An ambitious, and difficult, interactive novel

Hyperbole Studios, 1412 West Alabama, Houston, TX 77006; phone (800) 554-9696, (713) 529-9696, fax (713) 529-9632; price $59.95.

Despite the fact that The Madness of Roland is CD-based, it’s best described as a novel because it is largely a text-based story about the Medieval character of Roland, nephew to Charlemagne and (in this story) the hero of the Siege of Paris by Muslim infidels.

The title, originally designed as a theatrical performance, incorporates elements of dramatic radio plays, film, animation and hypertext. But it is not an interactive novel in the way most people think of interactive fiction. With Roland, the reader’s actions don’t determine how the story progresses. Instead, writer and producer (and performer of the title role) Greg Roach explored a different kind of interactivity where there are multiple character perspectives on the same scenes or events.

There is plenty of historical precedent for the technique in modern literature, and in classic films such as Kurosawa’s Rashomon, but both lack the capability to switch between characters “on the fly” and, obviously, neither could contain Roland’s additional media elements.

Compelling the reader to “think.” Roland is intellectually and artistically rich. The writing, the use of classic works of art and literature, the historical and philosophical references — all compel the reader to think about what is being presented, and how it is being presented. These choices — i.e., whether you choose to rely primarily on the narration and voice over, or read it as a traditional text, or how you choose to follow different characters — change the experience of Roland each time it is read.

The interface to Roland is based on Tarot cards. Each character has his or her own icon/card. As a reader you are free to choose in what order you will navigate the story. Each character also has an associated musical theme. As you choose a character, the story is presented in that character’s voice, although certain story lines are presented as third-person narration. Of course, the narration and the music can be toggled on and off.

Each chapter, and each character’s story within each chapter, has Sun and Moon icons which add, respectively, textual and visual thematic or evocative elements to the story. They do not necessarily directly relate to the story (the text can often be quite unusual in its source materials: Carl Jung, P.D. Ouspensky, Sun Tzu, Carlos Casteneda, Anaïs Nin, and a recipe for pigeon stew, to name a few) but they add dimension and perspective to the scene. The Moon elements are the most interesting, as these are primarily QuickTime movies and animations that are stunningly created.

Roland, however, was not an easy “read.” The different media elements in Roland often conspired to adversely affect each other, especially if you try to go through the story without missing any links or media elements. The first problem was the text itself, which is displayed in a small, rather squiggly font called Genji. In addition, dialog and hypertext links are expressed with different colored or formatted text, resulting in certain screens with four or five different colors of text, some in boldface, and leaving the reader wondering what he or she should be looking for.

With all of these elements available on the screen, including the Sun and Moon icons, different textual links and the audio soundtrack, as much time is spent making sure you haven’t missed any of the media links as concentrating on the storyline. This is especially tricky if you are trying to follow the emotions and actions of a half dozen characters at once.

The QuickTime movies, however, are superb. The movies in Roland include beautiful scenes, vignettes and animations that are some of the best uses of the QuickTime tools and technology that I have seen. Chapter 3 of the novel consists of a five-minute video depicting Roland’s madness after he has been drugged by an evil (and love-sick) enchantress. The movie mixes original video with classical works of art and special effects to create both the images and sense of Roland’s encroaching insanity.

Roach’s other QuickTime work (including the interactive movies The Wrong Side of Town and Big Warm Bear Arms) has dominated the two industry QuickTime Film and Movie festivals for the past couple of years, garnering numerous accolades and citations, including two “Best of Show” awards.

PROBLEMS ARE MANY FOR MULTIMEDIA NOVEL READER

Multimedia novels are problematic. For one thing, it is very difficult (and often physically painful) to read large amounts of small text on a computer monitor. By the time the book is finished, your eyes feel as if they have been put through a microwave oven. (It would be impossible to complete Roland in one sitting. There are several hours’ worth of material to explore.)

Plus, adding interactive media elements does not always accomplish the intended goal of enriching the story. For example, while the stories were being read aloud, I would stop following the text (as most people read much faster than an actor can recite) and jump ahead to the “hot spots” while the story went on in the background. With this method, I got neither the full benefits of hearing the story, nor did I maintain the concentration necessary to read the text. The result was that it was difficult for the story to hold my attention — there were too many distractions.

Even though The Madness of Roland is a novel, thus by definition, text-based, I found myself wanting to shut my eyes, sit back and listen to the story. I didn’t want to interact; I didn’t want to look for hot spots and buttons. The audio became the most important element on this disc — only I wanted an even richer experience. Chapter 6 of Roland began to approach the experience I was looking for; more extensive use of sounds and effects helped to put the listener on the battlefield or in an army camp. I was amazed at how a few audio elements could evoke so much richer an experience.

While I was listening to the story play out, I wondered about the old radio dramas of the ’40s, when talented actors and writers could create gripping mysteries and romances that captured the imagination solely with voices and sound effects. If you’re not familiar with this genre, think of Orson Welles’ War of the Worlds (which was released as a record album some years back), or listen to the news on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition. It is one of the few radio programs that can still evoke a scene or location through the use of sound — often better than television news.

Not enough multimedia artists are concentrating on audio as an equal part of the media mix. And I’m not talking about some goofy sound effect every time you click your mouse. Sound, done properly, can be more effective, even if not quite as sexy, as video in setting tone and scene.

Despite whatever Roland might be lacking in the audio department, Roach has created an extremely ambitious product. Nothing in Roland is superfluous (except perhaps for the highlighted text that links to asides or a few words of background). Every element, every movie or animation and every image has been very carefully thought out and exceptionally well done; the actors are clearly talented.

It’s probably a little too ambitious, in fact, to expect that a reader of Roland could manage to absorb so much media in one pass through the novel. One might find that going through the story a few times, focusing on different elements — the acting once, the writing and text the next — leads to a fuller experience of the story. The larger question is whether this is what we will eventually want from our interactive fiction. In any case, The Madness of Roland is a fine start on the road to find out.

David Baron