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From: pww+@A.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Peter Weyhrauch)
Subject: I.F. Realities (was Re: More rambling)
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Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon
Date: Wed, 17 Nov 1993 16:13:33 GMT
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On 16-Nov-93 11:42 Ian Cottee writes:

> What I do want is a totally logical game. Lets take an example where 
> you have to open a wooden box with a padlock on. The game wants you to
> unlock the padlock with a key but I have an axe. I want to smash that sucker
> with the axe but the game says 'Sorry, you can't do that'. Why not? This is
> supposed to be emulating reality. Why can't I cut my opponents hand off and 
> eat it. Why can't I break the knife in half and then scratch my initals
> onto the wooden bench with my fingernails?

> Yeah - I know - its all too much for the programmer to think of ... but 
> its what the game player would like to do. Get teams of programmers going 

Let us assume that we can't model all of reality in a simulation, and
let us ignore philisophical questions regarding the what's and
whether's of objective reality.

One approach to address Ian's problem is to simulate as much as
possible of the real world.  You playtest for a while, cover most of
the cases, but leave inevitable cracks.  This is unsatisfying since
the player ends up asking herself "Why can't I do Z?"

Another approach would be to simulate fully something other than the
real world.  I think this might be a good choice.

The question then becomes, what is the simplest possible reality that
can be fully simulated that allows interactive fiction to be created.
In this reality, since it is fully simulated, the player can never
logically ask "Why can't I do Z?" since Z is either doable or
inconsistent with the reality.  

So, the question for the creative folks in the audience is, 
what is the simplest consistent reality for interactive fiction?

	Peter Weyhrauch
	Oz Project, CMU

