Interactive Fiction or IF is a story
told with the help of the reader or viewer. Literally, interactive
means that the reader has control over the direction of the
story’s events. Fiction means the story is not based on or about
factual events. A work of IF can be told through a computer screen
through command-based works that encourage the reader to type in
certain words in order to lead the story in one direction or another.
IF can also be found, although rarely, through traditional literary
publications like the once-popular Choose Your Own Adventure books.
However, while IF tells a story and includes events and characters like
traditional literature, the debate continues about whether IF can truly
be considered literature.
Literature in the most general sense is any kind of writing about any
subject. It is usually any kind of written material where expression
and form are an important part of the work. The most accepted kind of
literature is that of the printed form. However, poetry and folklore
are also works of literature which do not necessarily come in the form
of printed material. Because of this, interactive fiction, whether read
on a computer screen or in between hardcover, should also be considered
literature. Works of IF at their core are still stories and differ only
from traditional printed works through of the amount of work the reader
must do.