Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!nntp.gmd.de!Germany.EU.net!EU.net!uunet!world!pie
From: pie@world.std.com (Carl Muckenhoupt)
Subject: Re: non-human POV
Message-ID: <Csx240.Exq@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <Qi80Dvm00iV4813odd@andrew.cmu.edu> <2vu7u0$123@ucunix.san.uc.edu>
Date: Thu, 14 Jul 1994 06:02:24 GMT
Lines: 24

dominirn@ucunix.san.uc.edu (Whirl-Jack) writes:

>...I seem to remember a game called "Breakers" (or something similar) where
>you were either a cyborg or an alien life form.  'Twas from the same company
>who put out M&M Berlyn's _Ooo Topos_ (tho' I can't remember if they did this
>one as well).

I remember that one.  You play a more-or-less humanoid alien.  The only
significant difference in the way you deal with the world is your height
(about 3 feet, I think), and that isn't relevant most of the time.

Someone back there mentioned Infocom's _Arthur_, where you get to turn into
a badger, an owl, a salamander, a turtle, and an eel.  (Hmm, any I missed?)
It greatly effects your abilities and how the game can be approached.  A
good basis for puzzles, anyway, and used well.  I don't think it
significantly effects perception, though, the way they handled it.
The owl could see in dark areas, and that was about it.

Then there was Magnetic Scrolls' _Fish_, but that just made a joke of
the whole thing.  For about half the game, you are a sort of humanoid
fish on a world inhabited by sort of humanoid fish.  It isn't really
used as anything but a basis for puns, though.

Carl Muckenhoupt
