quote: Original post by Dwarf with Axe
The white house staff Idea is PERFECT! Thank you! =)

Prego!

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Thanks to Kylotan for the idea!

There are two main text-based games I''ve played (not counting the King''s Quest series, because I''ve got it but never bothered to open it )
Firstly, there''s Infocom''s HHGTTG game. The key advantage of this sort of game is that it''s instantly portable, but yeah, there were major technological limitations that prevented it from being a brilliant design. (In particular, the junk mail thing pissed me off). The best thing in this sort of situation is that the player''s imagination fills in the graphics for you. Of course, from the designer''s point of view, that''s a nightmare - the thing that the player has in mind may be completely different from that of the designer.
Secondly - and anyone with a Mac may want to look this one up - I found a shareware app called ''World Builder.'' It''s a simple combination of graphics and text. Each ''location'' has a picture, and other pictures can be superimposed depending on what is present in the scene. At the same time, it had a very flexible scripting engine that allowed use of global variables (so things such as hunger could be implemented), fallthrough code (so that if an individual location didn''t implement something, the game as a whole could respond to it).

Here''s an idea: a system which can actually generate fiction, based on a player''s response to earlier situations. Given the current technology, it probably wouldn''t get past the design stage, but I''ll field it anyway.
The game would work by measuring the player''s method of operation, and countering it. If a player seems to prefer blasting a hole in the wall to walking through the door, then introduce an indestructible wall, and vice verse.
The major advantage to text-based games is that you are not limited by your assets (in terms of art, sound, etc). The problem is that the english language is so crappy and imprecise.

(These are somewhat disorganised ramblings, I can be called upon to explain. =)



Superpig
- saving pigs from untimely fates
- sleeps in a ham-mock at www.thebinaryrefinery.cjb.net

While I never really played many text based games, I did have a few experiences.
One was my favorite game on the Apple II C+, Troll''s Tale.
I thought it was an amazing game, even though it basically consisted of a "hi-res" color image above with a basic description of where you are and some choices to make.
It is not challenging at all, since it basically tells you something like this:
"You are in a room. There is a gold bar on a giant table."
Choices:
1. Leave room to the south
2. Leave room to the north
3. Take gold bar
4. Take giant table"

Goal of the game: Get all the presents, give them to the guard, and pull the Troll''s Tail...Kinda silly, but what I loved about the old games is that they could put puns and stuff in like that without feeling unprofessional. It was kinda like knowing the developers personally or something.

Anyway, second experience. My friend played this game called King''s Quest. I thought it sounded interesting, and I basically watched her play.
Now, I could see enjoying the game. When it was my turn, the mistake I made was playing with her watching it next to me.
Let''s say hypothetically I am in a part of the game where there is a big lake in the way. Later on, while exploring, you find a giant sponge.
I am a gamer. I think I can figure out what to do here.
No, my friend thinks not. She has to make it reaaaaaally obvious that she knows what''s up with that sponge.
"Hmmmmmmm (really exagerated too)...A GIANT sponge, eh? I wonder what you could DO with that?"
She might as well have said, "Here, let me spoon feed you the answer."
Needless to say, I wasn''t having a good experience with the KQ games. It turned me off the entire genre. Of course, I never liked the games where one wrong decision meant you were dead.
Like, oh no! Just because I walked over to the edge of the cliff, the character trips and falls to his death...Um, what? I did not! You made me!
I didn''t like the lack of freedom a game like that game me.
Some of them were interesting and funny, especially Sierra''s games like "The Amulet of Amon Ra" or whatever it was called.
Still, when the game killed you without giving you much of a choice (like making my character fall or trip or drown or something that I had no control over just because I wanted to walk from one side of the seemingly safe room to the other side) it became a real turn off for me.


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(Gorgeous graphics)+(beautiful sound effects)+(symphonic music)+(no gameplay) != Good game

I personally wouldn''t like graphics added to text adventure games. If you''ve ever really got into a text adventure, the fact there is no graphics is not an issue. You tend to picture what is going on in your head and it makes the games interesting because most of our entertainment nowadays is visual (tv and games).

I wouldn''t mind music in the background however. For example, horror-style music to indicate something bad is going to happen would actually send prickles up your spine as you read.

One area that would be good to improve on is getting the computer to understand the user better. If you could phrase something any way you want and have the computer understand it that would be fantastic.

By the way, did anyone play Starship Titanic? That was meant to have good user text input recognition for conversations.

Everyone,

I did say earlier that I do not like reading books on my computer. I''m afraid I''m going to have to retract that statement, under certain conditions.

I am a great fan of the author Stefan Gagne. He writes exclusively for the web. In doing so, he uses the additional options available to him to enhance the reading experience. Colored text, graphics, background music, and in some cases even complex scripted presentations are used to carry a point that simply would not have the impact in plain text form. He also uses reader feedback supplied on drafts to create more polished final versions - on a chapter by chapter basis. So I do like reading on my computer, when the computer enhances the reading experience beyond a book.

However, the issue I have with interactive fiction is that it does not live up to its name. Basically, interactive fiction to me means games in which instead of using superior graphics and a user-friendly mouse interface to implement an adventure game, crude written text and a clumsy text parser are used to the same effect. I like reading, but I don''t like typing fifteen commands to do what I could do much faster and easier with a mouse. If someone can disabuse me of this impression of interactive fiction with a good counterexample, I''m sure I''d appreciate it... but at the moment, I view the whole genre with a leery eye.

Stefan Gagne''s work can be found on his site.

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-SpittingTrashcan

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

quote: Original post by SpittingTrashcan
If someone can disabuse me of this impression of interactive fiction with a good counterexample, I''m sure I''d appreciate it... but at the moment, I view the whole genre with a leery eye.

Adventure games with a text interface tend to have much more simplified puzzle solving. Many recent point ''n'' click games simply have using items on world object and using world objects as the only real actions that you can do. Also, puzzles are also limited to what can be drawn. For example, if you had a spade and the user could go around digging everything up, your graphics engine would have to support this.

Text adventures are only limited to what can be describe by the writing and the user. Although, I have to admit that the text parsers are quite unhelpful sometimes. However, as we keep making advances in graphics and the like, I see no reason why they could no improve.

Up with Sierra! Hail the Dwarves!.. and the Hobbits, of course!

TheMoriaHobbit

SpittingTrashcan, you said:


However, the issue I have with interactive fiction is that it does not live up to its name. Basically, interactive fiction to me means games in which instead of using superior graphics and a user-friendly mouse interface to implement an adventure game, crude written text and a clumsy text parser are used to the same effect. I like reading, but I don''t like typing fifteen commands to do what I could do much faster and easier with a mouse. If someone can disabuse me of this impression of interactive fiction with a good counterexample, I''m sure I''d appreciate it... but at the moment, I view the whole genre with a leery eye.


You have no idea what you''re talking about, and it sounds like you''ve played all the wrong kinds of games. Today''s Interactive Fiction is nothing like you describe. The parsers are smart, advanced, and anything but clumsy. The writing is often top-notch (there are even professional, published authors active in the IF community). Here are a few good resources.

Interactive Fiction Archive
XYZZY News
S.P.A.G.

Applicable newsgroups are rec.games.int-fiction (for players) and rec.arts.int-fiction (for authors). You can find most games at the archive (or at ftp.gmd.de/if-archive)... find reviews, comments, and news at XYZZY and SPAG. These games aren''t written by people who use text as a crutch against a lack of skill. They use text to really showcase some amazing interactive games. Some of the favorites I''ve heard mentioned are Photopia (I''ve played it - very good story), Mulldoon Legacy, Worlds Apart, Losing Your Grip, Once and Future, and many more. There is even a yearly contest, where dozens of authors and hundreds of players contribute their efforts in some of the best works IF (and, of course, some of the worst).

I hate to call you ignorant, but that''s pretty accurate. You probably just didn''t know any better, and thought that all text adventures were crude works done by talentless kids.

Mike Snyder
Prowler Productions