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From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: IF in the news
Message-ID: <G9As8x.5zy@world.std.com>
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2001 05:22:09 GMT
References: <3A955761.CE69F72A@omit.ic.ac.uk> <3a966d49.3649618@news.xs4all.nl> <uv84pSnnAHA.339@cpmsnbbsa09> <3a984c07.42563430@news.xs4all.nl>
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Branko Collin <collin@xs4all.nl> wrote:
><Adam_Baratznospam@Msn.com> wrote:
>>Your suggestion brings up a question as to what the goal of playing a
>>computer game.  Is it to win, to use up time to play, to have the
>>experience, etc.?  Most gamers now would say it's to win.  Computer gaming
>>will get *much* more interesting once it moves away from simple games and
>>into deeper territory.
>
>I would get pretty bored pretty quickly if there was not some kind of
>goal to be achieved while playing a game.

A goal is widely regarded as a (the?) distinction between a game
and a toy; for example see Greg Costikyan's
   http://www.crossover.com/~costik/nowords.html#Goals

Of course, one can challenge whether IF is necessarily a game;
but then again, with regards to books, although we might not say
"the goal is to reach the end of the book", there is some sort
of truth there that I don't know how to phrase correctly.

SeanB
