Alan Kim | The Roanoke Times

Virginia Tech computer science graduate students (from left) Rob Hardy, Michael Ringenbach and Caleb Jones are collaborating on creating an interactive storytelling Web site.

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Check out Multifarion

BLACKSBURG -- Still hunting for that elusive video console to put under the tree?

Three Virginia Tech students are working to provide an alternative to those tedious lines and lotteries.

Michael Ringenbach, Rob Hardy and Caleb Jones, all graduate students in the school's computer science program, hope to engage players in a new, but classic-style, online text-based computer game called "Multifarion."

The game, a takeoff on programs popular before the Internet and Nintendo, blends social-networking and choose-your-own adventure tools. It allows players to not only play games but also create and share their own adventures in user-submitted fictional lands.

"The problem with the gaming industry is games are all about the graphics," Jones said. Although he's well-versed in creating graphics, he said too many people forget the story is essential to making a game.

Rather than blast players with vivid images, Jones and his pals want players to use their imaginations to create a nearly endless interactive fiction game.

The idea sprang from Ringenbach's mind during a class.

He, Hardy and Jones have since spent about six months -- sometimes pulling 14-hour shifts -- working out the game. Jones calls it ambitious, but fun. Although they're all programmers, the students said each offers a specific talent to their gaming effort. Jones adds his graphical touches, creating icons for the site; Ringenbach handles most of the business; and Hardy works with stories and advanced programming.

In the game, players can create a character and take it through a text-based adventure selected from a list of genres. Throughout the adventure, the user will choose its next move. The game's engine then randomly decides the outcome of the player's decision. Users and writers can be ranked and even given game tokens as awards.

By tapping into a niche market and using the popularity of social networking to gain a following, Ringenbach wants the game to eventually grow their small business, Multifarion Studios Inc. If they gain enough users, some people might pay for premium services, such as a desktop tool or no ads on the site, he said.

The game site is free to users and is supported by advertisements. The creators don't expect it to take off immediately, but they would like to see about 100 users in the first month.

Steve Meretzky, a text-based gaming pioneer, works for Massachusetts-based Blue Fang Games, the company that created the "Zoo Tycoon" games.

Meretzky said he thinks the heyday of games such as "Multifarion" is long gone and that he hasn't seen a commercial venture of the like for more than a decade.

Still, hobbyists and programmers fill a growing niche with games such as "Kingdom of Loathing" and graphically spruced up but similar games such as "World of Warcraft."

In the early 1980s, Meretzky said he worked with gaming company Infocom, which helped jump-start games such as "Zork." It was one of the most popular text-based games of its time, netting thousands of players.

"Text-based games allow for individual authorship," he said. During the height of their popularity, players applauded the way the games made them think, he said.

"It creates a far more natural and a far more vivid landscape than the usual graphics," Meretzky said.

"Multifarion" players will be able to share information and amass "friends," activities that long ago were virtually impossible, thanks to Internet message boards and the like, Ringenbach said.

"I loathe MySpace, even though I have one," he said. "MySpace is just a place to hang out."

Instead, Ringenbach said he prefers a more creative outlet.

But part of "Multifarion's" success will build on that concept. Gaming networks lend themselves to creative thinking and more game variation, the group said.

Because game writers talk to each other, they'll know what adventures are lacking and which ones are better to play. That means a larger array of games.

The game is functional online now but still needs a few add-ons.

And, while it's not likely to become a phenomenon, "If you would have asked me five years ago, I would have said the same thing about MySpace," Meretzky said.