Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!nntp.gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!spool.mu.edu!agate!iat.holonet.net!htsinc!dan.lyke
From: dan.lyke@htsinc.com
Subject: RE: SIMULATIONS
Message-ID: <9406020343.A6413wk@htsinc.com>
Organization: HTS - Putting Chattanooga On-Line 615-267-1562
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Distribution: world
Date: Thu, 02 Jun 94 03:43:06 
Lines: 64



 > My question is: who buys all these SF/Fantasy books?  Why don't they 
 > buy text games?  Is there something inherently annoying about reading 
 > text on a screen that puts these people off?  Do they not know that
 > such games exists?  Is it price?  Is it that text games don't have
 > the literary credibility that books do, because most of them are silly?

Literary credibility of, say, Piers Anthony? I've been following the newsgroup
for a while because I see some of what I want to do artistically starting to
happen, and I think those in here are the most on track.

(However, I haven't read this closely enough or long enough for my usual
waiting period before posting, so please bear with slips of topic or
background)

The main reason I read voraciously and don't play much in the way of IF
(besides the fact that it's damned hard to hold the monitor over my head and
type while I'm lying in bed) is that most of the games I ran into in the early
days were more along the lines of figuring out what route through the universe
the author of the adventure wanted you to follow rather than exploring a
universe that could have multiple paths.

Most of my experience wwas win the Zork era, which were the last games I really
got hooked on (tells ya how long it was), and they all gave me the impression
of "Whoops, you couldn't figure out the exact wording that the author wanted,
you're at a dead-end". Playing the game became as much hexdumping the data
files trying to figure out just what the bloody verb was that you were supposed
type at that point.

The Infocom games I saw after that were of the same nature. There was that one
about being frozen and then coming to to run the city. Heck, gimme the controls
and let me figure out how to work them, don't play silly games with me making
me figure out how to work the friggin' robots to work the controls. There was
too much indirection and too much "Aren't we clever" by the authors for me to
enjoy the story.

If you want to catch my attention, give me a universe in which I enjoy
existing, regardless of the goal. Give me a goal (or several) and some gentle
direction towards it, and some neat puzzles along the way, and I'll have a lot
of fun.

Don't spend a whole lot of time making the parser understand English, 'cause
it's gonna break down and ruin the illusion at some point anyway. Give me a
couple of basic verbs, maybe modified by a user settable mood (ie: If I'm angry
and say "touch person" it's a punch, if I'm relaxed, it's a caress), verbs
which I know, understand, and can live within the limits of.

Don't make me guess that I have to type in: SAY "HELLO, SAILOR!" and not SAY
"HELLO SAILOR" or "HELLO SAILOR" or some other variations. I know what I want
to do, let me do it.

Don't make me take a piece of paper and map out "a maze of twisty little
passages, all different", 'cause I don't read pulp fiction with a piece of
paper and a pencil.

Don't show me how smart you as the game author are, show me how fun it is to
live in your universe.

Do all that, within double or triple the cost of a paperback, and you might have my attention.

Dan


