Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!pipex!uunet!munnari.oz.au!bruce.cs.monash.edu.au!labtam!news
From: philip@labtam.oz.au (Philip Stephens)
Subject: Re: IF complexity
Reply-To: philip@labtam.oz.au
Organization: Labtam Australia Pty. Ltd.
Date: Mon, 18 Oct 1993 06:13:30 GMT
Message-ID: <1993Oct18.061330.974@labtam.labtam.oz.au>
References: <29s3hm$eai@Notwerk.mcs.com>
Sender: news@labtam.labtam.oz.au (Net News Administrator)
Lines: 86

Jorn Barger writes:

>The 'finished-it' paradox:  The first time you reach 'The End' you will
>not have finished reading all the author's text.  Are you then expected
>to go back and exhaust every alternate path, to 'get your money's worth'
>or to express your pleasure in her craft?

  It's part of the nature of Interactive Fiction that a given player will
not try every possible action, and hence won't get to see every clever
comment and witty phrase.  I don't think this is a problem, really.
Different players will get something different out of the experience of
playing the same game, and that is good.

  However, in regards to the size and complexity of IF games: I'd prefer to
play a game with few locations and objects, but with attention paid to the
fine details of the interaction of the objects with their enviroment, than
to play a game with hundreds of rooms and items, but which has only generic
"You can't do that" responses for most of the actions you try to perform.
For it's the atmosphere that makes a game, not it's size.
  For example, _Planetfall_ has a reasonably large map, but most of it is
empty of interesting things to look at, and the game itself involves very
few puzzles overall.  Add to that the fact that half of the objects are
decoys that don't actually do anything, and you have an example of an IF
game that doesn't provide much in the way of real enjoyment.  (Apologies to
those who liked Planetfall!)
  On the other hand, _Suspended_ was a game that had a very small map, but
lots of interesting things to look at, and a lot of detail about the
surroundings and objects.  There were often no less than five different
descriptions of the one object, and many of the responses were quite humorous.  (Apologies to those who hated Suspended!) :-)

  Personally, I find IF games which have large sprawling maps to be a bit
of a pain, because if there's one thing I hate, it's having to single-step
through a dozen rooms to get to where I want to go.  I suppose that can be
solved by having an intelligent game that can plot a path to rooms you've
visited before when you type "go to such-and-such a room", but I prefer games
that limit you to a smaller section of the map until you've solved a couple
of puzzles, then don't expect you to return to the completed sections.  _Zork_
is not a bad example of this, actually: at any one time, you had two or three
puzzles to solve in order to unlock other portions of the underground empire,
but you generally didn't have to do a lot of walking around.
  Furthermore, games that expect you to draw up complicated maps (or redraw
them when you find yourself running out of space) are also a bit tedious,
in my view.  I'd prefer a simple map laid out on a grid, and have the authors
spend most of their time on "set dressing, props, and costume design".  There
*is* a certain joy in plotting out a map as you explore a game's boundaries,
but I can't stand rooms that exit from the south and enter the next room from
the east!  For it's those kinds of tricks that have forced me in the past to
spend 75% of my playing time moving back and forth through rooms until I got
the exits all worked out right!  It's okay to do this every once in a while
in obvious places (such as a maze whose twisty little passages look all alike),
but for the remainder of the landscape I'd prefer simple compass directions
and equal-sized rooms (or rooms made out of multiple locations).

  Actually, for many years I've had an IF game on the drawing board that
addresses all of these objections of mine, so I guess one of these days I
ought to get around to writing it :-)




>There's a wonderfully logical resolution of this complexity problem:
>make the *interpreter* 15 times huger, by including a detailed knowledge-
>base of typical realworld interactions!  Encyclopedia TADS-anica, if
>you will... This would have to play an active role during game development,
>making intelligent, *automated* suggestions about what combinations might
>need special attention at each point.
>
>=----------=-    ,!.    --=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=
>Jorn Barger      j't    Anon-ftp to genesis.mcs.com in mcsnet.users/jorn for:
>  <:^)^:<    K=-=:: -=->   Finnegans Wake, artificial intelligence, Ascii-TV,
> .::.:.::..   "=i.: [-'   fractal-thicket indexing, semantic-topology theory,
>jorn@mcs.com   /;:":.\     DecentWrite, MiniTech, nant/nart, flame theory &c!
>=----------=  ;}'   '(,  -=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=----=
>







--
| Philip Stephens, Systems Programmer. | "Many views yield the truth.         |
| Address:  43 Malcolm Road, Braeside, |  Therefore, be not alone."           |
|           Victoria, 3195, AUSTRALIA. |                                      |
| Internet: philip@labtam.labtam.oz.au |    -- Prime Song of the Viggies      | 
