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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: More on What IF is...
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Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 19:29:59 GMT
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Brad O`Donnell (s7m6@romulus.sun.csd.unb.ca) wrote:
>  The trend in IF has been that the personality of an in-game persona
> is usually defined by the things it can't or won't do, instead of 
> their skills and personality.  Also, the persona often will "You dash
> into the line of fire, just in time to push Jamie out of the way.  A 
> bullet grazes your shoulder, but you can take it..." but also will
> "You decide not to climb the tree; you might fall and get killed."
>   Characterization would be nice if it were used to expand the persona,
> not just to limit the ways in which the Player can command it.

But then, when I'm reading static fiction, I much prefer the sort of 
writing which describes characters by what they do, as opposed to saying 
what they feel. "Show, don't tell." This is another effect I try to put 
in my IF writing. 

--Z

-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
