About the GameConcept"The End of the White Subway" is a reading-game that bears some resemblance to a text adventure or interactive fiction... the way a toadstool resembles a geranium.
Is this a game? If being a game requires consequential decisions, controllable actions, differential outcomes, and quantification (score), then it's a game.
This project is really more like a time simulator -- though in some ways every game is that. It invites you to think about the passing of time (all those moments you'll never get back), the way things change even as they stay the same, what you think you are doing when you can't do much of anything, and how you know when it's time to leave the train. You'll know when you get there. What You Can DoRide the train from station to station: either click Continue or simply press any key while you are in Train mode. Each station of your passage comprises a screenful of text. The text is always different, though perhaps always the same. Look at things: The Earth is full of them. The names of examinable objects appear in red while under the cursor. Click to inspect. Some objects are described in text, some with images. Collect things: You may add objects to your Inventory after you inspect them. Clicking the Inventory link at left shows you what you have. You are only allowed to hold seven things. The system will automatically delete the oldest item if you exceed the limit. Delete or Expend things: Every item in your inventory is preceded by an X. Click there to remove the item. Some items go quietly. Others perform certain actions before they vanish. These actions may be consequential. Or not. Read (or not) a story: Occasionally the view will change from Train mode to something more coherently narrative. Read if you like, then follow the link to return. This story has a beginning and an end, and a beginning and no end. Ask for help: Use the Help link at left. Ask for as much help as you can stand. Exit: Use the Exit link whenever you feel ready. Leaving the train ends the game. Technical NotesThe game is built entirely in Javascript and plain-vanilla HTML/CSS. This means it is stateless, so remember that leaving the page means wiping out your game. Recommended browser at time of release (late 2016) is the current build of Firefox (Mozilla). The game will run in the current Safari with minor visual glitches. Internet Explorer doesn't recognize keystrokes to advance the game, but seems to handle all other aspects. Debts and InspirationsJohn McDaid, from whom I stole the name "White Subway" after he boosted it from William S. Burroughs, who used it as the title of a story collection. I've also quoted liberally -- as in taken many sentences -- from that collection. Ian Bogost, who may not appreciate the credit, but whose idea of "philosophical carpentry" gave me an excuse to make all this sawdust. A special huzzah for the Latour Litanizer, which here has become something even more profane. If it helps, the current project may be considered scrimshaw. Dene Grigar and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the former for doing all the hard work on our Pathfinders project, in which among other things we saved several early hypertexts for posterity, and the latter for taking the idea seriously. As noted above, this Train starts at McDaid's Funhouse, which Dene has saved from the wrecker's ball. Richard Grusin, the Center for 21st Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and my colleagues in the 2014-15 Fellowship, who (a) enabled this work and (b) made the Year of the Humanities memorable indeed. The search for truth continues, nevermind what some people say. take the train |