Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Path: gmd.de!xlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!nntp-server.caltech.edu!godzilla.quotron.com!duke.quotron.com!greg
From: greg@duke.quotron.com (Greg Knauss)
Subject: Re: Are text games male oriented?
Message-ID: <CGAy44.AMJ@quotron.com>
Lines: 47
Sender: usenet@quotron.com (USENET)
Organization: Quotron Systems, Inc.
References: <9311061819591.bnewell.DLITE@delphi.com> <)> <2bhgobINNj8b@life.ai.mit.edu> <CG71vr.43J@quotron.com> <2bmm31$au6@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: Thu, 11 Nov 1993 00:45:40 GMT

whizzard@uclink.berkeley.edu (Gerry Kevin Wilson) writes:

>I found your long answer to why must IF be puzzle based rather interesting.
>"No reason", he smugly replied.

I wasn't trying to be smug.  I was trying to say that there's no reason for
IF to be as constraining as it has been.  Why did writing move beyond
recording business transactions?  Because there was no reason for it not
to.  IF has the same potential.

>I'll give you several damn good reasons why
>we make IF puzzle-based.  One, it cuts down your workload by acres and acres.

But is ease-of-implementation an excuse for not exploring boundries?  IF,
near as I can see, is trying to be an art, and art rarely reaches its
potential by being easy.
	Forget practial matters for a second and imagine IF without
technical limitations.  Is it still puzzle-based?  Why?

>Two, I really don't believe that such a
>product would be worthwhile in terms of time investment vs. player enjoyment.

But a product like that already exists -- a few, in fact; A Mind Forever
Voyaging being the one that I'm most familiar with.  It's only got one or
two puzzles and is largely an exercise (an _experience_) in exploring.  It
breaks out of a lot of the typical adventure game stereotypes.  It doesn't
succeed fully, no, but it takes a couple of good shots.
	AMFV was an experiment, and I think there should be more like it.

>(Hell, you can barely sell traditional IF to the
>computing masses anymore.  They don't want to read, they want to be spoonfed
>everything with these gorgeous pictures, and could care less about story,
>characterization, or anything else associated with writing.)

True, unfortunately.  But I'm speaking largely towards theory here, not
the real world.  Where _can_ IF go?  Is there anything in its foundation
that says it must be puzzle-based/right-brained/logical?
	I don't think so, just like writing (or movie-making or painting
or whatever) doesn't have to be.
	If I were going to write a commercial (or shareware -- hi, Dave)
game today, I'd sure make it puzzle-based.  It's what the market wants.
But that's not going to stop me from wonder what else the form _could_
produce.
-- 
Greg Knauss (greg@quotron.com)                    "Llamas, dammit!  Llamas!"
