Twenty years from now, digital text readers who use e-books to read novels and short stories may not like hypertext fiction because of the bad impression it made in the 1990s with interface issues, how it does not relate to conventional linear readings, and the claim of it changing the way we read; however, today’s “digitalized” generation will be more likely to read hypertext fiction due to their comfort with clicking buttons and downloading books, their desire for the same easy accessibility of reading e-books online, and for their willingness to use digital technology to explore a character or a certain topic within a story.
What I suggest to hypertext fictional authors is that they should put a limit of the amount of hyperlinks that they use in a story. In this case, people will be less likely to get fed up and not understand the story and prevent that “lost” feeling. I know the whole point in reading hypertext fiction is to fully submerge the reader with information as if they are apart of the story, but until that point, authors should give new-hyperlink readers a little bit room to breathe. Once people start getting comfortable reading hyperlinks and being okay for them to get lost in a story, is when hypertext fiction authors should add more reading paths. Plus, everyone loves that satisfaction of finishing something, because every good thing has to come to an end —including a good hypertext fiction.