Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!jvnc.net!yale.edu!spool.mu.edu!uunet!world!tob
From: tob@world.std.com (Tom O Breton)
Subject: Re: What words to use and recognize
Message-ID: <BzDIsJ.M9M@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <1992Dec15.234807.298@starbase.trincoll.edu> <62874@mimsy.umd.edu> <1992Dec16.183123.6010@infodev.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 22:36:18 GMT
Lines: 41

I have one thing to add to the discussion:

Since it should generally be obvious to the character-in-the-fiction what
they can do with objects in the fictional world;

and since there is no way an IF writer can truly support all the uses a
player can think of (I can think of at least a hundred things a brick might
be used for);

I suggest that there be a standard verb (taking no game time) that describes
what things you can do with an object. Something like "WHAT_CAN_I_DO_WITH <X>"
(Anyone got a good 1-word synonym for 'what can I do with'?)

For example:

> WHAT CAN I DO WITH CUP?
You can use a CUP in these ways:
  drop
  pick up
  give CUP to (X)
  use
  fill
  drink from
  command

Where 'command CUP' would be a catchall for command words that you
deliberately withheld from a player. (Presumably providing some clever way to
discover them)



BTW, please direct flames to the effect that "This takes away the mystery" to
/dev/null. A game where you don't know what you can do doesn't create
mystery, it creates boredom and gives text games a bad name. You can't create
mystery by default.

        Tom

-- 
The Tom spreads its huge, scaly wings and soars into the wild sky...      
up...       up...     out of sight...   (tob@world.std.com)
