Ergodic
From Videogames & Cyberculture Reference
From Espen Aarseth's Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, ergodic is an adjective describing texts which the reader most perform non-trivial, configurative effort in order to traverse the text.
- During the cybertextual process, the user will have effectuated a semiotic sequence, and this selective movement is a work of physical construction that the various concepts of 'reading' do not account for.
Essentially, ergodic seems to be an evolution of the concept of 'interactivity' which has been so over-used as to become a virtually useless term. The texts themselves have evolved too, where previously, a simple roll-over link which changed one image for another might have been considered interactive, modern cyberculture critics would be unlikely to agree. The concept of ergodics refers to a much more significant kind of influence the user has over the text itself, not just the order it is presented in (as in hypertext) but the construction and content of the text itself.
