Photopia is a piece of literature by Adam Cadre rendered in the form of Interactive Fiction. It is effective in part because it subverts the expectation that one has upon encountering a piece of IF: that your actions will have consequences. Photopia is puzzle-less and linear, allowing the player no way to alter the (negative) ending, while presenting the illusion of puzzles and of non-linearity. Viewed in isolation, to someone who has never played IF, this makes it pointless ("couldn't it have been written on paper to just as much effect?"); to IF veterans, it gives horrendous and deeply felt weight to some of the story's motifs -- questions of free-will and determinism.
