Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
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From: pds@lemming.webo.dg.com (Paul D. Smith)
Subject: Re: Walkthroughs
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Message-ID: <PDS.92Dec8105706@lemming.webo.dg.com>
In-Reply-To: goetz@acsu.buffalo.edu's message of 7 Dec 92 22:29:31 GMT
Date: 08 Dec 92 15:57:06 GMT
To: goetz@acsu.buffalo.edu (Phil Goetz)
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References: <1ftktqINNjfu@life.ai.mit.edu> <1ftnlgINNkp4@life.ai.mit.edu>
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Organization: NSDD/ONSD, Data General Corp., Westboro, MA
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[] Regarding Re: Walkthroughs;
[] goetz@acsu.buffalo.edu (Phil Goetz) writes:

    pg> If you write a walkthrough, please remember that it isn't
    pg> useful to those of us without the game unless you describe
    pg> what is happening at each point, and what the motivation for
    pg> each action is.  Only this way can we know what the puzzles in
    pg> a piece are.

    pg> The usual walk-through, which looks like "Drop wand.  E. Get
    pg> bird. E.  Drop cage. E. Plugh."  doesn't express the fact that
    pg> the want frightens the bird, or that the bird frightens the
    pg> dragon, or what Plugh does.

While that may be true, I personally find the "extraneous text"
walkthroughs extremely annoying for those of use *with* the game
(although I admit I've never used a walkthrough :).

If you have the game, then (IMHO) the walkthrough should be just
straight commands.  When you type them into the game, you'll see what
happens.

With all the extra gobbledygook half the time you know what's going to
happen by reading the walkthrough, and the surprise is ruined.

I have a small, but growing, cache of walkthroughs which are *pure*
commands, with the only text in places where random events occur.
I'll be uploading them to the IF ftp archive on ftp.gmd.de soon...
--

                                                                paul
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