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From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: movement restrictions
Message-ID: <G6oFHK.Hnu@world.std.com>
Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2001 06:32:08 GMT
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Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
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Vincent Lynch <marfu@csv.warwick.ac.uk> wrote:
>Przemyslaw Wstrzemiezliwy <p_wst@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> The PC is is handcuffed to a desk. He has access to the desk and objects
>> that are on the desk. Should the PC be able to LOOK AT objects outside of
>> his reaching range? What about EXAMINE? Does EXAMINE require movement? If
>> there is a TV-set outside of the PC:s reaching range, should he be able to
>> examine it? Which verbs require movement and which verbs do not?
>
>I expect EXAMINE to be a synonym for LOOK AT - not for any particularly deep
>reason, but because this is the convention in most other games.  If I can't
>EXAMINE something at the other end of the room, I'd consider this a bug,
>unless you've warned me beforehand.

Indeed, I expect to be able to examine things I see off in the
distance even though I can't get to them.

If I were implementing this scenario, then I would let everything
be examinable, but if there's something you want to reveal that
shouldn't be seen at a distance, let the examine vary depending
on the situation. You might have to imply this so the player knows
to try again, which could get kind of stupid:

 >EXAMINE PAPERWEIGHT
 It looks kinda cool, but you can't tell how heavy it is cuffed to
 the desk like that.

 >REMOVE CUFFS
 Ok.

 >EXAMINE PAPERWEIGHT
 It looks kinda cool, but it doesn't really seem heavy enough
 to hold anything down.

But that's just my personal tastes.

SeanB
