Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uunet!world!tob
From: tob@world.std.com (Tom O Breton)
Subject: Re: To Plot or not to Plot?
Message-ID: <CJJyD2.Byx@world.std.com>
Reply-To: tob@world.std.com
Organization: BREnterprises
References: <1994Jan11.145828.9898@netnews.wku.edu>
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 1994 05:10:13 GMT
X-Posted-By: My own casual posting program
Lines: 39

mollems@wkuvx1.wku.edu (Molley the Mage) writes:
> Do you think a game like _Trinity_ was written slapdash, with no idea
> of plot?

You seem convinced that that is synonymous. IMO the two have little to
do with each other.

> What I mean is that if you don't know what kind of game you want to
> write and what you want the story to be about before you start writing,

There is obviously some great semantic confusion here, because I
wouldn't call either of those elements "plot". To me they are named
"genre" and "theme". (This is established usage in literature.)

> "Isn't having a 'plot' throwing away 90% of the power?"  Huh?  What
> would you like to substitute?

  and again

> What are you going to substitute for plot?  Answer me that.

This seems to be a continuing assumption of yours, and frankly I can't
make head or tail out of it. Why would I substitute anything at all for
it? In an interactive medium, IMO it's an unhelpful, if not backwards,
technique. Why should I substitute another way of "puppetizing" the
player?


In summary: We are obviously not talking about the same thing.

I already made clear what I'm talking about and it's consonant with the
way the terms are generally used in literary criticism. So how about
telling me what you're talking about?

        Tom

-- 
Having finished it's [sic] evil speech, the Tom spreads it's scaly
wings and soars away...  (tob@world.std.com, TomBreton@delphi.com)
