Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
From: james@wonder.demon.co.uk (James Wallis)
Path: gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!uknet!demon!wonder.demon.co.uk!james
Subject: Re: First Person adventure games?
References: <neilg.753649969@sfu.ca> <CGq557.38s@world.std.com> <CGv78o.LI0@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz>
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Date: Mon, 22 Nov 1993 01:34:59 +0000
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In article <CGv78o.LI0@cantua.canterbury.ac.nz> greg@huia.canterbury.ac.nz (Greg Ewing) writes:
> Another possible use for the first-person mode:
> 
> Does anyone remember the TV series called (as far as I remember)
> "Search", in which there was an undercover agent in communication
> with headquarters by video, due to a camera hidden in his ring.
> 
> That kind of scenario could translate very well into an IF story,
> where you are the commander giving orders to the agent. If the
> link is audio-only, it becomes very naturally text-based as well.
> 
> The style of player would need to be somewhat different in some
> cases. E.g. it would make sense for the player to ask the agent
> questions:
> 
>       > Where are you?
> 
>       I'm in what looks like a deserted warehouse. It's fairly
>       dark, and it's full of large packing crates.
> 
>       > Can you hear anything?
> 
>       I can hear a rustling sound... It seems to be coming from
>       somewhere up in the rafters.
> 
>       > Can you see any way of getting up there?
> 
>       Yes, there's a ladder attached to the wall.
> 
>       > Climb the ladder.
> 
> Etc... Could pose some interesting problems in natural language
> parsing that IF hasn't tackled before.

Plus also the problem of believability -- somehow "There's a guard ahead of
me. He's spotted me and is about to shoot me" loses the dramatic tension it
ought to have. On the other hand, if you could build some personality into
the person who's supposed to be reporting back to you, that could be very
amusing: tell him to climb one too many electric fences and he'll quit on 
you, or drop his microphone into a tank of piranha or something.

-- 
James Wallis
(james@wonder.demon.co.uk++++Writer/Editor++++The Wonderful Pig of Knowledge)
sez: There is good sex and there is bad sex but chocolate is always chocolate

