I realizes that Interactive Fiction Gamers are obsolete (I think that I am the only one left). In a day of hard-core graphics and 3D worlds, text-based fun is not even heard of. The fact of the matter is, is that millions of people read books. If people who read books would be willing to read books on the computer, then the once popular IF industry could possible, IMO, restock the shelves (but not possibly competing with any new games, even Doom, or Quake 3). I realized, also, that many people think IF is a waste of time. I however, do not. If you remember those old games where your a janitor stuck on a space-ship, or a knight who traveled into New York, then you''ll be happy to know that I personally have good ideas and good friends to try and retake the IF industry (hahah yeah right Dwarf! Keep dreaming!) Well, I shall keep dreaming, and I know that I have a 0.0009785489% chance of even getting one game published. My main reason for writing this post is to get some insight: Don''t you think it would be reasonable to assume that anyone who reads books and uses a computer would eventually want to read a book on the computer? Or not even want to, at least try it... I miss those old IF; They were like reading books, only much more fun. I believe they help to encourage good grammer, good story-telling/writing, and all around good humor. I also realize that my opinion and love for text-based games means nothing to the bagillions of gamers who drool for more 3d.. Thanks for the replies, ~Dwarf

Dwarf with Axe,

I like books. I like reading books. I also like using my computer. I do not at all like reading books on my computer. My computer is like a television, and I don''t like reading large amounts of text on a television. It strains my eyes. I also like the feel of books, and their self-containedness. I can''t take my computer to the toilet, but I can take a book. So no, liking books and liking computers does not necessarily mean liking books on computers.

You seem to view text-based games as a stylistic choice. I suspect they were the result of technological limitations, and that given the choice a fair number of the people who wrote text-based games would have preferred to add graphics and other elements to create a more immersive world.

A long as there are fans of text-based games to play your games, I suppose you could continue to express yourself in that way. However, if you like writing so much, become an author of books. I''m much more likely to read a book than play an IF game. That''s just how I am.

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-SpittingTrashcan

You can''t have "civilization" without "civil".

quote: Original post by Dwarf with Axe
The fact of the matter is, is that millions of people read books. If people who read books would be willing to read books on the computer, then the once popular IF industry could possible, IMO, restock the shelves (but not possibly competing with any new games, even Doom, or Quake 3).

I'd be worried about the troubles looking at the computer screen too long could cause to my eyes. But also, considering you mean having text with a series of images (or animation), I may be worried that the image I receive isn't exactly what I wanted to get out of the book.

quote:
My main reason for writing this post is to get some insight: Don't you think it would be reasonable to assume that anyone who reads books and uses a computer would eventually want to read a book on the computer? Or not even want to, at least try it...

I agree. I completely understand what you mean, and I personally think I would enjoy an interactive book. Recently I have been looking into writing short stories (I'm alittle better at writing long stuff or really short stuff, like poetry/songs), but this makes short stories even more interesting.

Reading and actually watching it happen.

A problem alot of children have nowadays ( I would know; I'm in high school, and the only things my classmates read are cliffnotes ) is that they do not believe books are interesting. Personally, I believe it is because they cannot form a mental image. If they could depend on the computer - by having an image in front of them, rather than mentally - reading may be easier.

quote:
I miss those old IF; They were like reading books, only much more fun. I believe they help to encourage good grammer, good story-telling/writing, and all around good humor.

I would like to say I agree here, but I haven't read/played one. Now that you mention it, I can get a pretty good idea of how something like this would look. It sounds quite fun, and I think it would really help with development of intelligence of people (especially children).

quote:
I also realize that my opinion and love for text-based games means nothing to the bagillions of gamers who drool for more 3d..

This is quite true, unfortunately. Actually, when I read your post, I thought IF meant reading the words on the screen, with an image also on the screen. I guess you meant having a text-based visualization. I'm sorry if I took it the wrong way, but the idea of having interactivity and imagery along with an interesting story seems quite interesting. To me it seems as though you were reffering more to just interactivity with text: please correct me if I'm wrong.

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Edited by - Drizzt DoUrden on January 19, 2002 10:32:47 PM

That is EXACTLY what I was talking about!

You had the exact opinion and idea that I had: Some people cannot read books because they cannot form a mental picture in their head. I was thinking of something along the lines of, say, you have the screen split in half. The top half being a brief animation of a town, where people walk around, you see the road, the horses moving, the wind blowing leaves, and on the bottom half there is the text describing the town.

I think that people don''t read enough, which also leads to bad grammar skills. I know that the only reason I barely ever mispell words while I am typing (save for forums) is because of reading. My vocabulary was also built by reading (as was my dad''s, friends'', etc).

It all boils down to my belief that our society''s children (rather, the teenagers nowadays) are, for the majority, illiterate, speech-impaired (a common sentence I hear in school being "Yo, I was all fuckin'', goin'' there an'' shit...")

Anyway, you''ve got the right idea; Help out the reader by displaying some graphics so that they only need to read. This sometimes takes the fun out of reading (to me) but it will help those who don''t like reading.

It''s like posters. People wouldn''t (usually) have posters in their room that has plain text, but they would have a poster that has plain text and a picture.


Well, thanks for the feedback. Keep writin'' back! I enjoy the responses.

~Dwarf

I doubt you could make millions off it, but I expect you could make enough to live on. Better still, developing such games would be very quick and cheap compared to other game development, so it might be more viable than you think. Don''t give up just yet.

Some technological advances would be necessary to increase the interest level beyond the niche market. Predictive text might be one; as you type, it guesses which word you want and fills it in on the input line: hitting tab accepts the suggested word. Auto-checking spelling and underlining it could be another: saves all those typo annoyances:

There is a sword on the ground.> get sowrdYou see no "sowrd" here.>curse at dumb computerHuh?>aaarrggh 

Also, consider a basic GUI system: display the inventory at all times, so you don''t have to keep typing to look at it. Similarly, why should the room description scroll off the screen just because you examined a few items on the floor? Keep the character and location data onscreen as much as possible, to remove the drudgery of retyping the look, score, inventory, and other related informational commands. Use a status bar for essential stats and so on. Separate the input box from the output window: maybe modern IF games already do this.

Just these ''little things'' would help bring IF into the 21st century, perhaps.

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That is a great Idea...

It would be like playing Everquest (remember the GUI?) only instead of fancy graphics, have a few pictures and fancy text...

I like the graphical ideas of inventory, stats, etc...

~Dwarf

PS Remember those old Sierra games like Sam&Max, SpaceQuest, and KingsQuest? Did you like those? (I know they weren''t text-based).

eh, western society is going down the toilet (there were old people saying this a long time ago, and i think they were right)... kids are not necessarily stupider, but they act like it to impress their friends, plus they are too busy having sex at age 11 and doing drugs and god knows what else... in not too many years the world is going to be populated with and run by people that are even more worthless than the ones that are my age! so i don''t think you going to make much money unless you jump into the mindless genres that are oh-so-popular these days (FPS mainly, RTS, "RPG")...
but, if you love IF and would rather make something great and get no money for it, i say go for it. you should check out INFORM (if you haven''t already), it''s fairly easy to use and lets you concentrate on the storyline and game design. plus you will find lots of other people who like IF better than shooting all their friends over the internet all day long.

--- krez (krezisback@aol.com)

quote: Original post by krez
eh, western society is going down the toilet (there were old people saying this a long time ago, and i think they were right)... kids are not necessarily stupider, but they act like it to impress their friends, plus they are too busy having sex at age 11 and doing drugs and god knows what else... in not too many years the world is going to be populated with and run by people that are even more worthless than the ones that are my age! so i don''t think you going to make much money unless you jump into the mindless genres that are oh-so-popular these days (FPS mainly, RTS, "RPG")...

Somebody seems rather despondent today. I feel you, dawg; sometimes I think the exact same thing.

Just to tie in to Kylotan''s predictive interface, I hear Wizardry 8 allows you to type pretty much whatever you want (ever swear at the characters, but sometimes they''ll curse you right back!) So, it could be:

There is a sword on the ground.> get sowrdYou mean sword, don''t you? You pick up the sword. 

Just a thought. The game could even start to tease your pathetic spelling skills:

> opn dorrWhat''s the matter, can''t you spell?  The door opens... 

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Thanks to Kylotan for the idea!

quote: Original post by Dwarf with Axe
...your a janitor stuck on a space-ship...

Of course, you meant "...you''re a janitor..."

Anyway, I justed wanted to remark on the fact that you hardly ever start out as an "insignificant" character in games anymore. You''re always "the chosen one," "the promised deliverer," "top secret government agent," "the most decorated war hero" and other such drivel. Whatever happened to being an unlikely hero? To being a guy/girl in the wrong place at the wrong time with the right response?

[ GDNet Start Here | GDNet FAQ | MS RTFM | STL | Google ]
Thanks to Kylotan for the idea!

lol...

I like that... What about a cheaply rendered world, where you could see everything (2D maybe?) and be able to click on things. When you do, a description pops up in the "description box"?

Just tossin'' Ideas...

And of course I won''t make any money unless I have a great idea...


I MISS THOSE OLD SIERRA GAMES! To hell with the graphics, its "all about" the adventure games like Sam&Max, KQ, SQ, etc.

I really wish more people would share my odd views on life. =\ It seems like you guys are my only clench to sanity nowadays...

Thanks again!
~Dwarf