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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: Mazes!
Message-ID: <erkyrathDwF4pH.LvB@netcom.com>
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Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 04:05:40 GMT
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> <Spellbreaker spoilers follow...>

> Bob Reeves wrote:
> >
> > While I'm here I ought to complain about my least favorite puzzle in an
> > Infocom game--how to get to the Outcropping in Spellbreaker.  I had to
> > look at the hintbook for that one, because while I do belong to the "try
> > everything" school of playing, it had never occurred to me to drop the
> > gold box, which is necessary to solve the puzzle.  There are only two
> > reasons to drop anything in an Infocom game:  1. it's useless or you're
> > done with it and 2. you're carrying too many things.  Now in
> > Spellbreaker, 1. the gold box is useful for identifying cubes, so you
> > want to hang onto it and 2. you can keep an almost unlimited number of
> > items in the zipper.  So why would you ever drop the box?  Has anyone
> > else ever thought along these lines?  Am I just repeating a tired
> > criticism?  If so, sorry. :)

I disagree strongly with your reasoning. The statement "There are only two
reasons to drop anything in an Infocom game..." is simply false. A player 
who believes that has fallen into an assumption, and the whole *point* of 
puzzle-situation games is to force you to break your assumptions. I think 
this is a terrific assumption to twist.

I also think it was done badly in Spellbreaker. I agree with the 
following: 

Kory Heath (kheath@mail.1connect.com) wrote:
> My guess is that a good percentage of players have solved the game
> without having any problem with this puzzle at all, simply
> because they were lucky enough to drop the box for some reason
> and then stumble on the connection between the box and those
> "blocked" exits.  You pretty much have to figure this out by
> accident; there's no prior indication that the box has anything
> to do with the exits.  In fact, even in hindsight the
> connection looks pretty contrived.  Why would the exits from
> these elemental rooms, which apparently represent the
> magical foundations of the entire universe, teleport you to this
> mundane little gold box?

(Note this is *not* the same argument as Bob Reeves' statement above.) 

Also note that the gold box isn't really mundane; it is the only object 
in the game which has a specific connection with the cubes, so the 
reasoning is half-assed, not totally un-assed. However, I expect very few 
people figured it out by pure accident. I needed a hint.

Were I programming that situation, I would at least have a greater 
variety of messages when you try to go through the exits. One message 
when the box is tuned wrong; a different one (something Escher-like) if 
the box is tuned right but you're holding it. And it wouldn't hurt if the 
first message was something about being blocked by a half-tangible golden 
wall.

--Z

-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
