Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction,rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: news.duke.edu!newsgate.duke.edu!nntp-out.monmouth.com!newspeer.monmouth.com!news.maxwell.syr.edu!howland.erols.net!newsfeed.fast.net!uunet!dca.uu.net!ash.uu.net!world!buzzard
From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: IF newspaper article
Message-ID: <GGLLvJ.FG9@world.std.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Jul 2001 03:33:19 GMT
References: <TaC47.1223$5k3.261147@news> <g0I47.1283$5k3.273207@news> <MPG.15bd2b23aa5a450698968d@spamkiller.newsfeeds.com> <4cL47.1313$5k3.279369@news>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Lines: 44
Xref: news.duke.edu rec.games.int-fiction:64302 rec.arts.int-fiction:89850

Zachary Houle <zhoule@magma.ca> wrote:
>Adam Myrow <myrow@eskimo.com> wrote:
>> Are most IF pieces *really* about you losing your memory and having
>> to find out who you are?
>
>    Well, I think you can argue that a good deal of them are -- particularly
>the older ones. I think the distinction is made in Gilles comments re:
>people trying to write literature.

As written, the early paragraph makes it sound like all of them
do, both old and new alike.

And I'm not sure it's all that common. Interactive fiction definitely
faces a harder problem than traditional fiction in dealing with the
boundary between protagonist knowledge and player knowledge, and
memory loss is certainly considered a cliche way of dealing with it,
but it's not clear to me that the cliche didn't come from a relatively
small number of games. I have trouble thinking of a single Infocom
game that used the device.

Instead, "fish out of water" scenarios are common--where the
protagonist is in a new and unfamiliar world: Enchanter, Trinity,
Planetfall, AMFV all seem to approach it this way. I seem to
remember an early illustrated adventure which made memory loss
the central gimmick of the plot and advertising, but I forget
the name of it (but I wouldn't be surprised if it was Amnesia,
or something like that); but for every one of those there seem
to be tens of "Uninviteds" that are not based in memory loss.

I'm hard pressed to think of any modern games featuring memory
loss except a couple of Adam Cadre's.

>Games I looked at -- "The Plant", "Zork I", "Worlds Apart", "Hitchhiker's
>Guide", etc. -- had some aspect of the plot that involves figuring out who
>you are and what you're doing there.

I don't recall this in either Zork I or HHGTTG--I haven't played
The Plant. I wonder if you aren't confusing player knowledge with
protagonist knowledge.

But really, if that's the worst complaint we have about the
article, you shouldn't fret it. Good job.

SeanB
