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From: neilg@kits.sfu.ca (Neil K. Guy)
Subject: Re: General overview of IF (crosspost)
Message-ID: <neilg.760989888@sfu.ca>
Sender: news@sfu.ca (seymour news)
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
References: <1994Feb9.191001.27959@news.cs.brandeis.edu> <2jcrg7$e64@charlie.socs.uts.EDU.AU>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 1994 18:04:48 GMT
Lines: 46

leroy@socs.uts.EDU.AU (Leroy) writes:

> [...]  Is it 
>Infocom's ubitiquity (or originally, Colossal's Cave's influence on Infocom) 
>that even new TADS games are written in present tense, second
>person:  "You can see <blah>.  You feel <blah>"  (Not to mention 
>having a status line and using ">" for the prompt :)

 As others have pointed out, I think second-person present tense
descriptions are popular because they're a reasonably effective way of
drawing the player in. Admittedly the way this is usually implemented
always seems a bit schizophrenic (to use the word in the popular, not
clinical, sense) but it does seem to generate a bit more player
involvement. Changing tense presents its own problems. Past tense
doesn't work too well as it doesn't fit the model. "The room was dark,
it looked like someone had to get out fast. What did you, the player,
do next?" :) Likewise future: "The alley will be slick with rain and
cold as a tomb. What will you want to do next?"

 Perhaps also there's the feeling that with first and third person
narratives one gets the impression that the computer's a rather stupid
puppet. Somehow responding to "What would you like to do now?" feels a
bit better than "What should I do now?" or "What should Fred do now?"
At least I sort of start wondering, well, why *should* the computer
(or Fred) do what I tell 'em to? If I were them I wouldn't stand for
this sort of bossing around! This sort of tension might be less of a
problem if the story line was written specifically to deal with it,
though; maybe some operative taking orders over the radio is one
model. Infocom's "Suspended", with its six robots, handled this one
beautifully I think. Robots don't talk back and will gladly trundle
off to their own destruction without too many qualms.

 As for the status line, are you referring to the turn counter with
the score in the upper right-hand corner or the player's current
location in the upper left? Personally I find the latter useful and
the former annoying, but that may just be me. :) My game has the time
of day instead of some turn counter, which I feel more comfortable
with. And as for the prompt, well, you need something. I guess the
Infocom > is something of a tradition. Adventure had ? which always
looks ugly to me. You could use the Apple // Applesoft ] prompt or the
* monitor prompt or the common UNIX % prompt. Or maybe a C:> prompt if
you want to be really ugly! :)

 - Neil K.
-- 
  49N 16' 123W 7'  /  Vancouver, BC, Canada  /  n_k_guy@sfu.ca
