Michael Coyle
Assignment 1


Response to "The Heist" by Walter Sorrells

This classic story of a bank robbery is well segmented; there is just enough text on each page. Each page is a single event, and there are often multiple descriptions of the same event, as seen through the different characters. Unfortunately, Sorrells handles this by embedding a substaintial number of links in the text itself, which interrupts the flow of the story. When one follows these links, it is not a trvial task to return to the point in the story at which one left off. By doing this, the reader can miss many of the story's details.

Sections end with a very unfulfilling "THIS HEIST ENDS HERE."

Response to "ScanMan" by Ben Sanders

This is a fun story about a number of conversations taking place over cellular phones and police radio bands. It's a fairly linear story, though. Once the reader follows a link, he or she cannot view any of the other conversations that took place at the same time without using the BACK button. (For this story's purposes, that makes sense. One cannot, in real life, go back in time.) The advantage to this approach, besides realism, is that one can view several different stories, but simply starting over and traversing different links.

Response to "A Tale of Two Frums" by Drew Samnick

This story began with a good idea, but didn't fully develop it. There simply isn't enough happening in each section of the story to keep the reader occupied. The main idea is that there are two little creatures, Frums, that amuse themselves at the expense of a human named Mel. It was nice to see the story from both Mel's point of view and that of the Frums. If the story had a few more events, or even a little more detail, it would benefit a great deal. Also, the interface is somewhat confusing at first.