A Computer-based Interactive Fiction For You and Your Friends

Hello, Computer User #1. Today we are going to explore a computer-based interactive fiction, for you and all your friends. But first, some background material is in order.

You have now "logged on". Welcome to the Internet! The Internet is a vast network of communicating computers. The wonderful thing about the Internet is that any computer on the Internet can talk to any other computer on the Internet. You can think of it as a kind of town hall meeting for computers. Everyone can have their say!

A computer much like the one you are using now. Photograph by andreas160578

Computers are very good at adding up numbers. This is why your local bank or building society most likely has at least three, or even four, computers: banking is hard work even for a computer. However, today we are not going to be using the adding facilities of the computer. Instead, we are going to use the interactive facilities of the computer, along with the communication facilities of the Internet, to play a game!

An elephant reaches his or her trunk out of the computer monitor and into your cup of tea while you are reading. Cheeky elephant! Photograph by malawiheiko

Congratulations, you now know all about computers and the Internet! You have reached Level 1 in Computing Science.

• Computing Stamina increased to one. You can spend one hour on a computer before being fatigued.
• Computing Speed increased to ten. You can type ten words every minute.
• Computing Luck increased to one. Your programs have a one out of one chance of crashing.

Just then the school bully, Mark Snotman, comes up behind you.

"Hey, Computer User #1. What a stupid name! I want to play Doom Nukem on the Computer, and you had better let me, or else I'll send these incriminating photographs of your father to the principal. I keep the incriminating photographs in my locker in the East Wing of school, where it is guarded by my goons, so don't get any ideas. Now scram, fucko!"

Mark Snotman is very intimidating. Photograph by AnnaKovalchuk

Before being kicked off the Computer by Mark Snotman, you eject the disk from the disk drive. The floppy disk containing the Internet is now in your inventory. Before you can get your bag, two of Mark Snotman's goons shove you out of the library.

Outside the school library. Photograph by 12019

You are outside the school library now. After a final particularly rough shove, you manage to recover your balance – just before colliding with an Ionic Column. The air is fresh and dry, and the sun is warm. The entrance to the library lies South. The path leading to the main building lies North. The lawn lies East, on which there is a big pile of leaf-litter blocking the way. The path leading to the West Wing lies West.

What would you like to do?

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This is an attempt at Democratic InteraCtive FICtion. By commenting, you can help choose Computer User #1's next step – and his or her fate. The most popular comment, for some arbitrary definition of popular, will be used as Computer User #1's next action, and I will create a new post describing the results of the action. Now that we have set the scene, future posts will be significantly shorter than this one to facilitate closer interaction.

Update: part 2 is here, and part 3 is here .