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From: aa382@Freenet.carleton.ca (Marc Sira)
Subject: Re: How do you write Romantic I-F ?
Message-ID: <1993Feb13.072843.22119@freenet.carleton.ca>
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Reply-To: aa382@Freenet.carleton.ca (Marc Sira)
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References: <10695692@MVB.SAIC.COM> <10671600@MVB.SAIC.COM> <10640430@MVB.SAIC.COM> <1993Feb11.095808.11529@nuscc.nus.sg>
Date: Sat, 13 Feb 1993 07:28:43 GMT
Lines: 40


In a previous article, Whitten@Fwva.Saic.Com (David Whitten) says:

>Okay, this is one of the crucial ideas I have so far.  The normal one
>dimensional space adventure games I have seen so far can be laid out as a map
>with circles representing places and lines representing doors or directions.
> 
>Within the two dimensional system I'm envisioning, the first dimension would
>be this same physical map.  The second dimension is one where the circles
>correspond to plot goals, and the lines correspond to actions that the
>player can do to 'move the plot' along.  Of course, retracing your steps
> (going south after having gone north) in this second dimension means that
>you undo the effect of something you did do before. (Break up with someone
>after asking them to marry you?)

Ok...I think I see...interesting. You're saying the second dimension
represents a sort of collage of states that the player is certainly in
("status")? In a way, this is reinterpreting state variables to some
degree...hmm...an example that occurs to me is:

The player enters a room with a steak in it...if the character hasn't eaten
recently, she sees "a delicious steak" - if she has, merely "a steak". (The
same could apply to a love-starved character. ;)

Thus hunger is one dimension on the map.

_Journey_ may have had something like what you describe; you proceeded along
the plot dimension to the end, but you could be at a variety of ordinal
positions when you got there.

Or have I misinterpreted?
-- 
Marc Sira                    |
toh@micor.ocunix.on.ca       |  "Your god drinks...p-p-peach nectar!"
aa382@freenet.carleton.ca    '
