Judith Pintar

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Judith Pintar is a sociologist and author of interactive fiction. [1] As the Director of the Game Studies and Design Program, she teaches game studies, narrative design, and Southeastern European Studies at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. [2]

Contents

She is also a Celtic harp player and a composer of instrumental music, performing her albums that combine harp music and storytelling internationally.

Biography and Career

Pintar received a master's degree in Anthropology and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) with a concentration in science and technology studies, and an area focus on the former Yugoslavia. Currently she is Teaching Associate Professor and Acting BS/IS Program Director at the UIUC School of Information Sciences, [3] as well as a faculty affiliate at the Illinois Informatics Institute where she teaches the design and programming of Interactive Fiction. [4] She was noted as one of 54 instructors ranked as excellent in Spring 2024. [5]

Works

Interactive fiction

In 1991, Pintar wrote and designed CosmoServe, using an early game design system for interactive fictio n (IF), Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT) developed by Mark Welch and David Malmberg. This game simulates the interface of Compuserve Information Service (CIS), the first major online service provider before and during the early years of the World Wide Web. [6] The game won the 5th Annual Softworks AGT game-writing contest in 1991. [7] The following year, 1992, she organized a team of Compuserve Gamer's Forum members and was the principal designer for creating Shades of Gray: an Adventure in Black and White. [8] This game won the 6th Annual AGT contest in the group category. [9] Shades of Gray is “generally considered the finest AGT game of all time.” [10] The collaborative authorship of the game is referenced as an example of the kinds of creative possibilities that emerged within the early online IF community. [11] [12] Both games were published in a book and CD by David Gerrold, Fatal Distractions: 87 Of the Very Best Ways to Get Beaten, Eaten, Maimed, and Mauled on Your PC, (Waite Group, 1994). [13]

Non-fiction work

With psychologist Steven J. Lynn, she co-authored Hypnosis: A brief history. [14] This multidisciplinary work covers the history of hypnosis as well as the current contexts and controversies for its practice. [15]

Critical Studies

Her critical works include:

Pintar, J. & S.J. Lynn. 2008. Hypnosis: A brief history. Oxford: Blackwell-Wiley.

Pintar, J. 2020. The Valley Between Us: Narrative manipulation and information bias in the racial segregation of Milwaukee. In W. Aspray and M. Ocepek (Eds.), Deciding Where to Live: Information Studies on Where to Live in America. (pp. 177-210). Rowman & Littlefield. This anthology explores how media and information technology shape housing choices and cultural understanding. [16]

Pintar, J. 2021. Stories from the Other Notebook: The poetics of encounter in post-war Croatia. In W. Leggett and I.F. Leggett (Eds.), Field Stories: Teaching the Relevance of Anthropology in the 21st Century. (pp. 23-38). Lexington Press.

Pintar, J. 2022. Not Your Grandmother’s Family Tree: Technology-mediated kinship & practices of privacy in genetic-genealogy networks. In W. Aspray (Ed.), Information Issues for Older Americans. (pp. 221-246). Rowman & Littlefield.

Pintar, J. & D. Hopping. 2023. Information Sciences: The basics. Oxford: Routledge. [17]

Pintar, J. 2023. Invisible, Aesthetic, and Enrolled Listeners across Storytelling Modalities: Immersive preference as situated player type. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. [18]

Pintar, J. & L. Bievenue. 2024. Playful by Design: A third space community of practice for game studies & design. International Journal of Games and Social Impact. 2(1), 8-27.

Discography and Music

Music and performance

One of the first musicians signed by the New Age record label Narada Productions in the 1980s, Pintar released three recordings of original music for Celtic harp on their Sona Gaia imprint. [19] Selected compositions were also included on several Narada compilations. [20] Her recordings are now owned and distributed by Universal Music Group.

Pintar performed internationally during the 1980s as a harp player and storyteller. [21] Her popular non-fiction book, The Halved Soul: Retelling the Myths of Romantic Love, [22] and the liner notes on her albums and CDs, incorporated stories and poetry that were originally performed.

Solo recordings

Compilation appearances

Related Research Articles

Interactive fiction (IF) is software simulating environments in which players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the form of Interactive narratives or Interactive narrations. These works can also be understood as a form of video game, either in the form of an adventure game or role-playing game. In common usage, the term refers to text adventures, a type of adventure game where the entire interface can be "text-only", however, graphical text adventure games, where the text is accompanied by graphics still fall under the text adventure category if the main way to interact with the game is by typing text. Some users of the term distinguish between interactive fiction, known as "Puzzle-free", that focuses on narrative, and "text adventures" that focus on puzzles.

Inform is a programming language and design system for interactive fiction originally created in 1993 by Graham Nelson. Inform can generate programs designed for the Z-code or Glulx virtual machines. Versions 1 through 5 were released between 1993 and 1996. Around 1996, Nelson rewrote Inform from first principles to create version 6. Over the following decade, version 6 became reasonably stable and a popular language for writing interactive fiction. In 2006, Nelson released Inform 7, a completely new language based on principles of natural language and a new set of tools based around a book-publishing metaphor.

Adam Cadre is an American writer active in a number of forms—novels, screenplays, webcomics, essays—but best known for his work in interactive fiction.

<i>Photopia</i> 1998 video game

Photopia is a piece of literature by Adam Cadre rendered in the form of interactive fiction, and written in Inform. It has received both praise and criticism for its heavy focus on fiction rather than on interactivity. It won first place in the 1998 Interactive Fiction Competition. Photopia has few puzzles and a linear structure, allowing the player no way to alter the eventual conclusion but maintaining the illusion of non-linearity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Plotkin</span> Interactive fiction programmer and writer

Andrew Plotkin, also known as Zarf, is a central figure in the modern interactive fiction (IF) community. Having both written a number of award-winning games and developed a range of new file formats, interpreters, and other utilities for the design, production, and running of IF games, Plotkin is widely recognised for both his creative and his technical contributions to the homebrew IF scene.

The XYZZY Awards are the annual awards given to works of interactive fiction, serving a similar role to the Academy Awards for film. The awards were inaugurated in 1997 by Eileen Mullin, the editor of XYZZYnews. Any game released during the year prior to the award ceremony is eligible for nomination to receive an award. The decision process takes place in two stages: members of the interactive fiction community nominate works within specific categories and sufficiently supported nominations become finalists within those categories. Community members then vote among the finalists, and the game receiving a plurality of votes is given the award in an online ceremony.

<i>Blue Chairs</i> 2004 video game

Blue Chairs is an interactive fiction game by American author Chris Klimas.

<i>Slouching Towards Bedlam</i> 2003 video game

Slouching Towards Bedlam is an interactive fiction game that won the first place in the 2003 Interactive Fiction Competition. It is a collaboration between American authors Daniel Ravipinto and Star Foster. Slouching Towards Bedlam was finalist for eight 2003 XYZZY Awards, winning four: Best Game, Setting, Story, and Individual NPC. The game takes place in a steampunk Victorian era setting. Its title is inspired by a line from "The Second Coming", a poem by W. B. Yeats.

<i>Spellbreaker</i> 1985 video game

Spellbreaker is an interactive fiction video game written by Dave Lebling and published by Infocom in 1985, the third and final game in the "Enchanter Trilogy." It was released for the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Apple II, Atari 8-bit computers, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Classic Mac OS, and MS-DOS. Infocom's nineteenth game, Spellbreaker is rated "Expert" difficulty.

The Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT) is a development system for text based adventure games.

<i>Plundered Hearts</i> 1987 video game

Plundered Hearts is an interactive fiction video game created by Amy Briggs and published by Infocom in 1987. Infocom's only game in the romance genre, it was released simultaneously for the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit computers, Atari ST, Amiga, Mac, and MS-DOS. It is Infocom's 28th game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Short</span> Interactive fiction writer

Emily Short is an interactive fiction (IF) writer. From 2020 to 2023, she was creative director of Failbetter Games, the studio behind Fallen London and its spinoffs.

Jon Ingold is a British author of interactive fiction and co-founder of inkle, where he co-directed and co-wrote 80 Days, and wrote Heaven's Vault and Overboard!. His interactive fiction has frequently been nominated for XYZZY Awards and has won on multiple occasions, including Best Game, Best Story and Best Setting awards for All Roads in 2001. Ingold's works are notable for their attention to the levels of knowledge that the player and player character have of the in-game situation, with the effect often depending on a player who understands more than the character or vice versa. Ingold has also written a number of plays, short stories and novels.

<i>Anchorhead</i> 1998 video game

Anchorhead is a Lovecraftian horror interactive fiction game, originally written and published by Michael S. Gentry in 1998. The game is heavily inspired by the works and writing style of H.P. Lovecraft, particularly the Cthulhu mythos.

<i>Jigsaw</i> (video game) 1995 interactive fiction computer game

Jigsaw is an interactive fiction (IF) game, written by Graham Nelson in 1995.

Amy Ruth Briggs is an American video game implementor known for creating Plundered Hearts, an interactive fiction computer game published by Infocom in 1987.

<i>Aisle</i> (video game) 1999 video game

Aisle is a 1999 interactive fiction video game whose major innovation is to allow only a single move and offer from it over a hundred possible outcomes. It is notable for introducing and popularizing the one move genre.

<i>Cryptozookeeper</i> 2011 interactive fiction video game

Cryptozookeeper is an interactive fiction game written and self-published by American developer Robb Sherwin in 2011. Cryptozookeeper was written in the cross-platform language Hugo and runs on Windows, Macintosh OS-X, and Linux computers. Cryptozookeeper was released under a Creative Commons license and contains more than 12 hours of game play.

The Interactive Fiction Technology Foundation (IFTF) is a nonprofit charitable organization founded in June 2016 working to maintain, improve, and preserve tools and services used in the creation and distribution of interactive fiction.

References

  1. ↑ Doug Atkinson. "Character Gender in Interactive Fiction". XYZZYNews. Archived from the original on 18 July 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  2. ↑ "Judith Pintar". ischool.illinois.edu. 2024-09-09. Retrieved 2024-12-29.
  3. ↑ "iSchool at Illinois, Judith Pintar" . Retrieved 24 April 2020.
  4. ↑ "Judith Pintar's Reading List: Interactive Fiction" . Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  5. ↑ "iSchool instructors ranked as excellent". ischool.illinois.edu. Retrieved 2024-12-29.
  6. ↑ Graham Nelson. "Inform Designer's Manual" . Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  7. ↑ "Softworks AGT Contest 1991" . Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  8. ↑ "» A Conversation with Judith Pintar The Digital Antiquarian" . Retrieved 2024-12-29.
  9. ↑ "Softworks AGT Contest 1992" . Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  10. ↑ Jimmy Maher. "A History of Interactive Fiction, Chapter 8" . Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  11. ↑ Nick Montfort and Emily Short (2011). "Interactive Fiction Communities: Through Preservation to something and beyond". Dichtung Digital Journal für Kunst und Kultur digitaler Medien. Retrieved 30 May 2016.[ permanent dead link ]
  12. ↑ Nick Montfort (2005). Twisty Little Passages: An Approach to Interactive Fiction. MIT Press. p. 197.
  13. ↑ David Gerrold (1994). Fatal Distractions: 87 Of the Very Best Ways to Get Beaten, Eaten, Maimed, and Mauled on Your PC. Waite Group Press. ISBN   9781878739773.
  14. ↑ Judith Pintar and Steven J. Lynn (2008). Hypnosis: A Brief History. Oxford: Blackwell-Wiley. ISBN   9781444305302 . Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  15. ↑ "Hypnosis: A Brief History (Blackwell Brief Histories of Psychology #8) (Paperback) | Subterranean Books". store.subbooks.com. Retrieved 2024-12-29.
  16. ↑ Deciding Where to Live: Information Studies on Where to Live in America. Roman & Littlefield. October 2020. ISBN   978-1-5381-3969-1.
  17. ↑ "Information Science : The Basics". Taylor & Francis. 2022-12-30. doi:10.4324/9781003155119/information-science-judith-pintar-david-hopping. Archived from the original on 2024-07-08.
  18. ↑ Pintar, Judith (2023-10-21). "Invisible, aesthetic, and enrolled listeners across storytelling modalities: Immersive preference as situated player type". Convergence: 13548565231206505. doi:10.1177/13548565231206505. ISSN   1354-8565.
  19. ↑ Patti Jea Birosik (1989). The New Age Music Guide: Profiles and Recordings of 500 Top New Age Musicians. Collier Books. p. 143. ISBN   9780020416401.
  20. ↑ "FolkLib Index - Wisconsin Harp Musicians" . Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  21. ↑ C.E. Forman. "An interview with CosmoServe's Judith Pintar". XYZZYNews. Archived from the original on 18 July 2013. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
  22. ↑ Judith Pintar (1993). The Halved Soul: Retelling the Myths of Romantic Love. Harper San Francisco. Retrieved 30 May 2016.
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