Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uunet!munnari.oz.au!bruce.cs.monash.edu.au!labtam!philip
From: philip@labtam.labtam.oz.au (Philip Stephens)
Subject: Re: Are text games male oriented?
Organization: Labtam Australia Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, Australia
Date: Mon, 8 Nov 1993 22:08:08 GMT
Message-ID: <1993Nov8.220808.18948@labtam.labtam.oz.au>
Lines: 77

Bob Newell writes:

>Further clarification to my initial posting:
>3. Some of our collaboration broke down when she insisted on about three
>screens of description for each room.  We cannot reach good agreement on
>playability vs. prose content and quantity.

  I can see that three screens of description for each room would be a bit
much, even for a book (!), but I for one would enjoy playing a text adventure
whose room descriptions were more than a couple of lines each.  I remember
when I first played Zork: the description of the cliff top near the rainbow
was quite breath-taking and majestic.  If all rooms had been described like
that, it would have added another dimension to the game.
  This is particularly relevant when you consider how many of Infocom's games
had lots of rooms that served no purpose other than decoration--wouldn't it
have been better if they were more interesting to look at on your way through
the first time?  I've always felt so.  With the extra memory available for
the new breed of IF games, why not take the opportunity to add the extra
detail?
  I know some people don't like reading lots of text when playing an IF game,
but I for one do :-)

>5. Her premises reduce to:
>  5.1 Puzzles are boring if presented outside of some larger context and if
>      not made sufficiently interesting by a well-described, sensually
>      complete setting.

  I agree with this premise.  Puzzles can appear sterile without the addition
of some atmosphere.  Not only is the setting important, but the responses you
get from your initial probing for a solution.  For instance, if you have a
door to open, instead of just saying "The door is locked" when you first try
to open it, the game ought to say something like "You pull and tug until
you're almost blue in the face, but finally it becomes obvious that nothing
as simple as opening the door is going to work.  You feel rather foolish and
wonder what kind of lock the door has".  Anything to spark the interest of
the player to actually try and solve the puzzle.
  (For us seasoned adventurers, it would seem unnecessary to bother with this
kind of response, but for the novice may make the game more intriguing).

>  5.3 (Here is where I-F and static fiction diverge, of course) I-F should
>      complete in its descriptions of objects and settings; the prose should
>      be similar to that in a novel; and the plot should have a variety of
>      interests to appeal to a wide range of players/readers.

  I think this is a direction that IF should be taking.  I'm currently working
my way through the Lost Treasures collection, and I have to say that the games
I've enjoyed the most are the ones that have paid a lot of attention to detail
and atmosphere.  The opening scenes of _Moonmist_, for instance, are far more
impressive than the opening of _Zork_ ("You are standing next to a white house
in a field").
  
  Another point she made which I thought was very true was the fact that most
IF games don't recognise all of the nouns appearing in a room description.
This has been a source of annoyance to me since I started playing IF games:
often there will be an object or two tucked away in the room description which
is important to the game, but the only way to find this out is to examine
everything in the room, and getting lots of "I don't know the word 'book'" or
"That is not important, leave it alone" messages destroys the illusion of
being in a virtual reality.
  Okay, so originally the Infocom games had to fit in 128K and hence objects
that weren't important were ignored.  But today, there is really no excuse for
_any_ object to be ignored.  If nothing else, they should be examinable and
perhaps even takable, and if possible be used for something (however
inconsequential).
  A side effect of doing this is that future adventurers will not be fooled
into thinking that every object that can be examined is actually important to
the game, and hence won't get so annoyed at "red herrings" (I fell into that
trap myself when playing _Planetfall_!).  And let's face it, it only requires
e little bit more effort to ensure that every noun found in a room description
has a corresponding object!

  Anyway, that's my contribution to this discussion :-)
-- 
| Philip Stephens, Systems Programmer. | "Many views yield the truth.         |
| Address:  43 Malcolm Road, Braeside, |  Therefore, be not alone."           |
|           Victoria, 3195, AUSTRALIA. |                                      |
| Internet: philip@labtam.labtam.oz.au |    -- Prime Song of the Viggies      | 
