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From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: [Review Conspiracy] Nothing More, Nothing Less
Message-ID: <GCxIu5.C7p@world.std.com>
Date: Sun, 6 May 2001 19:44:29 GMT
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LoneCleric  <lonecleric@huh-huh.bigfoot.com> wrote:
>1) By the way Iain describes "the ending", it seems he never actually DID reach
>the optimal ending, although he was pretty darn close. Since this involves
>spoilers, I'll discuss it some more later on.

You as author have to live with criticisms of "the entire experience
of the work" that players have.  If players all get stumped and
don't get through the work, that description of their "entire experience"
is perfectly valid, and I think most IF authors recognize that
such an experience is "their own fault" and needs correction.

Traditional stories have a beginning, middle, and an end.  The
ending resolves major plot threads, completes the thematic thrust,
perhaps bookends with the beginning.  Many adventure games have
multiple endings with all but one of those endings set off by
"You have lost"; not a non-linearity of fiction, but something
necessary to make the interactive component interactive, to give
it teeth--these endings don't meet the traditional rules of
story endings.

Putting in a bunch of unsatisfying endings and a satisfying ending
which can only be reached through a puzzle that nobody can solve
puts you back in that first scenario--all the players will miss it,
and I think most authors accept that as a failure of authorship.

In an interactive work, different players have different experiences.
If you put in a bunch of unsatisfying endings and a satisfying one
which can only be reached through a puzzle that only half your
players will solve, that's your choice (or fault) as author.

If you put in a bunch of unsatisfying endings and a satisfying one
but leave it effectively random which one players get (because there
are multiple solutions to the puzzle), and you don't flag the
unsatisfying endings as "I as author know this ending is unsatisfying,
but there is a satisfying ending if you search for it", I think
you have to take responsibility for the fact that players will
have unsatisfying experiences.

SeanB
