In Myst and Riven, we are in richly detailed worlds, exploring and looking for clues and hints that reveal more of the story and allow us further into the game. Myst and Riven thrive in setting. The worlds and the atmosphere created within these worlds are paramount. Next comes theme, an implicit need to carefully explore these worlds. Mostly you are alone, wandering through these worlds trying to piece together the story. Outside of a magnificently persistent atmosphere and sense of exploration, there are very few ups and downs and points beyond just exploring more and unraveling more story as you solve more puzzles. And so the story is truly one where you are the driver. It does not proceed without you there unraveling it. You learn more about Myst and Riven as you make your way deeper into the worlds.
But Ultima Online shows another facet of setting. Whereas Myst and Riven have a community that has formed around the games to help each other play them fully, Ultima Online has a community within it. Ultima Online is an internet-based game that allows thousands of people to play together, each from their own unique perspectives, interacting with each other within the world of Brittania. You develop your chareacter in this dungeons & dragons fantasy world.
And MitterNachtSpiel is unlike the others in that it is a much more abstract and artistic environment. It is heavy on theme and setting. You are playfully performing a theatrical piece with a moonlit cast of characters. These characters are iconic to the point of abstraction. You see them in a scene and then you see a scene in them. It is a story so simple (playing with the moon and friends) yet so surreal, seeing how recursive iterations of images and sounds associate and interweave.
And these are only three examples of the possibilities of this new medium we are exploring. The foregrounding of the narrative elements has more to do with the authors of the texts and less to do with the medium itself. These hypermedia objects of study may have foregrounded setting, but hypermedia is capable of having the other elements highlighted. With hypermedia, readers are virtually placed within the story itself. You are immersed within the story. And when you are online, you are immersed with other people as well. You have to act and play, by yourself or with others, within the stories in order to experience the narratives.
