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Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2001 08:53:57 -0400
From: John Colagioia <JColagioia@csi.com>
Organization: No Conspiracy Here...
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Subject: Re: Games being forgotten
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SteveG wrote:

> On Sun, 01 Apr 2001 19:40:48 GMT, johnesco@earthlink.net wrote:
> [snip]
> >Now each new OS doesn't change so much that it renders previous
> >generation tools unusable, but they do get a feeling of awkwardness.
> >
> >Let us not forget that if you can't download it and double click, it's
> >out of some people's range.  Since most people here are authors they
> >seem to forget how difficult a task that is for people new to the
> >computer.
>
> This is so true. I'm horrified at the minimal knowledge that many of
> my friends and relatives demonstrate when I see them use their
> computers. For some its definitely a case of 'if it doesn't work when
> I double-click it then it Doesn't Work."

Not relevant to the initial discussion, but my favorite story along these
lines was that, when I was taking my undergraduate course in compiler
construction, the professor told us to "hand in the source as hardcopy and
the executable by e-mail."  The fellow next to me, in his senior year,
turns and asks me, "what's an executable?"

Last I heard, he was working for AT&T research.  Don't know what that says
about education or AT&T...


> But I wouldn't remove all of
> those people from the target audience for IF. Some would be interested
> in nutting out a text adventure puzzle even though they have no
> inclination to master their computers' user environment.

Oh, I don't know.  I think part of the reason people have so much trouble
is that the typical interface of a computer is only "metaphorical by
association."  That is, nobody looks at Windows (or a Mac, or GEM, or GEOS,
or whatever) and says, "hey, that looks like a desktop, with documents and
a clipboard."  That never hits them until you describe it.  Then the
reaction is usually something along the lines of, "well...if you say so..."

On the other hand, a text adventure is a more direct immersion into the
metaphors, if you'll pardon the expression.  It's a very different
universe.


