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Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Message-ID: <QfXvpXi00WB94=NuYy@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 1993 14:13:39 -0500 
From: Paul Christopher Workman <pw0l+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Non-English adventures (was Re: Adventure design)
In-Reply-To: <1mmakqINN9cn@early-bird.think.com>
Lines: 96

Excerpts from netnews.rec.arts.int-fiction: 26-Feb-93 Re: Non-English
adventures .. by Stu Galley@think.com 
> Here's another interpretation: the earliest Infocom manuals (and maybe
> the latest ones too) said '[The game] always acts as though your
> sentence began with "I want to ..."'
>  
> :  (actually, Zork had an interesting inconsistency this way. If you
> : said "drink water" the computer would say "Thank you. I was feeling
> : thirsty" or somesuch, as though the command had shifted from having
> : the player being the subject of the verb to the computer.

That's how I sort of interpreted IF conventions.  Usually,
you issue commands to the IF piece in the imperative tense,
as if you were controlling a remote android or something.
But then, the descriptions are usually in second person,
which is an UNUSUAL style in normal fiction.  These two
conditions contradict each other, and form a weird relationship
between the player and the representation of the player in
the game.  You tell the representation what to do, imagining
it to be in the IF Space, whereas the representation tells
you what's happening as if you, the player, were in the IF
space, but were somehow unable to perceive it without help.
Each participant in this relationship (the player and the
representation) thus sees itself as absent from the IF Space,
and the other as present in it.  Weird.  I guess you could
interpret this as a division between mind and body, though...
in which both mind and body refer to the other as "you."

You could resolve this contradition by changing the behavior
of the representation of the player, that is by ceasing to
interpret it as a representation of the player but rather
as a separate entity within the IF Space.  Here's a possible
example (Player's commands start with a ">"):

------
I'm in a room.  There are three doors.  I hear a growling sound
from behind the third door.  What should I do?

> What do you have with you?

A bottle of water, a sword, a length of string.

> Tie the string around the door handle.

Done.

> Move away from the door.

Moved.

> Wield your sword.

Done.

> Pull on the string.

The door opening, and a wolf came out!  It's running at me!
What should I do?

> Kill it!

Done.  It was wearing a gold collar.

> Take the collar.
-----------

The effect is as if you were commanding a stupid soldier
from a radio linkup.  You can see the correspondances
to normal IF (`What you you have with you?` being the same
as `inventory`); only the phrasing is slightly different.

You could make this seem closer to reality by allowing
the commanded entity in IF space to act without your
guidance if you choose not to command it.  So you get:

-------
I'm in a room.  There are three doors.  I hear a growling sound
from behind the third door.  What should I do?

Hello?

Hello?

I'm going to open the door.

Oh no!  A wolf!  Argggg.....

[CONNECTION CLOSED.  BOB IS PRESUMED DEAD.]
----------

Have there been any IF games like this?

--paul



