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From: wsr+@CS.CMU.EDU (William S Reilly)
Subject: Re: To Plot or not to Plot? (LONG)
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References: <1994Jan10.101240.9851@netnews.wku.edu> <CJFuEx.94w@world.std.com> <1994Jan11.145828.9898@netnews.wku.edu>
Date: Wed, 12 Jan 1994 18:57:18 GMT
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In article <1994Jan11.145828.9898@netnews.wku.edu>, mollems@wkuvx1.wku.edu (Molley the Mage) writes:
|> My comment about the Oz Project was only
|> half in jest -- they are trying to build more "plotless" IF,
|> concentrating on the world rather than a contrived "story".

You seem to have gotten a mistaken view of what the Oz project is
doing.  We are very much interested in creating interactive stories
that have plots.  In fact, we are hoping to create worlds with more 
plot than exists in much current IF work.  For example, forcing a 
player to solve a sequence of puzzles each of which allows the 
completion of the next puzzle is OK, but a plot that has a shape 
similar to that of a typical novel (rising action leading to a climax 
followed by a relaxing of tension) and that is driven by interactions 
with interesting characters instead of physical puzzles seems like it
would be much more interesting.

Our work in this area is still very much in progress.  The plot of 
most Oz worlds is currently either enforced by the physical world (as 
is the case in all current IF that I am aware of(*)) or does not exist.  
The worlds without plots have been designed for demo purposes, so that 
we can show off other aspects of the project (in particular, our work 
in creating interesting characters) but are not supposed to represent 
our final goal.  One goal for our next demo system is to take advantage 
of some of the work in plot that has been done so far.

Oh, I agree with pretty much everything else you have said in this
discussion concerning plot in IF!

Scott

(*) What I mean when I say that plot is enforced by the physical world
is that the ordering of events/scenes is (partially) ordered by elements
of the physical environment.  These elements can include characters as
well as object-based puzzles.  Our goal is to have a separate system that
has an explicit notion of the story's plot and what makes a good experience
for a player and then have this system make subtle adjustments to the
world as necessary to keep the player having an interesting experience.
These adjustments to the world could include things like: moving an 
important object when the player isn't looking to make it more likely to 
be found, changing the goal another character is pursuing, or even changing 
the way a room is described to highten tension or to draw attention to a 
particular object in the room.
