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Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2001 14:25:43 -0500
From: John Colagioia <JColagioia@csi.com>
Organization: No Conspiracy Here...
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Subject: Re: How do player like hints?
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Knight37 wrote:
[...]

> You are in a room. There is a box here.
> >open box
> The box is locked.
> >HINT box
> Hmm... a lock. There must be a key somewhere nearby.
> >HINT key
> You might need to explore a bit to find it.

[...]

If I could chime in here, for a second...oh, heck.  Even if I can't.

Personally, I don't like hints as such.  Specifically, I hate that feeling of
being ripped out of the game to get anything ranging from pointless affirmations
to complete solutions.  I actually dislike the feeling enough that it overrides
the clue, itself.

What I would vastly prefer to see is a hint system which is integrated
"seamlessly" into the game.  A good example of this might be an NPC.  Consider
the following dialog:

> EXAMINE THE BOX
It's a small, wooden box, about as deep as your stretched hand is long. The
carvings on the surface remind you of solid mahogany and wicker at the same
time, and very nearly succeed at hiding the tiny lock on what you assume is the
"front" of the box.

> OPEN THE BOX
It's locked.

> LOOK
You're in a mostly barren storeroom, with a handful of bare shelves.
Jim is standing here.

> ASK JIM ABOUT BOX
Jim says, "seems to me that if there's a lock, there must be a key, somewhere."
Meanwhile, Bob enters from the north.

> ASK BOB ABOUT BOX
Bob looks at you as if you're an idiot, and in a rather condescending tone of
voice, says, "uhm...did you try opening it?"

> TELL BOB ABOUT BOX
You explain to Bob that the box is locked.  "I remember seeing a bag of keys,
somewhere, now that you mention it..."

I'll admit that it's a heck of a lot of work to get something like this running
correctly.  However, the idea is that, first, you don't let the player "leave"
the playfield for the hint, and second, the player is in control of the hints he
gets by telling his companions what he knows.  That is, Bob might even know how
to get rid of the aforementioned snake, but he won't bring it up until you tell
him that there *is* a snake.

More tedious than usual?  Maybe a little.  However, that tedium may inspire the
player to avoid the hints.  And it's unlikely that the player will have to go
through the same sets of hints twice, that might not be too bad, either.

You know.  As long as everyone is talking about their fantasy hint system...


