Freedom Baird
Non-Linear and Interactive Narrative
Web Fiction Assignment
Week 5 - March 6, 1996

Story chosen: Crime Story

General notes: The Layout of Crime Story is completely static, but I was motivated to click through it because the story is compelling. Gathering clues in detective mode works really well with this medium. I found, however, that I missed the attention to action, and the way things occur in time, that would've been included in a traditional text story.

Ten links of interest:

1 - Crime Story's first page
I like the fact that some trails are short. You step out one branch, look at something, and return, instead of wandering way off in that direction and losing the central thread. I find I return to the first page often, to follow down new topics.

2 - Law Enforcement Division Evidence File
The medium is well used toward the end of simulating information gathered after a crime has occured. Some pages are treated as evidence. This page could very well be "Exhibit A" in a court room.

3 - Designer Sunglass Shoppe Inc.
While you're tangling with murder suspects and sheriffs, you might want to shop for sunglasses. I like the fact that there are links to real sites in the real world. This augments the docu-drama effect.

4 - Surveillance Movie
I like the fact that the authors don't constrain themselves to using text. I guess I'm drawn to things with imagery. This medium seems to need that. Text alone is stark and unsatisfying somehow. Text on paper is more enjoyable, because the paper itself is tactile.

5 - Valerie Wilson's biography
The video clips are compelling. The young actress is good in roles where she plays the victim, and seeing clips rather than hearing this described by another character if very effective.

6 - Photographs of the victim at the crime scene
These images and their descriptions are really disturbing. Much more so than they would be if bound into a book. It's the mock-real nature of the web site lends them some potency.

7 - Jennifer Breedlove's driver's license
Trails that lead to a single image, like this one, are a little dull. There could be a little more info accompanying the image.

8 - The chat archive
Here some of the meat of the story is delivered. It reads like a screenplay. It lacks a richness of detail that you'd find in a more traditional story.

9 - A blown-up fingerprint
Finding this was really satisfying. I found it buried in the chat archive, although there might be some other way to get to it. The multiple ways to get to a page are invisible once you're there, so you can't trace threads backwards. This is a disadvantage in a story like this.

10 - The Rosebud company's homepage
I'm wondering if this is a real or fictitious site. The very first page requires a password. I suspect that I might come across the password somewhere in the crime story, and then be able to revisit and poke around. That'd be gratifying.

Return to FB's Non-Linear Narrative page.

baird@media.mit.edu