21w.765j Assignment #1
2/9/99
Michael Dewberry

"Manfred and Fatima" by Indrana th Neogy does a good job telling a story through different perspectives. I liked being able to read two different interpretations of a scene based on whose thoughts I was privy to while I read the dialogue. However, the distinction between thoughts and dialogue was not immediately clear. It wasn't confusing after a bit of study, but it could have been more obvious. Also, the navigation widget was not at all obvious; the directional arrows for switching characters, switching characters and moving forward in time, and just moving forward make sense once you realize what they do, but it takes far too long to figure out, and parts of the widget seem redundant.

I found Rachel Emily Molenaar's "Untitled Love Story" refreshing -- the interface was simple, just text links. Moving through the diary entries chronologically made perfect sense. The connections made between the two lovers' entries through similar phrases worked really well. Not only did they give you multiple paths to move through the story, but each path let the narrative unfold in an engaging and artistically viable way.