adhere to reality. In my latest work, The First Mile, the reader (as the main character) is stuck in a town that is literally going to hell. The fictional town of Dead Rock, Arkansas is filled with people; those who would do harm and those who try and survive that harm. The innocent and the guilty, heroes and victims, and so on. Dead Rock is a very small town. Therefore most people know each other and it is incumbent upon me to make sure they do. Here’s a relevant example of something that should never happen in interactive fiction, involving a lawyer in town and the owner of a convenience store located across the street from the lawyer’s office: ASK THE SHOPKEEPER ABOUT THE LAWYER “I don’t know any lawyers,” he says in a bored tone. Really? Didn’t the lawyer ever stop in for a cold drink, a hot dog or perhaps a newspaper over the years? The store is just across the street. After visiting the lawyer’s office, the main character knows he’s been there for years. So has the convenience store. As an implementer, I have to pay close attention to all of these details to deliver a satisfying experience to my readers. The shopkeeper does indeed know the attorney. And if asked about the corrupt mayor, the weird hippie chick on the edge of town, and other characters, Mr. Fong will have something to say about each of them. This sort of interplay is something I need to pay very close attention to, not just with characters but events, and even objects. Authors, God bless them, have no such concerns. They write their characters. They write the dialogue for their characters as well as their place in the story and they’re done. The First Mile, as is true of all of my works, is an active and integrated world. As the implementer of these worlds, I am responsible for the orderly operation of this world. Everything has to make sense or I risk losing the reader. And that doesn’t stop with dialogue. Many tangible objects exist in my titles and I need to account for how each and every character reacts to those objects. Here’s another relevant example involving Greystone. SHOW THE GUN TO THE SECURITY GUARD “Christ,” the guard whispers, the fear evident in his voice. “A patient with a gun!”
The guard then proceeds to carefully disarm you, the main character, and escort you back to your room. This makes perfect sense. You are an undercover detective posing as a mental patient. The guard knows you’re a mental patient but he doesn’t know you’re in law enforcement. The security guard reacted appropriately; he took action to get a lethal weapon away from a mental patient. It is incumbent upon me to be mindful of all of these factors and interplays constantly. And with every object and every character. It’s nightmarish at times.
There are many people who want to get published as writers. Would you suggest they try their hand at interactive fiction? If you think that the printed word will be replaced by the electronic word sometime in the future, how do you think writers can prepare themselves for it? Most people tend to write for print; what changes will they have to make for their work to be interactive? 1. A writer who would seek to explore interactive fiction as a springboard for his career may be in for a rough time. As I pointed out earlier, authors and implementers may be of the same species but they are from two different tribes. A writer may well go off the deep end trying to grapple with all the intricacies of interactive fiction. An implementer has to contend with variables and details that no author ever has to concern himself with. If that wasn’t bad enough, any prospective interactive fiction writer must know some computer programming. An implementer never wears just one hat during a project. Some days I’ll write a lot of prose and go light on the programming. On other days I’ll do a lot of complex coding and just a bit of writing to fill in some blanks. On the other hand, a writer in the world of books who has trouble getting noticed may cause quite a few heads to turn if he successfully transformed his work into interactive titles. What challenges will a writer of interactive fiction face for getting her/his work published? Are there specific publishing companies for this genre of writing? How do they work? Must a writer have an agent to approach them? Anything you would recommend? An interactive fiction writer will have a very serious challenge getting published as there is just one publisher of interactive fiction on the planet: Malinche Entertainment. I’d entertain the idea of reviewing a few solicited submissions from a credible agent. I don’t want an onslaught of work, either. I’m ever mindful of the possibility that a less-than-honest writer may try to sue me for a story he would claim he wrote and I stole. I don’t want to go there.
Do you think interactive fiction can promote literacy? How?
Thank goodness for Harry Potter, for without the work of J. K. Rowling, the reading trends of the entire population of the United States would plummet on the whole. In fact, only young readers show any signs of life in the world of literacy. Older teens to adults of all ages have a vacillating interest in reading. Coupling fiction with technology gives readers so many more possibilities. Interactive fiction can fully engage the reader by firing up his imagination. Malinche titles make people think. The readers of my various titles ponder. They wonder. They try things. Thanks to Malinche publishing interactive fiction, the electronic age may be the savior of literacy, not its slayer. How have computer games evolved since Zork? Is there anything in particular that you would like to point out here? Also, why have text-based adventure games been so popular throughout? . Computer games have exploded into a universe of entertainment possibilities. Today's computer game industry is giving Hollywood itself a run for its money. Of course, we have Zork and the other forebears of modern computer games which still hold up rather well despite their age. Games of the 1980s are still very entertaining, sometimes more than newer titles. The rapid evolution of technology is entirely responsible, of course. Luckily, the power of modern computers has been very kind to interactive fiction. Without today’s computers a game like Malinche’s Pentari: First Light would be impossible. First Light is roughly equivalent to Zork 1, Zork 2, and Zork 3 put together. Factor in a smattering of Enchanter, the next game in the Zork series as well. First Light allows the player to learn and cast spells on various people and things with sometimes very entertaining effects as he makes his way through a vast, exotic world on a very important mission for the Empire. How important is the use of graphics in interactive fiction and games? Graphics are critical to video games but entirely optional in interactive fiction. In fact, I am quite the traditionalist in that regard. I do not believe in putting pictures in works of fiction. How many jokes can we all remember about the sort of people that read books with pictures in them? My philosophy as an implementer runs along the same lines. Tell us about The First Mile, your latest interactive fiction title. What is it about? How was your experience of writing it? Was there ever a time when you felt you couldn’t go on with it? How did you overcome that? Your readers are the first to learn this interesting fact: towards the end of development, the corporation I run was consuming 99% of my time, leaving almost no time in the day to work on The First Mile. Various managers, important customers, and my bigger vendors all wanted a piece of me. It’s very flattering but also very frustrating. I was halfway to booking a weekend at a bed and breakfast in Arkansas to escape the throngs and finish the title. A miracle happened a day or two later. My schedule magically cleared up and The First Mile was finished a week later. Apart from the angst of being so close and yet so far at that point, the writing flowed. I let myself go and just went with what I felt or thought at the moment. Most of the time, what I imagine ends up in the game. In The First Mile, I think there was just one idea I ended up dropping from the title at some point in the testing phase. Something about the sequence bothered me so I took it out. Have you also written any fiction for a print publication? If yes, then how were the two experiences different? If not, then why not? I’ve considered writing a couple of short stories. I have a couple of neat ideas that couldn’t be developed into a full work of fiction. I never even considered publishing a fiction book or a short story. There are so many ideas for interactive fiction titles brewing in my mind that I couldn’t possibly explore them and write a work of conventional fiction as well. Apart from releasing a couple of stories, probably on my website as freebies, I’m staying focused on interactive fiction. I’m resurrecting the medium and that needs more and more of my attention these days. Malinche Entertainment is gaining momentum and I need to keep a steady hand on the wheel. What are your plans for the future? Have you already thought of some new fiction piece that you will be working on? If yes, then what will it be like? What kind of fiction do you personally prefer reading? Pentari: Second Dawn, a science fiction work in the realm of fantasy adventure, is something I’m working on right now for a Christmas release. After that I think I’ll try my hand at futuristic science fiction. Or perhaps another murder mystery. I’ll publish all three of these between this year and next but after Second Dawn I don’t know which direction I’ll take. I’m leaning towards the murder mystery. I really enjoyed writing Greystone and want to get back into that scene. I’ve always been a voracious reader so it’s difficult for me to pick just one genre. I can slip into a science fiction title very easily. At the same time, I love murder mysteries. But then there’s the fact that the last book I finished was Brian Lumley’s House of Doors, a horror title with science fiction underpinnings. I go all over the place with the books I read. I’m the same way with music, too. Sting one minute, Snoop Dogg the next, and The Veronicas the minute after that. Any advice for people who want to make a name in the field of writing? Never, ever quit. No matter what. Never say to yourself, “if”... say, “WHEN.” You keep on going UNTIL. UNTIL YOU SUCCEED. And when you succeed, get better at writing. Then repeat from step one.
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Author
of The First Mile,
game developer, and certified computer geek Howard Sherman founded Malinche
Entertainment in 2002 with the goal of introducing interactive fiction to a new
generation of fans. He is a leading expert on text and video games and has been
quoted in USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, The Asbury Park Press, and Wired
magazine. From 1998 until 2002, Sherman spearheaded a safe surfing initiative
for kids with Cyber Angels, an Internet safety organization that addresses
pornography, hate sites, pedophiles, and violence. Sherman divides his time
between Las Vegas, Nevada and New Jersey. Get inside the story at
