23 Going on Eternity

[Roy Janik]

I cobbled together this thing a while back, in 2005.


Wes, myself, and others used to run an online literary magazine called 23goe, which stood for 23 Going on Eternity. Our hopes were that it would be a place for people to experiment with writing fiction in cyberspace: hyperlinked fiction, interaction fiction, etc, etc... Mainly, though, the submissions we got were from college students looking to see their stuff put up somewhere. Anything experimental was mainly done by Wes or myself. After 3 issues or so, it sort of died out.

But I have the domain name. So I made this little application that will let you write stories that branch out into many and asundry pathways.

At any point in the story, there are zero or more possible "next sentences". They are displayed in gray.
Clicking on one will turn it black, and remove the unchosen choices.
Then the possible sentences following the chosen senence are displayed in gray.
At any point you can back track by clicking on a previously selected sentence.
Clicking on the 23goe logo or the 'top' link will take you back to the very beginning.
At any point in the story you can add a sentence by typing in the input box.
This will add the sentence to the currently shown 'possible choices.'

Anyhow, give it a whirl. It should be fairly self-explanatory.

Oh, and you can name yourself by typing My name is YOURNAME, where YOURNAME is your name.

http://www.23goe.com

[exquisitezombie]

that is awesome!

[Asaf]

I was talking to someone recently about doing the same thing but with short films. A core group of people would make a series of short 3-5 minute films. People could then branch off of one of those films by making their own. It could follow one of the characters of the film, be inspired thematically, do a response, etc. people could then branch off of that film as well. It would result in this endless connection of stories.

[shando]

I was talking to someone recently about doing the same thing but with short films. A core group of people would make a series of short 3-5 minute films. People could then branch off of one of those films by making their own. It could follow one of the characters of the film, be inspired thematically, do a response, etc. people could then branch off of that film as well. It would result in this endless connection of stories.

All of this is awesome.

[Zach]

Cool.

I really want to try this.

[exquisitezombie]

I also really want to try this. And soon. And then when we've filmed enough, we can make an interactive, choose-your-own adventure movie! Pipe-dream -- or vision of the future? Who wants to start next week?

[exquisitezombie]

Ok, how 'bout starting the filming in May? Eh? Anybody? Anybody got a camera and some time? I sure do . . . in May, at least.

Also, I made a wiki a while back for creating an actual text adventure game . . . http://www.ferstenfeld.com/mediawiki/in ... e=The_text

I added the "You just died. What now?" thread to 23goe and I like where it's been going

Once we've got enough juice, I'll program some shit.

[Roy Janik]

Someone was very very busy on http://23goe.com over the weekend. They added over 300 lines.

Here's a sample, mildly disgusting path:

So friggin awesome.
My junk is so friggin awesome.
It's in my friggin trunk.
I got so much junk in my friggin trunk.
A lot of it is fat, I'll admit.
But a lot of it ISN'T fat. A lot of the friggin junk in my trunk is friggin muscle.
But some of the junk in my trunk is only temporary junk, which I unload every friggin day.
I like the feeling of unloading the kind of junk in my trunk that makes me feel pressure in my tummy.
Usually it's after I've had two cups of coffee in the morning, I feel this enormous pressure from the friggin junk in my trunk.
And I stop at the back gate and I turn and look to make sure no one is looking at me.
And I go through that back gate and into the back lot, a vacant lot full of trees and unmanicured shrubbage.
So I'm bushwacking my way through the back lot.
Until I've made it to my pile.
So friggin awesome.
I pull down my pants.
Then I pull down my drawers.
And all this while, the temporary junk in my trunk has been inflating and putting pressure on my other organs.
I'm talking about my intestines, and my stomach, my lungs, and my heart.
I have to do something or I'll certainly die.
So with my friggin drawers pulled down I'm ready.
I close my eyes.
And I bend over with my anal opening pointing towards the enormous stack, the topheavy, leaning mass
My legs bend slightly at the knee and I bounce once and shift my feet to get into super-ready position.
And I wipe my forhead with my purple wrist-sweatband.
And I kiss my James Avery crucifix that hangs from my silver chain.
And I mouth the words, "Hail Millie, full of Grace..."
And I tap my left eyebrow three times, then pull on my left ear once, then squench my nose up two times: a signal I devised with my children back home.
This lets them know that what I'm about to do is dedicated to their memory.
Why did they have to grow up so fast, grow old, become widowers, and die of old age before their father?
Their grandchildren, MY great-grandchildren are already almost as old as I am.
If only they knew the secret, as I do...
They'd never have gotten old so quickly.
Gosh, why didn't I decide to tell them?
It's too late now, isn't it?

[exquisitezombie]

So friggin awesome.
My junk is so friggin awesome.

I know whose junk this is. And it is friggin awesome:

Everyone, this is Todd.
http://me-and-todd.blogspot.com

Todd, this is everyone.

[exquisitezombie]

Anybody else see this neat thingy?
http://www.humanbraincloud.com/

[Jeff]

I was talking to someone recently about doing the same thing but with short films. A core group of people would make a series of short 3-5 minute films. People could then branch off of one of those films by making their own. It could follow one of the characters of the film, be inspired thematically, do a response, etc. people could then branch off of that film as well. It would result in this endless connection of stories.

I realize it's not the same thing, but back in '97 I programmed and participated in (as filmmaker and actor) an Exquisite Corpse film event. We allowed each previous filmmaker to reveal the last 10 seconds of his or her film to the next filmmaker. Some of the films borrowed actors or props or sets from the previous film, and sometimes a fluid thematic wipe was made using original images. The screening was so fun for everybody, but especially for the filmmakers who got to see how their film linked in with the others and the larger "story."
Yeah, guys, seriously, let's do this kinda stuff.

[exquisitezombie]

hey roy! does 23goe still exist somewhere?

[Roy Janik]

Apparently not. I had an idea to re-implement it, but I have not quite yet.

[exquisitezombie]

let me know if you need some help