User:Thijshijsijsjss/Human Parser/Forked Dialogues/Session 2

FORKED DIALOGUES #2
Exploring interactive fiction as a plurality

* Thursday March 12th
* 12:00
* WH 4th floor
* Snacks and drinks provided :) 

Reading CYOA books alone in your room, playing a text adventure behind your computer screen... Often, interactive fiction can be an individual experience. Forked Dialogues explores ways to make interactive fiction a collaborative, performative and plural experience.

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Hey! Next week I will be hosting another playtesting session: Forked Dialogues #2 

Are you seeing yourself in the third person? Do you sometimes notice your social battery depleting? Do you want another chance at that conversation? Managing (social) resources like time and energy and presence can be an abstract juggling game. In this session, we will do some game-adjacant activities in a small group in which such resources are limited: shared with, affected by, taken from or given to others. It's gonna be fun and conversational!

Plans and Preparations

In recent conversations, I have found a suppressed desire within me: to have a more prominent human / performative aspect to the game of Human Parser. I thought I had decided on a more traditional text-adventure, but have found myself stuck, not excited to work on that. Instead, the most exciting moments of the project so far (the public moment, first playtesting session and (mock) assessment) were all diversions from the traditional format to include more human / performative aspects. So for this second playtesting session, I want to give myself space for that. (Funnily enough, this is what I also wrote in the prep section of the first FD session).

In the last (first) Forked Dialogues session, this was explored through sharing agency (leading up to an asymmetric demo). This time, I hope to explore 'limited resources'. Similar to [In the last Forked Dialogues session, the focus spoon theory] -- an examplary allegory for the limited energy a chronically ill person has in a day -- I've been thinking about the limited energy to adapt I have, and the relation this has to disassociative experiences (e.g. limited energy to mask, or limited energy to manage a change of plans). In the Human Parser game, I'm playing around with a 'functionality score', to represent this limit mechanically. I think this might be an interesting focus for this second session.

I have several activities in mind that relate to this theme in various ways:

1. Playing Queers in Love at the End of the World -- a 10-second CYOA game. The limiting resource here is time. This can be a nice activity to warm-up. I wonder how it will feel to narrate the game while another person is choosing their path. I wonder what it will be like to 'pass the keyboard' and only be allowed one playthrough by yourself.
2. A conversation about spoon theory
3. Playing Minit -- a knowledge-based adventure game in which you restart every minute. Here, the limiting resource is both time and knowledge: with more knowledge of the environment, you can spend your minute differently. This by itself is an interesting inspiration for a TA, but I'm particularly interested in how this knowledge can be spread / shared when playing with multiple people.
4. Playing a demo [~to be revealed~]