Vulnerability

The most jarring aspect of Untrace, stands in its vulnerability, in the lack of control and of choice. Within the first two minutes of playing, a list of names and dates appear on the screen. It is not explicit what prompt pops up for the reader to insert their name on an unfamiliar screen when they don’t know anything about the narrator. At the start, you
are asked if you would like to leave a trace, but you have no control over the answer. If you try clicking “Refuse,” it automatically moves your mouse over to the accept button and clicks it for you (see right).

Not Alone

The reader is suspicious of entering their name because that means they will and are being traced, and it only gets more intrusive from there. The next prompts the reader to enter a memory at school, and the next offers to take a picture from your webcam, the most visual and highly personal trace: a selfie. Behind this screen with the camera though, the player can see other peoples pictures from laptop cameras, slightly burred in the background of your own picture-taking indulgence. With these pictures and the list of the last 34 previous players, the reader realizes they are not alone in this helpless feeling. I thought, everyone else experienced the same powerlessness and lack of choice that I did, so although I played it alone, I feel connected to the past player that also didn’t have a choice in whether or not to leave a trace or not. In reality, you have the choice whether or not to leave something behind or to “disappear and leave nothing behind. In the game, however, you truly don’t have a choice because if you refuse to enter your name or message, you cannot move onto the rest of the work. You are left powerless.

 

Helpless together

Interestingly, the narrator is also helpless in part of the story. Speaking through the screen, they struggle between their desire to leave a trace and the wish to disappear without a single one. The tables turn to the narrator relying on the reader to aid them in tracing their past, their traces. At one point the narrator says, “I would like to find traces of my past. ... Through traces left by others’ past lives.” This reveals that the player/reader doesn’t simply exist experience the electronic literature; they are also there to aid the narrator in recollecting their memories, and underneath, to do the same for the reader. The player learns that the narrator is just as powerless as they are, but both have the power to learn from the other. The player trusts that their information won't be sold to some third party, and the speaker desperately reaches out to find their traces.