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Date: Thu, 18 Jan 2001 08:52:11 -0500
From: John Colagioia <JColagioia@csi.com>
Organization: No Conspiracy Here...
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Subject: Re: desired level of automation
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Przemyslaw Wstrzemiezliwy wrote:
[...]

> Many games seem to presuppose that the PC must carry an item before the
> player can do anything with it. Is this a part of the genre or is it just
> annoying?

I would say that this depended on the game--both the genre, and the actual
plot.

Genre-wise, consider Infocom's Bureaucracy, which does this to you on
purpose--specifically so that you can feel the frustration of your character.
I might also include the Dungeon/Zork types of games, which might do this to
give the player a more "primitive" feeling, back to "the old days."

Or if the player should otherwise be paranoid about these things.  I mean, I
would hate to see:
    ] THROW BALL
    (taking the ball first)
    As you touch the ball, tear gas streams from an orifice you hadn't noticed
    up until now.  No, wait, it's poison gas.

    *** You have died. ***
But, on the other hand, I wouldn't want to see automatic actions on everything
*except* the dangerous ones...


> Another thing I've been wondering about is the level of automation allowed
> when unlocking doors. Most games nowadays allow the player to type UNLOCK
> DOOR without specifying the key, presuming the PC is in posession of the
> key. What if the key is not in inventory but nonetheless in plain view,
> should the game be allowed to draw its own conclusions and automatically
> attempt to GET KEY before trying to unlock the door?

I'd say it's the same case as above, for the same reasons.

However, once you have the key in your posession, you shouldn't have to think
about which one you want to use (especially since most keys look pretty much
the same--they do on my keychain, anyway).


