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From: buzzard@TheWorld.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: Interactive Fiction versus Role-Playing Games (Was: Caves...)
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Date: Sun, 6 Jan 2002 01:06:33 GMT
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Daryl McCullough <daryl@cogentex.com> wrote:
>Okay. I agree with all these points. But then the question comes:
>what is *better* (from the point of view of the player) about IF
>than a RPG? The above points seem to be about why IF doesn't work
>as well as an RPG for many things.
[snip]
>Finally, I think that people prefer to play IF than RPG
>because it is more solitary. You don't have to organize
>a game. You can play in the wee hours of the night in the
>privacy of your own home. If you take can't figure out some
>puzzle, there is nobody to witness your failures. If you
>want to try some off-the-wall action, there is nobody to
>groan and complain about your delaying the game. The dungeon
>master never gets tired of playing until you do.

I believe adventures to be one of two divergent strains
of computer games whose existence was born of the desire
to "put the gamemaster into the computer" for all of the
above reasons.

That desire is no longer the motivation, although the
benefits given above are still valid.

SeanB
[The link I posted earlier works fine in Netscape 4 and
lynx; it is a perfectly normal everday google groups link.]
