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From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: IF and second-person narrative (was: IF-like passage in a book I'm reading)
Message-ID: <G7LC1M.K62@world.std.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 00:58:31 GMT
References: <3a653337_2@dilbert.ic.sunysb.edu> <949bhh$kin$1@news.lth.se> <G7F8GI.F7M@world.std.com> <94h1os$if9$1@news.lth.se>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
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Xref: news.duke.edu rec.arts.int-fiction:82454

In article <94h1os$if9$1@news.lth.se>, Magnus Olsson <mol@pobox.com> wrote:
>Sean T Barrett <buzzard@world.std.com> wrote:
>>So storytelling is the only possibility for any possible
>>previous use.
[snip]
>But, you say, this isn't narrative! These people aren't telling a story!
>
>Well, I say, my point is that in that case, neither is the GM in an
>RPG, or the computer in ADVENT.
[snip]
>What confuses the matter is modern "story-telling" IF like Photopia,
>where the game text tells a story to a much higher degree than in
>early IF.

Thing one: I only brought up storytelling because I couldn't
think up an alternative scenario; the role-playing of a trainer
and a trainee is a really good example, thanks. (Photopia and
Photopia-esque games weren't even crossing my mind.)

Thing two: To me, a GM and a player *are* interactively constructing
a story, the same way as when a friend of mine and I took turns
adding three words to a story, the same as when I don't take turns
with anyone else while writing a story.  This may simply get into
a difference of semantics over "story" and be a dead-end, though.

SeanB
Thing three: I agree that simulating a GM "right" would require solving
AI; but I don't think that changes the fact that both the hack-n-slash
chain of games (Baldur's Gate - nethack - Temple of Apshai) and the
adventure chain of games (Grim Fandango - Myst - Adventure) have their
origins in trying to implement "D&D" as best they could on computers
without solving the AI problem--which is the only extent of my claim.
