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Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2001 22:48:35 -0400
From: John Colagioia <JColagioia@csi.com>
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Subject: Re: [INFORM] Menu-driven conversation
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Magnus Olsson wrote:

> We've seen a number of Inform games with menu-driven conversation
> lately - Photopia and Rameses for example. Both theses games use
> a text-based menu system, basically "Type 1 to tell the dwarf
> that his beard is ugly" (not that that particular line would appear
> in either game, of course :-) ).

As a potentially-irrelevant aside, while I have adored many of the games
that have used this approach, menu-based chit-chat was NOT the reason for
it.  In fact, I really don't care for it much at all.  It feels like I've
been dumped into a multiple-choice exam (or perhaps a
Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book would be more appropriate, here).

I would (and this is definitely my personal opinion and could be mine
alone) much rather read line after line of "I can't say I know anything
about that," than I would seeing:

    A midget wearing a blue turban and long, green cape enters the room
with a flourish.
    An albino chimpanzee lifts the edges of the cape to prevent them from
attracting dust.

    > TALK TO MIDGET
    You say:
    (1) "I should kill you where you stand."
    (2) "You are my bestest buddy."
    (3) "Tell me more about the soup."
    (4) "Let's samba!"

....and for this exact reason.  Unless the game is astoundingly well put
together (or astoundingly simple in structure), there will be at least one
point where either the player will feel that none of the comments are at
all appropriate, or at least one of the comments will "feel" wrong, either
because it gives up too much information or because it seems out of
context.

It also takes some of the interaction (and let's face it, fun) out of my
hands.

Again, though, that's only my view on it, and it's admittedly a bit
extreme.


