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INSERT INTO `comment` VALUES (3,4,3,'I liked this article a lot. I\'m an English-speaker, and certainly\r\ndidn\'t know anything about the history of Italian text adventures. The\r\nchronological approach is a good one for an article like this.\r\n<P>\r\nIn terms of the content, I had two major concerns. First, I don\'t have\r\na clear picture of what the newsstand games were like,\r\nphysically. Were the games all magazines bundled with tapes? Were they\r\nthe tapes plus instructions, with no accompanying magazine? Second,\r\nwhat do you mean by \"series\"? Is this the same as a magazine, or is it\r\nseveral connected games (like Zork I, Zork II, and Zork III)? I\r\ncouldn\'t tell from what you wrote.\r\n<P>\r\nStylistically, your sentences are mostly clear, but often\r\nnon-idiomatic. I\'ve taken two different approaches in my comments. For\r\nsome paragraphs and sentences, where I had a lot of comments, I\r\nrewrote the paragraph or sentence after your original one to be in\r\nmore stylistic English. Those I started with REWRITE: so you can find\r\nthem more easily. In others, I wrote my comments directly in the\r\nparagraphs. Take most of my suggestions to be just that --\r\nsuggestions, not commands. :) My comments are [in brackets] where\r\nappropriate.\r\n<P>\r\nAlso, you need to decide how \"Avventura nel Castello\" is capitalized.\r\n<P>\r\n----------------\r\n<P>\r\n\r\n\"The best thing would be a parser with just one word:\r\n>BARMAN\r\nBarman: What?\r\n>BEER\r\nBarman: A beer for you.\r\n>MONEY?\r\nBarman: five bucks.\r\n>PAY\r\nBarman: Thanx.\r\n<P>\r\nSo, this series of sentences seems perfect to me, maybe I\'ll use it \r\nto write a game.\"\r\n<P>\r\nThe man who speaks is Enrico Colombini, programmer from Brescia \r\n(northern Italy), the pioneer of adventure games in Italy -- the Don \r\nWoods of the Mediterrean, to be clear. He has a curious aversion for \r\nthe sophisticated parser invented by Infocom. And that\'s why he said \r\nthat bizarre thing -- the parser with just one word. Fun, fantasy and \r\neasy plain work: no complicated sentences and no NPCs to ask, \"What\'s \r\nwrong.\" It\'s provocative, certainly.\r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: The man speaking is Enrico Colombini, a programmer from\r\n    Brescia (northern Italy) and the pioneer of adventure games in\r\n    Italy -- the Don Woods of the Mediterranean. He has a curious\r\n    aversion to the sophisticated parser invented by Infocom. And\r\n    that\'s why he made that bizarre suggestion -- the \"parser with\r\n    just one word.\"  Fun, fantasy and easy work: no complicated\r\n    sentences and no NPCs to ask, \"What\'s wrong?\" It\'s provocative,\r\n    certainly.\r\n<P>\r\n    [I left in the part at the end where you say \"and no NPCs to ask,\r\n    \"What\'s wrong?\"\" But do you mean the NPCs are actually asking that\r\n    question?]\r\n<P>\r\nThe first game\r\nIt\'s a boutade of the man who, in 1982, wrote the first text \r\nadventure of Italian history: \"Avventura nel castello\".\r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: It\'s a boutade of the man who, in 1982, wrote the first\r\n    Italian text adventure, \"Avventura nel Castello.\"\r\n<P>\r\n\"I didn\'t know Infocom games yet and, certainly, that was a good\r\nthing. Had I played them, I would have tried to emulate their parser\r\n(\"put the red sheet and the green one in the big drawer, then close it\r\nwith the strange key\"), things would have gotten really complicated, I\r\nwould\'ve lost a lot of time, and maybe I would\'ve given up. At the\r\ntime I hadn\'t yet discovered that easy things are, often, the best way\r\nto succeed.  I needed a lot of years to understand this, but that\'s\r\nanother story.\"\r\n<P>\r\nTwenty years later, \"Avventura nel castello\" could still compete \r\nagainst most (if not all) Italian adventure games. And at the time, \r\nwithout exaggeration, the game - for its quality - would put Scott \r\nAdams to shame (but Scott Adams wrote a lot of games, and Colombini \r\njust five or six). \"Avventura nel castello\" was first released for \r\nApple II: at the beginning it was sold only in a shop owned by a \r\nfriend of Enrico, and then it was distributed by the \"Jackson\" \r\neditorial group: \"The sales were never high, but the satisfaction was \r\ngreat because a lot of players wrote to find out more about the game. \r\nWith \"Avventura nel Castello\" and with the board game \"Melopoli\" (a \r\ncomputer version of Monopoly) I earned, if I remember right, three or \r\nfour million. The same as Scott Adams - but my millions were in lire, \r\nhis in dollars.\" In 1985 the MS-DOS version of the game was released \r\n(the last edition is dated 1996). \r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: Twenty years later, \"Avventura nel Castello\" could still\r\n    compete against most (if not all) Italian adventure games written\r\n    since. And at the time, without exaggeration, the game - for its\r\n    quality - would have put Scott Adams to shame. \"Avventura nel\r\n    Castello\" was first released for the Apple II, and at the\r\n    beginning it was sold only in a shop owned by a friend of Enrico,\r\n    and then it was distributed by the \"Jackson\" editorial group. The\r\n    MS-DOS version of the game was released in 1985. According to\r\n    Enrico, \"The sales were never high, but the satisfaction was great\r\n    because a lot of players wrote to find out more about the game.\r\n    With \"Avventura nel Castello\" and with the board game \"Melopoli\"\r\n    [a computer version of Monopoly] I earned, if I remember right,\r\n    three or four million. The same as Scott Adams - but my millions\r\n    were in lire, his in dollars.\"\r\n<P>\r\n    [I took out \"(but Scott Adams wrote a lot of games, and Colombini\r\n    just five or six)\" because it weakens your statement about the\r\n    accomplishments of Colombini for no good reason. In the last\r\n    sentence of your original paragraph, you mention the MS-DOS\r\n    version. Did the MS-DOS version increase the sales noticeably? I\r\n    assumed it didn\'t, which is why I moved that statement to before\r\n    Enrico\'s quote. Also, if you\'re going to mention the date of the\r\n    last edition, you need to talk about how Enrico kept updating the\r\n    game (assuming he did).]\r\n<P>\r\n    [Finally, what\'s the \"Jackson\" editorial group? Is that a\r\n    publishing company?]\r\n<P>\r\nItalian parser\r\n<P>\r\nBut what is the origin of the bizarre proposal of the \"Parser with \r\none word\"? The origin is the Italian tradition of text adventure, I \r\nthink. Only after the\r\narrival of Inform in Italy did people release games with a parser \r\nbased on more than a verb/noun pair. Italian players, especially \r\nthose who don\'t know\r\nEnglish (and there are many), are not used to a complex parser.  It \r\nsounds bad to their ears. \"Avventura nel castello\" and Colombini\'s \r\nother games  have a verb/noun parser. And the same goes for most of \r\nthe games released in the eighties. \"Avventura nel castello\" didn\'t \r\nhave a large distribution because it ran on the Apple and then on \r\nMs-Dos, when the most common home computers were Cbm64 and Spectrum. \r\nA lot of people wanted to play that game but couldn\'t. There were \r\nalso a lot of people having fun with Infocom games, but the problems \r\nwere the language and the slowness of the Cbm. The most common \r\nnon-Italian games were those of Scott Adams: not much text to \r\ntranslate, an easy parser, speed and, in some cases, graphics (and \r\ngraphics, whatever you think, means\r\naudience). These games had a very large distribution (more than \r\n\"Avventura nel Castello\") because the software piracy was everywhere: \r\nat the time I\'d seen\r\nan original game only nine or ten times. The rest was a big exchange, \r\nunder the tables but also over the counters of the shops, of tapes \r\n(or floppy disks) with\r\ncracked games. And in the videogame magazines there appeared the \r\nfirst columns with hints for adventurers.  (In the golden age those \r\ncolumns became pages.) \r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: But what is the origin of the bizarre proposal of the\r\n    \"parser with one word\"? It comes from the Italian tradition of\r\n    text adventures, I think. Only after Inform\'s arrival did people\r\n    release games with a parser able to parse more than a verb/noun\r\n    pair. Italian players, especially those who don\'t know English\r\n    (and there are many), are not used to a complex parser. It sounds\r\n    bad to their ears. All of Colombini\'s games have a verb/noun\r\n    parser; the same goes for most of the Italian games released in\r\n    the 1980s. The limited distribution of \"Avventura nel castello\"\r\n    wasn\'t because of its parser but because it ran on the Apple II\r\n    and under MS-DOS, when the most common types of home computers\r\n    were Commodore 64 and Spectrum.A lot of people wanted to play\r\n    \"Avventura nel castello\" but couldn\'t. There were many people\r\n    enjoying Infocom\'s games, but the English language and the\r\n    slowness of the Commodore 64. The most common non-Italian games\r\n    were those of Scott Adams: they ran quickly and had little text to\r\n    translate, an easy parser, and, in some cases, graphics (and\r\n    graphics meant a larger audience). These games had a very large\r\n    distribution (more than \"Avventura nel Castello\") because of\r\n    rampant software piracy: at the time I\'d seen an original game\r\n    only nine or ten times. There was a big exchange of tapes and\r\n    floppy disks with the cracked games, both under the table and over\r\n    the counters of shops.\r\n<P>\r\n    [Is \"Cbm64\" an abbreviation for \"Commodore 64\"? The common\r\n    US/British abbreviation was \"C64,\" though I\'ve stuck with\r\n    replacing \"Cbm64\" with \"Commodore 64\" throughout your essay.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [When, in talking about software piracy, you say \"at the time,\"\r\n    what time is this? Early 1980s? And do you mean you only saw 9 or\r\n    10 original games, or 9 or 10 *copies* of a few games?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [I left out the very last two sentences that started with \"And in\r\n    the videogame magazines there appeared the first columns...\" Those\r\n    two sentences were completely unconnected to your paragraph, and\r\n    have nothing to do with the \"Italian parser.\" Either leave them\r\n    out or discuss more fully how other developments showed a growing\r\n    interest in adventures.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [You really need a transition here from \"what people played\" to\r\n    actual history. You\'ve been discussing what games people were\r\n    playing; now move from that into a historical view of Italian\r\n    adventures. And emphasize that Scott Adams\'s games further\r\n    cemented the Italian players\' taste for bare-bones parsers.]\r\n<P>\r\nThe newspaper stands\r\nThe adventures were still games for a small audience. Things changed \r\nwhen they arrived in the newspaper stands. Yes: the newsstands became \r\ngold mines for\r\nadventurers. In 1985, the first issue of a monthly publication called \r\n\"Next Strategy\" was released: on the tape therewere three graphic \r\nadventures for Cbm (written by Roberto Tabacco and from the \r\nno-better-known Hans Piu). If you play them today the only pleasure \r\ncomes from satisfying your nostalgia, for the rest is a frustration: \r\nit\'s impossible to say that these games have a parser. The game \r\nunderstands only the right sequence of commands that lead to victory: \r\nnothing out of the scheme, no provision of answers (even silly ones) \r\nfor wrong actions. We are very far from \"Avventura nel castello\" and \r\nalso from Scott Adams. Regression? Maybe. To win it was not enough to \r\nsolve the puzzles; you had also to guess the exact words in the mind \r\nof the author -- to the point where there was a game that didn\'t \r\nunderstand the word \"follow\" but only the word \"track\". Certainly \r\nthere are reasons for all this. At the time the standard (in other \r\ncountries too) was more or less that one. Nobody dreamed of emulating \r\nInfocom: the magazine was sold every month, and you could not expect \r\nthat the editor (who wasn\'t Bill Gates) would hire a team of \r\nprogrammers and beta-testers. And everyone was happy with the \r\nresults, because the players were enthusiastic: and that made it \r\npossible to continue without raising the budget (which was already \r\nvery high for such games). There was also another reason. The \r\nmagazine had a high price: eight or nine thousand lire (roughly four \r\nor four and a half dollars). Had the games been very easy, the line \r\nof people requesting a refund would have been longer than the line of \r\npeople ready to buy the next issue with new games and the solutions \r\nof the old ones. The strategy, instead, was to insert a very \r\ndifficult puzzle in one of the games, so the players had to buy the \r\nnext issue. \r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: The adventures were still games for a small\r\n    audience. Things changed when they became available from the\r\n    newspaper stands. Yes: the newsstands became gold mines for\r\n    adventurers. In 1985, the first issue of a monthly publication\r\n    called \"Next Strategy\" was released: on a tape included with the\r\n    publication were three graphic adventures for the Commodore 64,\r\n    written by unknown authors Roberto Tabacco and Hans Piu. If you\r\n    play them today the only pleasure is nostalgic, for the games are\r\n    frustrating: it\'s impossible to say that these games have a\r\n    generic parser. The games understand only the exact sequence of\r\n    commands that lead to victory: nothing out of that sequence is\r\n    recognized, and no specific responses, even silly ones, to wrong\r\n    actions are provided. These games are very far even from\r\n    \"Avventura nel Castello\" and from Scott Adams\' games. Regression?\r\n    Maybe. To win it was not enough to solve the puzzles; you had also\r\n    to guess the exact words the author had in mind -- one game didn\'t\r\n    understand the word \"follow\" but did the word \"track\". Certainly\r\n    there were reasons for this style. At the time, these games were\r\n    the standard (in other countries as well as Italy). Nobody at\r\n    \"Next Strategy\" dreamed of emulating Infocom: the magazine was\r\n    sold every month, and you could not expect the editor (who wasn\'t\r\n    Bill Gates) to hire a team of programmers and\r\n    beta-testers. Regardless, everyone was happy with the results: the\r\n    players were enthusiastic, and that allowed the magazine to\r\n    continue without raising the budget (which was already very high\r\n    for such games), making the magazine\'s staff happy. There was also\r\n    another reason for the games\' style. The magazine had a high\r\n    price: eight or nine thousand lire (roughly four or four and a\r\n    half dollars). Had the games been very easy, the line of people\r\n    requesting a refund would have been longer than the line of people\r\n    ready to buy the next issue with new games and the solutions of\r\n    the old ones. The strategy, instead, was to insert a very\r\n    difficult puzzle in at least one of the games, so that the players\r\n    had to buy the next issue.\r\n<P>\r\nMore or less at the same level were the games of the \"Dream\" series \r\n(Editions Fermont, first issue november 1985, with three Cbm games in \r\nevery issue): they had black and white graphics, retro style, and \r\ngood and onirics plots. In every issue there was a game without \r\ngraphics, to make the most of the memory of the Cbm and offer more \r\ntext and more puzzles.\r\n<P>\r\n    [Introduce this magazine in the same way you did \"Next Strategy.\"\r\n    Maybe you could do something like this: \"Similar to \"Next\r\n    Strategy\" was \"Editions Fermont\"...\"]\r\n<P>\r\n    [How were these games in a \"retro style\"? Adventures had only been\r\n    around for three years! If they really were retro, what made them\r\n    so?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [What does the word \"onirics\" mean? I\'m unfamiliar with it.]\r\n<P>\r\nThe Quill and higher quality\r\nThe quality of the games (parser included) got better with \r\nBonaventura Di Bello. He, in his twenties, bought by mistake a \r\n\"Adventure: A planet of death\" by Artic Computing (while Colombini \r\nwas hypnotized by Crowther and Woods, authors of \"Adventure\"). A \r\nlittle time later Di Bello discovered The Quill (an illegal copy, of \r\ncourse, but then he bought an original one from England) and wrote a \r\ngame on his Spectrum. He sent it to a magazine called \"Load\'n\'Run\" \r\nand, in that moment, began his fortune: \"I was paid two hundred \r\nthousand lire (one hundred dollars).  Another two and I would have \r\nbeen able to buy a new Spectrum!\". The editor, Arscom, launched a new \r\nseries: \"Epic 3000\", with three games every month. Roberto Tabacco \r\nwas the author of the ones for Cbm, Di Bello wrote the ones for \r\nSpectrum (with The Quill and The Illustrator). The first issue was \r\nsold on april 1986. The games, not protected by a antipiracy password \r\n(though they were in the following issues), were: \"Ring\", \"Duca \r\nLynce\" and \"Il galeone scomparso\" (Cbm), \"Et in action\", \"L\'occhio \r\ndel condor\", \"Il triangolo maledetto\" (Spectrum). The influence of \r\nthe Level 9 games was clear.\r\n<P>\r\n    The quality of Italian games, including the parser, increased with\r\n    the arrival of Bonaventura Di Bello onto the scene. In his\r\n    twenties, he bought a copy of \"Adventure: A planet of death\", by\r\n    Artic Computing, by mistake. A little time later Di Bello\r\n    discovered The Quill (an illegal copy, of course, though he later\r\n    bought a legal one from England) and wrote a game on his Spectrum\r\n    using it. He sent the game to a magazine called \"Load\'n\'Run\" and,\r\n    in doing so, began his fortune: \"I was paid two hundred thousand\r\n    lire [one hundred dollars].  Another two and I would have been\r\n    able to buy a new Spectrum!\". The editor, Arscom, launched a new\r\n    series: \"Epic 3000\", with three games every month. Roberto Tabacco\r\n    was the author of the ones for the Commodore; Di Bello wrote the\r\n    ones for Spectrum (using The Quill and The Illustrator). The first\r\n    issue was sold on April 1986. The games, not protected by a\r\n    antipiracy password (though they were in the following issues),\r\n    were: \"Ring\", \"Duca Lynce\" and \"Il galeone scomparso\" (all for the\r\n    Commodore), and \"Et in action\", \"L\'occhio del condor\" and \"Il\r\n    triangolo maledetto\" (for the Spectrum). The influence of the\r\n    Level 9 games was clear.\r\n<P>\r\n    [The bit about \"(while Columbini was hypnotized by Crowther and\r\n    Woods...\" is unnecessary.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [Did Di Bello *like* the game he bought? Was it a happy mistake\r\n    for him? I assume so, since he wrote adventures later. Also, what\r\n    was \"Adventure: A planet of death\" like?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [Is the editor \"Arscom\" a person or a company? You need to explain\r\n    the structure of the magazine\'s staff, editors, and publishing\r\n    companies more clearly.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [You mention \"The games, not protected by a antipiracy\r\n    password (though they were in the following issues)...\" Were\r\n    antipiracy passwords common? Why do you mention this right here\r\n    out of the blue? I\'d like to see you talk more about antipiracy\r\n    measures, since piracy was so rampant, or omit that part of the\r\n    sentence altogether.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [The influence of the Level 9 games on these games is completely\r\n    *un*clear to me. Please explain the connection explicitly.]\r\n<P>\r\nIn december the last issue of the magazine was sold; it  then became \r\n\"Viking\" (first issue: january 1987), with a new editor, \"Edizioni \r\nHobby\": Tabacco was no longer working there, and the games (three, \r\nthe same for Commodore and Spectrum) were all written by Di Bello. \r\nTwo months earlier (november 1986) the \"Edizioni Hobby\" had launched \r\nthe series \"Explorer\" (three games, the same for Cbm and Msx): here \r\nDi Bello ported to Commodore the Spectrum games of \"Epic 3000\". \r\nSometimes a game continued in two or more episodes. The total of \r\nadventures written by Di Bello is 74: he was able to write a game \r\nevery week and was paid five hundred thousand lire (250 dollars) per \r\ngame. \"It would have been wonderful to live writing those games; it \r\nwould have been the same as living as a writer, or maybe better, \r\nbecause the audience of text games was superb.\" The first game of Di \r\nBello, \"Dimensione sconosciuta\", is impossible to find: \"Today I \r\nwould like to remember it, rewrite it and release it online.\" Last \r\nthree were never released. \"I remember the names, \"New Pasqua\" and \r\n\"Sorsi di terrore\". The third one was a thriller with the PC hiring a \r\nkiller to kill him and let all pass like a suicide. I wasn\'t the \r\nauthor, the author was Marco Gobbi; I tried to contact him again some \r\ntime ago, but he\'s vanished.\" Most games, at the time, had graphics, \r\nand there were people who released \"single\" games, without thinking \r\nto launch a series. The stories were always very short and the \r\nlocations never more than ten. The name of the characters, we\'ll never\r\nunderstand why, were always anglophone (I don\'t remember even one \r\nItalian one): Dust Hanter, Jack Byteson, Jonathan Thompson, Harry \r\nO\'Hara, Alan Simmons.\r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: In December the last issue of \"Epic 3000\" was sold; it\r\n    then became \"Viking\" (first issue: January 1987), with a new\r\n    editor, \"Edizioni Hobby\": Tabacco was no longer working there, and\r\n    the games (three, all for both Commodore and Spectrum) were all\r\n    written by Di Bello.  Two months earlier, in November of 1986, the\r\n    \"Edizioni Hobby\" had launched the series \"Explorer\", (three games\r\n    an issue), which republished the \"Epic 3000\" games with new\r\n    Commodore ports by Di Bello.  Sometimes a game continued through\r\n    two or more episodes. Di Bello wrote a total of 74 adventures: he\r\n    was able to write a game every week and was paid five hundred\r\n    thousand lire (250 dollars) per game. \"It would have been\r\n    wonderful to live writing those games; it would have been the same\r\n    as living as a writer - or maybe better, because the audience of\r\n    text games was superb.\" Di Bello\'s first game, \"Dimensione\r\n    sconosciuta\", is impossible to find: \"Today I would like to\r\n    remember it, rewrite it and release it online.\" His last three\r\n    were never released. \"I remember the names, \"New Pasqua\" and\r\n    \"Sorsi di terrore\". The third one was a thriller with the PC\r\n    hiring a killer to kill him and make it look like a suicide. I\r\n    wasn\'t the author, the author was Marco Gobbi; I tried to contact\r\n    him again some time ago, but he\'s vanished.\" Most games of that\r\n    time had graphics, and there were people who released \"single\"\r\n    games, without thinking to launch a series. The stories were\r\n    always very short and the locations never more than ten. The name\r\n    of the characters, for some unknown reason, were always anglophone\r\n    (I don\'t remember even one Italian one): Dust Hanter, Jack\r\n    Byteson, Jonathan Thompson, Harry O\'Hara, Alan Simmons.\r\n<P>\r\n    [I feel like I\'m missing something here. What\'s the deal with the\r\n    editor\'s name \"Edizioni Hobby\"? Is that a pseudonym, like the\r\n    American film industry\'s \"Alan Smithee\"? Does it stand for several\r\n    people? Is it one person\'s actual name?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [Is \"Explorer\" a series or a magazine? What\'s the difference. What\r\n    exactly is a \"series\" in this context?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [I\'d like you to talk about the rise of series in here somewhere,\r\n    assuming that a series is different from a magazine.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [I don\'t understand the part where Di Bello says \"...the PC hiring\r\n    a killer to kill him...\" The killer is supposed to kill the *PC*?\r\n    If so, that seems like a really easy game. :)]\r\n<P>\r\n    [Now, hang on: you were talking about Di Bello\'s games, and all of\r\n    a sudden this new guy, Marco Gobbi, shows up. When you said \"Last\r\n    three were never released\" I assumed you meant of Di Bello\'s\r\n    games. Did you mean the \"Viking\" games? And if so, does that mean\r\n    that there were authors other than Di Bello writing for the\r\n    magazine? You need to make this much, much more clear.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [You talk about people who wrote single games and not series. Were\r\n    series games really common? This is why I\'d like you to talk about\r\n    the rise of series earlier in your article.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [Why don\'t we know why the characters\' names were English?\r\n    Couldn\'t you just ask Di Bello and the other authors?]\r\n<P>\r\nInside and out the system\r\nThe parser still was verb/noun. But there were some exceptions, above \r\nall in the single games or in the short series, like the mystery \r\nstories edited by\r\nSystems (\"Gialli Commodore\", just one game per issue). In these \r\ncases, in fact, there was no hurry to release a lot of games every \r\nmonth, the authors were not pros like Di Bello, but people that had \r\nan idea for a game, released it, and often vanished forever from the \r\nscene of text adventures (just like Enrico Ragaini, author of \"Il \r\nmistero della piramide\" for Cbm). The Systems mystery stories were \r\nthe integration of a series of lessons to write text adventures \r\npublished by the magazine \"Personal Computer\" and \"Commodore Computer \r\nClub\": those lessons were very good and in them appeared, for the \r\nfirst time, the concept of library with words about the theory of \r\nlocations, of the inventory and suggestions for an \"intelligent\" \r\nparser.\r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: The games\' parsers were still verb/noun, with some\r\n    exceptions, above all in the single games or in the short series,\r\n    like the mystery stories edited by Systems (\"Gialli Commodore\",\r\n    just one game per issue). In these cases, in fact, there was no\r\n    hurry to release a lot of games every month: the authors were not\r\n    pros like Di Bello, but people that had an idea for a game, wrote\r\n    it, and released it. Often they vanished forever from the text\r\n    adventure scene. One such person was Enrico Ragaini, author of \"Il\r\n    mistero della piramide\" for the Commodore. The Systems mystery\r\n    stories were the integration of a series of lessons to write text\r\n    adventures published by the magazines \"Personal Computer\" and\r\n    \"Commodore Computer Club\". Those lessons were very good; more\r\n    importantly, they introduced, for the first time, the concept of\r\n    library with words about the theory of locations, of the inventory\r\n    and suggestions for an \"intelligent\" parser.\r\n<P>\r\n    [\"edited by Systems (\"Gialli Commodore\", just one game per\r\n    issue).\" Huh? I didn\'t follow this sentence at all. Is Systems a\r\n    publishing company? A pseudonym?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [When you say \"In these cases,\" which cases do you mean? In the\r\n    case of the exceptions?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [Why do you use Enrico Ragaini as an example of someone who wrote\r\n    a game and vanished? Why was he notable? Was his game particularly\r\n    good?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [What were the mystery stories integrated into? You don\'t make\r\n    that clear.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [What kind of library did the games introduce? And when you say\r\n    \"words about the theory of locations,\" that was in the articles,\r\n    not the games? Or were they directly in the games?]\r\n<P>\r\nThe mystery stories by Systems were very well written and, among the \r\ngames of the time, are the most similar to modern IF: yes, \r\ninteractive stories. Like \"Il mistero di Zambesi Waters\", by Sandro \r\nCerti and Franco Todi.  The location is Africa and in the opening \r\nscreen there is a promise: \"this game accepts sentences with one or \r\ntwo words, with a maximum of NINE\". It\'s possible to type something \r\nlike \"Jump down from the bus\". But we are not inside a system: those \r\nare predefined sentences that are good only for one event, one \r\npuzzle. If, in another and not predefined situation, you type \"Jump \r\ndown\", inevitably the game says \"I don\'t understand\" (and not \"Jump \r\ndown from what?\"). We are still far from a sophisticated parser, but \r\nwe have good stories. We don\'t have a system of verbs, like the ones \r\noffered by The Quill. It\'s not strange that the games written by Di \r\nBello with The Quill were considered the best ones: if the author has \r\na system, a table of verbs or sentences to start with, he can get \r\ngood results with minimal effort.\r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: The mystery stories by Systems were very well written\r\n    and, of the games of the time, are the most similar to modern\r\n    IF. Games like \"Il mistero di Zambesi Waters\", by Sandro Certi and\r\n    Franco Todi, were interactive stories.  The game is set in Africa,\r\n    and the opening screen promises: \"this game accepts sentences with\r\n    one or two words, with a maximum of NINE\". The game recognizes\r\n    sentences like \"Jump down from the bus\". But it doesn\'t use a\r\n    full-fledged parser: those are predefined sentences that are good\r\n    only for one event or puzzle. If, in a different situation, you\r\n    type \"Jump down\", inevitably the game says \"I don\'t understand\"\r\n    (and not \"Jump down from what?\"). The Systems games lack a\r\n    sophisticated parser, but have good stories. There isn\'t a library\r\n    of verbs, like the ones offered by The Quill. It\'s not strange\r\n    that Di Bello\'s games written using The Quill were considered the\r\n    best ones: if an author has a library of verbs or sentences to\r\n    start with, he can get good results with minimal effort.\r\n<P>\r\n    [Where you\'ve said \"system\" I\'ve used the term \"library,\" since I\r\n    think that more accurately captures what you\'re talking\r\n    about. I\'ll keep using \"library\" throughout the rest of my\r\n    suggested edits.]\r\n<P>\r\nOn the tapes of \"Explorer\" there was the announcement: \"In this \r\nmagazine you\'ll find a dossier to solve and to learn to write \r\nadventure games\". The editors understood that a lot of people wanted \r\nto write their own games. To write a good adventure, with an \r\nelementary parser, is undeniably easier than writing a good shoot \'em \r\nup. So the market was open to this kind of experiment. And the book \r\n\"Scrivere un gioco di avventura sul personal computer\" (1986) by \r\nEnrico Colombini had great success. With the book was sold a tape \r\nwith some adventure game and the famous \"Modulo Base\", a system, a \r\ngrill of verbs to enlarge to create your own game using Basic. I \r\ndon\'t remember brilliant games written using \"Modulo Base\"; I \r\nremember the ones of Colombini, among them \"L\'Anello di Lucrezia \r\nBorgia\", \"L\'Apprendista Stregone\" e \"L\'astronave condannata\". Di \r\nBello too used the \"Modulo Base\" and here his history as an author of \r\ntext adventures meets that of Colombini: \"I used Modulo Base to \r\nrealize a sort of The Quill for Msx. I used it to create a dark/light \r\nroutine (with timers for lamps or other light objects), and other \r\nthings offered by The Quill. Then I tried to do the same with Amiga\'s \r\nAmos Basic, but it was too late to launch text adventures again and \r\nthe project never took life. But I\'m sure Enrico remembers that night \r\nwhen I woke him to ask a suggestion-- I hope he forgave me!\".\r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: On the tapes of \"Explorer\" there was the announcement:\r\n    \"In this magazine you\'ll find a dossier to solve and to learn to\r\n    write adventure games\". The editors understood that a lot of\r\n    people wanted to write their own games. To write a good adventure,\r\n    with an elementary parser, is undeniably easier than writing a\r\n    good shoot \'em up. So the market was open to this kind of\r\n    experiment. And the book \"Scrivere un gioco di avventura sul\r\n    personal computer\" (1986) by Enrico Colombini was a great\r\n    success. The book included a tape with some adventure game and the\r\n    famous \"Modulo Base\", a library of verbs in BASIC which you could\r\n    add to in order to create your own game. I don\'t remember\r\n    brilliant games written using \"Modulo Base\"; I remember the ones\r\n    of Colombini, among them \"L\'Anello di Lucrezia Borgia\",\r\n    \"L\'Apprendista Stregone\" e \"L\'astronave condannata\". Di Bello too\r\n    used the \"Modulo Base\", at which point two of the best early\r\n    authors of Italian text adventures were using the same tool. Said\r\n    Di Bello, \"I used Modulo Base to realize a sort of The Quill for\r\n    Msx. I used it to create a dark/light routine (with timers for\r\n    lamps or other light objects), and other things offered by The\r\n    Quill. Then I tried to do the same with Amiga\'s Amos Basic, but it\r\n    was too late to launch text adventures again and the project never\r\n    took life. But I\'m sure Enrico remembers that night when I woke\r\n    him to ask a suggestion-- I hope he forgave me!\".\r\n<P>\r\n    [Was the announcement spoken directly on the tapes? Or was it in\r\n    the magazine?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [Spell out what Msx stands for.]\r\n<P>\r\nIn the meantime, you could find, in newsstands (of course), an \r\nillegal italian version of The Quill. On the magazines people \r\nannounced \"new amateur adventure game\", but without Internet the \r\ndistribution was difficult, especially the distribution of Apple \r\ngames, a home computer not much present in italian houses. Only using \r\nthe personal archive of Colombini is it possible today to recall some \r\ninteresting games. Like the good \"Catania Gions\" (1985), wrote by \r\nthree men from Pisa, Fausto Daluiso and Giuseppe and Gianluca \r\nPomponi: it\'s a sort of Indiana Jones story with graphics similar to \r\nthe one of \"Death in the Caribbean\". \"I knew the three authors -- \r\nsays Enrico -- when they asked me to write a plot for another game \r\nand I gave them the script of \"L\'isola del Giaguaro\", but today we \r\nhave just some demo pictures, since this game was never completed\". \r\nBlue Bottazzi wrote \"Cappuccetto Rosso\" (1987), a only text game \r\ninspired by the famous fable for children. \"La rapina di Corsut\" has, \r\ninstead, a curious story. Written by Luca Nosotti and Carlo Vellano \r\nin 1985, it was submitted to a programming competition, but the jury \r\ndidn\'t accept it because of the presence, in the game, of a group of \r\nrobbers. Maybe it\'s the only case of censorship in the history of \r\nadventure games! Another game is \"L\'uscita\" by a little-known Ugo: \r\nit\'s a only text adventure with interesting multiple choices (and \r\ngraphical map). Possibly there were some lost games (for Cbm and \r\nApple or Spectrum) that were better than the ones sold. But maybe \r\nwe\'ll never know.\r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: In the meantime, you could find, in newsstands (of\r\n    course), an illegal Italian version of The Quill. In the magazines\r\n    people announced \"new amateur adventure games\", but without the\r\n    Internet the distribution was difficult. This was especially true\r\n    for Apple games, as Apples weren\'t well-represented in Italian\r\n    houses. Many interesting games are today only to be found in\r\n    Colombini\'s personal archive. One such game is the good \"Catania\r\n    Gions\" (1985), written by three men from Pisa, Fausto Daluiso and\r\n    Giuseppe and Gianluca Pomponi. It\'s a sort of Indiana Jones story\r\n    with graphics similar to the ones in \"Death in the\r\n    Caribbean\". According to Enrico, \"I knew the three authors. They\r\n    asked me to write a plot for another game and I gave them the\r\n    script of \"L\'isola del Giaguaro\", but today we have just some demo\r\n    pictures, since this game was never completed\".  Blue Bottazzi\r\n    wrote \"Cappuccetto Rosso\" (1987), a text-only game inspired by the\r\n    famous fable for children. \"La rapina di Corsut\" has a curious\r\n    history. Written by Luca Nosotti and Carlo Vellano in 1985, it was\r\n    submitted to a programming competition, but the jury didn\'t accept\r\n    it because of the presence of a group of robbers in the game. This\r\n    may be the only case of censorship in the history of adventure\r\n    games! Another game is \"L\'uscita\" by the little-known Ugo: it\'s a\r\n    text-only adventure with interesting multiple choices (and a\r\n    graphical map). Possibly there were some lost games (for the\r\n    Commodore and Apple or Spectrum) that were better than the ones\r\n    sold, but we may never know of them.\r\n<P>\r\n    [When you say \"the distribution was difficult,\" was it really? I\r\n    assume the newsstands were everywhere. Or do you mean the\r\n    *archival* of the games was difficult? I don\'t understand why\r\n    these games are hard to find but you can find the earlier games.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [What game is \"Death in the Caribbean\"? You use it in a\r\n    comparison, but I don\'t know the game you\'re talking about.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [What famous fable was \"Cappuccetto Rosso\" inspired by?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [What competition was \"La rapina di Corsut\" submitted to? Who ran\r\n    it? Was it an ongoing thing? It sounds like the kind of thing\r\n    that\'d be important in the history of Italian adventures.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [Is \"Ugo\" a person? Does he/she have a last name or a first name?]\r\n<P>\r\nThe dark age\r\nThe age of games sold in newspapers stands arrived at the end with \r\nthe last series: Epyx 3001 (editor \"Arscom\", first issue january \r\n1988). Every issue had five or six games only for Cbm, but the sales \r\nwere bad and the series closed after six months. The dark age of text \r\nadventures occurs at the same time in Italy as in the rest of the \r\nworld. The games written at the end of 80s and the beginning of 90s \r\nare few, those sold nearly zero. There were some bad attempts to \r\nrealize games using well-known comic characters like Diabolik and \r\nDylan Dog, but the result is action adventure with many lows and \r\nalmost no highs. One of the most interesting things happens in 1990, \r\nwhen on the review Amiga Byte  appears \"Demo Adventure\", an adventure \r\ntoolkit (written by Maurizio Giunti) that allows you to create games \r\nwith a good parser (\"attack orc with the sword\") but, curiously, \r\ndoesn\'t permit synonyms for the nouns (while it does for verbs). With \r\nthis system, a guy from Imperia (northwestern Italy), Marco \r\nVallarino, wrote nearly twenty text adventures: among them is \r\n\"Dracula\", notable because offers a lot of locations (84). At the \r\ntime there was also an innovative experiment by Alessandro Uber and \r\nFabrizio Venerandi: they created a text adventure for Mud, \r\nNecronomicom, played via Videotel (a system of connected computers, \r\nused by pubs and restaurants to attract guests) till 1994, and via \r\nTelnet since 2001.\r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: The age of games sold in newspapers stands ended with the\r\n    last series: Epyx 3001 (editor \"Arscom\", first issue January\r\n    1988). Every issue had five or six C64-only games, but sales were\r\n    bad and the series ended after six months. The Italian dark age of\r\n    text adventures happened at the same time as in the rest of the\r\n    world. Few games were written during the end of 1980s and the\r\n    beginning of the 1990s; almost none were sold. There were some bad\r\n    games that featured well-known comic characters like Diabolik and\r\n    Dylan Dog, but the results were action-adventure games with many\r\n    lows and few highs. One of the most interesting things happened in\r\n    1990, when the magazine Amiga Byte reviewed \"Demo Adventure\", an\r\n    adventure toolkit by Maurizio Giunti that allowed you to create\r\n    games with a full-sentence parser (\"attack orc with the sword\")\r\n    but, curiously, permitted synonyms for verbs but not nouns. Using\r\n    this system, a man from Imperia (northwestern Italy) named Marco\r\n    Vallarinox wrote nearly twenty text adventures: among them is\r\n    \"Dracula\", notable for its many locations (84). At that time there\r\n    was also an innovative experiment by Alessandro Uber and Fabrizio\r\n    Venerandi: they created a text adventure for Mud, Necronomicom,\r\n    played via Videotel (a system of connected computers, used by pubs\r\n    and restaurants to attract guests) until 1994. Since 2001,\r\n    Necronomicon has been playable via telnet.\r\n<P>\r\n    [Whas \"Necronomicon\" for a specific MUD, or was it a MUD itself?]\r\n<P>\r\nRevival\r\nAnyway, the revival begins in 1995 when Vallarino reopens the sipario \r\nwith \"Sfida all\'ignoto\" e \"Il giardino incantato\" and Robero Barabino \r\ndevelops a very nice game (underrated): \"Alieni per sempre\", a text \r\nadventure with graphics that is a parody of the Tv serial \"Star Trek\" \r\nand bears structural similarities to \"Wonderland\" by post-Magnetic \r\nScrolls. A curiosity: the first scene of \"Sfida all\'ignoto\" (a Ms-Dos \r\ngame with an Infocom statusline) is similar to the opening scene of \r\n\"Avventura nel castello\": an airplane crash.\r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: The revival began in 1995 when Vallarino reopened the\r\n    sipario with \"Sfida all\'ignoto\" (an MS-DOS game with an\r\n    Infocom-like status line) and \"Il giardino incantato\".  Robero\r\n    Barabino developed a very nice, underrated game: \"Alieni per\r\n    sempre\", a text adventure with graphics that parodies the TV show\r\n    \"Star Trek\" and bears structural similarities to \"Wonderland\" by\r\n    Magnetic Scrolls. One curious coincidence: the first scene of\r\n    \"Sfida all\'ignoto\" is similar to the opening scene of \"Avventura\r\n    nel castello\": an airplane crash.\r\n<P>\r\n    [What does \"sipario\" mean?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [I removed \"post\" from \"post-Magnetic Scrolls\" because Wonderland\r\n    was an official Magnetic Scrolls game, and involved Anita, Ken,\r\n    and Hugh.]\r\n<P>\r\nBut the parser changes with the arrival of Inform (today there don\'t \r\nexist games written with Tads or Hugo because of the lack of italian \r\nlibraries). Ilario Nardinocchi finishes the first Inform italian \r\nlibraries, while Luca Melchionna and Barabino write the first Italian \r\nInform games: \"Zazie\" (inspired by the book of Queneau) and \"Non sar  \r\nun avventura\", a funny game that takes place on a beach full of \r\npeople and girls to catch. The year is 1999. In the meantime, Giovanni \r\nRiccardi rewrites the Italian libraries, opens an Italian website for \r\nInform and translates, for didactical purpouses, \"Adventure\" and \r\n\"Toyshop\". On the scene arrives then Tommaso Caldarola, who writes \r\nthe first game using the libraries of Riccardi: \"Uno zombie a \r\nDeadville\", horror splatter winner of the 2001 \"Italian adventure of \r\nthe year\" (the first edition of the competition, 2000, went to \"Non \r\nsar  un avventura\"). A lot of people rediscovered adventures thanks \r\nto the newsgroup it.comp.giochi.avventure testuali and to the website \r\nwww.ifitalia.cjb.net.\r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: The standard parser changed with the arrival of Inform\r\n    (there are no Italian games written with Tads or Hugo because of\r\n    those languages\' lack of Italian libraries). Ilario Nardinocchi\r\n    wrote the first Inform Italian libraries, after which Luca\r\n    Melchionna and Barabino wrote the first Italian Inform games:\r\n    \"Zazie\" (inspired by the book of Queneau) and \"Non sar \r\n    un avventura\", a funny game that takes place on a beach full of\r\n    people and girls to catch. Shortly thereafter, Giovanni Riccardi\r\n    rewrote the Italian libraries, opened an Italian website for\r\n    Inform, and translated, for didactical purposes, \"Adventure\" and\r\n    \"Toyshop\". Tommaso Caldarola then wrote the first game using\r\n    Riccardi\'s libraries: \"Uno zombie a Deadville\", a splatter-horror\r\n    game which won the 2001 \"Italian adventure of the year\" (the first\r\n    edition of the competition, 2000, went to \"Non sar \r\n    un avventura\"). A lot of people rediscovered adventures thanks to\r\n    the newsgroup it.comp.giochi.avventure.testuali and to the website\r\n    www.ifitalia.cjb.net.\r\n<P>\r\n    [When did Ilario write the libraries? What year? Was it in 1999?\r\n    If so, that\'s where you should mention 1999, not with \"The year is\r\n    1999\" in the middle of the paragraph.]\r\n<P>\r\n    [Move the first mention of the competition (the 2000 one) up to\r\n    where you first talk about Non sar  un avventura. When you talk\r\n    about that game, mention that it won the first \"Italian adventure\r\n    of the year,\" in 2000, and then mention that \"Uno zombie a\r\n    Deadvile\" won in 2001.]\r\n<P>\r\nBut the parser old style does not vanish forever (and maybe this is a \r\ngood thing, who knows?). Not all Italian authors know english, the \r\nfirst hurdle to learning Inform. So other games are released with the \r\nverb/noun system: the series by Jois (finally a female author!) and \r\n\"Enigma\" by Marco Vallarino, both for Ms-Dos. With the revival there \r\nis, also, an operation nostalgia: \"Progetto Lazzaro\" \r\n(www.progettolazzaro.org), a website that hosts the old adventures \r\nsold in the newsstand, with documentation and news.\r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: But the old-style parser hasn\'t vanished forever - and\r\n    maybe this is a good thing. Not all Italian authors know English,\r\n    the first hurdle to learning Inform. New games using a verb/noun\r\n    parser have been released: the series by Jois (finally a female\r\n    author!) and \"Enigma\" by Marco Vallarino, both for MS-DOS. With\r\n    the revival there has come an exercise in nostalgia: \"Progetto\r\n    Lazzaro\" (www.progettolazzaro.org), a website that hosts the old\r\n    newsstand adventures, along with documentation and news.\r\n<P>\r\n    [What\'s the name of the series by Jois?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [Is the news at Progetto Lazzaro only about newsstand games, or\r\n    about Italian adventures in general?]\r\n<P>\r\nThe attraction for the puzzles\r\nSince 1982 authors, parser, and systems have changed, but not \r\npuzzles, and maybe they\'ll never change. Italians love puzzles, all \r\nthe Italian adventures are puzzle-oriented and, in the reviews, the \r\npresence of the puzzles is important to get a high valutation. \r\nItalians don\'t have games like Photopia: the idea is that adventures \r\nare games and games need to be challenging. With or without the \r\navveniristic one word parser launched by Enrico Colombini.\r\n<P>\r\n    REWRITE: Since 1982 authors, parsers, and systems have changed,\r\n    but not puzzles. Maybe they\'ll never change. Italians love\r\n    puzzles: all the Italian adventures are puzzle-oriented and, in\r\n    the reviews, the presence of the puzzles is important to get a\r\n    high valutation.  No Italian has written a game like Photopia: the\r\n    idea is that adventures are games and games need to be\r\n    challenging, with or without the avveniristic one word parser\r\n    launched by Enrico Colombini.\r\n<P>\r\n    [What does \"avveniristic\" mean?]\r\n<P>\r\n    [The ending is a little abrupt. I\'d like a more gentle ending.]\r\n<P>\r\nFrancesco Cordella, january/february 2002\r\n(thanks to Enrico Colombini, Bonaventura Di Bello, Marco Vallarino,\r\nPaolo Vece).',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 03:49:16',2),(45,31,3,'[A fair amount of awkward phrasing that I haven\'t tried to correct. Generally could use some more color: for most of these games, we get only the title and maybe something about the robustness of the parser. More sense of the style--humorous, swashbuckling--and what, if anything, makes them noteworthy as games (examples of particularly clever puzzles, vivid writing (if it\'ll translate), well-realized characters, etc.) It would also be interesting to know whether any of these--present or past--have been translated into English, since much of the readership won\'t speak Italian.\r\n<P>\r\nYou seem to be quoting Colombini throughout, but it\'s not clear. Preface each quote with something like \"Colombini has observed that...\" or \"Notes Colombini:\"\r\n<P>\r\nGiven the audience, comparison to games in English might be particularly effective to give a sense of the history: if the early mysteries had some of the same feel as Infocom\'s Witness or Suspect, say, that\'s a comparison that would resonate.\r\n<P>\r\nMore specific comments in brackets below.]\r\n<P>\r\n\"The best thing would be a parser with just one word:<br>\r\n>BARMAN<br>\r\nBarman: What?<br>\r\n>BEER<br>\r\nBarman: A beer for you.<br>\r\n>MONEY?<br>\r\nBarman: five bucks.<br>\r\n>PAY<br>\r\nBarman: Thanx.<br>\r\n<P>\r\nSo, this series of sentences seems perfect to me, maybe I\'ll use it to write a game.\"\r\n<P>\r\nThe man who speaks is Enrico Colombini, programmer from Brescia (northern Italy), the pioneer of adventure games in Italy -- the Don Woods of the Mediterrean, to be clear. He has a curious aversion for[to] the sophisticated parser invented by Infocom. And that\'s why he said that bizarre thing -- the parser with just one word. Fun, fantasy and easy plain work: no complicated sentences and no NPCs to ask, \"What\'s wrong.\" It\'s provocative, certainly.\r\n<P>\r\nThe first game<br>\r\nIt\'s a boutade [I\'d use another word or phrase] of the man who, in 1982, wrote the first text adventure of Italian history: \"Avventura nel castello\". \"I didn\'t know Infocom games yet and, certainly, that was a good thing. Had I played them, I would have tried to emulate their parser (\"put the red sheet and the green one in the big drawer, then close it with the strange key\"), things would have gotten really complicated, I would\'ve lost a lot of time, and maybe I would\'ve given up. At the time I hadn\'t yet discovered that easy things are, often, the best way to succeed.  I needed a lot of years to understand this, but that\'s another story.\"\r\n<P>\r\nTwenty years later, \"Avventura nel castello\" could [can] still compete against most (if not all) Italian adventure games. [Including those with full-sentence parsers? Big claim. Explain why.] And at the time, without exaggeration, the game - for its quality - would put Scott Adams to shame (but Scott Adams wrote a lot of games, and Colombini just five or six). \"Avventura nel castello\" was first released for Apple II: at the beginning it was sold only in a shop owned by a friend of Enrico, and then it was distributed by the \"Jackson\" editorial group: \"The sales were never high, but the satisfaction was great because a lot of players wrote to find out more about the game. With \"Avventura nel Castello\" and with the board game \"Melopoli\" (a computer version of Monopoly) I earned, if I remember right, three or four million. The same as Scott Adams - but my millions were in lire, his in dollars.\" In 1985 the MS-DOS version of the game was released (the last edition is dated 1996).\r\n<P>\r\n[say more about \"Avventura\" for the 99% of the readership who hasn\'t heard of it--plot? genre? difficulty? has anyone translated it, is anyone planning to?]\r\n<P>\r\nItalian parser<br>\r\nBut what is the origin of the bizarre proposal of the \"Parser with one word\"? The origin is the Italian tradition of text adventure[s], I think. Only after the\r\narrival of Inform in Italy did people release games with a parser based on more than a verb/noun pair. Italian players, especially those who don\'t know\r\nEnglish (and there are many), are not used to a complex parser.  It sounds bad to their ears. [can you elaborate? what sounds bad?] \"Avventura nel castello\" and Colombini\'s other games have a verb/noun parser. And the same goes for most of the games released in the eighties. \"Avventura nel castello\" didn\'t have a large distribution because it ran on the Apple and then on Ms-Dos, when the most common home computers were Cbm64 and Spectrum. A lot of people wanted to play that game but couldn\'t. There were also a lot of people having fun with Infocom games, but the problems were the language and the slowness of the Cbm. The most common non-Italian games were those of Scott Adams: not much text to translate, an easy parser, speed and, in some cases, graphics (and graphics, whatever you think, means\r\naudience). These games had a very large distribution (more than \"Avventura nel Castello\") because the software piracy was everywhere: at the time I\'d seen\r\nan original game only nine or ten times. The rest was a big exchange, under the tables but also over the counters of the shops, of tapes (or floppy disks) with\r\ncracked games. [just Scott Adams or others as well?] And in the videogame magazines there appeared the first columns with hints for adventurers.  (In the golden age those columns became pages.)\r\n<P>\r\nThe newspaper stands<br>\r\nThe adventures were still games for a small audience. Things changed when they arrived in the newspaper stands. Yes: the newsstands became gold mines for\r\nadventurers. [Italian? Not? It\'s not clear.] In 1985, the first issue of a monthly publication called \"Next Strategy\" was released: on the tape there were three graphic adventures for Cbm (written by Roberto Tabacco and from the no-better-known Hans Piu). If you play them today the only pleasure comes from satisfying your nostalgia, for the rest is a frustration: it\'s impossible to say that these games have a parser. [Maybe some titles and some more specific details about the games themselves?] The game understands only the right sequence of commands that lead to victory: nothing out of the scheme, no provision of answers (even silly ones) for wrong actions. We are very far from \"Avventura nel castello\" and also from Scott Adams. Regression? Maybe. To win it was not enough to solve the puzzles; you had also to guess the exact words in the mind of the author -- to the point where there was a game that didn\'t understand the word \"follow\" but only the word \"track\". [Good example! More?] Certainly there are reasons for all this. At the time the standard (in other countries too) was more or less that one. Nobody dreamed of emulating Infocom: the magazine was sold every month, and you could not expect that the editor (who wasn\'t Bill Gates) would hire a team of programmers and beta-testers. And everyone was happy with the results, because the players were enthusiastic: and that made it possible to continue without raising the budget (which was already very high for such games). There was also another reason. The magazine had a high price: eight or nine thousand lire (roughly four or four and a half dollars). Had the games been very easy, the line of people requesting a refund would have been longer than the line of people ready to buy the next issue with new games and the solutions of the old ones. The strategy, instead, was to insert a very difficult puzzle in one of the games, so the players had to buy the next issue. [Ha! Example? Spoilers aren\'t likely to be a big issue.]\r\n<P>\r\nMore or less at the same level were the games of the \"Dream\" series (Editions Fermont, first issue november 1985, with three Cbm games in every issue): they had black and white graphics, retro style, and good and onirics [not sure what this word is supposed to be] plots. In every issue there was a game without graphics, to make the most of the memory of the Cbm and offer more text and more puzzles.\r\n \r\nThe Quill and higher quality<br>\r\nThe quality of the games (parser included) got better with Bonaventura Di Bello. He, in his twenties, bought by mistake a \"Adventure: A planet of death\" by Artic Computing (while Colombini was hypnotized by Crowther and Woods, authors of \"Adventure\" [er, what does this mean?]). A little time later Di Bello discovered The Quill (an illegal copy, of course, but then he bought an original one from England) and wrote a game on his Spectrum. He sent it to a magazine called \"Load\'n\'Run\" and, in that moment, began his fortune: \"I was paid two hundred thousand lire (one hundred dollars).  Another two and I would have been able to buy a new Spectrum!\". The editor, Arscom, launched a new series: \"Epic 3000\", with three games every month. Roberto Tabacco was the author of the ones for Cbm, Di Bello wrote the ones for Spectrum (with The Quill and The Illustrator). The first issue was sold on april 1986. The games, not protected by a antipiracy password (though they were in the following issues), were: \"Ring\", \"Duca Lynce\" and \"Il galeone scomparso\" (Cbm), \"Et in action\", \"L\'occhio del condor\", \"Il triangolo maledetto\" (Spectrum). The influence of the Level 9 games was clear. [why? how were they similar?]\r\nIn december the last issue of the magazine was sold; it  then became \"Viking\" (first issue: january 1987), with a new editor, \"Edizioni Hobby\" [was this the company publishing it? \"editor\" is usually a person]: Tabacco was no longer working there, and the games (three, the same for Commodore and Spectrum) were all written by Di Bello. Two months earlier (november 1986) the \"Edizioni Hobby\" had launched the series \"Explorer\" (three games, the same for Cbm and Msx): here Di Bello ported to Commodore the Spectrum games of \"Epic 3000\". Sometimes a game continued in two or more episodes. The total of adventures written by Di Bello is 74: he was able to write a game every week and was paid five hundred thousand lire (250 dollars) per game. \"It would have been wonderful to live writing those games; it would have been the same as living as a writer, or maybe better, because the audience of text games was superb.\" [Whom are you quoting?] The first game of Di Bello, \"Dimensione sconosciuta\", is impossible to find: \"Today I would like to remember it, rewrite it and release it online.\" Last three were never released. \"I remember the names, \"New Pasqua\" and \"Sorsi di terrore\". The third one was a thriller with the PC hiring a killer to kill him and let all pass like a suicide. I wasn\'t the author, the author was Marco Gobbi; I tried to contact him again some time ago, but he\'s vanished.\" [Whom are you quoting? Please make it clear.] Most games, at the time, had graphics, and there were people who released \"single\" games, without thinking to launch a series. The stories were always very short and the locations never more than ten. [again, more about the games themselves--difficult? well-written? well-designed?] The name of the characters, we\'ll never\r\nunderstand why, were always anglophone (I don\'t remember even one Italian one): Dust Hanter, Jack Byteson, Jonathan Thompson, Harry O\'Hara, Alan Simmons.\r\n<P>\r\nInside and out the system<br>\r\nThe parser still was verb/noun [two-word might be a little clearer]. But there were some exceptions, above all in the single games or in the short series, like the mystery stories edited by\r\nSystems (\"Gialli Commodore\", just one game per issue). [When are we here? I\'ve lost track.] In these cases, in fact, there was no hurry to release a lot of games every month, the authors were not pros like Di Bello, but people that had an idea for a game, released it, and often vanished forever from the scene of text adventures (just like Enrico Ragaini, author of \"Il mistero della piramide\" for Cbm) [who? this is not a comparison that many will pick up on--maybe \"for example\"?]. The Systems mystery stories were the integration of a series of lessons to write text adventures published by the magazine \"Personal Computer\" and \"Commodore Computer Club\": those lessons were very good and in them appeared, for the first time, the concept of library [I\'m having trouble parsing this. Do you mean that the games provided for synonyms?] with words about the theory of locations, of the inventory [whoa--had there not been \"rooms\" and inventory prior to this? if so, explain how that worked] and suggestions for an \"intelligent\" parser [again, elaborate]. \r\n \r\nThe mystery stories by Systems were very well written and, among the games of the time, are the most similar to modern IF: yes, interactive stories. Like \"Il mistero di Zambesi Waters\", by Sandro Certi and Franco Todi.  The location is Africa and in the opening screen there is a promise: \"this game accepts sentences with one or two words, with a maximum of NINE\". It\'s possible to type something like \"Jump down from the bus\". But we are not inside a system: those are predefined sentences that are good only for one event, one puzzle. If, in another and not predefined situation, you type \"Jump down\", inevitably the game says \"I don\'t understand\" (and not \"Jump down from what?\"). We are still far from a sophisticated parser, but we have good stories. [Good explanation. Elaborate a bit on the stories--plots, genres, what made them interesting.] We don\'t have a system of verbs, like the ones offered by The Quill. It\'s not strange that the games written by Di Bello with The Quill were considered the best ones: if the author has a system, a table of verbs or sentences to start with, he can get good results with minimal effort. \r\n<P>\r\n[this next bit is a bit of a departure--maybe a subhead to indicate you\'re shifting gears? Further Parser Developments: Modulo Base?]\r\n<P>\r\nOn the tapes of \"Explorer\" there was the announcement: \"In this magazine you\'ll find a dossier to solve and to learn to write adventure games\". The editors understood that a lot of people wanted to write their own games. To write a good adventure, with an elementary parser, is undeniably easier than writing a good shoot \'em up. So the market was open to this kind of experiment. And the book \"Scrivere un gioco di avventura sul personal computer\" (1986) by Enrico Colombini had great success. With the book was sold a tape with some adventure game and the famous \"Modulo Base\", a system, a grill of verbs to enlarge to create your own game using Basic. I don\'t remember brilliant games written using \"Modulo Base\"; I remember the ones of Colombini, among them \"L\'Anello di Lucrezia Borgia\", \"L\'Apprendista Stregone\" e \"L\'astronave condannata\". [Translate and give some more details about these games, since you\'ve described them as \"brilliant\"; also, are you saying that Colombini used Modulo Base? It\'s not clear.] Di Bello too used the \"Modulo Base\" and here his history as an author of text adventures meets that of Colombini: \"I used Modulo Base to realize a sort of The Quill for Msx. I used it to create a dark/light routine (with timers for lamps or other light objects), and other things offered by The Quill. Then I tried to do the same with Amiga\'s Amos Basic, but it was too late to launch text adventures again and the project never took life. But I\'m sure Enrico remembers that night when I woke him to ask a suggestion-- I hope he forgave me!\". [The dark/light detail is good--more? Also, are you quoting Di Bello or Colombini?]\r\n<P>\r\nIn the meantime, you could find, in newsstands (of course), an illegal italian version of The Quill. On the magazines people announced \"new amateur adventure game\", but without Internet the distribution was difficult, especially the distribution of Apple games, a home computer not much present in italian houses. Only using the personal archive of Colombini is it possible today to recall some interesting games. [I\'m not sure what this means. Is Colombini now maintaining an archive of his and other games?] Like the good \"Catania Gions\" (1985), wrote by three men from Pisa, Fausto Daluiso and Giuseppe and Gianluca Pomponi: it\'s a sort of Indiana Jones story with graphics similar to the one of \"Death in the Caribbean\". \"I knew the three authors -- says Enrico -- when they asked me to write a plot for another game and I gave them the script of \"L\'isola del Giaguaro\", but today we have just some demo pictures, since this game was never completed\". [Whom are you quoting?] Blue Bottazzi wrote \"Cappuccetto Rosso\" (1987), a only text game inspired by the famous fable for children. [Which famous fable? Would translating the title help?] \"La rapina di Corsut\" has, instead, a curious story. Written by Luca Nosotti and Carlo Vellano in 1985, it was submitted to a programming competition, but the jury didn\'t accept it because of the presence, in the game, of a group of robbers. Maybe it\'s the only case of censorship in the history of adventure games! [Interesting. Were the robbers portrayed sympathetically? More details.] Another game is \"L\'uscita\" by a little-known Ugo: it\'s a only text adventure with interesting multiple choices (and graphical map). [Examples, more details.] Possibly there were some lost games (for Cbm and Apple or Spectrum) that were better than the ones sold. But maybe we\'ll never know.\r\n<P>\r\nThe dark age<br>\r\nThe age of games sold in newspapers stands arrived at the end with the last series: Epyx 3001 (editor \"Arscom\", first issue january 1988). Every issue had five or six games only for Cbm, but the sales were bad and the series closed after six months. The dark age of text adventures occurs at the same time in Italy as in the rest of the world. The games written at the end of 80s and the beginning of 90s are few, those sold nearly zero. There were some bad attempts to realize games using well-known comic characters like Diabolik and Dylan Dog, but the result is action adventure with many lows and almost no highs. [Explain why. Bad design, unoriginal?] One of the most interesting things happens in 1990, when on the review Amiga Byte appears \"Demo Adventure\", an adventure toolkit (written by Maurizio Giunti) that allows you to create games with a good parser (\"attack orc with the sword\") but, curiously, doesn\'t permit synonyms for the nouns (while it does for verbs). With this system, a guy from Imperia (northwestern Italy), Marco Vallarino, wrote nearly twenty text adventures: among them is \"Dracula\", notable because offers a lot of locations (84). At the time there was also an innovative experiment by Alessandro Uber and Fabrizio Venerandi: they created a text adventure for Mud, Necronomicom, played via Videotel (a system of connected computers, used by pubs and restaurants to attract guests) till 1994, and via Telnet since 2001. [More details about Necronomicon. Lovecraft, I assume?]\r\n<P>\r\nRevival<br>\r\nAnyway, the revival begins in 1995 when Vallarino reopens the sipario with \"Sfida all\'ignoto\" e \"Il giardino incantato\" and Robero Barabino develops a very nice game (underrated): \"Alieni per sempre\", a text adventure with graphics that is a parody of the Tv serial \"Star Trek\" and bears structural similarities to \"Wonderland\" by post-Magnetic Scrolls. A curiosity: the first scene of \"Sfida all\'ignoto\" (a Ms-Dos game with an Infocom statusline) is similar to the opening scene of \"Avventura nel castello\": an airplane crash. [Parser style? Don\'t lose that thread. Also, what are the \"structural similaries\" to Wonderland? Not everyone\'s played that one.]\r\n \r\nBut the parser changes with the arrival of Inform (today there don\'t exist games written with Tads or Hugo because of the lack of italian libraries). Ilario Nardinocchi finishes the first Inform italian libraries [when?], while Luca Melchionna and Barabino write the first Italian Inform games: \"Zazie\" [when?] (inspired by the book of Queneau [not sure what this is; more detail]) and \"Non sar  un\'avventura\", a funny game that takes place on a beach full of people and girls to catch. The year is 1999. [for what?] In the meantime, Giovanni Riccardi rewrites the Italian libraries, opens an Italian website for Inform and translates, for didactical purpouses, \"Adventure\" and \"Toyshop\". On the scene arrives then Tommaso Caldarola, who writes the first game using the libraries of Riccardi: \"Uno zombie a Deadville\", horror splatter winner of the 2001 \"Italian adventure of the year\" (the first edition of the competition, 2000, went to \"Non sar  un\'avventura\"). A lot of people rediscovered adventures thanks to the newsgroup it.comp.giochi.avventure testuali and to the website www.ifitalia.cjb.net. [More details about how games are being distributed now: is it all free download, is there any commercial presence?]\r\n<P>\r\nBut the parser old style does not vanish forever (and maybe this is a good thing, who knows?). Not all Italian authors know english, the first hurdle to learning Inform. So other games are released with the verb/noun system: the series by Jois (finally a female author!) [what are the names of the games in this series? what are they like?] and \"Enigma\" by Marco Vallarino, both for Ms-Dos [more details about this one too]. With the revival there is, also, an operation nostalgia: \"Progetto Lazzaro\" (www.progettolazzaro.org), a website that hosts the old adventures sold in the newsstand, with documentation and news.\r\n<P>\r\nThe attraction for the puzzles<br>\r\nSince 1982 authors, parser, and systems have changed, but not puzzles, and maybe they\'ll never change. Italians love puzzles, all the Italian adventures are puzzle-oriented and, in the reviews, the presence of the puzzles is important to get a high valutation. Italians don\'t have games like Photopia: the idea is that adventures are games and games need to be challenging. With or without the avveniristic [not sure what this word is supposed to be] one word parser launched by Enrico Colombini.\r\n<P>\r\nFrancesco Cordella, january/february 2002\r\n(thanks to Enrico Colombini, Bonaventura Di Bello, Marco Vallarino,\r\nPaolo Vece).',1,'2005-01-25 21:03:01','2005-02-13 18:26:42',2),(5,10,4,'\"...An infant company named Dinamic -- soon to become the most\r\nimportant in Spain -- premiered Artist, a design program for drawing, and Yenght,\r\nthe first conversational Spanish adventure...\"\r\n<P>\r\nOkay. Why do I care about Artist? Also, I\'m not told as much about Yenght as I\'d like to know (or is probably appropriate here).\r\n<P>\r\n\"Another strong Spanish video game company, Topo Soft, curiously did not release a conversational adventure in all its existence.\"\r\n<P>\r\nIn which case, why is this relevant unless you\'re making some sort of point?\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\nOverall, these points are indicative of a more general trend of a fairly dry, methodical recounting, with very little attention paid to what the games themselves were like, the principal figures within the genre, the writing styles therof, and indeed pretty much everything that makes the difference between the reeling off of dates and an engaging and interesting history.\r\n<p>\r\nMoreover, the games seem to be peripheral to the text; where they\'re described at all, it\'s done so in very terse and uninteresting ways. There\'s no attempt whatsoever to address trends within the games - of style, content and so on.\r\n<p>\r\nIf this was a history of people chopping each other into pieces, I might tolerate this approach, but this is a history of geeks getting together to program stuff. If I\'m not going to fall asleep before I get to the third paragraph, this is going to need a lot more colour, a drastically more compelling narrative style (above and beyond the awkward grammar), and a somewhat greater focus on the games rather than the community.\r\n<p>\r\n<i>[Ed. note: I suggest that one way to address this reviewer\'s points would be to spend some more time discussing individual games and what made them interesting, any artistic trends, etc. \r\n<p>\r\nSome questions you might start with as a way to flesh this out a little:\r\n<p>\r\nWhat was the premise of Yenght? What was the setting? Did it have any particularly notable puzzles that might be interesting to describe?\r\n<p>\r\nDid the style of games written change during the commercial period or since? What were the changes? English-language games have tended towards smaller and more experimental games over recent years. Is the same true of Spanish games? What are some of the most interesting Spanish games of the post-commercial era, and what sets them apart? \r\n<p>\r\nWhat design concerns get the most discussion in the Spanish community?\r\n<p>\r\nWe will help with polishing the grammar.]</i>',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2006-08-25 06:54:40',2),(6,11,4,'[ Aunque su traducci n es en mayor parte correcto, en algunos partes\r\nsuena desma ado a las oreja de los habladores de ingl s.  (As , sin\r\nduda, lo que Usted ahora est  leyendo no es tan agradable a su oreja\r\ncomo las palabras de un hablador de espa ol. :-)  Entonces, he traduc \r\nsu art culo otra vez, tratando de pulirlo de modo que suena mas natural\r\nen ingl s.  He le do el art culo original en espa ol y escrito esta\r\nversi n, tratando de permanecerlo tan cerca del original como posible. \r\nEn mayor parte, no he cambiado el contento, solamente el superficie,\r\npero tengo ideas de algunos partes; entonces, Usted va a verlos en\r\nseguida.  He encerrado mis comentos en [ estos rinconeras ].  Espero que\r\nno he hecho demasiado; no pienso entermeterme con sus ideas, pero espero\r\nque esta versi n de su art culo se ayude.  Finalmente, favor de excusar\r\nmi espa ol; hace unos a os que usarlo mucho.  Gracias. ]\r\n<P>\r\nHistory of Spanish IF\r\n<P>\r\nSpanish is the third most spoken language in the world.  It is not\r\nsurprising that text games have been well received and developed in the\r\nSpanish-language community.  The English influence has always been\r\npresent, although it wasn\'t enough to promote the term \"Interactive\r\nFiction\".  Spanish players preferred to speak of Conversational\r\nAdventures -- the second word undoubtedly coming from the original\r\n\"Advent\", which would inspire the first Spanish IF authors.  The\r\n\"Conversational\" term refers to a conversation, a chat, probably the one\r\nbetween the player and the game, or between the protagonist and his\r\nenvironment.\r\n<P>\r\nWhile in England and the USA the phenomenon would begin in the late 70s\r\nand early 80s, in Spain we must wait until 1984 to see the first\r\nadventures.  An infant company named Dinamic -- soon to become the most\r\nimportant in Spain -- came first with Artist, a graphic design program,\r\nand Yenght, the first Spanish conversational adventure, programmed in\r\nassembler, with short descriptions.  It had many flaws, not limited to\r\nnumerous sudden deaths.  Nonetheless, it managed to dazzle many\r\nadventurers, who enjoyed it very much.\r\n<P>\r\nThese would be two pillars of the genre in its beginnings: Dinamic, and\r\nthe magazine publisher Hobby Press, through its magazines Microhobby and\r\nMicroMania.  Dinamic would create a specific line for its games, among\r\nwhich were games created by small independent companies and games\r\nwritten for Adventures AD, a group of creators in Valencia that would\r\nsoon stand out from the rest. These first games featured a variety of\r\nplots and styles: classic adaptations like \" Don Quijote de la Mancha\";\r\nliterary works like \"Los Pajaros de Bangkok \" (Birds of Bangkok) with\r\nthe detective Pepe Carvalho; Star Wars parodies like \"La Guerra de las\r\nVajillas\"; games set in the future, such as \"Megacorp\".  Another strong\r\nSpanish video game company, Topo Soft, curiously did not release a\r\nconversational adventure in all its existence.\r\n<P>\r\n[  Tal vez debe decir algo de Hobby Press antes de mencionarlo aqu ?  Me\r\nparece extra o hablar de \"estos dos apoyos\" antes de describir los dos.\r\n]\r\n<P>\r\nThe real launching of the genre came in 1988 with the publication of \"\r\nLa\r\nAventura Original\" (Original Adventure), the first release by Adventures\r\nAD,\r\nwhich was a free adaptation of Advent, combining puzzles from the\r\noriginal game\r\nwith some new twists.  The game was a commercial success, and its\r\nmassive distribution brought a considerable increase in fans. \r\n<P>\r\nAnother source of the increasing popularity of adventures was the\r\navailability of the PAWS parser.  Quill could be obtained only in\r\nEnglish, but Adventures AD\r\ncontracted the services of Tim Gilberts from Scotland, and together they\r\nreleased the translated version of PAWS, which they sold to fans so that\r\nthey could create their own games.  This brought about an important\r\nincrease in the number of these games   especially in the years 1988 and\r\n1989, due to a national contest run by the Spectrum\'s most popular\r\nmagazine, Microhobby.  Microhobby included two sections in every issue\r\nto address questions about the creation of these games, which were\r\nanswered by Andres Samudio, the founder (?) of Adventures AD.\r\n<P>\r\n[  Qui n es Andres Samudio?  Su palabra es \"precursor\", pero no la\r\nentiendo.  En ingl s, por lo menos, si  l fue el \"precursor\" de\r\nAdventures AD,  l debe ser una compa  a tambi n.  He usada la palabra\r\n\"founder\", que significa \"fundador\"   la persona que empieza la\r\ncompa ia. ]\r\n<P>\r\nBetween 1988 and 1992 Adventures AD released six commercial games, all\r\ncommercial successes, until the decline in 8-bits in 1992:\r\n<P>\r\n[ Si Usted quiere hablar de \"8-bits\", debe describirlos m s\r\ncompletamente antes de aqu .  Por ejemplo,  qu  fue la relaci n entre\r\naventuras conversacionales y los \"8-bits\"? ]\r\n<P>\r\nLa Aventura Original (Original Adventure)  (1988). Free adaptation of\r\nCrowther\r\nand Woods\'s \" Adventure \".  It featured graphics in almost every room\r\nand deviated from the original in that the game began outside the cave\r\n(with the player having to open a grating to begin the second phase,\r\nwhich takes place entirely underground).  Instead of beginning with\r\neveryday elements and introducing the supernatural little by little,\r\nthis version featured an elf and a dwarf in early stages, near the\r\nvolcano.\r\n<P>\r\n[ El elfo y el enano,  son tan importantes que Usted debe mencionarlos\r\naqu ?  Me parece que son nada m s de detalles. ]\r\n<P>\r\nJabato (1989). Based on a comic character, set at the height of the\r\nRoman\r\nEmpire.  Its principal innovation was the simultaneous managing of\r\nseveral characters, who were traveling a great distance through Europe\r\nand Africa.\r\n<P>\r\nCozumel (1990). The first title of its trilogy \"Ci-u-Than\", set in the\r\nCaribbean in the first half of the century.  Many people consider this\r\nAD\'s best game.  The explorer Doc Monro is shipwrecked on the coast of\r\nthe island of Cozumel, where he is a participant in great adventures.\r\n<P>\r\n[ Tal vez Usted debe hablar mas de las aventuras del \"Doc Monro\".   Qu \r\nson ellas? ]\r\n<P>\r\nLa Aventura Espacial (Space Adventure) (1990). Intended as a sort of\r\nside venture during the development of the \"Ci-u-Than\'s\" trilogy, this\r\ngame was set in the future, and had a certain experimental flavor. \r\nAgain, the player handled several characters.\r\n<P>\r\nLos Templos Sagrados (The Sacred Temples) (1991).  The second part of\r\nthe  \r\n\"Ci-u-Than\" trilogy.  This puzzle-fest, the transitional game in the\r\ntrilogy, was also set in the Caribbean jungle.\r\n<P>\r\nChichen Itza (1992). The third part of its trilogy, and considered by\r\nmany the most complete, with a large number of NPCs and quests.  It came\r\nat a difficult time for the company and also for Dinamic, due to the\r\ndecreasing popularity of 8-bits and the emergence of graphic adventures.\r\n<P>\r\nAll of Adventures AD\'s games had certain similarities.  Each consisted\r\nof two\r\nparts, the second accessible only with a password obtained by finishing\r\nthe\r\nfirst.  There were graphics in almost all locations.  They were\r\nprogrammed with a\r\nparser called DAAD, which made it possible to export the games to the 8-\r\nand 16-bit\r\nplatforms of the time.  The 16-bit games were sometimes longer and their\r\npuzzles more complex.\r\n<P>\r\nFor a time, there was some speculation that Adventures AD might gear up\r\nfor the\r\ncreation of graphical adventures, but ultimately they did not take this\r\nstep.  From that moment on, activity centered on the amateur clubs,\r\nwhich were already thriving.  AD\'s games included an advertisement\r\npromoting an amateur club, which no doubt helped increase its\r\npopularity. \r\n<P>\r\n[ Estoy confudido.   Estaba un anuncio que apareci  en todos los juegos,\r\no algunos anuncios diferentes que aparecieron en juegos distintos?  Si\r\nhab a solo un anuncio de un club,  cu l club fue ello? ]\r\n<P>\r\nThe two most important clubs were the CAAD, founded in Valencia in 1988,\r\nand the Year Zero Club, founded in La Corua, which together comprised\r\nnearly a thousand members and published interesting articles in\r\nnewsletters.  The fanzines also offered\r\nadvertising and lists of adventures that could be bought from other\r\ngroups of fans at low prices.  The production of games between 1986 and\r\n1992, the first golden\r\nage of the conversational games, reached 200, mostly thanks to the\r\nefforts of the\r\namateur game-designers. From 1992 fan activity fell considerably, and\r\nthe fanzines published on paper stopped shortly thereafter. \r\n<P>\r\n[ Las letras \"CAAD\",  qu  significan? ]\r\n<P>\r\nSome years afterwards, the arrival of the Internet would create the\r\nsecond golden\r\nage, in which the fans participated through email lists, several\r\nwebpages (with\r\nthat of the CAAD as a major hub), and an IRC channel. The CAAD webpage\r\nwas created in 1997.  It had few resources at first, but led to efforts\r\nto rescue the\r\ninformation in paper fanzines and provide older games now playable with\r\nemulators.  A newsgroup was started, in imitation of the English forums,\r\nbut soon it was overrun by spam and questions about graphical\r\nadventures.  Ultimately the community turned to a mailing list, now run\r\nthrough Yahoo Groups.\r\n<P>\r\nFor the 16 bit machines, three parsers appeared that would continue the\r\nmomentum PAWS gave to the creation of adventures: NMP, Sintac and\r\nCaecho. Some adventurers also prefer programming their games directly in\r\nC or the dominant programming language.  In 1997 each of the two major\r\nclubs organized an adventure contest; fewer than a dozen adventures\r\nappeared in each event. In 1998 the CAAD repeated the summons and 9\r\ngames were entered, though the genre remained in crisis and the winner\r\nwould not be voted on until 3 years later.\r\n<P>\r\n[ Esto me intersa mucho, pero Usted no dice m s.   Por qu  no votaron? ]\r\n<P>\r\nIn October 1998, a message in the mailing list announced the imminent\r\nappearance of InformATE (Inform Now Totally in Spanish).  Although its\r\ninitial reception was lukewarm, it eventually surpassed the other\r\nsystems; nowadays it is the most popular.\r\n<P>\r\nAt this point, however, and for some time thereafter, there were not\r\nvery many options for programming adventures.  They were written\r\ndirectly in C, Visual Sintac (an improved version improved of Sintac\r\nthat incorporates an attractive visual environment), or NMP, an evolved\r\nversion of PAWS that only works in MSDOS.\r\nAt the end of 1999 the first contest of short adventures was organized. \r\nThis was\r\nthe beginning of the second golden age. The call for games met with\r\ngreat success and in March of 2000 the second such event was held. The\r\nsuccessive organization of several of these contests (the first of which\r\nestablished a severe limit, which would later be extended, of a single\r\nlocation and three objects) re-awoke the interest of the fans, who with\r\nthe support of the IRC channel and the mailing list, renewed their zeal\r\nfor the genre. The requirements of the contests varied: some called for\r\ncomedy games, some for strage, original games called \"nanos\", some for\r\ngames set in Tolkien literature.  From 1999 through 2002, eight of these\r\ncontests have been organized, raising the annual production to\r\napproximately 50 games.  From 2001, there have also been annual prizes\r\nfor the authors.\r\n<P>\r\n[ Usted ya hablado de la segunda ep ca dorada, en 1997 cuando los clubs\r\nempiezan los concursos.  Aqu  habla de otras concursos;  de qu  manera\r\nson diferentes? ]\r\n<P>\r\nThe mailing list has more than 160 subscribers, though only 30 or 40 are\r\nreally\r\nactive -- for which reason it is possible to consider the Spanish IF\r\ncommunity a betatesting community or a small test market.\r\n<P>\r\nIn June 2000, the people in charge of CAAD restarted the publication of\r\nthe fanzine, this time in PDF format, for web distribution.  There were\r\na total of seven complete issues through December of 2000.  Almost at\r\nthe same time, in October of 2000, another digital fanzine appeared,\r\nthis one a monthly named SPAC (clearly inspired by the English\r\ncounterpart SPAG).  It continues in good health to this day, thanks to\r\nthe collaborative efforts of an increasingly active community. \r\n<P>\r\nAnother interesting initiative of recent years has been a project to\r\nrecover classic games, called Project Base.  In a short time it has\r\nmanaged to recover more than a hundred classic games a decade old.\r\n<P>\r\nThese days, the number of fans is constantly increasing.  Some reappear\r\nafter being away for years, others are lovers of literature and find\r\nthat passion satisfied in these games. There is also an increasingly\r\nnumerous group of visually handicapped users who enjoy this type of\r\nleisure, and even dare to program long adventures in Inform.\r\n<P>\r\nAnd what does the future bring for us? The community of active\r\nadventurers is already involved in new and interesting projects.  The\r\nnascent system attoMOLE may be laying the foundations of the successor\r\nof InformATE.   Paguaglus will allow us to rescue old adventures\r\nprogrammed in PAWS and to translate them to the current environments. \r\nMaybe someone will complete the task of adapting TADS and end Inform\'s\r\ndominance.  There are also projects underway to develop new ways of\r\ncreating conversational adventures, using visual environments or\r\ndescriptive langauges instead of classical programming techniques.  The\r\nCAAD website will continue to evolve, and may attempt to rescue the MUD\r\nthat was so successful when it existed.\r\n<P>\r\n[  Qu  es \"paguaglus\"? ]\r\n<P>\r\nDefinitely a pleasing future for the adventure community in Spain.\r\n<P>\r\n[ Tal vez Usted debe inclu r algo m s aqu .  Ahora es bien, pero\r\nbastante corto y abrupto.  O, puede cortar el  ltimata oraci n y a adir\r\nunos oraci nes nuevos al fin, como conclusi n. ]',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 03:52:26',2),(7,13,10,'<i>[Ed. note: this set of comments was submitted as proofreading notes on a paper copy of the essay; I\'ve tried to convey the effect in html.]</i>\r\n<P>\r\nTHE PARSER AT THE THRESHOLD: LOVECRAFTIAN HORROR IN INTERACTIVE FICTION\r\n<P>\r\n\"I must be very deliberate now, and choose my words.\" -- H. P. Lovecraft, \"The Rats in the Walls\"\r\n<P>\r\nHorror is a wide-open field, not so much a genre in its own right as an atmosphere that can be applied to nearly any <font color = \"red\">imaginable [strikeout]</font> setting; there is as much horror to be found in the suburban streets of David Cornelson\'s *Cattus Attrox* <font color = \"red\">(1998)</font> as in the antiseptic laboratories of Ian Finley\'s *Babel,* <font color = \"red\">(1997)</font> or in the ante-bellum backwoods of Adam Cadre\'s *Shrapnel.* <font color = \"red\">(2000)</font> It\'s a challenge, sometimes, to even know where to begin. <font color = \"red\">(Why?)</font>\r\n<P>\r\nThe stories of H. P. Lovecraft occupy a peculiar place in this field. Although the classic tropes of the Lovecraftian tale may also be applied across many kinds of settings, it is nevertheless a highly specific and distinct subgenre. Its trappings and descriptive cues -- the crumbling tomes, the ancient blasphemies, the awful, bubbling divinities outside the boundaries of our universe -- <font color = \"RED\">these [strikeout]</font> set the story <font color = \"RED\">apart</font> from more conventional flavors of horror, giving it an immediate context and making it recognizable to any reader who is even casually acquainted with the source literature. This sense of familiarity makes it a comfortable entry point for writers and game designers hoping to craft their own stories in Lovecraft\'s image.\r\n<P>\r\nHowever, like any variety of genre fiction, Lovecraftian horror is easy to do, and somewhat more difficult to do well. One can too easily get so lost in the trappings <font color = \"RED\">as</font> to forget what makes Lovecraft\'s stories so distinct and compelling -- to lose sight of the forest, as it were, amongst all the tentacles.\r\n<P>\r\nTo pose just one example: Lovecraft\'s stories are not particularly scary. It\'s true. It is something of an open secret amongst fans of the literature; they are loathe to admit it, but most will if pressed. Oh, it\'s true, \"Cool Air\" is undeniably creepy; \"The Rats in the Walls\" delivers a bit of a shock at the end; \"The Shadow Over Innsmouth\" has wonderful suspense worthy of any action film . . . <font color = \"RED\">[remove \"...\", replace with comma]</font> but the stories aren\'t frightening, not in a visceral way, not in that way that makes you turn suddenly in your chair, shiver, and check down the darkened stairs before trepidly returning to the computer keyboard to enter your next move. <font color = \"RED\">And [strikeout]</font> no amount of blasphemous horrors from beyond the universe will ever make them so. The monsters of the Lovecraftian world are often, by the author\'s own admission, indescribable. Its horrors are unnamable. How can the reader be frightened by something which, he is flatly told, is beyond his every experience?\r\n<P>\r\nWhat sets Lovecraft apart from almost all other subgenres of horror is that his stories are not really about fear. They are about *revelation.* They are about piecing together an Awful Truth. Piecing that truth together, and possessing that truth once assembled, is not necessarily meant to be scary. It is merely meant to be, in a word, horrible.\r\n<P>\r\nFrom this perspective, Lovecraftian horror can be ideally suited to the genre of interactive fiction, because the player of the game and the protagonist in the game mirror each other in their goals. Both are presented with a hidden story that is gradually revealed, puzzle by puzzle, to the enterprising seeker. Both sift through fragments of text until the final narrative is laid bare. Hopefully, only one will have cause to regret it when the search is finally over.\r\n<P>\r\nThe essence of this sort of tale is not whether the story takes place in the modern day, or in New England in the 1920s, or in the slums of Victorian London. It is not whether the terrible monsters are batrachian, or squamous, or merely rugose. The essence is in how the story is structured. Although there are many variations on the theme, the \"classic\" Lovecraftian situation can be broken down like so: A lone investigator arrives at an abandoned place, delves into written lore, and pieces together the Awful Truth. <font color = \"RED\">[Redundant with preceding paragraphs.]</font> We\'ll examine each of these elements in turn and discuss how it can be applied to game design.\r\n<P>\r\n\"There was no one in the soaking street, and in all the world there was no one I dared tell.\" -- H. P. Lovecraft, \"The Shunned House\"\r\n<P>\r\nLone investigators are the easy part: nearly the entire corpus of IF revolves around the model of protagonists wandering off by themselves and fiddling with things. Here, at least, is a literary precedent.\r\n<P>\r\nYour protagonist should not be a nameless cipher. Horror is about terrible things happening to *people,* so give the player a person she can care about. Don\'t be afraid to supply the character\'s motivations and even, to a certain extent, the character\'s thoughts <font color = \"RED\">and</font> feelings in response to events in the game. Although it is the player who will be guiding the protagonist\'s footsteps and making all the important decisions, a clear motivation helps to put the game in a context that the player can immediately relate to.\r\n<P>\r\nIdeally<font color = \"RED\">,</font> the explorer should have some personal stake in the investigation. These sorts of journeys are not pleasant, and the merely idly curious will beat a hasty retreat as soon as things begin to get wriggly. The protagonist -- and<font color = \"RED\">,</font> by extension<font color = \"RED\">,</font> the player -- should want not to get out, but to go deeper. For example, in *Anchorhead* <font color = \"RED\">(Gentry, 1997)</font> (as well as in many of Lovecraft\'s stories), the motivator is family. The heroine has every reason to press on in the face of danger when the life and sanity of her husband is at stake. It needn\'t be that intimate, however. An archaeologist performing research vital to his career, a detective trying to find a missing girl, a safety inspector investigating a decrepit tenement -- all of these people would have an abiding reason to see the job done.\r\n<P>\r\n<font color = \"RED\">I</font>n many cases, all you have to do is get <font color = \"RED\">players</font> to take the first few steps -- and then let the door swing shut and lock behind them.\r\n<P>\r\n\". . . that cavernous, aeon-dead honeycomb of primal masonry; that monstrous lair of elder secrets which now echoed for the first time, after uncounted epochs, to the tread of human feet.\" -- H. P. Lovecraft, \"At the Mountains of Madness\"\r\n<P>\r\nSince non-player characters are one of the most difficult elements in an IF game to craft well, it is convenient that Lovecraftian settings typically have <font color = \"RED\">so [strikeout]</font> few of them.\r\n<P>\r\nEvery abandoned place is an archaeological dig (including, obviously, an abandoned archaeological dig).  <font color = \"RED\">(Hmm.)</font> Ghost towns, condemned asylums, ancestral estates -- they have their histories. People once lived there, and once did things there, and evidence of this should be apparent in the room descriptions and <font color = \"RED\">in</font> the objects that you place. A decaying theatre is more than just dusty furniture and broken glass<font color = \"RED\">;</font> it is a yellowed program stuffed between two seats, a dried-out makeup kit in the dressing room, notes scribbled in the margins of a crumbling script book. Let the place itself tell something of the people who used to inhabit it.\r\n<P>\r\nThe exploratory phase of your game is important. Avoid a sense of urgency. Lovecraft wrote leisurely stories; the evil is always something that occurred in the past, and now lies dormant and deeply buried. Perhaps the player will awaken it once more, inadvertently (but, of course, <font color = \"RED\"> inevitably [at odds with \'perhaps\', above]</font>), but give her time to explore first. Limit your puzzles, if you choose to employ any, to \"passive\" types -- variations on the locked door, inaccessible areas of the map. Allow the atmosphere to sink in. Let the player get a sense of the space she is now in, and let the implications gradually become apparent: that this empty place once housed people, and now, for *some reason,* the people are all gone.\r\n<P>\r\n\"The glimpse, like all dread glimpses of truth, flashed out from an accidental piecing together of separated things -- in this case an old newspaper item and the notes of a dead professor.\" -- H. P. Lovecraft, \"The Call of Cthulhu\"\r\n<P>\r\nSomeone always writes it down. The written record is the protagonist\'s primary link to what is really going on, and it is the most important segment of the Lovecraftian quest. Diaries, letters, police reports, newspaper clippings, carved hieroglyphs (which must be translated, <font color = \"RED\">of course [overuse of \"of course\" and \"obviously. Overuse of {list} -- {fragment}.]</font>), patient files, genealogical records, even the spoken testimony of a broken old man who knows too much -- all pieces of a puzzle told in words. Here is where the actual player and the fictional protagonist are in perfect <font color = \"RED\">synchronicity [synchronization]</font>: the goal of both is to unlock as much text as possible.\r\n<P>\r\nWhatever you do, don\'t dump the entire backstory on the player all at once. Make him work for it. Scramble it, scatter it, reveal it in fragments and in the wrong order. Locating and collating all the pieces is the <font color = \"RED\">macguffin</font> that drives your <font color = \"RED\">puzzles [no]</font> through this part of the game; every torn page is a treasure, and the protagonist\'s notebook is the trophy case. Some pages may be in code. Some pages may be incomprehensible without reference to other pages. Some pages may contain clues to the whereabouts of other pages. All of them will be hard-won.\r\n<P>\r\nThis is the story of your game<font color = \"RED\">:</font> the story of what happened before<font color = \"RED\">. E</font>mbellish it. Make it grandiose and complex. Use several different sources of information to introduce a variety of conflicting perspectives. Don\'t simply confirm what the player must have already guessed. As the fragmentary accounts slowly begin to resolve into a complete history, details of the setting will attain new significance. The barber chair with leather straps up in the attic is unsettling in its own right when first discovered -- when the protagonist reads the diary entries that explain *why* it is there, it should be all the more menacing.\r\n<P>\r\n\"The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.\" -- H. P. Lovecraft, \"The Call of Cthulhu\"\r\n<P>\r\nThere will come a time when the player has collected all the pages, read all the history, <font color = \"RED\">and</font> made all the necessary connections. <font color = \"RED\">This (?)</font> is a point when the final, Awful Truth of the situation will be made clear. This is the end game, the climax of your story. This is the moment when history catches up with the present, when everything the protagonist has learned comes to bear on where she is *right now* -- when she realizes that the giant has been slumbering beneath her feet this whole time, and now it is about to awaken.\r\n<P>\r\nHere is where you want to instill urgency. Time-sensitive puzzles and life-or-death decisions have their place in this segment of the game. Even Lovecraft himself was not above adding the occasional action sequence; a flight across rooftops with torch-bearing cultists swarming the streets below would not be at all out of genre. However, avoid making these sorts of puzzles overly difficult or finicky about precise verbiage. Nothing dispels the suspense more effectively than having to replay the most gripping scene in the game ten times because you can\'t figure out how to get out of the handcuffs. <font color = \"RED\">starts generic, ends specific</font> (Wisdom I dearly wish I\'d had when I wrote *Anchorhead.*) Throw obstacles in the player\'s path, certainly, but make the solutions obvious, so she can most past them quickly and get on with her breathless flight.\r\n<P>\r\nResist the temptation to overdescribe. Although strict faithfulness to Lovecraft\'s style sometimes requires that the climax be *a labored restatement of the obvious, written entirely in horrified italics,* the truth is that overblown, detail-laden descriptions of slimy, bubbling nastiness tend to leave readers more bemused than fearful. The art of suggestion by concealment is nowhere more important. Remember that the Awful Truth cannot truly be described, only implied.\r\n<P>\r\nThe Awful Truth is not how gross and slimy the monster is, but what the very existence of that monster implies. There runs through much of Lovecraft\'s work a theme of cosmic nihilism -- the sense that the universe is so vast and impersonal, and humankind<font color = \"RED\">\'s</font> place in it so insignificant, that to confront living, breathing proof of it is to go mad. In *Anchorhead,* that the earth was nearly devoured by a giant squid-god is terrible; that, to the squid-god, our earth is merely a single crumb amongst many, a morsel hardly worthy of attention except for the tiny noise made by a handful of cultists -- *that* is the Awful Truth.\r\n<P>\r\nConsider how, or if, you wish to reflect this in the ending of your game. The \"winning\" move in a Lovecraftian story may well be to go mad, or die, or go mad *and* die. Perhaps the protagonist escapes without stopping the evil, knowing that it can never be stopped, only hidden. Perhaps the protagonist\'s reward is to be forever burdened with the responsibility of hiding it from others. In any case, that last message,\r\n<P>\r\n*** You have won ***\r\n<P>\r\nshould always be read with a hefty grain of salt, if it <font color = \"RED\">is</font> to be read at all.\r\n<P>\r\n\"Who knows the end? What has risen may sink, and what has sunk may rise.\" -- H. P. Lovecraft, \"The Call of Cthulhu\"\r\n<P>\r\nI have attempted to <font color = \"RED\">break out [circled]</font> what I consider the most basic elements of the \"classic,\" or archetypal, Lovecraftian story, to show how they might be implemented in interactive fiction. As I said at the beginning, there is always room for variations on the theme. There are many, many ways to do Lovecraft, and any or all of these elements can be twisted, altered, or rearranged to suit your own personal vision of cosmic nihilism. Good luck.',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-02-05 19:05:19',2),(8,17,10,'Notes on THE PARSER AT THE THRESHOLD: LOVECRAFTIAN HORROR IN INTERACTIVE FICTION\r\n<P>\r\n> there is as much horror to be found in the suburban streets of David Cornelson\'s > *Cattus Attrox* as in the antiseptic laboratories of Ian Finley\'s *Babel,* or in the \r\n> ante-bellum backwoods of Adam Cadre\'s *Shrapnel.*\r\n<P>\r\nI\'m assuming the *s are to denote other forms of emphasis (italic), but if not, shouldn\'t you put the closing asterisk before the punctuation?\r\n<P>\r\n> these set the story from more conventional flavors of horror\r\n<P>\r\n\'Set ... from\'?  Away from?  As being distinct from? Not a major issue, but mildly nagging to the eye.\r\n<P>\r\n> One can too easily get so lost in the trappings at to forget\r\n<P>\r\nTwo things: firstly, s/at/as.  Secondly, this sentence is a little heavy on the modifiers - perhaps removing either the \'so\' or the \'too\' would make it more comfortable to read.\r\n<P>\r\n> Don\'t be afraid to supply the character\'s motivations and even, to a certain extent, > the character\'s thoughts feelings in response to events in the game.\r\n<P>\r\nThis needs an \'and\' or an \'or\' between \'thoughts\' and \'feelings\'.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nThat\'s pretty much all my notes there.  Aside from that, I did think the quotes were a little overused - my eyes flitted over them after the first or second one.  Perhaps just an opening and a closing quote.  Also, I found the shifting of third person pronoun (\'the reader\') from \'he\' to \'she\' quite distracting.  Sticking to one or the other would be less jarring.',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 16:09:30',2),(9,20,13,'A work of interactive fiction is a web of descriptions. Nearly every\r\nobject and room in a work has a description, a block of text\r\n> I think this comma should be a semicolon.\r\nassociated with that object which is printed after a LOOK or EXAMINE\r\ncommand.\r\n<P>\r\nThe word \"description\" is a lie, though, or at the very least\r\n> \'at the very least\' is a parenthetical and should be\r\n> enclosed in commas.\r\nmisleading. The main purpose of a description may not be to describe\r\n> I think this would read better if the sentences were joined.\r\nan object. At the most basic level, descriptions are the primary\r\nmethod by which an author conveys information about a game world.\r\n> The last sentence seems to contradict the previous -- I realize that\r\n> it\'s not necessarily a contradiction, but it sounds like one.\r\n> Maybe there should be a word like \'Nonetheless\' or \'Still\' at the\r\n> beginning of the sentence.\r\n<P>\r\nAuthors don\'t have to reveal much about an object or room at all in a\r\ndescription. They can overtly or subtly mislead players. Elements of\r\nan object can go undescribed in order to emphasize other elements. An\r\nauthor can write a description that lies, if the narrator telling the\r\nstory is unreliable. Descriptions can also carry more information\r\n> There\'s a fairish shift in topic here. Perhaps a transition\r\n> would help\r\nabout an object than the physical: what mood the room or object\r\nevokes, the state of the game world, and even meta-game information.\r\n> This whole paragraph is structurally awkward. Maybe if it were expanded\r\n> somewhat with some examples.\r\n<P>\r\nLetting go of the preconception that descriptions must describe frees\r\nauthors to achieve any number of effects. This hasn\'t been discussed\r\nin depth before, despite the sizeable amount of extant advice on\r\n> \'This hasn\'t been discussed in depth before\' isn\'t really relevant.\r\nwriting descriptions, especially for rooms. Graham Nelson, in \"The\r\nCraft of Adventure\" (later subsumed into the \"Inform Designer\'s\r\nManual\"), explores both the craft and art of writing room\r\ndescriptions. He focuses on physical descriptions, a relaying of what\r\nthe room looks like, as well as how you provide the player with\r\ndirectional information. Similarly, in \"Writing Basic Adventure\r\nPrograms for the TRS-80,\" Frank DaCosta gives five guidelines for\r\nwriting room descriptions, four of which are generally applicable:\r\ninclude pathway hints, use non-oriented language (language which\r\ndepends on how you entered the room, such as \"You fall into a dark,\r\nslimy pit\"), avoid describing unimplemented objects, and use creative\r\ndescriptions. In both works the assumption is that descriptions\r\ndescribe. This assumption is so self-evident that neither work\r\ndiscusses how you describe objects, since you\'ll just be talking about\r\nwhat the object looks like.\r\n> The discussion of DaCosta\'s guidelines is in more depth than is warranted\r\n> given that the article doesn\'t really interest itself with that\r\n> aspect of description.\r\n<P>\r\nI\'m interested in the things you can do with a description besides\r\ndescribe. If you\'re looking for a primer on how to describe objects,\r\nlook elsewhere, preferably at how games you like handle this\r\ntask. Throughout I\'ll be speaking to authors, though players may find\r\nthis article interesting. I won\'t be talking much about the <i>art</i>\r\nof description-writing. I\'m taking a nuts-and-bolts approach to the\r\ntask: if I have three goals for a description, how do I go about\r\nassembling sentences to achieve those goals?  Last, I\'ll continue to\r\ncall the text associated with objects and rooms \"descriptions,\" but\r\nkeep in mind that a description doesn\'t necessarily have to describe.\r\n> I\'ll talk about the tone later, but a lot of this paragraph\r\n> is just sort of chatty \'justification\' stuff.\r\n<P>\r\nRather than pull examples from other games, I\'m going to invent\r\ndescriptions for a completely new game, \"Quod Erat.\" In it, the player\r\nis a tourist visiting the ruins of Ostia, once a thriving harbor city\r\nsome twenty miles from Rome. While there, the player will be thrown\r\nback in time, visiting the city when it was still a city.\r\n<P>\r\nLet\'s start with mood and atmosphere. How you describe is as important\r\nas what you describe. Choice of words and phrasing; the use of\r\nliterary techniques such as metaphor, assonance, and juxtaposition of\r\nimages; and what you emphasize in your descriptions have as much of an\r\neffect on the atmosphere you invoke as Monet\'s choice of colors did on\r\nhis series of paintings of the Rouen Cathedral.\r\n> This paragraph is a bit too vague; I\'m reminded of the PAP\r\n> \'if you can dream it, you can make IF of it\' article, and that\'s\r\n> not a good memory for anyone to have.\r\n<P>\r\nThe first location in Ostia the player will reach is actually the\r\n> \'that the player\'\r\ntombs just outside of Ostia. I want to emphasize the emptiness of the\r\nruins as a contract to later in the game, when the player travels back\r\nin time to when Ostia was a thriving city. And I\'m not above using\r\ncheap dramatic tricks to get my point across -- good thing I\'m\r\ndiscussing craft and not art. I also want to remind players of their\r\nstatus as tourists.\r\n<P>\r\n  Tombs Outside Ostia\r\n<P>\r\n  Walls, or the remains of them, box you in on all sides.  Wind\r\n  whistles through the head-height niches in some of the\r\n  walls. Underneath your feet loose stones crunch. The southwest\r\n  corner where the walls meet is low enough and the dirt in the corner\r\n  piled high enough that you could scramble out.\r\n<P>\r\nI\'ve pulled out every cliched trick in the book. I have wind whistling\r\nthrough empty openings, I have crunching stones underfoot, and I have\r\na total lack of life. Players will undoubtedly look at the niches, so\r\nI\'ll re-emphasize the dead nature of Ostia. I\'ll also remind them that\r\nthey\'re tourists.\r\n<P>\r\n  >EXAMINE THE NICHES\r\n  Burial niches, according to the poorly-photocopied sheet you read\r\n  back in the Welcome Center. They are just deeper than you can reach,\r\n  and all are empty.\r\n<P>\r\nOne of the main locations in Ostia is the Capitolium, an ancient\r\ntemple dedicated to the Capitoline triad of Jupiter, Juno, and\r\nMinerva. The Capitolium is an imposing edifice, despite its lack of a\r\nroof or front wall. As above I want to mention the ruins of Ostia and\r\nthe general disrepair of the Capitolium.\r\n<P>\r\n  In Front of a Brick Shell\r\n<P>\r\n  To the north rises a shell of reddish brick. It\'s twice as wide as\r\n  it is deep or tall, and it\'s rather tall. The wall in front of you\r\n  is missing, giving you room to enter the shell. The whole thing is\r\n  on top of a tall podium, though your side of the podium has\r\n  stairs. Ruins are on all other sides, though most of them look to be\r\n  to the south.\r\n<P>\r\nI didn\'t call it the Capitolium because the player doesn\'t know that\'s\r\nwhat it is yet. This segues nicely into my second point: descriptions\r\ndon\'t have to be static. They can reflect the increasing knowledge of\r\nthe player or the changing state of the game world. In the case of\r\n\"Quod Erat,\" the player will eventually find a tourbook and map, the\r\nbetter to learn about Ostia. Once they find the tourbook and return to\r\nthe Capitolium, they\'ll see the following:\r\n<P>\r\n  In Front of the Capitolium\r\n<P>\r\n  According to your tourbook, the rectangular shell of reddish-brown\r\n  brick rising in front of you is the Capitolium, dating back to the\r\n  reign of Hadrian. The shell is over fifty feet high and deep, and\r\n  twice as wide. It stands atop a tall podium; luckily there are\r\n  stairs leading up to the Capitolium. The wall in front of you to the\r\n  north is missing, giving you room to enter the former temple. The\r\n  forum stretches out on all other sides, the bulk of it lying to the\r\n  south.\r\n<P>\r\nI would limit how much game-critical information is in a changed room\r\ndescription. Even though my games default to verbose room listings,\r\nnot all players will stick with that setting.\r\n> Might be worth noting the converse:\r\n> Don\'t put too much game-critical information (exclusively) in the original\r\n> room description; when it changes, a player may be unable to\r\n> to access information in the original version.\r\n<P>\r\nThe description of an object can change as the player learns more\r\nabout it as well. A common trick is to describe an object in sketchy\r\ndetails when listed in a room description, only to have the object\'s\r\ndescription tell the player what it really is. The EXAMINE command is\r\ncommonly assumed to mean, \"I want to take a close look at the object.\"\r\nIt\'s thus reasonable for what is described as a piece of paper in a\r\nroom description to turn out to be a grimy dollar bill when examined.\r\n<P>\r\nThe coin that will take the player back into the past begins as a\r\ndirt-covered nub on the floor of a room.\r\n<P>\r\n  Base of the Western Spiral Staircase\r\n<P>\r\n  This narrow niche off the <i>cella</i> ends to the west in a spiral\r\n  staircase winding around a thick column. The floor of the niche has\r\n  been swept smooth by countless feet, except for raised nubs of dirt\r\n  near the north wall. The <i>cella</i> itself is to the east.\r\n<P>\r\n  >EXAMINE THE NUBS OF DIRT\r\n  For the most part, rocks covered in dirt. There is a glint from\r\n  one of them.\r\n<P>\r\n  >EXAMINE THE GLINT\r\n  Something disc-shaped, and covered in dirt. Metal shows through the\r\n  dirt in places.\r\n<P>\r\nThe glint serves to tell the player that there\'s something special\r\nabout one of the nubs of dirt. The hint of metal suggests that the\r\ndisc should be cleaned. This is important, since the coin is activated\r\nby rubbing it. When the dirt is cleaned off, it is revealed to be a\r\ncoin.\r\n<P>\r\n  >EXAMINE THE DISC\r\n  Now that you\'ve cleaned off the dirt, you can see that the disc is a\r\n  coin. One side is badly damaged and nearly smooth, but the other\r\n  side has a picture of a man on a chariot holding a spear aloft.\r\n<P>\r\nAnd to olden Ostia the player goes! Mentioning the results of an\r\naction in an object description is a good way to acknowledge the\r\nplayer\'s actions, but can become tiresome if they carry the object\r\nthroughout the remainder of the game. After the first time they\r\nexamine the disc/coin, I\'ll strike the first sentence and add the\r\nphrase \"of the coin\" to the remaining sentence, so that the\r\ndescription will begin, \"One side of the coin is badly damaged...\"\r\n> Might be cleaner to simply write out the modified description.\r\n<P>\r\nI\'m glossing over a number of game details, of course, like what\r\nsynonyms for \"nub(s) of dirt\" or \"glint\" the game should\r\nrecognize. Since I\'m worried about descriptions and not general game\r\ndesign, I\'ll merely wave my hands about furiously and assume we\'ll get\r\nthose details right.\r\n> Since this article is about description and not synonyms, etc,\r\n> better to omit this paragraph altogether. The reader should know the\r\n> scope of the article by now and not need to be told that you\'re not\r\n> discussing how to write a game.\r\n<P>\r\nSo much for evolving player knowledge; what about an evolving game\r\nworld? In Infocom\'s \"Enchanter,\" the room descriptions change as the\r\ngame progresses, describing a castle that decays further with each\r\npassing day. The change I have in mind for \"Quod Erat\" is even more\r\ndramatic. The player can, by mucking about in the past, end up\r\ndestroying the Capitolium. When the player does so and returns to the\r\npresent, the description of the Capitolium has changed.\r\n<P>\r\n  In Front of the Capitolium Podium\r\n<P>\r\n  The podium where the Capitolium used to be rises in front of\r\n  you. Marble stairs lead northward to its top, where a few of the\r\n  Capitolium walls, none more than two feet high, still stand. The\r\n  forum stretches out to all sides of you.\r\n<P>\r\nAfter the very first description I gave, I mentioned that players will\r\nundoubtedly look at the niches. When you mention things in room\r\ndescriptions, players will generally examine them. The more\r\nprominently you mention objects, or the odder you make their\r\ndescription within the room description, the more notice they\'ll\r\ndraw.\r\n<P>\r\nYou can use this fact to direct players\' attention and lead them in\r\nthe direction you want them to go. For instance, once in old Ostia,\r\nthe player will come across a Roman terra-cotta lamp. This lamp will\r\nserve a two-fold purpose. One, it will provide light. Two, it will\r\nprovide a source of heat. (It will also provide fire, always a\r\ndangerous substance in interactive fiction. I\'m sure the game will\r\ndeal with it properly, hand wave, hand wave, hand wave.)  The heat\r\n> The time you\'ve spent explaining that you\'re hand-waving could\r\n> have implemented some of these things. Best not to mention the handwaving\r\n> at all.\r\nfrom the lamp will be necessary to soften the wax stopper of a bottle\r\nlater on.\r\n<P>\r\nSince players won\'t necessarily connect heat with light, I\'ll mention it\r\nexplicitly so as to direct players and help them follow my lead. When\r\nreading a paragraph, people remember best what\'s in the first\r\nsentence, followed by what\'s in the last sentence. For this reason I\'m\r\ngoing to mention the heat in the first sentence. This is an effect\r\nthat is not to be overused. Players may figure out that you always put\r\nimportant details in the first or last sentence if you don\'t vary your\r\ntechnique. Save the first-or-last-sentence trick for situations where\r\nyou want to give a stronger-than-normal clue.\r\n<P>\r\n  >EXAMINE THE LAMP\r\n  Heat rises from the lit wick of the terra-cotta lamp. The lamp is\r\n  teapot-shaped, with a circular handle on one end and the wick\r\n  emerging from the spout on the other end. Where the convex lid of a\r\n  teapot would be is a concave top inscribed with a battle scene.\r\n<P>\r\nSimilarly, if there\'s something important in a room which a player\r\nneeds to examine, you can make sure to mention it in such a way as to\r\nset it apart from the rest of the room description. For instance, in\r\nthe builder\'s guild courtyard, there are some marble columns which\r\ncontain clues to a puzzle. I want to make sure players notice them.\r\n<P>\r\n  Courtyard of the Builder\'s Guild\r\n<P>\r\n  The courtyard, surrounded by the builder\'s guild, is a rectangle\r\n  with its narrow ends to the north and south. The entire courtyard is\r\n  surrounded by a porticus with brick piers. The north and south sides\r\n  have squat marble columns that differ from all the others you\'ve\r\n  seen. Leaning in one corner of the courtyard is a statue.\r\n<P>\r\nThe phrase \"differ from all the others\" is meant to catch the player\'s\r\nattention: hey, here\'s something out of the ordinary. This effect can\r\nbe used as a stage magician uses patter and fast hand movements, to\r\ndistract the player for a while. There is a bathhouse in Ostia, and\r\n> I think \'like\' would be a better word here for the simile.\r\n> The first time I read the sentence, I took it to mean \'this effect\r\n> can be used *while* a stage magician...\' -- I worked it out\r\n> quickly, but tripping up the reader over the grammar is Bad.\r\none of the rooms with a basin has a trap door leads to a tunnel\r\nbelow. The room\'s floor is covered with mosaics, except where the trap\r\ndoor is. If the player examines the gap in the mosaic, or even the\r\nmosaic or floor itself, the trap door will be described.\r\n<P>\r\nTo delay that event, I\'m going to make one of the architectural\r\ndetails of the room more prominent. I\'ll also make sure to mention the\r\nbasin in every sentence, and only mention the mosaic as a lead-in to\r\ndescribing the basin.\r\n<P>\r\n   Northern Cold Basin\r\n<P>\r\n   Geometric designs picked out in black-and-white mosaics run nearly\r\n   all the way around the basin in the center of the room. All three\r\n   walls of the basin have niches; from them, water jets from a\r\n   pipe. The west niche seems deeper than the other three. Tall\r\n   columns separate the basin from the frigidarium.\r\n<P>\r\nI said I wouldn\'t discuss how you deal with room exits in room\r\ndescriptions, but I lied just the tiniest bit. There is a south exit\r\nfrom the room which I didn\'t describe because the only initial way\r\ninto the room is through that exit.\r\n<P>\r\nObject descriptions can carry meta-game information. There are times\r\nwhen use of an object requires special syntax that will not be easily\r\nguessible. The stone-placing game in \"Quod Erat\" is one such\r\nobject. Players must place marbles on a rectangular grid.\r\n<P>\r\n  >EXAMINE THE BOARD\r\n  The wooden playing board has hemispherical depressions arranged in a\r\n  six-by-five grid. Each depression is just big enough to hold one of\r\n  the marbles from the trough beside the board.\r\n<P>\r\n  [To place a marble in a specific depression, type >PUT MARBLE IN X,\r\n   Y where X, Y are the x and y coordinates on the board.]\r\n<P>\r\nIt\'s customary to set such meta-game information off from the regular\r\ndescription by surrounding it with square braces.\r\n> I\'m not sure that the discussion of meta-information is apropos\r\n> to that of descriptions -- though a discussion of meta-information\r\n> might make a neat article in its own right.\r\n<P>\r\nWhile descriptions customarily give physical information, they don\'t\r\nhave to. You can describe without really describing by depending on\r\nwhat the player knows from real life.\r\n<P>\r\n  >EXAMINE THE PEBBLE\r\n  Pebbles in the past are just like pebbles in the present, only\r\n  newer.\r\n<P>\r\nSometimes what you want to describe isn\'t really visible. At one point\r\nin \"Quod Erat,\" a mouse runs across the floor of the room and into a\r\nmousehole. An attempt to examine the mouse will result in\r\n<P>\r\n  >EXAMINE THE MOUSE\r\n  You can see nothing of it, as fast as it ran across the floor and\r\n  into its mousehole. There is the hint of light glinting off eyes\r\n  deep within the hole.\r\n<P>\r\nSometimes you\'ll want to use descriptions to indicate the player\'s\r\nstate rather than that of the world. In old Ostia the player can find\r\na bottle of drugged liquor. The player will, of course, drink from it,\r\ndespite the inadvisability of such an act. Shortly after that occurs,\r\nthe player\'s grip on reality will slip rather badly. The resulting\r\nroom description when it first occurs will bear little resemblance to\r\nthe actual room description when the player isn\'t drugged.\r\n<P>\r\n  In a Grey Fog\r\n<P>\r\n  You are surrounded by a grey fog which hides most everything.\r\n  Indistinct shapes surround you, some near, some far. Thinner patches\r\n  of fog lead south and southwest.\r\n<P>\r\nThe directions in the description will correspond to actual room exits\r\nfor whatever room the player is in, though subsequent movement will\r\ntake the player into uncharted territory.\r\n<P>\r\nI\'ve given a number of examples of what you can do with descriptions\r\nbesides describe. They can set the tone and atmosphere of parts of the\r\ngame. They can reflect the changing nature of player knowledge and the\r\nstate of the game world. They can both lead and mislead players,\r\nletting you choose in part where the players will focus their\r\nattention. They can carry meta-game information, and they can even\r\ncarry no information about the true physical nature of the object they\r\npurport to describe.\r\n<P>\r\nThe above list is not exhaustive. It\'s meant to serve as a starting\r\n> I fear that the phrase \'the above list is not exhaustive\'\r\n> is one that will occur in far too many of the articles in this collection.\r\npoint, not an ending one. Nor is it meant to suggest that all\r\ndescriptions must do more than describe. Descriptions are meant to\r\nconvey information in one form or another, and most of the time that\r\ninformation should be the physical description of the object in\r\nquestion. Nevertheless, knowing some of what descriptions can do will\r\nhopefully give you ideas of things to do in your own games.\r\n<P>\r\n-----------------------------------------\r\n1. Is this article clear and comprehensible?\r\n<P>\r\nFor the most part. There are a few paragraphs and sentences that are awkward,\r\nnoted above. The only major issue I take with the main body of the\r\narticle is that there is a tendency to spend too much time dismissing\r\nminutae (The repeated references to hand-waving over things outside the\r\nscope of the article -- if it\'s outside the scope of the article *don\'t\r\nmention it*).  Presumably this is designed to keep a potentially\r\nargumentative respondant from getting hung up on irrelevancies,\r\nwhich is pretty standard protocol for usenet, but isn\'t really\r\nnecessary in this forum. If anything, too much time is spent\r\ndefining and justifying the scope of the article.\r\n<P>\r\n2. Are there places where you would like to see the line of argument\r\nexpanded or explained in more depth?\r\n<P>\r\nOne issue I take with the article is that it doesn\'t really seem\r\nto *go* anywhere. It\'s basically just a list of examples, loosely\r\norganized.\r\n<P>\r\n3.  Are there things you disagree with entirely?\r\n<P>\r\nNot as such. This is as good a place as any to talk about the tone, though.\r\nI don\'t really think that the personal, first person tone works here.\r\nThis is a hypothetical game designed to demonstrate techniques in\r\ndescription, not a study of the author\'s design process. As a result,\r\na lot of the text has a feel that doesn\'t help the point: I was\r\nmore interested in the game he presented than in the techniques.\r\n<P>\r\n4. Are there examples or interesting points you can think of that the\r\nauthor has not addressed, that you think he should cover?\r\n<P>\r\nLots of examples. It might be better to play down the use of the\r\nhypothetical game in favor of some real-IF examples, not to\r\nmake the point seem more relevant, but to keep from distracting the reader;\r\nbecause all the examples are from the same game, from a game which has\r\nno existance outside the article, the reader may pay more attention to\r\nthe content of the example rather than the technique it demonstrates.\r\n<P>\r\nThere isn\'t much about how description may reflect the player character\'s\r\nfeelings toward an object; that a kind PC might view a homeless person as\r\nan object of sympathy, while a more cynical PC might view the same person\r\nas an object of disgust.\r\n<P>\r\nRelated to this, there is a *lot* of power, in terms of bringing about\r\nthe intended emotional response, in the emotive content of a description.\r\nFurthermore, a change in a description can convey an emotional, rather\r\nthan intellectual shift in the PC, something which is not discussed.\r\nObviously, however, it is a point of contention whether the game has\r\nany business projecting emotions onto the PC -- but given that this\r\nhypothetical game is willing to project knowledge onto him, I think it\'s\r\nfair.',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 04:51:05',2),(36,46,18,'This article is full of very interesting ideas for IF authors, but it could\r\nbenefit from some reworking, particularly in the first half, and above all\r\nin the Simulation section. That has a very long paragraph, full of rich\r\ncontent, but very difficult to read. It would be good to break that\r\nparagraph up a lot, perhaps into intro, standard IF simulation, use of\r\ntimers, immersion and Chekov\'s gun, simulation as seen in Tomb Raider and\r\nLemmings, etc. Alternatively a break-up similar to that seen in section III\r\nmight be another approach. The latter half of the article flows more easily\r\nthan the first, but then the first has many ideas for the reader to think\r\nabout. It would be good if they were more easily packaged though, in a form\r\nmore convenient to swallow and take on board.\r\n<P>\r\nThere are a number of typos / words in the wrong order. These should be\r\npicked up at any final readthrough. But particularly glaring ones were\r\nBookword (2nd para after Rewards heading) instead of Bookworm, and Genus\r\ninstead of Genius (sama para). Also the following para refers to VR and I\r\njust wondered if all the book\'s readers will know that abbreviation is\r\nVirtual Reality. And staying in that para (the very long one that needs to\r\nbe split!) the Tower of Hanoi is cited as a simple example of a simulated\r\nproblem. It might be worth adding a footnote here commenting that that very\r\npuzzle is included in Zork Zero.\r\n<P>\r\nIn the Intuitition section there\'s an extra \"an\" in the first sentence to\r\nbe removed. The following paragraph refers to \"game-book\": as with VR I\'m\r\nwondering if all the readers will understand that, or if maybe a footnote\r\nexplanation is needed for what that means. I grew up with Choose Your Own\r\nAdventure and Fighting Fantasy gamebooks, but many people won\'t be familiar\r\nwith them, or even if they are they may not understand the full meaning of\r\nthis reference here.\r\n<P>\r\nA couple more typos: in Geography in sentence \"But the real problem is  the\r\nwords \"and this is\" need to replace \"and is this\". Similarly in the Hooks\r\npara the word \"and\" probably should be \"or\" in \"players can be\r\ninadvertently solving - or failing to solve - your problem as they catch\r\nthe bus or as they sleep \".\r\n<P>\r\nBut the article is really strong, full of good ideas, and I particularly\r\nliked the way it used many examples from IF games (and other types of games\r\ne.g. Lemmings, etc.) to illustrate the point. Perhaps the one thing it\r\ndoesn\'t explain is how to go about implementing these puzzles (lots of good\r\nideas, but how do we actually make use of them?), or even how to start\r\ntackling the complexity of doing so, but that\'s probably outside the scope\r\nof this book. But as a source of ideas about using puzzles this is a very\r\ncomprehensive overview.',1,'2005-01-24 17:14:36','2005-01-24 17:19:21',2),(11,21,14,'Comments on room description essay\r\n----------------------------------\r\n<P>\r\nThis essay has some original ideas, but they aren\'t emphasized as much as they\r\nshould be. I very much liked what was said at the start about room descriptions\r\nnot being what people play adventure games for---indeed, we play interactive\r\nfiction because we feel like interacting in some way we usually don\'t, not\r\nbecause we want to look at things. I\'d note this truth at the very start of the\r\nessay, cutting out the part about \"text streams\" (which I always find too\r\nabstract except in very theoretical \"What is IF?\" essays). Adventureland and the\r\nother Scott Adams games would be a good example to start with; their room\r\ndescriptions never get much longer than \"You\'re in a forest. Exits: [...] Visible\r\nobjects: [...]\"; yet these games are still fondly remembered, though mainly as\r\nintricate \"Chinese puzzle boxes,\" as Graham Nelson called them (in \"The Craft of\r\nAdventure\"). The essay then says that room descriptions can serve the game story\r\nif they are more detailed than the location--exit-list minimum. I\'d put it the\r\nother way round: if a game is to have a strong story, the room descriptions\r\n*must* go beyond the minimum, because every story-like sequence of events we live\r\nthrough necessarily takes place somewhere specific. In fact, when I\'m living\r\nthrough something really intense, I find that my heightened awareness of what\'s\r\ngoing on spills over into a heightened awareness of what\'s around me.\r\n<P>\r\nThe organization of the essay\'s main part is all right, but I\'m not sure\r\ndescriptions based on senses other than sight deserve a separate heading. I\'d\r\nmake two large subsections, the first for \"passive\" scene descriptions and the\r\nsecond for \"active\" ones. (Indeed, the essay already has a section for \"active\"\r\nscene descriptions; \"passive\" scene descriptions can replace the \"caves\" heading,\r\nwhich segues into topics more general than caves.)\r\n<P>\r\n\"Passive\" scene descriptions, as the essay implies, are ones that simply tell you\r\nwhere you are and where to go from there, in a more detailed style than\r\nAdventureland\'s. How about starting by going into more detail about what room\r\ndescriptions are for? When I play a text adventure, I closely read a room\r\ndescription when I first enter the room and then ignore it except when I\'m\r\nlooking for a clue or just bored and wanting to look at something for a bit (even\r\nif the game is in \"verbose\"). Whenever I\'m playing, I\'m focused mainly on how to\r\nget through the game and how to find out what happens, not how to see what more\r\nrooms look like. A succession of overlong room descriptions (as in the \"Red\" and\r\n\"Sea-Blue\" sections of Photopia) kills my enthusiasm quickly, as do room\r\ndescriptions that, on multiple readings, seem to try too hard to be \"vivid.\"\r\nBasically a room description should draw my eye around the room in an orderly\r\nmanner, as the explanation of Hunter, in Darkness\'s \"Base of Canyon\" implies;\r\nthey should never make me feel like I\'m going over the same ground twice, not\r\neven within one sentence. And here my opinion seems to differ from the essay\'s.\r\nTo me, all of the \"getting the job done\" scene descriptions mentioned at the end\r\nare excellent examples of what the majority of descriptions in an adventure game\r\nshould be like.  For instance, \"Chill Tunnel\" tells me I\'m in a tunnel with two\r\nexits without making the tunnel feel like a standard D&D corridor (it\'s slightly\r\nskewed) and evokes, rather than spells out, what I\'ll find at each end. \"Angle\r\nBranch\" tells a lot about the mood of the enemy headquarters: \"like every other\r\nhallway in this place\" tells me how monotonous this building is (and also\r\nsomething about the personality of those who built it), and the description of\r\nthe metal plate as \"attendant\" recalls how dutiful and efficient the enemy is (as\r\nin the beginning of the game: \"You\'re sure the police are as efficient about\r\nlitter as about everything else they do.\"). In contrast, the latter four\r\nsentences of \"Weird Tunnel\" could probably be combined into one to say that the\r\ntunnel feels skinlike and leads only down.  More about brevity would be in order\r\nin the section on \"passive\" descriptions. \r\n<P>\r\nOther directions to take in this part: \r\n(1) The point that \"Base of Canyon\" does not start with \"You are in the base of a\r\ncanyon.\" is a good one. A paragraph on ways to avoid repetition would be welcome.\r\n(For instance, having the opening sentence in second person but having the\r\nscenery act on the player as in So Far\'s \"You are surrounded by benches.\"\r\n(\"Theater near Aisle\"); having the description play off the room name as in So\r\nFar\'s \"Or perhaps ex-storage...\" (\"Theater Storage\"); metaphorical titles such as\r\nJigsaw\'s \"In the Serpent\'s Mouth\" for the inside of the cone of a missile;\r\nreferences to other times or places as in A Change in the Weather\'s \"Elsewhere in\r\nthe park...\" (\"Wildflowers\") and Christminster\'s \"During the week this must be a\r\nbusy thoroughfare...\" (\"Biblioll Street\"), etc.).\r\n(2) How do we describe details effectively? I notice a lot of games have room\r\nafter room of \"Trees line either side of the road,\" \"Geodesic discs are scattered\r\nabout,\" \"Midges hang in the air,\" etc. A number of plurals in succession like\r\nthis create a hazy atmosphere instead of precise clarity. Some room descriptions\r\nspend the whole time on one salient object, as in So Far\'s \"Abandoned Road, at\r\nChimney\"---can we balance these two styles? \r\n(3) Talk about use and overuse of adjectives: that \"Garden Park\" description\r\nmentioned in the essay is so adjective- and simile-heavy that I find myself\r\nzoning out.\r\n<P>\r\nNow the \"active\" scene description part is organized better, but I have some\r\ncomments and examples. \r\n(1) The description of Christminster\'s \"Archway, between the Courts\" that is\r\nmentioned is more interesting than the essay lets on. It would be a bit unusual\r\nif every time the player enters that room she bows in front of the First World\r\nWar memorial. But, as a player, I don\'t read the room description every time I\r\nenter a room, only the first time and then when I\'m stuck, i.e., only at times\r\nwhen I\'m just \"looking around.\" And I think that if I were just looking around\r\nand my eyes lighted on something like that, a little shiver or feeling of grief\r\nwould inevitably pass through me, because my mind would not be distracted by\r\nanything else. How often should a scene description assume that the player will\r\nread it, and does that reading count as an \"outside-the-game\" action by the main\r\ncharacter, as the player\'s time spent sitting and reflecting in front of the\r\nscreen might?\r\n(2) In the \"Tortilla Flat\" room on the moon in Jigsaw, there\'s this parenthetical\r\nremark: \"(NASA wasn\'t very dignfied in its naming conventions, which later\r\nangered the International Astronomical Society.)\" In A Change in the Weather,\r\nthere\'s this parenthetical remark, about the bush in the cliff: \"(One of those\r\ncoincidences that makes your life a little easier.)\" When I played these games,\r\nthe first remark felt out of place, but the second one didn\'t. I think this is\r\nbecause, for me at least, all descriptive text in a text adventure feels like it\r\ncould be said by the main character to himself unless the game spells out a\r\ndifferent style early on (as in Leather Goddesses of Phobos and the Unkuulia\r\ngames). The Jigsaw remark stuck out because I didn\'t feel like my character could\r\nhave known that, but the A Change in the Weather remark seemed like one my\r\ncharacter could have made. Therefore every adjective used and detail noted is a\r\nchance to describe the player character\'s personality, feelings, and ideas; and\r\novert editorializing in room descriptions can often seem excessive. (Perhaps\r\navoidance of this problem is another benefit of short,\r\nlocation--exits--salient-detail-or-two descriptions.)   \r\n<P>\r\nIn your sidebar on placing objects in the second paragraph of room descriptions,\r\nyou might also want to say a bit about how to draw attention to important objects\r\nin the main paragraph of a room description. Generally, I might examine\r\nfirst-paragraph nouns preceded by \"a\" or \"an,\" but not plural nouns, which\r\nusually turn out to be atmosphere.  For instance, in the room \"Tower, Bottom\" in\r\nMetamorphoses I would examine the statue (preceded by \"a\") right away, but I\r\nwould ignore the mirrors and other objects of plural number. I also find it\r\nannoying when a description has a sentence like \"Apple trees, shrubs, and garden\r\ngnomes fill the yard.\" and it turns out that I \"don\'t need to refer to\" either\r\nthe trees or the gnomes but examining the shrubs gives \"Beneath one of the shrubs\r\nis a small key.\" That\'s what I think is meant by the warning in some capsule\r\nreviews that a game requires \"random inspection.\" Also, a game is hurt if much of\r\nthe scenery in the first paragraph of room descriptions turns out to be just\r\natmosphere and only the object descriptions in the second paragraph matter, as is\r\nthe case in much of Adventure and Zork Zero. The game starts to feel like a walk\r\nthrough a funhouse with painted walls and a gadget sitting square in the center\r\nof each room, no matter how evocative the first-paragraph sentences are. And you\r\nmight want to mention that a customized \"initial\" description cannot make a\r\nhastily-placed interactive object feel like it belongs in a room, as this\r\nsentence from the parody Sins against Mimesis exemplifies: \"Your mimesis plant\r\nsquats in the center of the room, slowly photosynthesizing.\"\r\n<P>\r\nAs for a conclusion, I have one idea. I\'ve noticed that, though while I\'m playing\r\na game the puzzles and interaction occupy most of my thoughts, after I\'m done\r\nwith the game it\'s the world and the placement of objects in it that stay with me\r\nthe longest. I still have vivid memories of Colossal Cave, the attics of Curses,\r\nand the Kensington Gardens of Trinity, memories that float into my mind as I come\r\nupon certain rooms and spaces in real life; yet it takes me a while to remember\r\nwhat puzzles took place in those areas. In his review of Zork II, Duncan Stevens\r\nsaid he once \"had dreams about the Bank of Zork\"---N.B. not dreams about the\r\nstate-machine puzzle that took place there, but dreams about the area and the\r\nzaniness it represented. Some of the most memorable scenes in adventure games are\r\nmade when the land represented by the room descriptions is itself a puzzle, as in\r\nthe land of the giant sundial and mushrooms in Trinity; and it\'s hard to see how\r\nexperiences of exactly this type could be had in other fiction. And if you\'d like\r\na quotation regarding this with which to close the essay...\r\n<P>\r\nAnd if the vulgar joy by its own weight<br>\r\nWearied itself out of the memory,<br>\r\nThe scenes which were a witness of that joy<br>\r\nRemained, in their substantial lineaments<br>\r\nDepicted on the brain, and to the eye<br>\r\nWere visible, a daily sight...<br>\r\n--Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805), I.625--630',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 04:48:45',2),(12,22,14,'[Ed.: many of the criticisms in the following seem to be based on a different understanding than mine of the article\'s purpose. I followed up with the reviewer and clarified what this section of the book is meant to be about, and the reviewer backed down somewhat on criticisms about the scope of the article. However, I am passing along the original comments because there may still be some points of value.]\r\n<P>\r\nAs it stands, this article is not very strong. \r\nThe many limitations of this article--that it offers\r\nlittle in-depth analysis; that it doesn\'t take a very\r\nsophisticated view of its subject; that that author\r\ndemonstrates little knowledge of IF\'s history--are\r\nevident by examining a short piece of writing about\r\n2/3 of the way through the article. About arguably the\r\nmost famous sentence (and scene description) in all of\r\nIF (\"You are standing in an open field west of a white\r\nhouse...\")--all that this author has to say is that\r\n\"Trying further to explain its appeal would be\r\npointless and grasping. There simply isn\'t much there,\r\nwhich becomes clear as we walk all the\r\nway around the house, and view equally slim scene\r\ndescriptions.\" What?! What is the purpose of an\r\narticle on scene description when the writer has\r\nabsolutely nothing to say nor any insight about the\r\nmost famous scene description in all of IF, and a\r\nscene description which most devoted IF players can\r\nrecite by heart?! This is unacceptable, but\r\nunfortunately it is indicative of the generally poor\r\nquality of this article, which provides little insight\r\ninto its stated topic.\r\n<P>\r\nAs I finished the article, I was very puzzled by the\r\nauthor\'s concluding remark that \"As I said at the\r\nbeginning: \r\nLet the player know where he is, and where the exists \r\nare, and your job is done.\" If the author really \r\nbelieves that this is all that needs to be said about \r\nscene description, than why bother to write the \r\narticle at all? The author\'s attitude to his\r\nsubject--that it doesn\'t seem to matter that\r\nmuch--makes the reader wonder why he has chosen to\r\nwrite an article on this subject.\r\n<P>\r\nDoes the author really believe that \"Even\r\nat their best, scene descriptions provide scenery and\r\natmosphere, and are not interactive in and of\r\nthemselves. They are there to be read, but are \r\nusually not the parts of the game that players find\r\nmost remarkable or memorable.\" Again, one must wonder:\r\nIf the author believes these statements--and I would\r\ndisagree with this statement 100%--why bother to write\r\nthe article at all?\r\n<P>\r\nWith these comments in mind, let me turn to some\r\nspecific problems with the article.\r\n<P>\r\nFirst, nowhere does the author outline what makes\r\nscene descriptions either effective or ineffective. \r\nThe author provides some criteria for what should be\r\ncomponant parts in scene description (serve the story;\r\nstrong narrative voice; atmosphere; reinforce the PC\'s\r\npoint of view) but these points are not really\r\ndeveloped in his article and none of them are related\r\nto the larger questions that need to be addressed (as\r\nI list them below).\r\nThe author\'s perspective seems to be that scene\r\ndescriptions don\'t really matter that much so perhaps\r\nhe doesn\'t feel the need to establish such criteria.\r\nThis perspective is questionable in an article on this\r\nsubject.\r\n<P>\r\nNowhere does the author give a reason for equating\r\nscene descriptions with mapmaking--and if he does\r\nequate the two, again the reader must wonder: why\r\nbother writing this article? Nowhere does the author\r\nidentify elements of scene description or discuss the\r\nrelationship of scene description to narrative. \r\nNowhere does the author address issues of scene \r\ndescription that relate IF to hyptertexts or \r\ntraditional fiction; nowhere does the author discuss \r\nthe relationship of scene description to \r\ninteractivity; to player motivation; etc. In short, \r\nthe topic of this piece is a huge one, and this \r\narticle comes nowhere close to addressing it \r\ncomprehensively or deeply. \r\n<P>\r\nMy first recommendation to the author is that he take \r\ntime to read the numerous excellent articles that have\r\nalready been written about the subject of narrative \r\nand IF. While technically scene description may be \r\nconsidered a subset of the subject of narrative--and \r\ntherefore a different, though related, topic--the \r\nauthor absolutely MUST address the myriad issues \r\nraised by the role of narrative in IF in his piece. To\r\nwrite the piece in a vacuum, as is the case here, does\r\nnot serve much of a purpose. If the author is going to\r\ntreat scene description as something completely\r\nseparate from narrative, then he must state this\r\nposition explicitly and explain it to the reader.\r\n<P>\r\n[Ed. note: Considering that this is a craft section piece, I am not sure that a detailed overview of narrative theory is so critical as the reviewer argues.]\r\n<P>\r\nSecond, the author must clearly outline the criteria \r\nfor successful scene description. The article as it \r\nstands makes many references to \"acceptable\" or \r\n\"unacceptable\" descriptions or the \"right elements\" or\r\n\"faults\" yet nowhere does the author clearly state \r\ncriteria. Again (please refer to my earlier\r\ndiscussion), this article MUST be written within the\r\nlarger context of IF, and this includes the relation\r\nof IF to hyptertext; to literary genres such as\r\nmystery and science fiction, from which IF often\r\nborrows, etc.  The notion of scene description makes\r\nno sense whatsoever if it is not linked to a larger\r\nsense of how IF is related to narrative as a whole. I\r\nam not suggesting that the author provide an overview\r\nof what everyone else has written about narrative, but\r\nthe article must make reference to the myriad of\r\nlarger issues about narrative and description that\r\nhave been raised by others. Scene description cannot\r\nsimply be assumed to be something different and\r\nseparate from narrative (not at least without some\r\nextended defense of this position).\r\n<P>\r\nPoints to consider when discussing the criteria for \r\nscene description: \r\n--how does scene description relate to the various \r\naspects of IF as defined by Nelson (prologue; middle \r\ngame; endgame)?\r\n--how does scene description effect player\'s \r\ninvolvement and motivation? \r\n--how does scene description relate to interactivity \r\nand interactive exposition? Here, specifically, the \r\nauthor might consider how scene description can effect\r\n<P>\r\nLaurel\'s 3 levels of interactivity) \r\n--if, as many have argued, game elements in IF come \r\nfrom problem solving, what is the relationship of \r\nscene description to the core of IF? (or, put another \r\nway, how does scene description in IF contribute to\r\nthe storyline?) \r\n--what is the relationship of scene description to \r\nliterary description? Is the comparison even fair? \r\n--how does scene description contribute to a \r\nco-authorship with the player of the game? \r\nThe answers to these questions--or at least some \r\nconsidered discussion of them--will yeild the \r\nbeginnings of some criteria for scene description that\r\nthis article is missing. \r\n<P>\r\nOnce these issues and criteria have been outlined, the\r\nauthor can then add into the discussion examples from \r\nIF that either demonstrate or do not demonstrate the \r\npoints he is making.',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 16:34:14',2),(13,25,16,'> Authoring Magical and Surrealistic Works of Interactive Fiction\r\n> By J. D. Berry\r\n> \r\n> \"Magic is surreal almost by definition and surrealism is dangerous.\"\r\n-- Graham\r\n> Nelson, \"The Craft of Adventure\"\r\n> \r\n> Magic and surrealism are common themes in interactive fiction. They\r\nexcite the\r\n> imagination, transforming the everyday into endless possibilities.\r\nHowever, as\r\n> Mr. Nelson suggests, when you write such a work, you play with fire.\r\nIf you\'re\r\n> not careful, you\'ll get burned.\r\n> \r\n> Endless possibilities in these genres suggest there\'s no one right way\r\nto go\r\n> about writing such a work. This article isn\'t a how-to manual. This is\r\na\r\n> discussion of the nature of these settings and the issues unique to\r\nthem.\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> Why write such a work?\r\n> \r\n> \"I had been wanting to write a game with weird language for a long\r\ntime. Partly\r\n> this is because I don\'t trust myself to write memorably enough in a \r\n> normal vein;\r\n> writing in a strange style evades that issue entirely.\" -- Dan \r\n> Schmidt, referring\r\n> to his IF work \"For A Change\" (1999) in a SPAG interview.\r\n> \r\n> Schmidt\'s work is widely regarded as a classic of Interactive Fiction.\r\nHis\r\n> humility aside, the man can write. One doesn\'t win the Xyzzy award for\r\n\"Best\r\n> Writing\" without knowing a little something about the craft. Words\r\nconvey an\r\n> author\'s ideas, in any type of fiction. A surrealistic setting does\r\nnot excuse\r\n> poor writing, and few things will alienate your audience faster than \r\n> ineffective\r\n> prose.\r\n<P>\r\nTone question here: how conversational did you want to be?  \'...the man\r\ncan\r\nwrite\' is quite informal.  It would help if you maintained a constant\r\ntone\r\nthroughout the piece.\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> But Schmidt introduces a valid strategy, one that applies to many\r\nareas of\r\n> life-play to your strengths. With a surreal or fantastic setting, the \r\n> interactive\r\n> fiction medium is itself a strength. Using these genres, you can\r\nleverage what\r\n> seems to be a constraint and make it work for you.\r\n> \r\n> \"When the game is written competently and sufficiently debugged, this\r\ntrick\r\n> [making the PC some kind of unusual or non-human creature] often \r\n> works remarkably\r\n> well, even better than its static fiction equivalent might. Why is \r\n> that? I think\r\n> it\'s because IF has an advantage over static fiction in the area of\r\ncharacter\r\n> identification. When you\'re reading a book, you may read third-, \r\n> first-, or even\r\n> second-person accounts of a particular entity\'s exploits, and with\r\nsufficiently\r\n> effective writing and characterization, you may even identify with\r\nthat entity\r\n> quite strongly despite its non-human traits, but no matter what you\r\nare still\r\n> watching that entity from a distance. IF, however, literalizes the\r\nprocess of\r\n> identification one step further. Not only does the prose put you in\r\nsomeone\r\n> else\'s head, you actually have to guide the choices of that someone.\r\nI\'d submit\r\n> that when a reader is compelled to guide a character\'s actions,\r\nespecially if\r\n> there are puzzles involved, that reader will try to think like that\r\ncharacter\r\n> would think. When this happens, the identification process has reached\r\na place\r\n> where static fiction can rarely take it.\" -- Paul O\'Brian, from his \r\n> \"Verbose\" Web\r\n> Page, reviewing \"The Djinni Chronicles\" (2000)\r\n<P>\r\nYipes.  That\'s a pretty long quote.  Can you edit/paraphrase?\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> The best part of writing a work that has a bizarre setting is that\r\nnobody can\r\n> tell you \"Things don\'t work that way.\" Well, they can tell you, but\r\nthey\'d be\r\n> wrong. That is, if your world is consistent.\r\n<P>\r\nPerhaps you should expand on this topic: why is consistency important?\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> How Interactive Fiction (IF) is similar to Static Fiction (StF).\r\n> \r\n> * An underlying set of laws and operating principles (rules) apply in \r\n> the work\'s\r\n> universe.\r\n> \r\n> The author establishes these laws separate from the body of work, or\r\nstory.\r\n> \r\n> When the setting is the modern-day, real world, there\'s not much the \r\n> author needs\r\n> to do. He\'s already familiar with how the world works, its causes and\r\neffects,\r\n> its meanings.\r\n> \r\n> With a magical setting, the author faces the \"lazy medieval\"\r\ntemptation.\r\n> \r\n> \"The commonest \'mythology\' is what might be called \'lazy medieval\',\r\nwhere\r\n> anything prior to the invention of gunpowder goes, all at once,\r\neverything from\r\n> Greek gods to the longbow (a span of about two thousand years). In \r\n> fact, anything\r\n> an average reader might think of as \'old world\' will do, the Western\r\nidea of\r\n> antiquity being a huge collage.\" -- Graham Nelson, \"The Craft of\r\nAdventure\"\r\n> \r\n> The author may think he gets the best of both worlds using a lazy\r\nmedieval\r\n> setting. A) He has the freedom to add to his work whatever seems nifty\r\nor\r\n> expedient. B) He assumes the player will be as familiar with this\r\nsetting as he\r\n> is with the real world. Even if these assumptions are correct, A plus\r\nB doesn\'t\r\n> equal C-a captivating world.\r\n<P>\r\nThere seems to be something missing here from this paragraph.  You state\r\nthat\r\nA + B might not equal C, but does that really give us any more\r\ninformation than\r\nwe had before?  Moreover, earlier you mentioned consistency, and now\r\nyou\'re\r\nbringing up \'captivating\'.  I\'m not getting into the flow of this\r\narticle yet.\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> The player, upon his realization that he\'s in a lazy medieval setting,\r\nwill\r\n> attribute laziness to the author. The player may feel that he won\'t\r\nexperience\r\n> anything new, and that the author substituted convention for\r\nimagination. Even\r\n> good writing may not overcome these attributions.\r\n<P>\r\nAs a counterpoint, I don\'t think that Graham Nelson meant lazy in terms\r\nof\r\nindolence but, rather, in terms of a not-very-rigorous interpretation of\r\nthe\r\nsetting.  Something like \'generic\'.\r\n<P>\r\nBut your point is still valid.\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> The author of a work with a surrealistic or unique magical setting has\r\nmuch\r\n> thinking to do. Beyond a basic level of accessibility-a person at \r\n> least remotely\r\n> comprehending what is going on-the author can take nothing for \r\n> granted in regards\r\n> to how things happen and why.\r\n> \r\n> Consistency is key.\r\n> \r\n> \"The truth is that good fantasies carefully limit the magic that\'s\r\npossible. In\r\n> fact, the magic has to be defined, at least in the author\'s mind, as \r\n> a whole new\r\n> set of natural laws that cannot be violated during the course of the \r\n> story. That\r\n> is, if at the beginning of the story you have established that your \r\n> hero can make\r\n> only three wishes, you better not have him come up with a fourth wish \r\n> to save his\r\n> neck right at the end. That\'s cheating, and your reader will be quite \r\n> correct to\r\n> throw your book across the room and carefully avoid anything you ever\r\nwrite in\r\n> the future\" -- Orson Scott Card, from \"How to Write Science Fiction \r\n> and Fantasy.\r\n<P>\r\nThe \"That is...\" and all the stuff after it can be left out without\r\nchanging the point behind the quote.\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> But all of this effort is not without reward. The more detailed and\r\nthought-out\r\n<P>\r\n\"this effort\" -- you haven\'t yet defined it.\r\n<P>\r\n> the world\'s rules, the more support the story will have. These rules\r\nspark\r\n> creative ideas and suggest logical plot threads. They impart a feeling\r\nof\r\n> authenticity, that the world the reader/player experiences is real.\r\n> \r\n> A tree can be only as tall as its roots allow. The deeper you dig into\r\nyour\r\n> world, the fuller your work will be.\r\n<P>\r\nYes, but must you put it so tritely?\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> * Gradual revelation of these laws in the context of a story. The\r\nreader/player\r\n> is not expected to read a 50-page rulebook before beginning a story. \r\n> Part of the\r\n> enjoyment for the participant (reader or player) is learning bits at a\r\ntime as\r\n> the story unfolds. The following text illustrates this:\r\n> \r\n> \"For A Change\" -- \"Under the High Wall (on the resting)\r\n> Sweetness fills the shade of the High Wall to your east. Under this\r\nsweetness\r\n> lies a small expanse of fod. A mobile releases mildly to the west;\r\n...\"\r\n> \r\n> \"The War of the Worlds\" -- H. G. Wells.\r\n> \"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth \r\n> century that this\r\n> world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater\r\nthan man\'s\r\n> and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about\r\ntheir various\r\n> concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly\r\nas a man\r\n> with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm\r\nand\r\n> multiply in a drop of water.\"\r\n> \r\n> \"The Djinni Chronicles\" - [opening screen]\r\n> \"A wish diminished me. I fulfilled my summoner\'s desire expending\r\nPurpose. I\r\n> returned to my container before I was lost forever.\"\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> The reader/player gains some basic information about the world that he\r\nis\r\n> entering. He has a guess at what role he might take and at what he\r\nmight expect\r\n> from his surroundings. This introductory text was not just a lecture \r\n> on the first\r\n> few rules from the list, however. A story is afoot.\r\n> \r\n> The rules of the world never change, but the reader/player\'s\r\nunderstanding of\r\n> them certainly may. Each new event--in the broad sense--presents an\r\nopportunity\r\n> to add a new rule or two. It is also the place to clarify a difficult\r\nrule or\r\n<P>\r\nadd -> teach, maybe?\r\n<P>\r\n> obfuscate one the reader/player thinks he has down pat.\r\n> \r\n> Observation: The sun rises, arcs across the sky, and sets behind the\r\nhorizon.\r\n> Initial Conclusion: The sun revolves around the earth.\r\n> Later Clarification: The earth revolves around the sun.\r\n> \r\n> The rule never changed, only the reader\'s perspective.\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> How Interactive Fiction differs from Static Fiction\r\n<P>\r\nBut you haven\'t yet made the point as to how IF is the same as static\r\nfiction.\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> Both IF and StF authors work from a set of \"world rules.\" When the \r\n> StF author is\r\n> ready to insert a story into his world, he writes. When the IF author\r\nis ready,\r\n> he writes and implements. Implementation is critical to consider\r\nbefore diving\r\n> too deep into a work.\r\n> \r\n> This is not an article on coding techniques, design principles or\r\nmachine\r\n> specifications. The implementation I\'m talking about is \"do-ability.\"\r\nAs a\r\n> programmer, can you do (implement) the necessary code that enable a\r\nplayer to\r\n> experience your vision?\r\n<P>\r\nHow about this instead:\r\n<P>\r\n The added obstacle of implementation means that an IF author has to\r\n pre-plan *twice*.  Once for the story, and once for the ability to\r\n teach the computer how to tell that story.\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> With an interactive environment, a player should be capable of many\r\ndifferent\r\n> actions.\r\n<P>\r\nThis sentence is probably unnecessary.\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> I\'m sure most writers go through a compromise phase-that time of\r\nplanning when\r\n<P>\r\nDelete \"I\'m sure\"\r\n<P>\r\n> you realize some things just won\'t work. In some cases, simple \r\n<P>\r\n\"most writers ... you\" needs reworking\r\n<P>\r\n> deletion does the\r\n> trick. But how to work around it when the story demands complex \r\n> elements? Fudge?\r\n> Add? Rewrite? (I would like to tack on \"writing\" to Murphy\'s law on\r\nsausage and\r\n> legislation. If you like it, you should never watch it being made.)\r\n> \r\n> With IF, there\'s not only the writing compromise phase, but there\'s\r\nalso an\r\n> implementation compromise phase. One second after I conceived the \r\n> idea for TDC, I\r\n> realized that there was no way I could implement the powerful djinni \r\n> we all know\r\n> and love as a player character. Um, yeah... you can fly anywhere,\r\nconjure\r\n> anything, become anything, and wield the forces of nature with wanton\r\nabandon.\r\n> Oh, I\'ll be sure to provide a unique and intriguing story line for\r\neach of the\r\n> billion paths.\r\n<P>\r\nUnfortunately the ironic tone doesn\'t come through here all that well.\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> I liked the idea, though. So I got out my constraining net-yeah, the\r\nblack one\r\n> with the cedar handles-and focused on how I could limit a djinni. Some\r\nof these\r\n> constraints were incorporated into the set of world rules. For \r\n> example, a djinni\r\n> has only so much potential before it must return to its container. \r\n> But I handled\r\n> other constraints in the writing. In the setting, you\'re in the middle\r\nof\r\n> nowhere. You\'ll run out of potential before you reach anything \r\n> noteworthy. In the\r\n> plot, your goal encourages you to save your energies for only the \r\n> most important\r\n> tasks. You certainly don\'t want to waste it turning into an elephant. \r\n> (And, OK, I\r\n> certainly didn\'t want to implement that.)\r\n> \r\n> Implementation compromise may blend with writing compromise. You can\r\nreconcile\r\n> implementation problems through your writing. It\'s a tool you can \r\n> use, and there\r\n> are appropriate tools for every job. I have one rule thumb: if you \r\n> think it feels\r\n> forced, your players will probably think so, too.\r\n> \r\n> Don\'t shy away from implementing complex objects. Where would the\r\ncommunity be\r\n> without some of the wonderful NPCs and gadgets we\'ve encountered and \r\n> experienced\r\n> in the last few years? Such creations can truly enhance a work of\r\ninteractive\r\n> fiction.\r\n> \r\n> Many articles within this IF Theory Book will tell you to practice\r\nyour craft.\r\n> I\'ll mention here it, too. Experience gives you the knowledge of when\r\nto\r\n> implement and how to implement. It lets you know when and how to\r\nintegrate your\r\n> writing with the implementation.\r\n> \r\n> In StF, the author controls the story, the pace, and all of the\r\nincidentals. He\r\n> doesn\'t have to consider where or how the protagonist may deviate \r\n> from the plot.\r\n> The author\'s responsibility to his reader ends at \"be engaging at all\r\ntimes.\"\r\n> \r\n> In IF, the author and the player have a continuous, symbiotic\r\nrelationship. The\r\n> author must consider where and how the protagonist may deviate from \r\n> the plot, and\r\n> what effect that will have on the world.\r\n> \r\n> In general, the player controls the pace actively, the author, subtly.\r\nSubtlety\r\n> is not of less importance. It is the river flowing gently in some \r\n> parts, rapidly\r\n> in others. It forks and twists. It offers spectacular scenery. \r\n> Combining these to\r\n> create an enjoyable experience is an art. But the player may get out \r\n> of the boat,\r\n> take a wrong fork, or never figure out how to steer the canoe. So much\r\nfor the\r\n> breathtaking waterfall located a few miles downstream.\r\n> \r\n> This is especially important for a writer using a magical setting and\r\ncritical\r\n> for a surrealistic one. A player may fumble around in a normal world,\r\nlet alone\r\n> in one where his very frame of reference is askew.\r\n> \r\n> \"For descriptive language, where I couldn\'t be completely mysterious\r\nbecause it\r\n> would leave the player without a clue, I mostly tried to keep one step\r\nof\r\n> metaphorical distance from whatever I was describing. So if something \r\n> was rising,\r\n> I\'d instead say it was getting larger, or gaining, or something.\" \r\n> --Dan Schmidt,\r\n> \"For A Change\"\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> In general, the author controls the story actively, the player,\r\nsubtly. Nothing\r\n> can happen in an interactive work that the author doesn\'t script. The \r\n> player may\r\n> come up with an ingenious solution or a clever rejoinder, but it \r\n> won\'t matter if\r\n> the author didn\'t anticipate it. However, each player will have his \r\n> own approach\r\n> and his own thoughts as he plays. Each player will experience the work\r\n> differently.\r\n> \r\n> In a normal world setting, a player can usually fill in the blanks-the\r\nplaces\r\n> where the author did not anticipate. But a writer of a magical or\r\nsurrealistic\r\n> work must take greater care. When an author fails to account for\r\nsomething, a\r\n> player in his world will do one of the following:\r\n> \r\n> o He won\'t be able to fill in the blanks at all.\r\n> o He will fill the blanks in from a normal world perspective.\r\n> o He will attempt to piece things together based on his limited \r\n> knowledge of the\r\n> world.\r\n> \r\n> If you\'re creating a work of surrealism, one of the above may be just\r\nthe\r\n> perspective you\'re looking for. But deliberate use of them demands \r\n> tight control.\r\n> You have to be consciously aware of how you implement them and the\r\noverall\r\n> effects they will have on the player.\r\n> \r\n> \"I had to cut back on the weird language in some places. For example,\r\ndarkness\r\n> was originally described without any reference to the lack of light;\r\nit was\r\n> described as the lack of thought, thought and light being somewhat \r\n> synonymous in\r\n> the game\'s word. But that just confused the hell out of people, so I \r\n> had to take\r\n> it out.\" -- Dan Schmidt\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> I see each work of IF as its own unique pas de deux, an intricate\r\ndance between\r\n> the author and the player. The author is the ballroom dance\r\ninstructor. But the\r\n> dance studio here adds challenges. The instructor can\'t dance directly\r\nwith the\r\n> player, so she must lay out the footprints of the dance steps on the\r\nfloor. She\r\n> can\'t maintain an active dialog with the player, so she must\r\nanticipate his\r\n> problems from start to finish, leaving a recording of her advice at\r\neach step.\r\n<P>\r\nOK, but I think I lost the thread here.  How does this relate to magic\r\nor\r\nsurrealism in a game?\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> The pupil learns as he dances, most likely making mistakes. But he \r\n> must feel the\r\n> soul of the dance before he becomes discouraged.\r\n> \r\n> Creating unique magical IF is a pas de deux with a deaf player. I\r\ndon\'t mean\r\n> someone who is physically hearing impaired, but rather one who chooses\r\nnot to\r\n> hear because he\'s heard it before. The pupil sees everything he needs \r\n> to do, but\r\n> the instructor\'s commands are lost. The instructor must provide visual\r\nclues\r\n> beyond the numbered footprints, at least at first.\r\n<P>\r\nAh, OK.  Maybe you can set this up differently above so I understand\r\nwhat you\'re\r\ntrying to do without getting \'lost\' in the meantime.\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> Creating surrealistic IF is a pas de deux with a blind player. The\r\npupil learns\r\n> nothing from the numbered footprints on the floor. Because the \r\n> instructor cannot\r\n> directly communicate in IF, she must impart the feel of the dance\r\nexclusively\r\n> through her descriptions.\r\n> \r\n> IF authors have beta testing at their disposal. Through this, you will\r\ndiscover\r\n> how well your dance instructions encourage, clarify and entertain.\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> Conclusion\r\n> \r\n> If form truly is liberating, what more could you ask from the IF magic\r\nand\r\n> surrealism genres? You get a form within a form within a form. Have \r\n> you ever felt\r\n> so liberated?\r\n> \r\n> Seriously, though, the magic/surreal form allows you to focus your\r\nraw, unique,\r\n> wildly creative ideas into a medium that may be a perfect fit.\r\nInteractive\r\n> fiction is a relatively young field, and many possibilities are \r\n> unexplored. There\r\n> certainly will be a considerable amount of work involved in\r\nimplementing your\r\n> ideas. But what masterpiece demanded anything less?\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> \r\n> --\r\n> Bibliography\r\n> \r\n> \"For A Change\", (c)1999, a work of Interactive Fiction by Dan Schmidt\r\n> \r\n> The Society for the Promotion of Adventure Games (SPAG), (c)2000,\r\nIssue # 19,\r\n> Paul O\'Brian, editor\r\n> \r\n> \"War of the Worlds\", first published in 1898, by H. G. Wells\r\n> \r\n> \"How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy\", (c)1990, Orson Scott Card,\r\nISBN\r\n> 0-89879-416-1\r\n> \r\n> \"The Djinni Chronicles\", (c)2000, a work of Interactive Fiction by J.\r\nD. Berry\r\n> \r\n> \r\n>',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 04:01:53',2),(15,28,17,'Review of \"Simulation in Interactive Fiction\"\r\n<P>\r\nShort summary: Fairly well-written. I like the taxonomy. I learned from\r\nthis\r\narticle.\r\n<P>\r\n1. Is this article clear and comprehensible?  Yes.  However, flow and\r\ntransition suffer in a few noticeable places: many sections seem to be\r\ndropped in to the article without relating to the other sections around\r\nthem.\r\n(Nothing would suffer from this article being chopped up into discrete\r\nweb\r\npages and used as hypertext; this reviewer\'s bias is towards connected,\r\nlinear texts, especially in books.)\r\n<P>\r\n== Theory ==:  This section seemed to me to end particularly weakly (as\r\ndid\r\nthe entire article; see below).  \"Design vs Implementation\" isn\'t clear\r\nenough or strongly enough written for one sentence summing it up to feel\r\nlike an adequate summation of everything discussed before.\r\n<P>\r\n== Fifty Simulations ==:  The author probably should list the sections\r\nthat\r\nappear subsequently.\r\n<P>\r\n== Challenges ==:  Even one sentence of transition would help.\r\n<P>\r\nThe article appears to have no conclusion?  It doesn\'t have to appear at\r\nthe end;\r\nthe text under \"Fifty Simulations\" feels a little bit like a conclusion\r\nbut didn\'t\r\nseem to tie things together enough to please me.  There\'s good\r\nexpository text\r\nin the first half-dozen pages, but nothing to tie it all together.\r\n<P>\r\n2. Are there places where you would like to see the line of argument\r\nexpanded or explained in more depth?\r\n<P>\r\nThe author briefly touches on 3D coordinate systems. It might be worth a\r\nnod\r\nto simulations of mundane physics (most often seen in games but also a\r\nreal\r\nsubject of research) - the spatial model closely ties into *many* of the\r\nother\r\nsimulations being performed. An explicit 3d model of every object\r\ncombined\r\nwith a collision detection system would automatically handle several of\r\nthe\r\nsimulations discussed. This is an advantage held by some video games,\r\nbut they\r\nhave plenty of consequent disadvantages.\r\n<P>\r\n(Note that I\'m not advocating this for IF in general, although it would\r\nmake an\r\ninteresting experiment that given infinite free time this reviewer would\r\nlove\r\nto try.)\r\n<P>\r\nThe list of classes of simulations feels like a taxonomy, in some places\r\nthe\r\narticle addresses the interrelationships, while in other places it\r\ndoesn\'t.\r\n<P>\r\n3. Are there things you disagree with entirely?  No.\r\n<P>\r\n4. Are there examples or interesting points you can think of that the\r\nauthor has not addressed, that you think he should cover?  No.\r\n<P>\r\n5. Grammar problems, mispunctuation, etc.\r\n== Fifty Simulations ==:  \"Nevertheless, for the remainder of this\r\narticle,\r\nthough,\" jumps out as having two qualifying words where none would be\r\nsufficient.\r\n<P>\r\n== Extending the Player Character ==:  Under _Inventory_, \"although this\r\nis usually\r\nexplained away with an implicit.\"  An implicit what?  And the example\r\nhere should\r\nbe made explicit.',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 03:38:56',2),(17,25,20,'> LANDSCAPE AND CHARACTER IN IF\r\n> =============================\r\n> \r\n> If we reduce interactive fiction to its essence, we can view it as a\r\n> triangular relationship between three basic elements: Landscape,\r\n<P>\r\nI\'m firmly in the camp which says that \'between\' should be used for\r\ntwo ideas, and \'among\' should be used for more than two.  However, I\r\nhave been succesfully argued against on this particular matter, so\r\nI\'ll just point out here that my camp exists and leave it up to you,\r\nThe Author, to decide whether to rephrase.\r\n<P>\r\n> Character, and Action. It\'s possible to write IF without objects, plot,\r\n> NPCs or myriad other ingredients, but as soon as that first room\r\n> description appears, it introduces a landscape, just as the first prompt\r\n> ushers in the concept of Action. [1]\r\n<P>\r\nThe use of commas here is a bit confusing.  You might want to split\r\nthis into two sentences\r\n<P>\r\n> I would further argue that\r\n<P>\r\nUnnecessary.  Perhaps you are looking for \'additionally\' or \'furthermore\'.\r\n<P>\r\n> the\r\n> interaction between these two elements inevitably creates some concept\r\n> of Character. The character that emerges is the being that would perform\r\n> the actions selected when presented with the landscape (and situation)\r\n> at hand. Even if that character is not human, not organic, or not even\r\n> embodied (an omniscient narrator, for instance, though that voice is\r\n> almost never used in IF because of the form\'s powerful insistence on\r\n> connecting Action with viewpoint), Action must have an agent, and that\r\n> agent is what we call the Player Character.\r\n<P>\r\nThe parenthetical aside \"(an omniscient...\" is too long and the reader\r\nloses the flow of the sentence.\r\n<P>\r\n> In this formulation, the only one of the triumvirate completely under\r\n> the game\'s control is Landscape. Action is entirely in the hands of the\r\n> player, and Character lies halfway between the two. That last statement\r\n> may require a bit more unpacking.\r\n<P>\r\nThe sentence \"That last statement...\" is an awkward lead-in for the\r\nrest of the paragraph.\r\n<P>\r\n> If Character is determined by Action,\r\n> why isn\'t it entirely in the hands of the player as well? The answer is\r\n> that while Action *does* determine Character, it isn\'t the sole\r\n> determining factor. The game itself can shape character by statements as\r\n> blatant as \"You\'re Tracy Valencia,\" or by something as subtle as\r\n> a particular word choice in a parser response. However, I would contend\r\n> that while blatant character-shaping statements and even subtle nudges\r\n<P>\r\n\'I would contend that\' is unnecessary.\r\n<P>\r\n> from default responses are far from inevitable in IF, some sense of\r\n> landscape *must* be included in any IF game, and that both the design\r\n> and the description of this landscape are extremely powerful factors in\r\n> determining character. It is my aim in this essay to examine the ways\r\n<P>\r\n\'This essay will examine ...\'\r\n<P>\r\n> in which Landscape influences and creates Character, and to raise what I\r\n> hope will be some interesting questions about the nature of their\r\n<P>\r\n\'what I hope will be\' is also unnecessary.\r\n<P>\r\n> interrelationship.\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> MAP DESIGN\r\n> [This section contains minor spoilers for Colossal Cave, Planet Of The\r\n> Infinite Minds, Strangers In The Night, and Suspect. It contains\r\n> medium-level spoilers for Lost New York and Stone Cell, and major\r\n> spoilers for Shade and 1981.]\r\n> \r\n> Space is continuous. The landscape of interactive fiction, however,\r\n> consists of discrete units, connected to each other in various ordinary\r\n> and sometimes extraordinary ways. [2] By convention we call these units\r\n> \"rooms\", but in fact they can be anything from a tiny subsection of a\r\n> room to an entire town, country, planet, or universe. How does a game\'s\r\n> subdivision of continuous space affect our perception of the character\r\n> in that game? Let\'s look at some examples.\r\n> \r\n> An illuminating comparison exists between two pieces of IF with urban\r\n> settings: Neil DeMause\'s _Lost New York_ (1996) and Rich Pizor\'s\r\n> _Strangers In The Night_ (1999). In the former, the character travels\r\n> through Manhattan and other areas of New York City during various points\r\n> in history. The game frequently compresses neighborhoods, boroughs, and\r\n> other such swaths of territory into single rooms, albeit lovingly\r\n> described ones:\r\n> \r\n>     Lower East Side\r\n>     The scene around you is one unmatched in any other time and place in\r\n>     human history: Acres of identical four- and five-story tenements\r\n>     packed cheek-to-jowl with people, people who spill out onto the\r\n>     sidewalks and fire escapes in search of a little space, a little air.\r\n>     The el tracks continue down the street to the north and south; to the\r\n>     east, the tenements seem to stretch on forever, though you\'re pretty\r\n>     sure they eventually end at the East River shore.\r\n> \r\n> Within each time period, these areas connect to each other directly,\r\n> even though they may have been separated by miles in reality.\r\n> Occasionally, a \"traveling message\" such as \"You trudge north for close\r\n> to a mile, finally arriving at...\" will interpose itself between\r\n> locations, but more often the traveling interval passes instantaneously\r\n> and without comment.\r\n> \r\n> _Strangers In The Night_, on the other hand, painstakingly sets out its\r\n> generic city map as a street grid, and provides almost no description\r\n> for the lion\'s share of its locations:\r\n> \r\n>     Broadway and 11th\r\n>        You are at the intersection of Broadway and 11th Avenue. To the\r\n>     southwest is the security door for your apartment building; the\r\n>     Broadway Sineplex (which a few downtown residents still consider an\r\n>     amusing name for a movie theatre) lies to the northeast.\r\n> \r\n>     >n\r\n>     Broadway (10th & 11th)\r\n> \r\n>     >n\r\n>     Broadway and 10th\r\n>        One of the streetlights is dim here; the shadows that are cast\r\n>     against the sidewalk are oddly deformed, giving the corner an\r\n>     otherworldly feel.\r\n> \r\n>     >n\r\n>     Broadway (9th & 10th)\r\n>        Somewhere in the distance, a car alarm starts blaring it\'s [sic]\r\n>     Call of the Wild to the concrete jungle. This is followed a few\r\n>     moments later by the sound of figerglass [sic] crunching and safety\r\n>     windshields shattering until the alarm ceases.\r\n> \r\n>     >n\r\n>     Broadway and 9th\r\n> \r\n>     >n\r\n>     Broadway (8th & 9th)\r\n> \r\n>     >n\r\n>     8th and Broadway\r\n>        Carl Tuck\'s Coffehouse [sic] is to the southeast.\r\n> \r\n> At first glance, it might appear that about half the locations contain\r\n> room descriptions. In fact, however, only the first and the last do; the\r\n> dim streetlight and the car alarm are random atmospheric messages that\r\n> can pop up in any street location. In fact, the only time a non-random\r\n> message, or a description of any kind, appears is when the location\r\n> adjoins the entrance to a puzzle-solving area, or to the PC\'s home.\r\n> The game\'s city grid is comprised of about 80 locations, all of which\r\n> may well have been compressed into one room in _Lost New York_.\r\n> \r\n> It\'s a natural impulse to discuss these choices as they relate to game\r\n> design, or to talk about their successes and failures in creating\r\n> immersion or facilitating strategy. What may not be so natural is to\r\n> think about how these choices influence the way we think about the\r\n> player character; I would contend that consciously or not, we perceive\r\n<P>\r\nDelete \'I would contend that\'\r\n<P>\r\n> these two characters differently based on the way the games construct\r\n> their surroundings. What we know about the PC of _Lost New York_ is that\r\n> she [3] knows New York City well enough to identify its various areas\r\n> instantly, even as they appeared over a hundred years ago. In fact, the\r\n> game\'s easy recognition of areas such as \"The Goats\" and \"Ladies Mile\",\r\n> not to mention the copious historical detail infused into many room\r\n> descriptions, creates a tension between the game\'s identification of the\r\n> PC as \"a tourist\" and what we know about her from her subsequent\r\n> experiences. Someone who could wander through New York\'s past with so\r\n> much information at hand must be intimately familiar with the city,\r\n> either through experience or study. Her interest and perception is\r\n> mostly broad strokes -- she\'s more interested in generalities of an area\r\n> than in its specific details, and her sense of history is sweeping\r\n> rather than finely grained -- but her knowledge is quite comprehensive.\r\n> Even if the game had insisted that this was the PC\'s first trip to the\r\n> city, we would have to conclude that she is someone who for whatever\r\n> reason has immersed herself in New York City history; how else to\r\n> explain such detailed knowledge in the midst of the extraordinary\r\n> experience of time travel? If the game proved unable or unwilling to\r\n> address and resolve this question, that lacuna could hardly be anything\r\n> but a flaw in the work, just as it would be in a novel where the main\r\n> character knows things she shouldn\'t.\r\n> \r\n> Unlike the PC of _Lost New York_, the character in _Strangers_ has\r\n> almost no interest in ordinary detail, let alone history. He never finds\r\n> himself musing about ironies or architecture as he treads the streets,\r\n> and in fact usually notices nothing but the bare identity of the\r\n> location. Together with the game\'s specification of the PC as a vampire,\r\n> these facts can lead us to a few conclusions about this character. He\r\n> sees the city not as human tapestry or even interesting backdrop, but\r\n> rather as a sort of maze he must navigate in order to locate prey. The\r\n> lack of room descriptions impels us to move quickly from one location to\r\n> the next, replicating the urgency of the character\'s thirst for blood.\r\n> His disinterest in local color might even be seen as an undead disdain\r\n> for the fleeting effluvia of mortal life. The game\'s overall\r\n> presentation isn\'t quite strong enough to give this effect full potency,\r\n> but all the same we know quite well that there is a significant\r\n> difference between these two characters. The _Lost New York_ PC, even if\r\n> she *were* a vampire searching the streets for prey, couldn\'t help but\r\n> notice the landscape and be aware of its heritage, while the _Strangers_\r\n> PC could be thrust into any time in the city\'s history and would evince\r\n> a similar disregard for anything but the most minimal details of place.\r\n<P>\r\nYou might want to examine also whether there was any point in setting\r\n_Strangers_ in NYC vs. any other city, or even a generically presented\r\none.\r\n<P>\r\n> \r\n> On the other end of the detail spectrum from _Strangers_ is Andrew\r\n> Plotkin\'s _Shade_ (2000), where the entirety of the action appears to be\r\n> taking place in the player character\'s studio apartment.  In this\r\n<P>\r\nWhoops.  You were just comparing & contrasting LNY and Strangers, but\r\nnow you\'re throwing Shade into the mix.  In other words, you were\r\njust saying that LNY was on the other end of the spectrum, and now\r\nyou\'re saying Shade is.  You might want to spend a sentence or two\r\nsetting this up.\r\n<P>\r\n> one-room environment, however, movement is possible, and the game\r\n> responds to this movement not by placing the character in a new room (as\r\n> is the case with most IF), but rather by making a series of alterations\r\n> to room description and scope for the current room. If the PC is in the\r\n<P>\r\nSee?  Shade is a direct contrast to your statement earlier that\r\nspace in IF is made of discrete rooms.  So you might want to compare it\r\nto *all* IF in this paragraphs introductory statement, rather than\r\nsaying it\'s being compared to Strangers.\r\n<P>\r\n> center of the apartment, for example, the game first mentions objects\r\n> close at hand, such as the computer desk and stereo, while reserving\r\n> mention of the kitchen and bathroom areas for the later parts of the\r\n> room description. When that character moves to the kitchen, however,\r\n> text about the counter, the refrigerator, and such occupies the\r\n> beginning of the room description. The desk and stereo are still visible\r\n> from that location, and still mentioned, but are only visible, not\r\n> accessible for touching or other manipulation until the character\r\n> returns to the center of the apartment.\r\n> \r\n> When _Shade_ was released, this approach to map design was hailed as an\r\n> innovative subversion of the conventional IF map, which it is. It is\r\n<P>\r\nMaybe delete \', which it is\' and instead say  \'was correctly hailed as\'.\r\n<P>\r\nThat way you haven\'t got \'... it is.  It is ...\'.\r\n<P>\r\n> also a fitting choice for characterization purposes. The overlapping,\r\n> connected nature of the apartment landscape makes clear to us that this\r\n> is an environment with which the character is intimately familiar, and\r\n> that even while he inhabits one area of it, his awareness of the other\r\n> areas does not abate. The map design makes the apartment *belong* to the\r\n<P>\r\n\'belongs\'\r\n<P>\r\n> character in a way that it would not were it separated into discrete\r\n> rooms. This sense of familiarity, of safety, and of enclosure makes the\r\n> game\'s later revelations all the more powerful, as the familiar\r\n> dissolves into the strange, and safe enclosure into fatal exposure.\r\n> \r\n> A similar effect, the subdivision of one room into many separate\r\n> locations, appears in a variety of games, including Infocom\'s _Suspect_\r\n> (1984) and Steve Kodat\'s _Stone Cell_ (1999). In the former, it\'s a\r\n> grand ballroom that the game presents as nine separate locations, and\r\n> the effect is to make the room feel enormous. The character in _Suspect_\r\n> is a reporter at a party being given in a mansion, and the game\'s map\r\n> design underscores her sense of awe at the opulent surroundings -- where\r\n> the house\'s owner\'s perception of the ballroom might be closer to that\r\n> of the character in _Shade_, the guest\'s mind demands more concrete\r\n> conceptual boundaries in order to take in the scope of the area. _Stone\r\n> Cell_ achieves a different effect by performing the same gridlike\r\n> subdivision on a much smaller room, the eponymous stone cell. Room\r\n> descriptions and common sense tell us that this room is much smaller\r\n> than the ballroom in _Suspect_, so the game\'s partitioning of that\r\n> space, rather than conveying immensity, instead reflects the PC\'s\r\n> awareness of the room\'s tiniest details as a result of her imprisonment.\r\n> What makes this design particularly effective is that the game initially\r\n> presents the cell as one location, then expands it into a grid after the\r\n> character sleeps, thus reflecting not only the character\'s growing\r\n> familiarity with his surroundings but also his growing desire to\r\n> scrutinize each detail of the premises in hopes of escape.\r\n> \r\n> The opposite effect is available, too, when games compress the extremely\r\n> large, even the inconceivably large, into a single room description. One\r\n<P>\r\nYou were just discussing the extremely large case earlier with LNY, though.\r\nMaybe mention that here?  You don\'t want the reader to think \'we just\r\ncovered that\' and skip the following paragraphs.\r\n<P>\r\n> of the more extreme examples of this technique occurs in Alfredo\r\n> Garcia\'s _Planet Of The Infinite Minds_ (2000), where the character\r\n> might find himself here:\r\n> \r\n>     The Beginning of Space\r\n>     All around you, distant suns flicker and twinkle. Painfully bright\r\n>     points of light seem to appear suddenly from out of the ether, as\r\n>     another retracts into obscurity. En masse, the effect renders a\r\n>     carnival of vibrant colours and astonishing beauty.\r\n> \r\n> The simple fact of the character\'s existence in this location tells us\r\n> something about that character: that she has transcended humanity,\r\n> attaining a sort of bodiless, godlike status. Since the game starts with\r\n> the PC as a simple librarian, its transportation of her to such an\r\n> abstract vista carries with it the implication of personal disembodiment\r\n> and removal from reality as well. What\'s more, her ability to know that\r\n> the location is \"The Beginning Of Space\" rather than, say, a Christmas\r\n> tree festival viewed through a hangover, suggests a metahuman\r\n> omnipotence that we must assume has been granted to the character, at\r\n> least temporarily.\r\n> \r\n> The connection between map design and character stretches to the deepest\r\n> roots of IF, for the majority of _Colossal Cave_\'s (1976) map is named and\r\n> divided in ways that would make sense to a spelunker. From the way that\r\n> the game comfortably names areas of the cave as \"rooms\", and indeed even\r\n> the names of those rooms, which draw on caving vocabulary such as\r\n> \"Bedquilt\" and \"Y2\", we can clearly identify that the character in that\r\n> game is an experienced cave explorer. Thus, even in the earliest days of\r\n> IF, when games made virtually no overt effort to characterize the PC,\r\n> character was already emerging as a function of landscape. The character\r\n> in _Colossal Cave_, while unraced, gender-neutral, ageless, nameless,\r\n> and faceless, was nonetheless made distinct from the player herself by\r\n> the way he perceived the landscape of the cave, seeing rooms and twisty\r\n> little passages where a different character might have experienced the\r\n> area quite differently.\r\n> \r\n> In the hands of a skilled author, the effect of landscape on character\r\n> can make for a portrayal that is very striking indeed. Take, for\r\n> instance, Adam Cadre\'s _1981_ (2001) [4]. The first room description of\r\n> the game is as follows:\r\n> \r\n>     New Haven, Connecticut\r\n>     New Haven. The worst place on earth. The town is dirty and\r\n>     industrial, the students are sloppy, everything is horribly\r\n>     expensive. And you had to cash in $3600 of your stock to get here.\r\n>     But it was necessary. Four years at this place is enough to ravage\r\n>     anyone. You have to rescue her, your first true love.\r\n> \r\n>     Her dormitory lies to the north.\r\n> \r\n> Already, we can see a dramatic narrowing of scope occurring. The\r\n> character is so unconcerned with the details of his location that he\r\n> compresses an entire town into one unit, dismissing all of it as \"the\r\n> worst place on earth.\" Then the broad outlines of location gain sudden,\r\n> sharp focus: \"Her dormitory lies to the north.\" The contrast between the\r\n> vague, reviled whole of New Haven and the focus on the dormitory, set\r\n> apart in its own line, suggests to us that the character\'s concentration\r\n> on his goal is unhealthy, perhaps even obsessive, and moving north\r\n> confirms this suspicion:\r\n> \r\n>     New Haven, in her dormitory\r\n>     You\'re standing in front of her door. It\'s closed. It\'s always\r\n>     closed. You\'ve shoved approximately one hundred poems and letters\r\n>     under that door. You figure she\'s probably read about half of them.\r\n> \r\n> Scope narrows even further here, from one building to the tiny area in\r\n> front of one of that building\'s doors. The room descriptions certainly\r\n> confirm our impression of the main character\'s unbalanced and obsessive\r\n> nature, but even without them, the basic funneling performed by the map\r\n> design would get the point across admirably. When we discover that the\r\n> PC is John Hinckley, Jr., and that the door in question is to Jodie\r\n> Foster\'s dorm room at Yale, the revelation is terrifically powerful,\r\n> because via its map design, the game has already taken us directly into\r\n> the viewpoint of its would-be assassin.\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> ROOM DESCRIPTIONS\r\n> [This section contains minor spoilers for A Change In The Weather,\r\n> Heroes, Varicella, and Zork I. It contains medium-level spoilers for\r\n> Once And Future and Wearing The Claw, and major spoilers for Nothing\r\n> More Nothing Less.]\r\n> \r\n> Of course, in _1981_ it\'s more than just map design that clues us into\r\n> the character -- the room descriptions themselves make it clear that we\r\n> are seeing the game\'s landscape as filtered through one individual\'s\r\n> highly idiosyncratic viewpoint. Short, choppy sentences give the text a\r\n> jittery feel, contributing to the general tone of uneasiness. We know\r\n> the character has some access to wealth because of the \"$3600 of your\r\n> stock\" line. We also know the character is either a heterosexual male or\r\n> a homosexual female from the reference to the true love as \"her.\" [5]\r\n> And we certainly know how he feels about New Haven.\r\n> \r\n> Cadre is particularly skilled at bringing character across through room\r\n> description, as in this example, the first room in _Varicella_ (1999):\r\n> \r\n>     Salon\r\n>     You\'ve funneled the lion\'s share of the palace improvements budget --\r\n>     and most likely the tiger\'s share as well -- into renovating the\r\n>     salon... not that the Philistines you live among are equipped to\r\n>     appreciate it. From the plush Quattordici chairs to the handsome\r\n>     volumes in the library to the imported Ming tea service to the\r\n>     steward you hired to attend to your grooming needs, this is an oasis\r\n>     of taste and comfort in what is otherwise a fairly uncomfortable and\r\n>     tasteless building. Ah, well. When you become Regent you\'ll have\r\n>     greater latitude to redecorate. The arched windows overlook the\r\n>     western gardens, while the exit leads east.\r\n> \r\n> This description follows several paragraphs of introduction, which\r\n> announce the player character as one Primo Varicella, Palace Minister to\r\n> a recently deceased king, and Machiavellian schemer for the throne. Even\r\n> without that introduction, though, this room description would frame the\r\n> character aptly. From the \"lion\'s share\" clause we know that the\r\n> character is in charge of improvements to a palace, and from the room\r\n> name we know that he is in the Salon mentioned in the first sentence;\r\n> therefore we can conclude that he is employed by the palace in which the\r\n> game begins -- a succinct way to bring across Varicella\'s position and\r\n> occupation. Moreover, the phrase \"live among\" tells us that he resides\r\n> at the palace as well. The \"tiger\'s share\" clause gives us an example of\r\n> his sardonic humor, and the \"Philistines\" reference an example of his\r\n> snobbery. His identification of the chairs and tea service, and the\r\n> contrast to the \"uncomfortable and tasteless\" remainder of the building,\r\n> communicate clearly that this is a man of very strong preferences, a\r\n> persnickety aristocrat whose refined tastes run to the extremely\r\n> expensive. Finally, the character\'s ambitions, and the drive behind\r\n> them, are summarized neatly: \"When you become Regent you\'ll have greater\r\n> latitude to redecorate.\" Just by seeing one room through this\r\n> character\'s eyes, we learn all the essential facts about him that will\r\n> carry throughout the game.\r\n> \r\n> If there\'s a continuum that measures the degree to which a game\'s\r\n> room descriptions blatantly shape character, it\'s fair to say that\r\n> _Varicella_ is probably on the extreme end of it. Does that mean that\r\n> the room descriptions of games on the other end don\'t shape character\r\n> at all? Predictably, my answer is no -- the effect is just a bit more\r\n> subtle. To illustrate, let\'s compare descriptions from two different\r\n> games, neither of which has character as its focus. First, from\r\n> Andrew Plotkin\'s _A Change In The Weather_ (1996):\r\n> \r\n>     Rocky Outlook\r\n>     A wide angular tongue juts out from the hillside. The park stretches\r\n>     off to the north and west, a vast expanse of luminous meadowland,\r\n>     patched with the dark emerald of forest. The streams are already\r\n>     shadowed in their beds. In the distance, a lake reflects red fire,\r\n>     beneath the greater fire that leaps silently on the horizon.\r\n> \r\n>     A trail leads southwest down the hill, towards the bridge. From where\r\n>     you stand, it turns southeast and continues upward, deeply cut into\r\n>     the hillside. A narrower trail leads more steeply up to the east.\r\n> \r\n> _Zork I_ (1981) by Infocom offers a location that is very nearly\r\n> analogous:\r\n> \r\n>     Rocky Ledge\r\n>     You are on a ledge about halfway up the wall of the river canyon. You\r\n>     can see from here that the main flow from Aragain Falls twists along\r\n>     a passage which it is impossible for you to enter. Below you is the\r\n>     canyon bottom. Above you is more cliff, which appears climbable.\r\n> \r\n> Though their locations may be similar, these two characters are very\r\n> different indeed. _Weather\'s_ wanderer takes the entire first paragraph\r\n> to describe the area with intense, poetic language. The words don\'t\r\n> directly narrate the emotions felt by the character, nor impute opinions\r\n> like the descriptions in _Varicella_, but they deploy vivid adjectives\r\n> like \"luminous\" and \"dark emerald\", and powerful metaphors -- the tongue\r\n> of rock, the red fire of sunset reflected in a lake, the setting sun as\r\n> a \"greater fire that leaps silently on the horizon.\" This is a character\r\n> whose soul is moved by the grandeur of a natural landscape. Only after\r\n> this reverent depiction does the character notice practical details: the\r\n> trails and where they lead.\r\n> \r\n> _Zork\'s_ PC, on the other hand, goes directly for the practical. She\r\n> mentions the river\'s passage only in terms of whether she can enter it.\r\n> What she notices about the cliff is that it is climbable. Though the\r\n> natural scene -- a canyon, a river, a waterfall -- is probably quite\r\n> impressive, the description is almost entirely mechanical. There are no\r\n> rapturous sentences about the stark rock of the cliff or the sparkling\r\n> river. Adjectives are almost entirely absent, and where they do exist\r\n> their purpose is highly prosaic: \"river\" further identifies \"canyon\", as\r\n> \"Aragain\" does \"Falls\" and \"canyon\" does \"bottom.\" Other descriptors\r\n> exist solely to describe travel options: \"impossible\" and\r\n> \"climbable\". Indeed, she sees every element of the scene only in terms\r\n> of how it can be manipulated or traversed, and this viewpoint is\r\n> consistent throughout the game, just as the intense description of\r\n> natural phenomena is a constant in _Weather._ Both games\' main focus is\r\n> puzzle-solving, but when we compare how their characters each view a\r\n> similar scene, it becomes clear how different the characters are from\r\n> each other.\r\n> \r\n> Comparing the PCs of two different games illuminates important\r\n> differences between the characters, and the effect is even more potent\r\n> when several points of view are available within the same game --\r\n> instead of seeing how two different characters view analogous locations,\r\n> we get to see how they view the exact *same* location. Several recent\r\n> games have made use of this technique: J. Robinson Wheeler\'s _Being\r\n> Andrew Plotkin_ (2000), Stephen Granade\'s _Common Ground_ (2000) and my\r\n> own _LASH_ (2000) among them. The current apex of POV-diversity, though,\r\n<P>\r\nD\'oh.  Now I know who wrote this essay.  Hi Paul!\r\n<P>\r\n> probably belongs to _Heroes_ (2001) by Sean Barrett. This game offers a\r\n> minimal landscape of something like a dozen locations, but gives five\r\n> different viewpoint options through which to view it. For instance, the\r\n> opening location of the game as viewed by a Zork-like adventurer:\r\n> \r\n>     Temple Way\r\n>     The grimy, ramshackle buildings of Oldtown dutifully try to reform\r\n>     themselves as you progress east down Temple Way, but nothing besides\r\n>     the temple itself makes any real pretense of belonging anywhere other\r\n>     than Oldtown. Or rather, nothing besides the temple and Baron\r\n>     Sedmon\'s nearby mansion.\r\n> \r\n> a King:\r\n> \r\n>     Avenue\r\n>     This broad avenue leads right into Temple Square, the heart of\r\n>     fabulous New Oldtown. Towering over the square to the east you do\r\n>     perceive your stark white Temple of Justice, beautiful and\r\n>     well-appointed, offering a statement to the neighborhood: this, this\r\n>     is what progress is about. Sadly, the buildings around you are\r\n>     scarcely up to this new standard; Baron Ventillado\'s house north of\r\n>     the square is much more satisfactory. How you hate having to come\r\n>     here. This would all be so much simpler if Blackhelm were found dead\r\n>     one morning, but it\'s never happened yet, despite your best efforts.\r\n> \r\n> a thief:\r\n> \r\n>     Shadowy Road\r\n>     Sturdy, functional buildings lie in and out of shadow on the road to\r\n>     the temple square. Simple architecture, devoid of handholds; closely\r\n>     spaced buildings, devoid of alleyways; uncut walls, devoid of\r\n>     windows: the builders in this area knew how to encourage amateurs to\r\n>     go elsewhere.\r\n> \r\n> a mage:\r\n> \r\n>     East-West Road\r\n>     Randomly arranged paving stones form this street, proceeding east\r\n>     towards a more attractive arrangement. The darkened buildings lean\r\n>     sloppily over the edge of the street, reducing the energetic\r\n>     potential of the strict east-west layout. West the road leads back\r\n>     into the seething mess that is Oldtown.\r\n> \r\n> and finally, a dragon:\r\n> \r\n>     Open Tunnel\r\n>     We were surrounded by the man-things\' structures, structures of dead\r\n>     trees and rock and distortions of iron. Beneath us we felt the\r\n>     arrangements of stone into a path for man-things\' mobile receptacles.\r\n>     We could smell hints of the Crystal along the path to the east.\r\n> \r\n> Where the adventurer just sees a temple, the King sees the temple as his\r\n> own possession, a symbol of his attempts to renovate and improve the\r\n> city. Where the mage sees leaning buildings distorting the street\'s\r\n> pristine geometry, the thief sees those same leaning buildings as a\r\n> source of precious shadow. Through the use of a past-tense,\r\n> second-person plural voice, _Heroes_ renders the dragon\'s viewpoint\r\n> quite alien, and emphasizes that dissonance by showing us how the dragon\r\n> sees the street: an \"open tunnel\", contrasted with the more irregular\r\n> shapes of nature and constructed by contemptible \"man-things.\" _Heroes_\r\n> takes excellent advantage of Landscape\'s ability to reveal Character,\r\n> and through its use of multiple viewpoints, it leverages the power of\r\n> the Landscape-Character axis to accomplish something more: the\r\n> revelation of Landscape via accumulated details from a variety of\r\n> characters. The descriptions coalesce in the player\'s mind to create a\r\n> picture of the location that is much more complete than any one\r\n> viewpoint could provide, while at the same time establishing distinct\r\n> portraits of each viewpoint character.\r\n> \r\n> Other games have made use of changing room descriptions in order to\r\n> demonstrate change or progression in a single PC, or to give us that\r\n> character\'s revised perspective as a situation changes. _Nothing More,\r\n> Nothing Less_ (2001) by Gilles Duchesne is a case in point. The first\r\n> puzzle of this slice-of-life game takes place in a bathroom, initially\r\n> described like so:\r\n> \r\n>     Bathroom\r\n>     I ve seen bigger bathrooms, but must admit this smaller one suits our\r\n>     needs well. There s a small sink with a cabinet under it, a mirror, a\r\n>     bathtub (equiped [sic] with a shower head and curtain) and a toilet.\r\n> \r\n> However, after the character urinates [6], the toilet clogs and begins\r\n> to overflow. Unprompted, the game reprints the room description, which\r\n> now reads as follows:\r\n> \r\n>     Bathroom\r\n>     I ve seen bigger bathrooms, but must admit this smaller one suits our\r\n>     needs well. There s a small sink with a cabinet under it, a mirror, a\r\n>     bathtub (equiped with a shower head and curtain) and a toilet.\r\n>     Right now, my attention is also grabbed by: the toilet tank.\r\n>     Water keeps flowing from the tank, nearing the bowl s edge.\r\n> \r\n> The room description stays the same, but the game adds a sentence to\r\n> demonstrate that the character\'s attention has become focused on one\r\n> particular aspect of the room: the toilet tank. This sentence serves\r\n> gameplay purposes, indicating that the toilet tank is in fact\r\n> implemented and thereby hinting toward the solution of the \"overflowing\r\n> toilet\" puzzle. In addition to this, the attention sentence demonstrates\r\n> a shift in the character, showing us his revised perspective as well as\r\n> the fact that he\'s quick-witted enough to think immediately of the\r\n> toilet tank in this crisis. The other sentence is typical of IF room\r\n> descriptions, indicating an action currently taking place in the room\r\n> and lending urgency to the character\'s desire to solve the puzzle. After\r\n> the character opens the tank, lifts the toilet float, and fixes the\r\n> stuck valve to stop the toilet running (alas, too late to prevent water\r\n> flowing onto the floor), the game once again reprints the room\r\n> description, this time altered considerably:\r\n> \r\n>     Bathroom\r\n>     I m now standing barefoot in some icy water. I ve seen bigger\r\n>     bathrooms, but must admit this smaller one suits our needs well. In\r\n>     fact, at this very moment I m terribly glad the floor isn t bigger,\r\n>     as it would only mean more water to remove. There s a small sink with\r\n>     a cabinet under it, a mirror, a bathtub (equiped with a shower head\r\n>     and curtain) and a toilet.\r\n>     Right now, my attention is also grabbed by: my towel.\r\n> \r\n> There are several changes, doing several different sorts of work within\r\n> the description. The first, the \"icy water\" sentence, indicates a change\r\n> in the room itself, one that is reflective of situation rather than\r\n> character, though of course the way the character chooses to relate this\r\n> situation -- emphasizing discomfort by noting his bare feet and\r\n> describing the water as \"icy\", conveying a mood of urgency without panic\r\n> -- does accomplish some characterization. A later sentence takes a fact\r\n> of the bathroom addressed by earlier descriptions (its small size) and\r\n> relates it to the new situation, revealing a practical and rather\r\n> optimistic side to the viewpoint character. This sentence also\r\n> demonstrates that the character\'s perspective, while pragmatic, is not\r\n> particularly scientific, since a larger floor wouldn\'t actually mean\r\n> more water to remove, only a greater surface area from which to remove\r\n> it. Later, we get a new \"attention\" sentence; the toilet tank is no\r\n> longer in focus, and instead the character is thinking of his towel.\r\n> Note that this towel was not mentioned in any of the previous room\r\n> descriptions, because the character had no particular need of it.\r\n> _Nothing More, Nothing Less_ makes extensive use of this technique,\r\n> heightening realism by filtering not only the general experience of\r\n> landscape through the PC, but also specific points of focus as well.\r\n> Finally, once the toilet is plunged and the water toweled and mopped,\r\n> the PC has showered, and his feline nemesis has entered the room, the\r\n> bathroom\'s description changes to this:\r\n> \r\n>     Bathroom\r\n>     This a bathroom, of which I ve seen more than enough in the last\r\n>     minutes. Come to think of it, I ve seen enough of it for the whole\r\n>     day. And the presence of that hairy pest doesn t improve my morale.\r\n>     Azrael licks one of his paws, while keeping an eye on me.\r\n> \r\n> The character\'s perspective on the bathroom has changed once more,\r\n> marking the end of his progression from bland interest, through urgent\r\n> focus, and resting finally at mild exasperation. The emotional registers\r\n> aren\'t extreme, but the room descriptions convey very clearly the\r\n> changes taking place within the character as a response to the changes\r\n> that occur around him. In games like this, Landscape does even more\r\n> shaping of Character than usual by virtue of its changing prose.\r\n> \r\n> A final aspect of how Landscape reveals Character lies in the concept of\r\n> elision: what rooms does the game *avoid* describing, and how do those\r\n> gaps influence our understanding of the character? Many games take the\r\n> character, via non-interactive cut-scenes, or even simple transitions,\r\n> through landscape that we never get to see from the PC\'s perspective. My\r\n> experiences as an author have taught me about this phenomenon; in my\r\n> first game, _Wearing The Claw_ (1996), I elided an entire sea voyage. In\r\n> practical terms, I made this choice because I didn\'t have the time,\r\n> energy, or skill to implement the journey as an interactive experience,\r\n> but its absence from the game couldn\'t help but affect the PC\'s\r\n> characterization. His reluctance to relate the details had to be\r\n> explained somehow, so I made him someone who is deeply intimidated by\r\n> the ocean, someone who would want to block out the experience of being\r\n> at sea as much as possible:\r\n> \r\n>     Soon you find yourself at sea for the first time in your life, and\r\n>     you learn that the rocking and swaying of a small boat on a choppy\r\n>     sea does little to relax you. Nausea swells and recedes like the the\r\n>     [sic] waves beneath you, and though the journey to the isle of the\r\n>     Goergs takes little more than an hour, it ends none too soon for you.\r\n> \r\n> I\'m not willing to make the claim that elision *always* contributes to\r\n> characterization -- sometimes cuts are in place just to serve a story\'s\r\n> structure, leaving things unimplemented even though the character\r\n> certainly would notice them. However, there are times that what isn\'t\r\n> described is just as important as what is. These sorts of gaps are\r\n> particularly noticeable when they contrast with the player\'s\r\n> expectations, as happens from time to time in Kevin Wilson\'s _Once And\r\n> Future_ (1998). One particularly memorable absence in that game is the\r\n> matter of the cat: late in the game, Frank Leandro (the PC) is required\r\n> to obtain a bit of cat hair for a magical recipe, and conveniently\r\n> enough happens across a stray cat who sheds a bit into his hand and\r\n> rides his shoulder for a while. A while later, that cat jumps into the\r\n> chimney of a boarded-up house (chasing a bird) and disappears. Frank has\r\n> a sword that cuts through anything, but the game forbids him from\r\n> cutting through the boards to find the cat, saying \"You could, but\r\n> there\'s not much point to it.\" So however much the player may want to\r\n> make sure that the kitty is okay, she is constrained by Frank\'s\r\n> disinterest; the inside of the house isn\'t part of the map, because\r\n> Frank doesn\'t see the point of exploring it.\r\n> \r\n> \r\n> A PC-CENTRIC VIEW OF INTERACTIVE FICTION\r\n> [This section contains minor spoilers for The Beetmonger\'s Journal,\r\n> medium-level spoilers for Hamlet, and major spoilers for Photopia.]\r\n> \r\n> It\'s possible that objections may arise to some of the points I make\r\n> above, on the grounds that what I ascribe to character could just as\r\n> easily be seen as a particular author\'s writing style, a game\'s depth of\r\n> implementation, or even the formal constraints of IF itself. It\'s quite\r\n> true that I\'m taking a PC-centric view -- this is how I experience\r\n> interactive fiction, and it\'s easy to feel that it\'s simply how the form\r\n> *works*, but I certainly acknowledge that there are other, equally valid\r\n> approaches. It\'s also true that the PC is not the only possible point of\r\n> view within a work of Interactive Fiction. In _The Beetmonger\'s Journal_\r\n> (2001) by Scott Starkey, for instance, some very nifty POV-jumping\r\n> occurs in sections where the PC is the hero of some stories being read\r\n> by the frame characters -- from time to time those characters are\r\n> interrupted in their reading, and we get a small cut-scene from their\r\n> point of view.\r\n> \r\n> However, what I would argue for is the extreme difficulty of\r\n> disconnecting the point-of-view from the Player Character at the point\r\n> of action. The IF prompt implies a certain kind of remote control: the\r\n> player is to type in an action which will then be executed within the\r\n> game. Invariably, this action is performed by the PC. Indeed, this is\r\n> the very definition of Player Character. Similarly, landscape\r\n> descriptions, especially when that landscape is available for traversal\r\n> and manipulation from the game prompt, almost cannot help but be\r\n> filtered through the PC, because all the knowledge conveyed in them is\r\n> available for use at the point of action. If room description were to\r\n> convey something that the PC couldn\'t possibly know, such as the color\r\n> of an object when the character is blind, the result would be severe\r\n> cognitive dissonance for the player. If we type \"OPEN BLUE DOOR\" and the\r\n> blind PC is able to do so, we must conclude that the PC is not blind\r\n> after all -- that\'s how powerful the connection is between Character and\r\n> Action. Because Landscape, Character, and Action are so intimately\r\n> connected, it\'s quite difficult to avoid making Landscape a function of\r\n> Character, especially as the two get nearer and nearer to Action.\r\n> \r\n> Given this PC-centric take on IF, it\'s worth asking what possibilities\r\n> reveal themselves as open or closed in its light. We\'ve already seen\r\n> some of what\'s opened, from _Heroes\'_ cumulative place-building to\r\n> _Shade\'s_ resonant evocation of the familiar, and no doubt future games\r\n> will continue to explore the power of the Landscape-Character axis.\r\n> Conversely, one element that seems rather alarmingly curtailed is the\r\n> possibility of dramatic irony. For instance, imagine Shakespeare\'s\r\n> _Hamlet_ as an IF game, in which the player controls Hamlet, but is\r\n> allowed (as a reader) to see Polonius stepping behind the arras in the\r\n> queen\'s bedroom. In order to retain the dramatic irony of the scene,\r\n> Hamlet must stab the arras and inadvertently kill Polonius, but why\r\n> would the player order him to do so, knowing what Hamlet doesn\'t? In\r\n> other words, how can the player be allowed to know things that the\r\n> character doesn\'t if that knowledge is expected to facilitate dramatic\r\n> irony? The only answer I can think of is to force the PC\'s actions, to\r\n> make Hamlet stab Polonius no matter what the player orders, but as soon\r\n> as that happens, the interactivity drops out of the IF game, and thus\r\n> Action is removed from the equation. I\'m not prepared to contend that\r\n> this sort of dramatic irony is impossible, but the game that solves this\r\n> problem will be a major breakthrough.\r\n> \r\n> The work that\'s probably come the closest to this grail is Adam Cadre\'s\r\n> justly revered _Photopia_ (1998). Thanks to its fragmentation of the\r\n> narrative line and its array of POV characters, when the climactic scene\r\n> arrives, we know all the awful freight of what\'s about to happen. We\r\n> also can\'t stop it -- in order to achieve its dramatic irony, _Photopia_\r\n> must remove our power to act.  There\'s an argument to be made that this\r\n> sort of moment becomes even more powerful in interactive fiction, the\r\n> useless prompt underscoring the inevitability of the character\'s tragic\r\n> fate. That\'s as may be, but it doesn\'t change the fact that PC and\r\n> Action are still inextricably connected, and the only way the PC can be\r\n> made to do something inevitable is to remove control from the player.\r\n> Photopia cleverly makes the inevitable moment a car accident, thus\r\n> giving the PC only a split-second to react (and thus providing a\r\n> plausible context for lack of choice) and making his default desires\r\n> identical to the player\'s desires (STOP THE CAR!), but in the final\r\n> analysis, the moment is still achieved by removing control from the\r\n> player, and indeed the great majority of the criticism directed towards\r\n> _Photopia_ has been of its non-interactivity.\r\n> \r\n> If Action is to retain its place in the IF triangle, Landscape and\r\n> Character must remain inextricably connected. Their powerful bond to\r\n> each other creates many exciting possibilities for the development of\r\n> both, possibilities that have begun to be exploited in the last several\r\n> years, and which no doubt will continue to yield opportunities for\r\n> development. What\'s also true is that noticing this connection and its\r\n> potential still only scratches the surface of character development and\r\n> landscape exposition in IF. Character can be revealed not just through\r\n> landscape, but through objects, plot, direct narrative, and many other\r\n> devices. In turn, while character is the primary lens for landscape,\r\n> that landscape can alter greatly from the passage of time, from plot\r\n> events, from NPC actions, or hundreds of other vectors, and each change\r\n> to character and landscape deepens both. We\'ve only just started finding\r\n> the techniques, and it\'s a heady feeling. We\'re at the beginning of an\r\n> art form -- there\'s much more undiscovered territory to explore.\r\n<P>\r\nGeneral comment: be consistent about the capitalization of Landscape,\r\nCharacter, and Action.\r\n<P>\r\n> [1] A note about terms here: First, I should note that by \"interactive\r\n> fiction\", I refer to text IF. Some of the points here are certainly\r\n> applicable to graphical or mixed-media IF as well, but some may not be.\r\n> Secondly, the general concepts of Landscape, Character, and Action\r\n> aren\'t meant to be taken too literally. IF could be (and in many cases\r\n> has been) created with a map of entirely abstract locations, or one\r\n> location, or location descriptions that consist entirely of describing\r\n> what\'s absent. Similarly, actions might involve no actual action (WAIT,\r\n> for example, or THINK), and a character can be anything from an intrepid\r\n> adventurer to an ear of corn. However, I would contend that these\r\n> elements are present in some form in all IF -- indeed, the absence of\r\n> these elements (such as the absence of landscape in _Eliza_) removes the\r\n> work from what might reasonably be called interactive fiction.\r\n> \r\n> [2] This trait isn\'t entirely restricted to text games, but while no\r\n> text game offers continuous space, some graphical games, such as _Half-\r\n> Life_ and _Zork: Grand Inquisitor_, do in fact offer a continuous,\r\n> unbroken environment through which the PC travels. In that case, map\r\n> design becomes a much less powerful factor in fixing Character, and in\r\n> fact it might be argued that in those cases, the term \"map design\" has\r\n> more or less lost its meaning, and might be better called \"level design\"\r\n> or something similar.\r\n> \r\n> [3] The subject of how description influences our perception of PC\r\n> gender could occupy another entire essay, and is out of scope for this\r\n> one. Consequently, in the case of games that don\'t explicitly specify the\r\n> gender of the PC, I\'ll rather arbitrarily select one, trying to hit a\r\n> more or less even ratio between the two.\r\n> \r\n> [4] _1981_ is credited to the pseudonymous A.D. Mcmlxxxi, and Cadre has\r\n> never claimed credit for it. In private correspondence, he explained\r\n> that this is because the game was a bit of a rush job, not polished\r\n> enough for something he would put his own name on. He agreed to be\r\n> credited for the game in this essay on the condition that I put in a\r\n> note explaining that he \"wasn\'t actually *trying* or anything with that\r\n> one.\" That _1981_ is the game Cadre produces when he isn\'t even breaking\r\n> a sweat is a testament to his skill as an author.\r\n> \r\n> [5] Or a bisexual of either sex, it probably should be said.\r\n> \r\n> [6] This is one of the very few times that excretion has appeared in an\r\n> IF game without being a function of rather dodgy toilet humor. Instead,\r\n> the game plays it completely straight -- just another element in its\r\n> realistic scenario.',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 04:09:45',2),(20,34,24,'NPC Dialogue in Interactive Fiction / Robb Sherwin (2002)\r\n<P>\r\n\r\n<P>\r\n\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n<P>\r\nMy edits are noted inside square brackets, like this: [EDIT:...]. \r\n<P>\r\nAt the risk of sounding overly critical, I offer my thoughts in the hope that a few of them will be helpful. Please take what you can use. I\'ve long admired your gutsy dialogue, and your raw writing style. I\'m pleased to see your ideas here, and I\'d like to see some more. \r\n<P>\r\nThis is an article that is full of good ideas. Unfortunately, it seems to ramble, and there are a lot of untied ends. I think it would benefit from being divided into some specific sections that cover the following major topics: \r\n<P>\r\n1) The article talks about the three conversation systems: ask/tell, menu-based, and talk-to. This is good. I like the description of which kinds of games benefit from each conversation style. \r\n<P>\r\n2) The article talks about the advantages of first-person dialogue, and how the point-of-view character can talk directly to the player. This is an interesting point. There is really no discussion of the 2nd-person or 3rd-person options (Okay, some about 2nd person, but I\'d like to see it discussed in a little more depth.). Both of these have been used, the 2nd-person being most common writing style in IF, but how does it figure into the dialogue? 3rd-person is what we usually see in static fiction. How can it be used in dialogue in IF, where the tendency is to always include the player in the conversations? The article talks about the disadvantages of the conversation with Saied, but are there advantages to this style? \r\n<P>\r\n3) What the article misses completely is how the words and sentences the characters use help to build character and advance plot. Does an NPC speak in a particular dialect or voice? (think Mark Twain\'s Huckleberry Finn, for example). How can the author make characters that are distint from one another, and how does their dialogue and speaking style contribute to that? How does the dialogue contribute to the game\'s (or story\'s) sense of place or time period? \r\n<P>\r\nI refer to a book called \"Writing and Selling Your Novel\" by Jack M. Bickham from Writer\'s Digest Books, which my wife handed to me as I was discussing this article with her. There is a chapter that discusses dialogue and narrative. From the book, some important points are: \r\n<P>\r\na) Dialogue contains the spoken words, the attributions (the \"he said\"s), the stage actions, and the internal thoughts of the viewpoint characters. It discusses in some detail each of these points. \r\n<P>\r\nb) Discusses putting each character\'s dialogue in a separate paragraph. The response from the next character would be in the next paragraph. There are some good tips on how to structure those paragraphs. \r\n<P>\r\nc) Body language is important. \r\n<P>\r\nThere are many other points, but these are basic. IF has a lot in common with static fiction on this topic. \r\n<P>\r\nThe opening paragraph is huge and should be simplified and broken up. \r\n<P>\r\nThe paragraphs are large and not always focused. They need to be split so each one covers one topic. \r\n<P>\r\nThe article makes extensive use of parentheses, and the sentences would be better if they could be rewritten to minimize the parentheses. \r\n<P>\r\nThe article uses first-person a lot to tell the reader what the author does. I think it would be better if the author told the reader what he should be doing.\r\n<P>\r\nAll comments are intended to be helpful. Please take what you can use from what I\'ve said. I look forward to seeing the final version. \r\n<P>\r\n[EDIT: Numerous double spaces - search and replace with a single space. Too many to note.] \r\n<P>\r\n********************************* \r\n<P>\r\nText adventures, unlike many other kinds of computer games, are [EDIT: Reduce double space to single.] really well positioned [EDIT: well-positioned]when it comes to creating rich and memorable non-player characters. Examples abound from both the old school (\"Floyd,\" from \"Planetfall,\" \"Trent/Tiffany\" from \"Leather Goddesses of Phobos\") and the new (The alien from \"Fail-Safe,\" \"Galatea\" from the release of the same name). However, one tactic that today\'s IF author can employ to both create deep and rich NPCs that both compare favorably to Infocom\'s and the average character in a commercial release is dialogue. The extreme disk size limits that Infocom and others faced twenty years ago no longer really apply to modern authors, and many more characters within professionally developed computer games are more concerned with selling you additional data crystals or getting out of the way of your rocket launcher than they are in holding any kind of meaningful or entertaining conversation with you. [EDIT: New paragraph]Several different types of conversation systems are available for programmers in TADS, Inform and Hugo, allowing today\'s IF author more time to create quality NPC content than iron out technical details. More, the nature of the text adventure\'s gameplay affords both authors and players a chance to engage in some \"what if?\" scenarios within dramatic scenes, thus making IF\'s potential for solid dialogue easily the match for static fiction and film, and really exceed other fellow games [EDIT: What is a fellow game? Change to \"other types of computer games\"]. I have found the medium to be the most rewarding one in which to develop the characters and stories that I have been able to imagine, and the major reason for this is due to the fact that IF has allowed my characters to best[EDIT: Remove \"best\"] simply talk to one another. What follows are some insights that I have gained on interactive NPC dialogue over the course of the last few years. \r\n<P>\r\n[EDIT: This note applies to the entire article, not just the next paragraph. I would suggest trying to tell the reader what HE should do instead of what YOU do. For example: \"Before coming up with new ways for your characters to speak and verbally insult one another, choose a conversation system...\" There are times when you are discussing Yehoweh Porn that you are specifically speaking about how you developed FoD, and that\'s fine. In other places, however, I think the tone of the article would be improved if you try to instruct the reader directly.] \r\n<P>\r\nBefore coming up with new ways to depict my characters verbally insulting one another, I do try to choose a particular conversation system. There are three kinds that have seen most of the usage in modern-day IF where people are going to be speaking to one another at length: \"ASK / TELL,\" menu-based conversations, and \"TALK TO.\" While ultimately it should fall on the game\'s author to pick a style that he feels most comfortable with, it is has been my impression that two of those systems tend to work best with games in development that fall into particular categories, with the third option a good catch-all. These systems are: \r\n<P>\r\no The larger, \"open-ended\" game. (This includes dungeon romps, mystery and detective ventures and those attempting an old Infocom or Magnetic Scrolls feel.) With these games, the player may be finding new information scattered throughout the landscape at various times. The \"ASK / TELL\" system really works well for these kind of games, because as an author you may not know exactly when the player will encounter the suspicious widower or the wandering riverside Boggit-Man. Being able to question various characters about each other, or present information ala the \"TELL\" command lets the player work out those \"a-ha\" moments so often to be found in detective stories themselves. \"ASK / TELL\" probably requires a bit less effort on the part of the programmer when compared to using menus, as the topics a character can talk about can be more-or-less always \"available\" and accessible. The primary pitfall is in regards to player versus player character knowledge. In Level 9\'s 1987 release \"Knight Orc,\" one can ask the Rainbird about any object or character in the game, regardless if [EDIT: \"of whether\" instead of \"if\"]you\'ve actually encountered it in that particular session. While the status of that being a bug or a feature is up in the air due to the supposed omnipotence of the Rainbird, most authors will want to ensure that the scope of player character knowledge is enforced. \r\n<P>\r\no The smaller, more \"scripted\" game, or game with a very strong player character. Here, using menus would provide an advantage. With the player being shuttled between scenes rather quickly, there is less of a likelihood that the player will need to \"pick the brain\" of the different people and creatures that are encountered. With a strong player character, using menus allows an author to present the exact questions or sentences that the PC will state. Menus also provide an easy way for authors to implement something resembling \"free\" attitude or conversational tone modeling. Menus probably ask the most of the author, in terms of proper attention paid if nothing else. The sentences that are eligible to be used need to be properly turned managed[EDIT: turn-managed], and should bugs exist here it could have catastrophic results -- something I saw with my original release of \"Chicks Dig Jerks\" where it was possible to replay the first scene in the game towards the end by talking to a character that was encountered in both scenes[EDIT: This last sentence lost me. Can you rephrase?].(While the opposite effect -- not properly turning on a topic -- can bring your game to a screeching, unfinishable halt, natch.)[EDIT: naturally.]   \r\n<P>\r\no The last common system for dialogue-heavy games -- \"TALK TO\" -- proved to be extremely effective in Ian Finley\'s 2000 release \"Kaged,\" and I am of the opinion that it can work for, really, either type of game previously listed. With this particular method, the player simply types in \">talk to character\" and the appropriate topic is chosen automatically. This does demand that the author keep track when \"fresh\" bits of conversation are able to be used by the NPCs.  \r\n<P>\r\n(Further exploration of these and additional methods can be found in Chapter xx: NPC Conversation Systems.) \r\n<P>\r\n[EDIT: Start a new section here.] \r\n<P>\r\nAfter selecting a conversational style based on the kind of game you are writing, it will eventually come time to place some words in your characters\' mouths. Dialogue is a facet of writing that intimidate [EDIT: intimidates]some authors who are otherwise quite adept at illustrating their games within a text-based medium. It\'s common enough where[EDIT: \"Difficulty with writing dialogue is a common enough problem that the jobs of plotter...\"] thejobs of plotter and scripter are sometimes split in other mediums: for instance the first sixty issues of the old \"Justice League America\" comic book run had Keith Giffen plotting the books, and J. M. DeMatteis just handling the dialogue: \r\n<P>\r\n                     \"Y\'see, Keith Giffen loves to plot.. but tell him to put the words in a character\'s mouth and the man just freezes up. It\'s not that he can\'t do it -- I suspect someday\r\n                    he will -- but at the time, dialogue was the area newest to Keith, and he didn\'t want to risk drowning the project with a false start. Either that or he wanted to \r\n                    spread the blame around a bit more. Just in case (Helfer, 6).\" [EDIT: Fix formatting of the quote.] \r\n<P>\r\nGiffen indeed did get better, to the point where he was receiving compliments and his dialogue was credited by reviewers for \"producing some very amusing exchanges that nicely reflect the personalities of this cast (Cornwall).\" Additionally, even Douglas Adams had expressed some self-doubt as to whether the women he wrote came off as genuine (Gaiman, xx). While general tips in [EDIT: \"for\" instead of \"in\"]making your characters sound real include a lot of listening at[EDIT: \"to\" instead of \"at\"] real conversations and the devouring of books known for their characters\' interactions (I can certainly recommend the novels of George Alec Effinger, Gregory McDonald and Elmore Leonard, and the screenplays of Kevin Smith as good launching points) there is really no substitute to spending time with your characters and getting to know them (and what they are likely to do) as people, as friends. If you\'ve only got a few character traits to start with, I have found that it helps to[EDIT: \"it may help to\" instead of \"I have found that it helps to\"]\"model\" characters after people you know quite well while beginning your game. The character of Yehoweh Porn in \"Fallacy of Dawn\" was graphically depicted by [EDIT: \"modelled after\" instead of \"graphically depicted by\"]my friend Brian Gramling. I knew, before starting the game, that I wanted the character of Porn to be someone who had Brian\'s energy for watching and following professional sports, only mapped instead to video games. (This is indeed evident the first time we meet Porn; he refers to being given \"the Heisman\" by an unnamed girl, referring to the pose that is depicted upon the NCAA Football Heisman Trophy, which has its model extending one arm to keep would-be tacklers away.) As the player character in \"Fallacy of Dawn\" doesn\'t have much to do when first meeting Porn than to [EDIT: \"except\" instead of \"than to\"]talk to him, I then attempted to reveal and embellish certain characteristics about the player character himself through speaking with Porn -- all while trying to keep the rants and diatribes that both Porn and Delarion (the player character) engaged in funny enough to provide incentive to the player to keep typing in \">talk to porn\". But while I would eventually find mannerisms that belong solely to Porn (I certainly know no-one [EDIT: no one]in real life who could make it through \"Aquanaut\'s Holiday,\" rainy day or no) I was able to depict a scene of two old friends to my satisfaction in the game, though I was only just beginning to get to know one character as an author by using memories and a real-life friend as the basis.[EDIT: ...though, as an author, I was only just beginning to get to know one character by using memories...] \r\n<P>\r\nAfter [EDIT: \"When\" instead of \"After\"]the first \"wave\" of conversation choices with Porn were about to be exhausted, I had the player character\'s would-be girlfriend, Clara, arrive in [EDIT: on the scene]the scene. I still wanted to develop the character of Porn some, so I had him engage in his own conversation with an \"arch-nemesis\" of his own, totally separate and without specifically requiring input from the player. Ideally in IF, our characters would always [EDIT: delete \"always\"]start speaking on their own during idle times, but at the time I just had the technical skill to hard-code some running back-and-forth between Porn and his programmer adversary. This allowed the player to make a new friend of Clara while still getting to know more about the one he just made [EDIT: he had just made].  \r\n<P>\r\nWhile getting the player to (hopefully) like the same characters designated as Delarion\'s friends in \"Fallacy of Dawn\" through the act of speaking to them, I also took the opportunity to let the NPCs make the player character look good as well. Delarion sometimes makes comments exclusively to the player while he\'s engaged in conversation with somebody. As FoD is written in the first person, it allowed me the chance to make those bit come off easily and unforced:  \r\n<P>\r\n                    \"He was a teaching assistant for one week in one of my classes,\" says Clara. \"He wasn\'t around for very long, but he left an impression. Then I saw him out here a few weeks ago.\"\r\n                    \"What, did he quit?\" I ask. \r\n                    \"Mmm-hmm. They make us all take a few computer classes in art history because a lot of us end up taking jobs where we are archiving pictures and scans onto DVD. [EDIT: remove the carriage return]\r\n                    Using \'Toast\' or some program like that.\"\r\n                    My instinct is to tell her that I was the guy who broke the copy protection on the original PC release of \"Adaptec Toast\", but I ignore it for two reasons. First, we [EDIT: remove carriage return]\r\n                    probably had a similar conversation thread last week, and I already mentioned it. Secondly, if this conversation is being mimicked in an alternate dimension where[EDIT: remove carriage return] \r\n                    everyone speaks like they do in \"The Sims,\" my factoid would come off under the \'bragging\' icon. And as I hate using that in a virtual Sim\'s life, I hate doing that in mine.\r\n                    \"Anyway,\" Clara continues, \"he found out what TAs make, and put out a tip jar. I think that\'s how he lost his job there.\" \r\n<P>\r\nThough I confess to being a proponent of using the first-person narrative in text adventures on knee-jerk general principle alone, being able to do things like that through dialogue would be a precise [EDIT: \"a good\" instead of \"a precise\"]reason why. While wanting to let the player know that Delarion is actually going out of his way to not make a video game reference in front of this girl that he fancies, his mind is still working as it always is. Delarion is essentially still talking, just to us when he makes a mental note like that. However, use of the first person simply wasn\'t considered during the 80s and even today is sometimes criticized for coming off as awkward. There is still much flexibility and power when merging the first person narrative with good dialogue for those games with strong player characters. Following are two scenes relating to the characters of George Alec Effinger, an author whose novel \"When Gravity Fails\" was the basis for the 1990 Infocom release \"The Circuit\'s Edge.\" First, the [EDIT: \"The first-person character Marid Audran is depicted...\"]character Marid Audran is depicted having his own back within [EDIT: What does \"having his own back\" mean?]\"When Gravity Fails\" during an attempt to get hustled:  \r\n<P>\r\n                    \"I have the whole sum, Abdoulaye,\" I said, \"but you\'re going to write me out a receipt. I don\'t want you claiming that I never paid you.\"\r\n                    He looked angry. \"You dare imagine I\'d do such a thing?\"\r\n                    I glared back at him. \"The receipt. Then you get your money.\"\r\n                    He called me a couple of foul names, then ducked back into the room. He scrawled out the receipt and showed it to me. \"Give me the fifteen hundred kiam,\" he [EDIT: remove carriage return]\r\n                    said, growling.\r\n                    \"Give me the receipt first.\"\r\n                    \"Give me the accursed money, you pimp!\"\r\n                    For a second I thought about hitting him hard with the edge of my hand across the flat of his nose, breaking his face for him. It was a delicious image. \"Christ, Abdoulaye![EDIT: remove carriage return]\r\n                    Get Karim back here. Karim!\" I called. When the gray-bearded old man returned, I said to him, \"I\'m going to give you some money, Karim, and Abdoulaye is going to[EDIT: carriage return]\r\n                    give you that piece of paper in his hand. You give him the money, and give me the paper\" (Effinger 56). \r\n<P>\r\nIndeed, Effinger\'s depiction of Marid\'s terse speech patterns when talking to those he is disgusted with compares nicely when he shifts towards talking right to us -- Marid feels alright[EDIT: all right] with going on at a bit greater length and confiding with us. Compared to a similar scene in \"The Circuit\'s Edge,\" this sense of intimacy is lost. While the shift to second person is no doubt done due to tradition and in an attempt to get players thinking they had a personal stake in the game, it may have been folly considering the game took place over 200 years in the future in an Arabic city with many southern-Louisiana influences. [EDIT: Folly to try to give the player a stake in the game? What does the future Arabic city with many southern-Louisiana influences have to do with that?]Comparing text in \"The Circuit\'s Edge\" we see that we aren\'t given access to what Marid thinks, nor much of a chance to come off as wry or terse ourselves: \r\n<P>\r\n                    Saied snatches it from your hands, muttering his thanks and asking you what took so long. Hastily he unwraps it. What was so important that he sent[EDIT: carriage return (CR)]\r\n                    you chasing around half the Budayeen for it? \"Orgasmic!\" he exclaims, holding the small glass bottle aloft like a trophy. \"The most expensive cologne this [EDIT:CR]\r\n                    side of the Sahara. You know you have to get this stuff specially made? Here, take a whiff.\" He squirts some Orgasmic your way. Instantly you are[EDIT:CR]\r\n                    overwhelmed by a cloying flowery scent. \"Incredible, isn\'t it?\"\r\n<P>\r\nCertainly there is nothing wrong with the writing, and Saied the Half-Hajj comes off as well as he does in the novel the game is based on. But by not allowing us to see Marid verbally play off his friend, to not have him confide in the player / reader makes him a weaker and less realized character in the game than he is shown to be in the accompanying books. Without access to high polygon models, facial expressions, rendered cut-scenes or a third person camera perspective, the interaction between a text adventure author\'s player character and the others whom he encounters is critical in making that PC memorable. Not allowing that PC to speak his mind can be crippling. \r\n<P>\r\nAlthough we only have words at our command to really present our characters, as developers of interactive fiction, we do have two distinct advantages over more traditional gaming fare: \r\n<P>\r\no Our players are already in a mindset to read. Two of Bethesda\'s recent role playing [EDIT: role-playing (also below)]games, the 1996 release \"Daggerfall,\" and 2002 release \"Morrowind,\" include many tester and fan-made books (in-game) detailing the myths and legends that make up the lands and people described in the Elder Scrolls trilogy. However, while the quality of the scripts are fine, as players we are in the mindset that we will soon be stealing or fighting. That we will be running or flying to a new locale and casting magic missile at the darkness. The action vibe that these games are trying to put forth comes to a bit of a screeching halt when you [EDIT: \"the player enters\" instead of \"you enter\"]enter a library full of many several-page novels. The \"Baldur\'s Gate\" series of games suffer from this as well, at least in multiplayer: the conversations that you find yourself in with various other denizens are looked upon as either leading up to another fight or as a way to get your opponent to back down from one. And in a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, there are very few situations in modern role playing games where NPCs can be interacted with without being the player getting the feeling that they are just talking to human-looking stores [EDIT: What is a human-looking store?]or quest activators. A ware such as \"Fail-Safe,\" where the entire gameplay concerns talking to and instructing another creature until the game\'s resolution could not exist in any present commercial form[EDIT: Incomplete sentence]. Our players have already made the decision to accept the continual display of text on the screen long before they have started our game -- it behooves us to use this strength to tell the character-based stories, and write the dialogue-driven games that would otherwise go untold and unwritten. \r\n<P>\r\no Allowing the player to choose the exact response, the best quip or put-down with which to reply to NPCs is alien to not only novels and cinema, but most graphic adventures as well. Games that proceed like the beginning of Omikron: The Nomad Soul (where the player is given the \'choice\' between clicking on a \"Yes\" response and nothing at all) are altogether too common (Eidos, 1999). We can let our players share in the telling of our stories through the choices they make in text adventures as well as through how they choose to respond to our characters. Offering a variety of responses to those antagonists the player will face through the course of an adventure can be a daunting, expansive task, but those games that have employed such means -- among them award winning [EDIT: award-winning]games like Adam Cadre\'s 1999 release \"Varicella\" and Emily Short\'s 2001 release \"Pytho\'s Mask\" -- offer multiple angles and threads of continuity to enjoy depending just on how you decide to interact with the NPCs in the game.                    \r\n<P>\r\n  [EDIT: Article needs some kind of conclusion or summary to bring this all together. The last paragraph is a bulleted part of the last section, even though it reads somewhat like a summary.]\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\nCornwall, Jason. Suicide Squad #6. 22 Feb. 2002. Silver Bullet Comic Books. 27 May 2002  <http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/reviews/101439315283890.htm> \r\n<P>\r\nNeil Gaiman, Don\'t Panic (need exact page for quote) \r\n<P>\r\nHelfer, Andrew, et al. Justice League: A New Beginning. New York: DC Comics, Inc., 1989. \r\n<P>\r\nEffinger, George Alec. When Gravity Fails. New York: Bantam, 1986.\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n \r\n<P>\r\n\r\n<P>\r\n\r\n<P>',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 05:06:14',2),(21,21,26,'Wow!  Having grown up on Infocom adventures and their current freeware\r\ndescendants, I had no idea so many variations of style were possible. The \"pane\"\r\nand \"frame\" concepts really helped me compartmentalize the playing field of an\r\nadventure game and think of it as a collection of parts working together.\r\n<P>\r\n     But I think the system for classifying panes needs a different foundation.\r\nPresumably the purpose of dividing a game\'s frame into panes is to isolate areas\r\nof the frame that fulfill different functions and therefore should be talked\r\nabout separately. It follows that the first categorization of panes should\r\nseparate them by function; whether they contain text or graphics can be addressed\r\nin subcategories of these divisions. Perhaps these broad categories themselves\r\ndon\'t need names, but they can organize the presentation of specific varieties of\r\npanes.\r\n<P>\r\n     The purpose of a text adventure is twofold: to represent events, places, and\r\nobjects (i.e., a story) to a player, and to respond to the player\'s orders for\r\nmanipulating these things. Accordingly, we can divide panes into two main types:\r\nthose that help tell a story to a player (\"story\" panes), and those that help the\r\nplayer give orders affecting the story (\"command\" panes). There are also\r\n\"background\" panes that don\'t do either of the above, but instead convey some\r\ninformation or experience that a player would need only occasionally (e.g.,\r\nstatus lines, decorative borders).\r\n<P>\r\n     But to specifics. First, I found the opening sentences rather abstract. Talk\r\nabout \"text streams\" would be fine in an article on the computer-scientific or\r\nartistic foundations of text adventures, but in an article about text adventure\r\ninterfaces I think you can assume the audience has a good idea what text\r\nadventures themselves are. It\'s good to mention the Infocom interface at the\r\nstart, since that\'s what most people think is the be-all end-all of interfaces;\r\nI\'d suggest using it more directly as a touchstone in the opening, along the\r\nlines of: \"When many text-adventure fans think about what a text adventure should\r\nlook like on the screen, they think of the Infocom interface: a long list of\r\ndescriptions and commands scrolling up the screen, with a command prompt at the\r\nbottom and a single line at the top giving some background information. They\r\ndon\'t realize that nearly every part of this user interface has been varied by\r\nother games. Some games have a palette of buttons for fast navigation, some games\r\nkeep the player\'s inventory visible at all times, some create a more \'literary\'\r\nfeel by keeping the list of previous commands in a small window at the bottom and\r\na continuous stream of story in the main part of the screen. This doesn\'t even\r\naddress the many ways graphics have been employed. Each of these changes in style\r\nchanges the game experience, and now that new programming tools are making it\r\neasier to create these fancy interfaces, designers would be wise to give more\r\ntime to the question of how their game should look. This article contributes to\r\nsuch efforts by classifying text-adventure interfaces systematically.\" An opening\r\nlike this would show designers that they\'ve been taking the Infocom model for\r\ngranted and encourage them to read on to see what they\'ve been missing.\r\n<P>\r\n     Then you can describe frames and panes in general, based on their function\r\nas story, command, or background panes, using the Infocom model as a standard and\r\nopening into a more general definition. (\"In the standard Infocom interface,\r\nplayers type their commands at a command prompt at the bottom of the screen. Any\r\npane that the player uses to control the game is called a *command* pane. Some\r\nsimple variations include...\")\r\n<P>\r\n     After introducing the article and defining terms, you can closely examine\r\nstory, command, and background panes in three separate sections. In the section\r\non story panes, you can describe the \"text,\" \"graphic,\" and \"hybrid\" story panes,\r\ntheir scrollability and changability, etc. The section on command panes can\r\ndescribe command lines and menus. (In one or the other of these sections can be\r\nplaced a treatment of graphic story panes with clickable objects or movable\r\ncharacters (a la King\'s Quest), which are sort of hybrid story/command panes.)\r\nThe section on background panes can describe status lines and borders in their\r\nmany forms. You might want to point out that a pane which is mainly regarded by a\r\nplayer as one of these types can have elements of other types (e.g., the status\r\nline in Pytho\'s Mask that can drop down a list of conversation options which must\r\nbe selected in the command line, a screen border that tastefully presents a\r\nclickable compass rose), but that this classification does highlight the features\r\na designer finds it most important to keep track of. You can then discuss a few\r\nof the interfaces (which you mention already) that cleverly combine these three\r\ntypes of panes and conclude by suggesting some new interfaces that your\r\nclassification system suggests that designers ought to try. \r\n<P>\r\n     The content of the article is well-researched, but it needs to be\r\nsynthesized; right now it reads like a bare chronicle of interfaces. However you\r\ndecide to organize the article, I think it should treat different types of panes\r\nin different sections that start with description and end with discussions of the\r\neffects the different variations have *on the player\'s experience of the work*.\r\nIf the story text of a work is displayed with commands in between or as a\r\ncontinuous stream a la a novel, how does the game feel in each case? How should\r\nthe game text be written in each case? (Presumably a novel-like text stream would\r\nchange one-word replies like \"Taken.\" into \"You take the sword.\" Is the\r\nnovel-like interface better for third-person games?) Do verb menus make an\r\nall-text game more convenient for a player, or do they turn it into a choose your\r\nown adventure book? (I saw an article in which one of the Infocom designers said\r\nthe best part about text adventures with command lines was the illusion that they\r\ncreated of being able to do anything at any time.) What are the different effects\r\nproduced by graphic story panes that have a single image for each location and by\r\nthose that change whenever the player takes certain actions such as examining an\r\nobject or talking to a person? Would a detective game feel impressionistic and\r\nfilm-noir-ish if it was basically text except when you talked to a person, at\r\nwhich point a picture of their face on a blank background would appear? What do\r\nwe make of background panes that change without any overt mention in the story\r\ntext, such as the changing decorative borders in Zork Zero, the clock that\r\nliterally slows down in Jigsaw (in the Archduke assassination scene) after the\r\ngame says \"Time seems to slow down as you perceive it all with helpless\r\naccuracy,\" or the four emotional states in the Metamorphoses status line that\r\nlook rather enigmatic until you accomplish the first task that eliminates one of\r\nthem? \r\n<P>\r\n     The quote boxes and menus also raise questions. How are quote boxes\r\nreceived, as the author\'s footnotes or as associational leaps in the player\'s\r\nmind? Does it make a difference whether they scroll up with the text or disappear\r\nafter one move? Regarding menus, do you think more games should include manuals\r\nin menu format like those in Curses and Christminster? (I actually enjoyed the\r\nmanuals in those games!) How about backstory?\r\n<P>\r\n     There\'s lots of interesting detail here, but including some of this sort of\r\naesthetic material would make the article more generally interesting. (Finally,\r\ntwo nitpicks. In the footnote in which you talk about \"valuators,\" just say that\r\nthey accept numbers, not \"real\" numbers---they certainly don\'t accept numbers\r\nlike pi or e. Also, I don\'t think it\'s a \"dubious\" distinction that Shadowgate\r\nwas released for the Nintendo Entertainment System---at the time it was released,\r\nit marked a totally new direction for console video games that if expanded on\r\ntoday might lead more video gamers to text adventures. In any case, unless the\r\nvalue of graphic and menu interfaces for translating the games into other markets\r\nis mentioned, the remark comes off as a cheap potshot.)\r\n<P>',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 04:50:02',2),(22,11,26,'Comments on L. Ross Raszewski\'s article on User Interfaces\r\n<P>\r\n On the whole, the article seems to have few technical flaws, and the detail with which it maps the terrain of user interfaces is impressive.  Frankly, though, I have my doubts about the content.  I realize that this is a taxonomy, but if the goal is really just to catalogue different UI elements, some kind of tabular format would probably convey the information more succinctly.\r\n What I think would really flesh out the article nicely is an at least partial evaluation of the EFFECTS of these UI concerns on the medium as a whole, and on the experience of playing invidual games.  That is, although you\'ve clearly stated WHAT the UI differences are, I\'d be interested to know WHY an author might choose one UI over another, and HOW different UIs affect the player\'s experience.  Without this crucial element, much of the (abundant) information in the article seems to fizzle, unfocused.\r\n The carefully-constructed nomenclature for UI elements seems for naught, since the article never seems to have a need to refer back to previously described components; why go to the trouble of carefully defining textual and single-character input, for example, if you\'re never going to examine the meaningful differences between the two?  As it is, I\'d say this article really belongs in the History section rather than the Craft section, because it doesn\'t go beyond a bare description of who did what when.  Also, while I\'d be willing to deal with the technical, dense style if there were more substance behind it, it\'s somewhat frustrating to have to tackle this kind of tone just to be told (for instance) what the default interpreter colors usually are.  Some more specific comments:\r\n<P>\r\n \"The lower half of the pane is filed\" -- should be \"filled\".\r\n<P>\r\n There are some slight inconsistencies in tense throughout the article.  This may be too minor a point to bother with, but I\'m just noting the difference between things like:\r\n\"Separating graphics into a distinct window appears earlier in IF history (presumably because of the difficulties involved in formatting text around images), with the addition of inline graphics becoming popular with HTML-TADS\"\r\n and \r\n\"However, the move toward graphical interfaces was slower in some parts than\r\nothers\"\r\n This isn\'t incorrect per se -- in fact, I think it\'s actually perfectly correct -- but it\'s somewhat awkward, and it might be better to adopt a more consistent frame of reference.\r\n<P>\r\n \"Following Infocom convention, many interpreters defaults to\" -- should be \"default\".\r\n<P>\r\n There hasn\'t been an official release of TADS 3 yet, just an in-development version.  Also, I\'m not sure that it\'s accurate to say that \"the release of [...] TADS 3, sparked the IF community to begin small-scale use of graphics\", in that only one game has been released in TADS 3, and the language hasn\'t yet had the kind of wide use that would provide a basis for claims about its effects on the medium.\r\n<P>\r\n \"Andrew Plotkin\'s [...] a turns/score counter, his next game [...]\" -- comma should be a semicolon or period.\r\n<P>\r\n The name of the game is \"Arrival\", not \"The Arrival\".\r\n<P>\r\n The real author of \"Stick it to the man\" is Brendan Barnwell.',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 04:18:05',2),(24,13,28,'[Submitted on paper.]',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-02-05 19:07:46',2),(26,4,35,'',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','0000-00-00 00:00:00',0),(27,2,35,'Introduction:\r\n<P>\r\nI think expanding the introduction of the essay a bit would provide a \r\nclearer lead-in to the actual contents. Specifically, this essay is about \r\nrepetition, why it occurs, and how authors deal with it. What is missing \r\nat the start is a sentence or two about why repetition is bad, thus\r\nproviding a justification for why authors would want to read about how to \r\nhandle it (possibly you could move the bit from below about the joke about\r\nthe curved mirror and so on up to the start). Also, ideally, a bit just \r\nenumerating the parts of the essay that I listed before, since the  \r\nbeginning of the essay isn\'t too clear about what is coming up except for\r\nthe reasons for repetition.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nThe Save/Restore Cycle:\r\n<P>\r\nIt would be useful, I think, to make things a bit more explicit here --\r\ntiming-critical games lead to seeing the text over again because the \r\nplayer screws up and has to restart, and in fact this can happen in any \r\ngame with puzzles, really. The Zork thief is an interesting example here, \r\nsince the combats are partly random in outcome as well as messages, right? \r\nSo would you say it\'s unfair? Also, either here or in room descriptions \r\nyou could probably talk about repeating text based on having to do various \r\nsequences of actions over again: in Mulldoon, for instance, where you have \r\nto set the sundial to something, do stuff, set it to something else, do \r\nmore stuff, etc.  \r\n<P>\r\n\r\nDialogue Repetition:\r\n<P>\r\nIt might be interesting to get a bit deeper into the difference between\r\n\"You sense little profit in repeating that question\" and \"Bob says \"I \r\ndon\'t know any more about that.\"\", since, as you point out, there is a \r\nmuch different feel. The rest of the section is very good and raises a \r\nnumber of valuable points/techniques: rephrasing the question, the value \r\nof doing so, and decay/not being able to access information again. The \r\nlast paragraph suggests you might want to retitle this section: it\'s not \r\njust about dialogue, but about any situation in which there\'s an \r\ninformation source you have to repeatedly query.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nDefault message parsing:\r\n<P>\r\nI\'m willing to accept that it\'s not a problem for non-diagetic messages to\r\nrepeat, but it doesn\'t seem intuitively obvious to me, possibly because\r\nthere\'s no discussion earlier of the problems of repetition. I think I\'d\r\nlike to see another sentence or half-sentence or whatever saying why \r\nit\'s ok for those to be repetitive. The rest of the section is good; the \r\nonly thing I would suggest is to expand on the last paragraph a bit -- the  \r\nissue of reinforcement/guidance from failure messages is a very important \r\none, and like you say, it can be confusing to have a variety of messages \r\nthat might suggest to the player that they are on the right track when \r\nthey aren\'t (but it does usually become clear quickly if these are random \r\nmessages or hard-coded).\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nRoom descriptions:\r\n<P>\r\nThis section all looks pretty good to me, especially the reminder at the\r\nend not to cut out important information. \r\n<P>\r\n\r\nSimulationist text:\r\n<P>\r\nThis is a generally interesting point and could probably be extended a bit\r\nmore; the DM4 talks about not implementing rooms that aren\'t interesting. \r\nThere\'s also, of course, the 65k rooms in Hunter, in Darkness, each\r\nwith a randomly-generated room description (but of course there the \r\ndescriptions don\'t change when you look repeatedly). I seem to recall\r\na certain amount of other stuff there about repetition, if you\'re \r\ninterested in digging further for examples.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nConclusion:\r\n<P>\r\nWell, ok, there isn\'t a conclusion in the essay as written, but I\'d like\r\nto see a couple summarizing sentences to wrap things up and let the reader\r\nknow it\'s over.\r\n<P>\r\nOverall this was a good essay; the quotes from real games were well-picked\r\nand illustrated the points. It could stand to be fleshed out and polished \r\nup at the beginning and end, and there are a few places in the middle \r\nwhere you could take your analysis a bit deeper, but in general it\'s good.',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 05:13:30',2),(28,8,37,'',0,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','0000-00-00 00:00:00',0),(29,17,37,'Notes on GENRE AND PUZZLE FORMULATION\r\n<P>\r\nFirst things first: PLEASE DO NOT CITE PEOPLE AND WORKS IN THAT WAY.  It\'s both inconsistently used here and a visually unpleasant way of doing it.  I\'m not sure how to get around the problem - perhaps put all that information in the actual text rather than parentheses, or else just provide the bibliography.\r\n<P>\r\n\'TableSaw\' is actually Tony Delgado.\r\n<P>\r\nI think that\'s all my notes there.  I found it very hard to read, due to the aforementioned citation method, but if that were dealt with, I think this would be fine as it is.\r\n<P>',1,'2005-01-24 03:31:35','2005-01-24 16:10:22',2),(31,22,19,'I refer to individual paragraphs by paragraph number\r\n(by my count, the article consists of 20 paragraphs)\r\nand in some cases by the first few words of each\r\nparagraph.\r\n<P>\r\nWhat this chapter is trying to do:\r\n<P>\r\nThe writer must reconfigure the first 2 paragraphs of\r\nhis article to articulate more clearly the article\'s\r\npurpose. As I see it, the article is serving a\r\ntwo-fold purpose: one, to offer an argument that\r\ngreater PC motivation/involvement is important for IF\r\nand leads toward more satisfying/complex IFand thusly\r\nthat IF designers should strive for greater PC\r\nmotivation. Secondly, the author wants to support his\r\nargument by offering a discussion of some IF\r\ngames--both old and new--and how they have and have\r\nnot been successful in integrating PC motivation. \r\n<P>\r\nThe framework for the article is all here, but some\r\nclarification on major points is necessary.\r\nFirst, throughout the article the author refers to\r\ndoing a \"creditable\" job of PC characterization (para\r\n13) or a poor job of it, but nowhere does the author\r\nclearly and specifically outline the criteria for\r\nsatisfactory PC characterization? Simply having\r\npuzzles closely linked to plot? Distinguishable goals?\r\nGoals that are character building? Explicit discussion\r\nof what makes a successful implementation of a PC is\r\nvery important. The author does not clearly lay out\r\nthese points, though they can be inferred by some of\r\nthe comments he makes within individual paragraphs.\r\nThe article would be stronger if the author identified\r\nxx number of criteria for successful PC development.\r\nHe could then more easily devote paragraphs to\r\ndiscussion of games that did and did not fulfill those\r\ncriteria.\r\n<P>\r\nLikewise, later on in the article the author should\r\nmake a much clearer argument for what PC\r\ncharacterization can offer. This version of the\r\narticle does make some of these points but they are\r\nscattered throughout the article. To aid the reader in\r\nunderstanding the points being made, the author needs\r\nto lay out clearly what he is arguing PC\r\ncharacterization can contribute to playing experience.\r\n<P>\r\n[A minor point:\r\nIn paragraph 2, the author writes (confusingly) that\r\nthere is a \"growing minority\" of games utilizing PC\r\nmotivation. \"Growing minority\" is an oxymoron; simply\r\nwrite \"growing number of games\". This point is\r\nimportant and rightly stands at the end of paragraph\r\n2, as a transition into the discussion of the history\r\nof PC development. Up to the point of this sentence,\r\nhowever, the writing is too unclear about what the\r\narticle will be about; I suggest restructuring it as\r\nabove.]\r\n<P>\r\nThe article implies that there is consensus among IF\r\ndesigners and theorists that having more PC\r\ncharacterization is a good thing. The author writes\r\nthat the Zork model is \"widely viewed as inadequate\"\r\n(para 1); that having more PC characterization is a\r\n\"refreshing change\" (para 6) and later, when writing\r\nabout the newer IF games, he writes explicitly as if\r\ndesigners are designing with this \"problem\" in mind\r\n(\"Similarly cognizant of the problem of PC\r\nmotivation... [para 10]; \"Other recent games have\r\nlikewise tackled the problem of motivation...\" [para\r\n11]\". I wasn\'t aware that there was any consensus on\r\nthe issue of IF design either now or then. This issue\r\nneeds to be clarified in the article. \r\n<P>\r\nIn thinking back to some of the early (\"classic\") IF\r\nwriting--\"Computer Adventures: The Secret Art\" by\r\nWilliamson; Chris Crawford\'s \"The Art of Computer Game\r\nDesign\" [1982]\"Whizzard\'s Guide to Text Adventure\r\nAuthorship\"; Nelson\'s \"The Craft of the Adventure\"--I\r\ndon\'t recall there being much discussion, and\r\ncertainly no consensus, about the role of the PC. If,\r\nas Williamson writes, \"There are no clear rules for\r\nchoosing the attribute of a player character,\" how can\r\nhe write the article and present a perspective that\r\nthere is some consensus about what PC\'s should and\r\nshould not be? I don\'t think he can or should. Rather,\r\nhe should discuss the fact that, in many cases, there\r\nhas not been a great deal of attention to this issue,\r\neven though it is an important one.\r\n<P>\r\nIf the author does believe that there is some\r\nconsensus on design issues, then he should make\r\nreference to what he is talking about in light of the\r\nliterature on this issue. I understand that these\r\narticles are not meant to be scholarly and I\'m not\r\nsuggesting that simple reference to these other works\r\nis needed. What I am suggesting, however, is that this\r\nversion of the article suggests that there is a\r\nstandard response to this issue when in fact I don\'t\r\nbelieve that is the case. \r\nIssues raised by the \"Zork model\" PC do violate\r\nNelson\'s \"Bill of Player\'s Rights  so to that end you\r\nmight make a case that the Zork model is inadequate\r\nbut I do think this aspect of your article needs some\r\nrethinking in light of the many, many articles and\r\ntheory pieces that have been written about IF already.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nIn terms of today\'s IF, why are you assuming that\r\ndesigners are incorporating more PC motivation into\r\ngames in response to a clearly identified \"problem\"?\r\nWhy wouldn\'t these changes in IF design be the result\r\nof any number of factors--from the influence of MTV to\r\nthe Internet--as much or more as they would be a\r\nresponse to some clearly identified \"problem\" with PC\r\ncharacterization? The author needs to rethink this\r\npoint.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nUse of Examples from IF:\r\n<P>\r\nMost of the time, the author\'s use of examples is\r\nhelpful however the author should revisit some of the\r\nmaterial to make certain that the examples used\r\nactually demonstrate something to the reader. For\r\nexample, in para 3 the author gives an example from\r\nBeyond Zork however this example as written is (a)\r\nconfusing to a reader who has not played BZ and (b)\r\ndoesn\'t offer any insight into the author\'s point. The\r\nparagraph could have been written just as easily\r\nwithout this example. In para 5, the discussion of\r\nPlanetfall is generally useful, though the reader\r\nwould benefit from some more explanation of why the\r\nexample given is a \"striking\" one. The author just\r\nneeds to take it one step further and tell the reader\r\nthat this is a striking example because there was so\r\nmuch promise and no delivery. The discussion of\r\nPlundered Hearts, para 6, is the best in terms of\r\nexplaining the IF, giving the example, and linking\r\nthat example to the points being made in the article.\r\nThe continued discussion in para 7, however, goes a\r\nbit off track. For someone who has not played PH, this\r\nparagraph will not make a great deal of sense.\r\n<P>\r\nSome discussions could use an example or two. In para\r\n9, an example from Jigsaw would help. Para 18 is a bit\r\nof a tease: you refer to a puzzle in Spider and Web as\r\na \"masterstroke\" but then you don\'t tell the reader\r\nwhat the puzzle is! There are already spoilers in this\r\narticle; why omit an example of something you think is\r\nso good?\r\n<P>\r\nPart II:\r\n<P>\r\nBecause the author has not clearly outlined the issues\r\nat stake here, the reader is a bit puzzled when she\r\nreaders, at the beginning of para 13: \"What are the\r\nimplications of all this for the would-be designer?\" \r\nThis is completely vague as a referent? What is the\r\nauthor referring to? Which issues that have been\r\npresented. The article would be much stronger if this\r\nsection was reframed as an outline of \"XX lessons for\r\ndesigners in light of thinking about issues raised by\r\nPC characterization.\" Then the author could make his\r\npoints about design issues much more clearly. If the\r\nauthor has taken my suggestion about laying out\r\nclearly, at the beginning, the criteria for effective\r\nPC treatment, then writing about the\r\nimplications/promise will be a lot easier to do.\r\n<P>\r\nThe author concludes by stating that  Letting the PC s\r\nmotivations, rather than the player s motivation,\r\ndetermine the course of the story is among the\r\nchallenges that IF developers should look to meet. \r\nMore can and should be said here. What would IF look\r\nlike what would be the benefits and expansions to the\r\ngenre-if this was done?\r\n<P>\r\nA final point: I\'d recommend that the author read\r\nDuncan Stevens\' \"The Player Character\'s Role in Game\r\nDesign.\" If, as I suspect, the author of this piece is\r\nDuncan Stevens, then I\'d suggest to him that he take a\r\nbit more of his earlier work on the subject and put it\r\nin here. What this piece lacks is what the earlier\r\npiece had: more context and analysis. If the author is\r\nNOT Duncan Stevens then please do not plagiarize Mr.\r\nStevens\' work, but do review it anyway.\r\n<P>',1,'2005-01-24 05:09:52','2005-01-24 05:10:23',2),(32,11,2,'Overall I have no complaints about the article\'s content or construction.  It\r\nclearly and thoroughly outlines the historical development of the short game form -- a\r\nvery well done piece.\r\n<P>\r\n     On a more specific level, I think the text itself could do with some minor\r\nrevision.  Its simple style makes it pleasantly readable, but in some places (particularly\r\ntowards the beginning) it seems to run out of expressive space and step on its own\r\ntoes.  For instance, two of the four sentences in the first paragraph begin with the\r\nphrase \"Short works\", and the first sentence of the next paragraph begins with \"Short\r\ngames\".  In general, as the article gears up at the beginning, it seems to suffer from a\r\nlack of different ways to say \"short game\".  This is, as I said, a minor point, but I\r\nthink it would be worth reworking those first few paragraphs so that the article starts\r\noff more smoothly.  By way of example, here is a (far from perfect) reworking of the\r\nsecond paragraph:\r\n<P>\r\n     Short games have not always been popular.  During the twenty years between\r\nthe mid-1970s and mid-1990s, they were generally ignored by interactive fiction\r\nauthors, except as demonstrations of or ads for long games.  Since the inception of\r\nthe Annual Interactive Fiction Competition, however, the proportion of short games\r\nhas increased dramatically.  By 1998, the form\'s prevalance prompted several people\r\nin the Usenet group rec.arts.int-fiction to express concern that the annual\r\ncompetition was endangering the continued success of long games.  It is worth\r\ninvestigating how this dramatic shift in typical game size came about.\r\n<P>\r\n     Of course, the exact revision can probably be better accomplished by the\r\nauthor himself (who presumably has a better sense of where to go with it), but the\r\nidea is that I\'ve reduced the number of occurrences of \"short game\" from 5 to 2, and\r\njazzed up the sentence structure enough that the common elements don\'t stand out\r\nin such bold relief.  A few other small suggestions:\r\n<P>\r\n     \"The length of time to complete interactive fiction is very player-specific, and\r\ndepends strongly on how much time a given player spends solving a work\'s puzzles, if\r\nany; the player\'s reading and typing speed; and how motivated a player is to finish a\r\nwork.\" -- I think it would be better to introduce this list explicitly with a colon (e.g.,\r\n\"depends on several things: how much time. . .\").  The semicolon kind of took me by\r\nsurprise and it wasn\'t obvious that the sentence had shifted into a list structure.\r\n<P>\r\n     \"Since all but a few works of interactive fiction do not occur in real time,\r\nplayers are free to pause for any length of time between moves and consider their next\r\ncourse of action, time which is by custom counted as \"play time.\"\" -- Probably better\r\nto restructure the sentence so that\"time\" in the last clause is closer to its referent\r\nand/or the word is not reiterated (e.g., \"players are free to ponder their next move for\r\nany length of time, and this is by custom counted . . .\").\r\n<P>\r\n     \"For instance, Level 9 trumpeted the 7,000 rooms of their adventure\r\n\"Snowball\" [. . .] (While a true boast, some 6,800 of those room [. . .]\" -- The \"while a\r\ntrue boast\" is a misplaced modifier (it is referring to \"those rooms\").  Should be\r\nchanged to \"While this boast was accurate\" or some such thing.\r\n<P>\r\n     \"1998 was a turning point in the evolution of short works. In late 1996 [. . .]\"\r\n-- I\'m not sure exactly what the solution is, but it seems a bit awkward to begin by\r\nsaying how important 1998 was and then immediately shift to 1996 and not mention\r\n1998 again until much later in the paragraph.',1,'2005-01-24 16:20:10','2005-01-24 16:21:01',2),(33,45,23,'Minor spoilers for: Adventure, Zork I, Wishbringer, Christminster\r\nModerate spoiler for: The Beetmonger\'s Journal\r\n<P>\r\n[FONT/] means begin fixed pitch font. This is used for pseudo-code.\r\n[/FONT] returns to normal font.\r\n<P>\r\nGiving Your NPC a Life of His Own\r\nby Brent VanFossen\r\nbrentvanfossen@hotmail.com\r\n<P>\r\nPick up any novel and chances are good that it will center around a\r\ncharacter or group of characters, their activities, and what they\r\ndo. Stories are about people because people are interesting. Our lives\r\nare full of people and so are our stories. Great characters drive a\r\nstory along: Homer\'s Ulysses and Shakespeare\'s Hamlet are\r\nunforgettable. Our literature is full of fascinating supporting\r\ncharacters as well: Defoe\'s _Robinson Crusoe_ had the good man Friday\r\nto keep the shipwrecked sailor company, and Huckleberry Finn was such\r\na powerful character in Mark Twain\'s _Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ that\r\nhe later played the leading role in a book of his own. These\r\ncharacters are memorable because they add something to the stories and\r\nwe relate to them in some way, motivating us to turn the page.\r\n<P>\r\n[[The first paragraph has a tendency towards redundancy; the\r\nthesis presented here is obvious and well-recognized, so there\r\nis no need to belabour it.]]\r\n<P>\r\nThe IF tradition has been somewhat different. The original _Adventure_\r\nby Crowther and Woods was a digital treasure hunt through the largely\r\nuninhabited tunnels of a real-world cave. The dwarves and other\r\ncreatures that populate the game were quite literally an afterthought,\r\nas were the puzzles, which were added later to bring the stark\r\nlandscape to life. Likewise _Zork I_, the Infocom classic, offered the\r\nGreat Underground Empire for the player to explore, but the troll and\r\nthe thief, and later on, the cyclops, are nearly unresponsive to the\r\nplayer\'s attempts to converse with them, and they do little on their\r\nown. In the parlance of writers, they are cardboard cutouts: simple\r\nand single-purpose, unengaging, and shallow. They serve a purpose but\r\ndon\'t offer much in the way of depth.\r\n<P>\r\nCreating believable NPCs is hard. The author of a novel can plan and\r\nwrite a scene that the reader will see once, then turn the page. The\r\ncharacters come alive because the author has carefully crafted what we\r\nsee and hear, showing us the dramatic and essential bits while leaving\r\nout all the extraneous details, until the effect is exactly right and\r\nthe characters live on in our imagination.\r\n<P>\r\n[[Should probably be clearer that the intended meaning here is\r\n\"Creating believable NPCs in IF is hard.\"  Characters in static\r\nfiction are not normally referred to as NPCs, but I\'d still prefer\r\nsome clarification.]]\r\n<P>\r\nIn IF, the player is free to move and explore on his own. The very\r\nnature of IF allows the player to return to locations again and again,\r\nmuch as we do in real life. Unlike in real life where people have\r\nminds of their own, the non-player characters that populate the\r\ninteractive landscape can only react the way the author has programmed\r\nthem to react. Thus, if an author has created a simple NPC who only\r\nreacts to a single \"correct\" solution, that NPC will stand in the same\r\nplace for hundreds of moves while the player attempts to discover the\r\nkey that will advance the game.  The NPC in this case is little more\r\nthan a locked door, infinitely patient and equally lifeless, and\r\nultimately, not very interesting.\r\n<P>\r\nThis is not always a bad thing; we encounter \"single-purpose\" people\r\nevery day in real life. The person we meet on the way to the mailbox\r\nwho nods at us, the girl chasing pigeons in the park, the gasoline\r\nattendant who asks if he should check the oil in the car, the door\r\nopeners and ticket takers and grocery clerks of real life are all\r\npeople with their own lives and their own problems.  Their interests\r\nare not known to us and we really only interact with them on the most\r\nbasic of levels. Their \"How are you today?\" is not really a question,\r\nbut a social courtesy.\r\n<P>\r\nIn the opening scene of _Wishbringer_, the boss, Mr. Crisp, stands\r\nbehind the service counter of the Festeron Post Office reading other\r\npeople\'s postcards. As the player enters, Crisp tosses a mysterious\r\nenvelope onto the counter and snarls, \"We just got this Special\r\nDelivery. I want you to drop it off right away. That means NOW!\r\nDeliver that envelope, chowderbrain! The Magick Shoppe closes at five\r\no\'clock!\" We immediately know that we have a task to complete, and so\r\nthe game has begun. Any question is met with Mr. Crisp screaming,\r\n\"You\'re here to take orders, not to ask questions!\" If we dawdle, he\r\nshoves the envelope into our hands and throws us out, locking the door\r\nbehind us. The red-faced Mr. Crisp will play a more significant role\r\nlater on, but in the opening scene, he is a simple NPC who serves a\r\nsimple purpose: to move us into the game.\r\n<P>\r\nMany NPCs, however, play a more complicated role in the story. Gus,\r\nthe harvest hand in _The Beetmonger\'s Journal_, sits in a rocking\r\nchair on the front porch of the farmhouse, commenting on the weather\r\nand talking to the PC. Later, the player character must return to\r\nvisit Gus again, bringing him a particular object, which Gus then uses\r\nto fashion a toy for the PC. This is when Gus comes to life. He\r\nchanges from the passive, sit-on-the-porch farmhand into a\r\nwood-whittling toymaker. The player watches with amazement as he\r\nfashions a \"whimmy diddle\" from a piece of dry wood. No longer does\r\nGus simply respond to what the player character says or does, rather\r\nhe knows what to do and proceeds to make the toy, even if the PC just\r\nstands and watches. The NPC follows the script the programmer/author\r\nhas written, and we, the players, forget we\'re reading words on a\r\ncomputer screen and become entranced.\r\n<P>\r\nThe prologue of _Christminster_ has a number of NPCs, from the old man\r\nwho guards the gate of the college, a simple NPC who does little more\r\nthan look through the gate and tell the PC that the college is closed\r\non Sundays, to the more complex busking magician who stands behind a\r\ntable on Bridge Street and exhorts passers-by to watch his tricks. The\r\nmagician has a full routine that involves asking the audience for a\r\nsmall article, which he uses as the hidden object in a three-cups\r\nshell game. If no one in the audience offers him an appropriate\r\nobject, he continues the trick by providing a marble of his own. His\r\nmagic routine is scripted, and he follows the script without prompting\r\nfrom the player. He interacts with the police constable who patrols\r\nthe grounds around the college, responds to a few simple questions,\r\nand is a very realistic and effective NPC. Like a real person, he has\r\nactivities he does whether anyone watches or not.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\n[[These three paragraphs are a bit rambling; offering examples of\r\nNPCs at this point in the essay doesn\'t seem to be especially useful.\r\nA clarification of what they are intended to illustrate may be sufficient.]]\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nWhen Should an NPC Have a Script?\r\n<P>\r\nNPCs that occupy a central position in a story, either central to the\r\nplot or centrally located in the landscape of the game, are more\r\nimportant to the player\'s experience and are good candidates for a\r\nscript. The shopkeeper in a small town\'s general store can be a\r\npassive NPC if the player will visit only once to make a quick\r\npurchase. If the shopkeeper, however, is known by the locals as the\r\nmost opinionated on matters of politics, aware of all the goings on\r\naround town, and if people gather in his shop in the afternoons to\r\nmeet for a soda and gossip, then he takes on a special importance to\r\nthe game. When a character begins to take on a life of his own, when\r\nhis importance to the story demands that he be more than a just a\r\nprop, it is the author\'s responsibility to assist that NPC by giving\r\nhim the freedom and independence to pursue his own goals.\r\n<P>\r\n[[Since \'scripting\' has a special meaning as a programming term,\r\na bit more clarification might be useful.  The first sentence\r\nis particularly clumsy.]]\r\n<P>\r\nThis means that as the author, you have to know what those goals\r\nare. Who is this shopkeeper that everyone in town wants to visit in\r\nthe afternoons? What is his name? Is he young or old? Is he married?\r\nMaybe he gets his best information from his wife, the quiet little\r\nwoman who sits in the back room, says nothing but hears\r\neverything. How long has he been married and how did he meet her?\r\nMaybe his brother is a world-famous guitarist who holds free concerts\r\nand workshops in front of the store whenever he passes through\r\ntown. Maybe he himself was a world-famous guitarist until he got tired\r\nof touring, and now he just wants to tend the shop, leaving the life\r\nof glitter behind. Maybe he makes his own ice cream, using fresh cream\r\nand fruit from the local orchards, and it\'s the best to be had for\r\nmiles around. Did he build the shop himself, or did he take it over\r\nfrom his parents when they died? Did they die of old age, or was it a\r\nterrible accident down by the river? How did the accident affect him?\r\nDoes he walk with a limp? Why? What is his education? How is his\r\nspeech: meticulously correct or full of slang? Does he speak with a\r\nforeign accent or a southern drawl? Maybe his father was or still is a\r\nlocal politician, and that\'s why he likes to argue politics. Maybe he\r\nplans to open a second store in the town 15 miles down the road, and\r\nthe county government is opposed because it would threaten the store\r\nalready there that is owned by the chairman of the building\r\ncommittee. Maybe our shopkeeper is afraid of changes in the law that\r\nwill affect his business. Does he have a problem with creditors? Does\r\nhe extend credit to his customers, even the ones who he knows can\'t\r\nafford to pay him back? What does he do in the evenings after the shop\r\nis closed? Does he have a hobby?\r\n<P>\r\n[[This paragraph is overly-exhaustive and belaboured.  We get\r\nthe idea.]]\r\n<P>\r\nKeep a journal of the background story of your NPC and write the\r\nanswers to these questions and more so you can keep the details\r\nconsistent throughout the game. Not everything you write will appear\r\nin the game, but you, the author, need to see your characters as real\r\npeople if you want your players to believe in them. This information\r\nshould never come out as a big narrative infodump. Rather, the\r\nresearch and preparation will reveal itself slowly during the course\r\nof play.\r\n<P>\r\nWrite out a description of a typical \"day in the life\" of your\r\nNPC. Our shopkeeper\'s day might include arriving at work in the\r\nmorning, putting out his wares, cleaning, leaving for lunch, receiving\r\nnew stock, making ice cream, discussing politics with the people in\r\nthe store, managing money at the end of the day, and going home for\r\nthe evening. Whether any or all of this is interesting or important to\r\nthe game will affect how much of it is included.\r\n<P>\r\n[[These two paragraphs would perhaps work better as a bulleted list\r\nof \'ways to develop your NPCs\'; writers can get a bit cranky when\r\nthese sort of instructions are offered as gospel.]]\r\n<P>\r\nOnce you know who your NPC is, you can flesh out the details in your\r\ndescriptions and in the NPC\'s responses to the player\'s questions. You\r\nalso will be ready to begin writing the script that will guide your\r\nNPC through the day.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nScripting a Life\r\n<P>\r\nMost of the IF languages have the ability to handle daemons, routines\r\nthat once turned on, run every turn. Using language-independent\r\npseudo-code, let\'s create a hypothetical NPC. The method described\r\nhere is the method I used to create Bob in my game, _She\'s Got a Thing\r\nfor a Spring_.\r\n<P>\r\n[[Here he\'s switched to the programming sense of the term \'script\'.\r\nIt causes enough confusion that I\'m not entirely happy with it.]]\r\n<P>\r\nBegin by dividing the NPC\'s day into locations and activities. Let\'s\r\ncall our shop owner Merle.  We\'ll use three activities for the sake of\r\nexample:\r\n<P>\r\n   1.  Arriving at the store in the morning and preparing for\r\n          opening (7:30 to 8:00 am).\r\n   2.  Opening and cleaning the shop (8:01 to 9:00 am).  \r\n   3.  Making ice cream on the front porch (9:01 to 10:00 am).\r\n<P>\r\nMerle\'s script has three sections of code, one section for each\r\nactivity. We write each section as a separate subroutine, and we call\r\nthe appropriate subroutine from the daemon routine, depending on the\r\ntime of day. The time of day is controlled by a counter based on the\r\nplayer\'s moves.\r\n<P>\r\nLet\'s say the game begins at 7:00 am and each turn lasts a minute of\r\ngame time. Your model may be much more complex. From 7:00 am until\r\n7:29, the store is closed and Merle is nowhere to be seen. At 7:30\r\nMerle begins his day by stepping out of his front door and walking to\r\nthe store. At 8 o\'clock sharp, as is his custom, he unlocks the door\r\nof the shop to the public. At 9 o\'clock, we move him to the front\r\nporch where we watch him making some of his locally famous ice cream.\r\n<P>\r\nWe start by assuming that Merle\'s daemon is turned on and running when\r\nthe game begins.  We\'ll use the \"!\" as the comment character, and\r\nanything following the exclamation mark is a comment and not part of\r\nthe pseudo-code. The daemon looks like this:\r\n<P>\r\n[FONT/]\r\nNPC Merle\r\n   ...\r\n   counter 0                  ! The is Merle\'s main script\r\n                              ! counter, which starts from zero.\r\n   daemon [\r\n      Merle.counter=Merle.counter+1     ! Increment each turn\r\n<P>\r\n      switch based on Merle.counter {\r\n         1 to 29:    subroutine Merle0()\r\n         30 to 60:   subroutine Merle1()\r\n         61 to 120:  subroutine Merle2()\r\n         121 to 180: subroutine Merle3()\r\n         ...\r\n      }\r\n   ]\r\n   ...\r\n[/FONT]\r\n<P>\r\nWe initially set the counter to zero, then increment it each\r\nturn. Since each turn is assumed to take one minute, the counter value\r\nof 0 corresponds to a time of 7:00 am. A counter value of 61\r\ncorresponds to a time of 8:01 am, and so on. We place our code in\r\nMerle\'s daemon routine, but we keep the details in subroutines so as\r\nnot to clutter up the daemon. The counter could be a global variable,\r\nbut in this example, we have made it a property of the NPC Merle, so\r\nit is listed as [FONT/] Merle.counter [/FONT] .\r\n<P>\r\nLet\'s write the subroutines:\r\n<P>\r\n[FONT/]\r\n[  Merle0               ! 7:00 to 7:29 am\r\n   return               ! Nothing happens before 7:30 am\r\n]\r\n<P>\r\n[  Merle1               ! 7:30 to 8:00 am (Arriving at the Shop)\r\n   subroutine Merle_Actions_1()\r\n   subroutine Merle_Messages_1()\r\n   return\r\n]\r\n<P>\r\n[  Merle2               ! 8:01 to 9:00 am (Cleaning the Shop)\r\n   subroutine Merle_Actions_2()\r\n   subroutine Merle_Messages_2()\r\n   return\r\n]\r\n<P>\r\n[  Merle3               ! 9:01 to 10:00 am (Making Ice Cream)\r\n   subroutine Merle_Actions_3()\r\n   subroutine Merle_Messages_3()\r\n   return\r\n]\r\n[/FONT]\r\n<P>\r\nIn the first thirty minutes of game play, Merle does nothing. The\r\n[FONT/] Merle0 [/FONT] routine is just a placeholder for anything we\r\nwould like to include that the player will see before Merle leaves his\r\nhouse. This might include turning lights on or off in the house,\r\nletting the dog out into the yard, and so on. For this example,\r\nnothing happens, so the subroutine returns control to the daemon.\r\n<P>\r\nNext, in [FONT/] Merle1 [/FONT], we call two more subroutines. Since\r\nMerle has his own life and is doing things whether the player is\r\nwatching or not, we need a way to keep his movements and any objects\r\nthat he changes separate from the routine that prints a message for\r\nthe player to read. If Merle picks the newspaper up from his sidewalk\r\non his way to work, the [FONT/] Merle_Actions_1 [/FONT] routine will\r\nmove the newspaper to Merle\'s inventory, and the [FONT/]\r\nMerle_Messages_1 [/FONT] routine will tell the player what\r\nhappened. If the player is not present, Merle will still collect the\r\nnewspaper, but there will be no message to tell the player.  The only\r\nthing the player will notice is that the next time he sees Merle, the\r\nnewspaper will be in his hands and not on the sidewalk in front of the\r\nhouse. Keeping actions separate from messages will save us a lot of\r\neffort. Let\'s look at Merle\'s Actions and Messages routines:\r\n<P>\r\n[FONT/]\r\n[  Merle_Actions_1\r\n   switch based on Merle.counter {\r\n      30: turn off porch light on Merle\'s house\r\n      31: open Merle\'s front door\r\n      32: move Merle to porch of house\r\n      33: close Merle\'s front door\r\n      34: move newspaper to Merle\'s inventory\r\n      35: move Merle to sidewalk\r\n                                          ! Notice nothing\r\n                                          ! happens here\r\n      40: move Merle to porch of shop\r\n      41: open door of shop\r\n      42: move Merle inside shop\r\n      43: close door of shop\r\n      44: turn on lights in shop\r\n                                          ! or here\r\n      59: put \"open\" sign in window\r\n      60: unlock shop door\r\n   }\r\n   return\r\n]\r\n<P>\r\n[  Merle_Messages_1\r\n   if (player can\'t see Merle) return\r\n   switch based on Merle.counter {\r\n      30: print \"The porch light goes off.\"\r\n      31: print \"Merle opens the front door of his house.\"\r\n      32: print \"Merle steps out onto the porch.\"\r\n      33: print \"Merle closes the front door.\"\r\n      34: print \"Merle sees the morning newspaper and picks\r\n             it up.\"\r\n      35: print \"Merle steps out onto the sidewalk.\"\r\n      36: print \"Merle walks along the street. You notice\r\n             he favors his left leg.\"\r\n      37: print \"Merle stops walking, as if thinking of\r\n             something.\"\r\n      38: print \"Merle looks backward toward his house.\"\r\n      39: print \"Merle glances at his newspaper, then\r\n             continues walking.\"\r\n      40: print \"Merle steps onto the porch of his shop.\"\r\n      41: print \"Merle opens the door of the shop.\"\r\n      42: print \"Merle enters the general store.\"\r\n      43: print \"You hear a click as the door closes and locks.\"\r\n      44: print \"The lights inside the shop come on.\"\r\n      ...\r\n                                     ! Merle does something\r\n                                     ! each turn, unless he\'s\r\n                                     ! out of sight.\r\n      ...\r\n      59: print \"The shutters of the shop open, and Merle hangs\r\n             an \'Open - Please Come In\' sign in the window.\"\r\n      60: print \"Merle opens the shop door wide, beginning\r\n             the business day.\"\r\n   }\r\n   return\r\n]\r\n[/FONT]\r\n<P>\r\nThe Actions and Messages routines for the other time periods are\r\nsimilar. Notice that there is no movement in the [FONT/]\r\nMerle_Actions_1 [/FONT] routine when the counter is between 36 and 39,\r\nor between 45 and 58. That\'s because Merle is neither changing\r\nlocations nor moving any game objects. However, in the [FONT/]\r\nMerle_Messages_1 [/FONT] routine, we tell the player something every\r\nturn. You don\'t have to, of course, but real people are always doing\r\n_something_. It\'s a good practice when you\'re scripting to tell the\r\nplayer something each turn, unless the NPC is out of sight. Also,\r\nnotice the first line of the [FONT/] Merle_Messages_1 [/FONT]\r\nroutine. If the player is not in a position to see what Merle is\r\ndoing, we simply return control to the daemon routine and don\'t print\r\nanything at all.\r\n<P>\r\n[[I\'m a bit hesitant with whole preceeding block.  I suppose there\r\nmight be a part of the audience that would find this sort of\r\npseudo-code useful.  I\'m inclined to think, however, that this sort\r\nof coding is trivial to most people and not really within the scope\r\nof a book on Theory.  A short and general summation of maintaining\r\nstate in an NPC and generating quasi-random statements would probably\r\nbe sufficient.]]\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nNPCs with Something Special to Say\r\n<P>\r\nNPCs can help move the player through the game by providing essential\r\ninformation at the appropriate time. What if Merle has an important\r\nmessage for the PC? If we put that message in his script, the player\r\ncould very easily miss it by being in another location when the\r\nappointed time comes. We could drop hints so the player will ask, but\r\nthat kind of force-feeding is a bit awkward, especially when we have\r\ncrafted an NPC to pursue his own goals. Far better to write a short\r\npiece of code that interrupts the script when the time is right and\r\nwhen the PC is present.  The NPC will then seem naturally spontaneous,\r\nand the plot will flow more freely.\r\n<P>\r\nAs the owner of the local gathering place, Merle has access to all\r\nkinds of information and gossip. Let\'s imagine that at some time in\r\nthe morning, Merle gets a visit from his good friend, the minister of\r\nthe local Methodist church. He has just been asked to publicize the\r\ninformation that the traveling holy revival is in town and will begin\r\nthis Sunday morning; the special guest speaker will be none other than\r\nthe well-known and controversial Reverend Brandon Braden from\r\nMississippi. The revival tent for the expected 400-member congregation\r\nis being pitched this afternoon on the banks of Lake McMurtry, and the\r\nchurch is looking for volunteers to help with the setup. Maybe the PC\r\nshould go and see if there\'s a way to help out.\r\n<P>\r\nWhy is this information important? It tells us that something\r\nsignificant is about to happen, and that there is a way for the PC to\r\nget involved. It sets the stage for a big public event, which opens\r\nall kinds of possibilities for game and story design. It tells the\r\nplayer that Rev. Braden is famous and in some way controversial, and\r\nso it arouses our curiosity to find out why. It reinforces the\r\nimportance of Merle in the eyes of the player, and gives us a number\r\nof topics we can use in our conversations with him. It is consistent\r\nwith the small-town feel of the game, and tells us that the story is\r\nset in the American South. We can probably even conclude that Merle\r\nspeaks with a drawl.\r\n<P>\r\n[[All of the above is relatively useful; I\'m not sure I see the\r\nvalue in the following code, though.]]\r\n<P>\r\nTo accomplish this, we need to write code to determine when is the\r\nright time to give the player this information. Obviously, we need to\r\nwait until the PC is in Merle\'s presence. Waiting until a few turns\r\nafter the PC arrives is probably more realistic than having Merle\r\nspeak immediately, unless, of course, the information is particularly\r\nurgent. That means we\'ll need a small counter.  Then, instead of\r\nrunning Merle\'s normal script, we interrupt it and insert our message\r\ncode. In our example, suppose Merle\'s message can come any time after\r\n9:15 am. Merle will be on the porch making ice cream then, and his\r\ncounter will be greater than 135 (remember, that\'s 7:00 am plus 135\r\nminutes). Merle\'s routine might look this:\r\n<P>\r\n[FONT/]\r\nNPC Merle\r\n   ...\r\n   counter 0                  ! The is Merle\'s main script\r\n                              ! counter, which starts from zero.\r\n<P>\r\n   special_message 0          ! This counter will tell the\r\n                              ! daemon if it\'s time to give\r\n                              ! the player the special message.\r\n                              ! Counting starts from zero.\r\n<P>\r\n   special_message_seen 0     ! Has the player seen the message?\r\n                              ! 0=No. 1=Yes.\r\n   ...\r\n<P>\r\n   daemon [\r\n      if (player can see Merle) and if (Merle.counter>135)\r\n      and if (Merle.special_message_seen=0)\r\n      {  Merle.special_message=Merle.special_message+1\r\n      }                             ! We begin incrementing the\r\n                                    ! special message counter,\r\n                                    ! so Merle will wait a few\r\n                                    ! turns before speaking.\r\n<P>\r\n      else Merle.special_message=0  ! If the player leaves\r\n                                    ! before the counting is\r\n                                    ! completed, we reset the\r\n                                    ! counter to zero. When the\r\n                                    ! player returns, we start\r\n                                    ! counting again.\r\n<P>\r\n      if (Merle.special_message>2)\r\n      {  subroutine Merle_Special_Message()\r\n      }\r\n      else\r\n      {  Merle.counter=Merle.counter+1   ! Increment each turn\r\n         switch based on Merle.counter {\r\n            0 to 29:    subroutine Merle0()\r\n            30 to 60:   subroutine Merle1()\r\n            61 to 120:  subroutine Merle2()\r\n            121 to 180: subroutine Merle3()\r\n            ...\r\n         }\r\n      }\r\n   ]\r\n<P>\r\n[  Merle_Special_Message\r\n   Merle.special_message_seen=1     ! Only see the message once\r\n   print \"You know, I heard something just this morning that\r\n      I think you\'ll find interesting. The holy revival has\r\n      come to town! It\'s setting up down on the shores of\r\n      Lake McMurtry...\"\r\n   return\r\n]\r\n[/FONT]\r\n<P>\r\nNotice that we don\'t increment Merle\'s counter during the time of the\r\nspecial message. This guarantees that afterwards, the script will\r\ncontinue and Merle won\'t miss a beat. Also, we have to set the [FONT/]\r\nspecial_message_seen [/FONT] flag so the message doesn\'t repeat later\r\nin the game.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nNPCs Who Listen\r\n<P>\r\nThe shopkeeper we have created is a great improvement over the passive\r\nNPC who just stands and waits. Interactive fiction is about\r\ninteraction, however, and we can further improve our shopkeeper by\r\nallowing him to be influenced by the player. In IF, the most common\r\nways of interacting with an NPC are fairly simple:\r\n<P>\r\n     Ask NPC about something\r\n     Tell NPC about something\r\n     Show something to NPC\r\n     Give something to NPC\r\n     Talk to NPC\r\n     Do something to an NPC (kiss, attack, throw something at, etc.)\r\n     Do something in the NPC\'s presence\r\n<P>\r\nThere are undoubtably others. All demand that the NPC acknowledge the\r\nplayer\'s presence and that he do something appropriate in response.\r\n<P>\r\nIn real life, some people are constantly on the move. A perfect\r\nexample in my family is how my mother-in-law will begin a sentence in\r\none room of the house, and finish her thought from somewhere else,\r\nsometimes within earshot, and sometimes not. My grandmother, at the\r\nother extreme, would stop everything and listen whenever I would say\r\nanything to her at all. In IF, we need to make allowances for such\r\ntraits and characteristics as we breathe life into our NPC\'s\r\ncode. That means that if our character is a listener, we need to be\r\nable to make him stop and pay attention when the PC is trying to\r\ninteract with him.\r\n<P>\r\nLet\'s say Merle is a listener; this fits the way we have described\r\nhim, and for him to just give a quick response and then walk from a\r\nroom would be out of character. We have to find a way to interrupt the\r\nscript whenever the PC is trying to interact so that Merle can pay\r\nfull attention.\r\n<P>\r\nWe define a new property called \"listening\", which is normally zero,\r\nmeaning that Merle is going about his business and following his\r\nscript. When the player interacts with Merle by _talking to_ Merle or\r\n_showing something_ to him, for example, the routine that handles\r\nthese interactions sets [FONT/] Merle.listening [/FONT] to some\r\nnon-zero value. Then, at the beginning of Merle\'s daemon, the\r\ninterpreter checks the property. If it is zero, we continue with the\r\nscript as we did before. Otherwise, we skip the code that runs the\r\nscript. Merle doesn\'t do anything at all, effectively giving 100\r\npercent of his attention to the player. Improving on this, we can set\r\n[FONT/] Merle.listening [/FONT] to any value we choose, thus\r\ncontrolling how long Merle will wait before continuing with his\r\nscript. Perhaps he should wait two turns. The player gets a chance to\r\nsay something else, and it will seem that not only is Merle listening,\r\nbut that he is waiting for the next question. The main Merle routine\r\nnow looks like this:\r\n<P>\r\n[FONT/]\r\nNPC Merle\r\n   ...\r\n   counter 0                  ! The is Merle\'s main script\r\n                              ! counter, which starts from zero.\r\n<P>\r\n   special_message 0          ! This counter will tell the\r\n                              ! daemon if it\'s time to give\r\n                              ! the player the special message.\r\n                              ! Counting starts from zero.\r\n<P>\r\n   special_message_seen 0     ! Has the player seen the message?\r\n                              ! 0=No. 1=Yes.\r\n<P>\r\n   listening 0                ! Normally, this is zero. \"1\" or\r\n                              ! more means Merle is listening.\r\n<P>\r\n   ...\r\n   interacting [              ! This is the routine that handles\r\n                              ! Merle\'s responses.\r\n<P>\r\n      Merle.listening=2       ! Merle will pay attention\r\n                              ! for two turns. If the player\r\n                              ! continues to talk to Merle,\r\n                              ! Merle.listening will be           \r\n                              ! repeatedly set to 2.\r\n<P>\r\n      \"Ask\" responses         ! Merle\'s code to respond\r\n      \"Tell\" responses        ! to the player\'s interactions.\r\n      \"Give\" responses\r\n      \"Show\" responses\r\n      ...\r\n   ]\r\n   ...\r\n   daemon [\r\n      if (player can see Merle) and if (Merle.counter>135)\r\n      and if (Merle.special_message_seen=0)\r\n      {  Merle.special_message=Merle.special_message+1\r\n      }                             ! We begin incrementing the\r\n                                    ! special message counter,\r\n                                    ! so Merle will wait a few\r\n                                    ! turns before speaking.\r\n<P>\r\n      else Merle.special_message=0  ! If the player leaves\r\n                                    ! before the counting is\r\n                                    ! completed, we reset the\r\n                                    ! counter to zero. When the\r\n                                    ! player returns, we start\r\n                                    ! counting again.\r\n<P>\r\n      if (Merle.listening=0)        ! If Merle is not listening,\r\n      {                             ! continue with the script.\r\n                                    ! Otherwise, skip this code\r\n                                    ! and just listen.\r\n<P>\r\n         if (Merle.special_message>2)\r\n         {  subroutine Merle_Special_Message()\r\n         }\r\n         else\r\n         {  Merle.counter=Merle.counter+1   ! Increment each turn\r\n            switch based on Merle.counter {\r\n               0 to 29:    subroutine Merle0()\r\n               30 to 60:   subroutine Merle1()\r\n               61 to 120:  subroutine Merle2()\r\n               121 to 180: subroutine Merle3()\r\n               ...\r\n            }\r\n         }\r\n      }\r\n      else \r\n      {  if (Merle.listening=1) print \"Merle waits patiently.\"\r\n         Merle.listening=Merle.listening-1\r\n      }\r\n   ]\r\n...\r\n[/FONT]\r\n<P>\r\nIf Merle is listening to the PC, we don\'t want to suddenly change the\r\nsubject, so we\'ll put our subroutine calls inside the braces that are\r\ncontrolled by the \"listening\" check. We\'ve also added a statement that\r\nprints \"Merle waits patiently\" when Merle is waiting for the PC to say\r\nsomething else.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nThe NPC Lives!\r\n<P>\r\nMerle is certainly much more interesting than we might have first\r\nthought. He has a full biography with a family history, desires, and\r\ngoals of his own. In the course of creating Merle, we have come to\r\nknow quite a bit about him: how he walks, talks, acts, and\r\nreacts. Merle has the freedom to move about following the script we\r\nhave written, and when he has something important to say, he will wait\r\nfor an appropriate time, then give us his special message. He will\r\nstop and pay attention when the player wants to interact with him. He\r\nis infinitely patient while the player is talking, but he will go on\r\nabout his business if we just watch him or if we go away.  More than\r\nthat, Merle is someone the townspeople like, and we have come to like\r\nhim as well. In my mind, Merle is a real person. It\'s not hard to\r\nwrite about a real person; we simply have to imagine what that person\r\nwould do and put those words to paper.\r\n<P>\r\nSo, the NPC lives. He has come to life through the clever arrangement\r\nof some simple coding techniques. These techniques can be used with\r\nany interactive fiction language that supports daemons and\r\nsubroutines. The methods here can be improved upon and made much more\r\ncomplex. Treat your NPCs with care, as you would a good friend, and\r\nthey will come to life in your story, motivating your players to \"turn\r\nthe page\". Good luck with your NPCs.\r\n<P>\r\n===\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nSidebar\r\n<P>\r\nQuestions to Ask an NPC\r\n<P>\r\nCreating a believable NPC is more than just coding. Not only should he\r\nact like a real person, but the depth of his character helps us to\r\nunderstand him, and will bring him to life. To assist you in coming up\r\nwith the details you need to flesh out your NPC, here are some\r\nquestions you can use to interview your NPC. With your mind\'s ear,\r\nlisten to what your NPC tells you, and keep a journal of the questions\r\nand answers. Refer to your notes as you progress with the development\r\nof your game or story, and make sure the details stay consistent\r\nthroughout. Orson Scott Card\'s book \"Characters and Viewpoint\" may\r\nalso be helpful. Get inside your NPC\'s head and ask him:\r\n<P>\r\nWho are you?\r\nDescribe yourself.\r\nWhere and when were you born?\r\nWhat are your parents like?\r\nWhat was your childhood like?\r\nDo you know your family tree?\r\nAre you single, married, divorced, or widowed?\r\nDo you have any children?\r\nWhat kind of education do you have?\r\nWhat do you do for a living?\r\nWhy do you have this job?\r\nWhat are you most afraid of?\r\nWhat makes you happy?\r\nWhat makes you angry?\r\nWhat is your personality type?\r\nWhat do you dream about?\r\nWhat do you daydream about?\r\nWhat are your goals?\r\n<P>\r\n\r\n[[ As far as being a \"How To\" article, it mostly succeeds.  If\r\nI were going to construct this sort of essay, I think I\'d start\r\nby discussing generally well-known character-building techniques\r\nfrom static fiction, and then segue into some of the unique\r\ndemands of IF and how to deal with them.  I\'m still not convinced\r\nthe pseudocode is particularly useful or illustrative. ]]',1,'2005-01-24 16:24:44','2005-01-24 16:26:14',2),(34,25,10,'Before you get into this I wanted to point out that, although my comments\r\nbelow are mostly negative, I really enjoyed this particular essay.  The\r\nstuff I liked I didn\'t comment on, so the tone of the rest of this email\r\nis misleading.\r\n<P>\r\nThis is a great article, and very well written.  It was a pleasure to\r\nreview.\r\n<P>\r\n----------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n<P>\r\nHowever, like any variety of genre fiction, Lovecraftian horror is easy\r\nto do, and somewhat more difficult to do well.\r\n<P>\r\nHow about:\r\n<P>\r\n However, like any variety of genre fiction, while Lovecraftian\r\n horror is easy to do, it\'s somewhat more difficult to do well.\r\n<P>\r\nI suggest this change because I had to re-read your sentence to get your\r\npoint.\r\n<P>\r\nOne can too easily get so lost in the trappings at to forget what makes\r\n<P>\r\n\"as\" to forget\r\n<P>\r\nLovecraft\'s stories so distinct and compelling -- to lose sight of the\r\nforest, as it were, amongst all the tentacles.\r\n<P>\r\nHeh.  Sometimes a mixed metaphor is just what you want. :-)\r\n<P>\r\nTo pose just one example: Lovecraft\'s stories are not particularly\r\nscary. It\'s true. It is something of an open secret amongst fans of the\r\n<P>\r\nNot sure what stating \"It\'s true\" buys you here.\r\n<P>\r\nwonderful suspense worthy of any action film . . . but the stories\r\naren\'t frightening, not in a visceral way, not in that way that makes\r\nyou turn suddenly in your chair, shiver, and check down the darkened\r\nstairs before trepidly returning\r\n<P>\r\n\"Trepidly\" doesn\'t show up on m-w.com.  Perhaps timorously would be better\r\nhere?\r\n<P>\r\nto the computer keyboard to enter your next move.\r\n<P>\r\nWhoops.  I had been in \'reading a book\' context, not \'playing a horror\r\ngame at my keyboard\' context.  My suggestion is to switch to \"returning to\r\nthe book to read the next sentence.\"\r\n<P>\r\nAnd no amount of blasphemous horrors from beyond the universe will ever\r\nmake them so.  The monsters of the Lovecraftian world are often, by the\r\nauthor\'s own admission, indescribable. Its horrors are unnamable. How\r\ncan the reader be frightened by something which, he is flatly told, is\r\nbeyond his every experience?\r\n<P>\r\nCounterpoint: sometimes (oftentimes?) that which you don\'t know can be\r\nmore frightening than that which you do.\r\n<P>\r\nFrom this perspective, Lovecraftian horror can be ideally suited to the\r\ngenre of interactive fiction, because the player of the game and the\r\nprotagonist in the game mirror each other in their goals. Both are\r\npresented with a hidden story that is gradually revealed, puzzle by\r\npuzzle, to the enterprising seeker. Both sift through fragments of text\r\nuntil the final narrative is laid bare. Hopefully, only one will have\r\ncause to regret it when the search is finally over.\r\n<P>\r\nI don\'t understand this last sentence.  What do you mean by \"only one\"?\r\nThe player?  Why should the player regret the \"final narrative\" (which is\r\napparently the antecedent of \"it\").\r\n<P>\r\nI *think* what you\'re trying to say is that the player will be so caught\r\nup in the narrative (and the game) that he will be disappointed that it\r\nhas to come to an end.\r\n<P>\r\nThe exploratory phase of your game is important.\r\n<P>\r\nThere was no prior description of phases.  Perhaps an overview of what\r\nphases you think belong in a game with horror would be in order.\r\n<P>\r\nWhatever you do, don\'t dump the entire backstory on the player all at\r\nonce. Make him work for it. Scramble it, scatter it, reveal it in\r\nfragments and in the wrong order.\r\n<P>\r\nI understand your point, but it the last sentence makes it look like\r\nyou\'re saying the *player* ought to \'scramble it, scatter it\'.\r\n<P>\r\n Make him work for that backstory by scrambling it...\r\n<P>\r\nFor example.\r\n<P>\r\nRemember that the Awful Truth cannot truly be described, only implied.\r\n<P>\r\nI think this is an important point.  The Awful Truth, as you put it, works\r\nbetter if the player figures it out for himself, rather than being told\r\nit.  Even to confirm that Awful Truth later on is to belabor the point\r\n(and can be seen as an insult to the player\'s intelligence).\r\n<P>\r\nIn *Anchorhead,* that the earth was nearly devoured by a giant squid-god\r\nis terrible; that, to the squid-god, our earth is merely a single crumb\r\namongst many, a morsel hardly worthy of attention except for the tiny\r\nnoise made by a handful of cultists -- *that* is the Awful Truth.\r\n<P>\r\nEarth should be written with a capital e.\r\n<P>\r\nIn any case, that last message,\r\n<P>\r\n   *** You have won ***\r\n<P>\r\nshould always be read with a hefty grain of salt, if it to be read at all.\r\n<P>\r\nOr it should be \'You have survived\'.\r\n<P>',1,'2005-01-24 16:28:24','2005-01-24 16:28:50',2),(35,11,14,'Comments on J. Robinson Wheeler\'s article on scene description:\r\n<P>\r\n     The article has many interesting things to say, and seems to put forth useful ideas about scene description techniques.  I think, however, that it could benefit from some stylistic reworking to more fully elucidate the ideas that are being discussed.  In many places I felt that I got the gist of what was being said, but that the article did not really pin down the components of good scene description, as it seemed to be trying to do.  In short, I think the article has good ideas but needs to work on conveying and explaining them more explicitly, rather than hoping that the reader understands just from reading the real scene descriptions that are quoted.\r\n<P>\r\n     The article\'s discussion of the opening scene of Zork, with the subsequent comparison of Shrapnel, is a good example of what I mean.  A lot of game text is excerpted, but little is really said about it.  Indeed, what is said is in part: \"There simply isn\'t much there, which becomes clear as we walk all the way around the house, and view equally slim scene descriptions:\"  This is followed by more example text.  This is puzzling to me as a reader: the author seems to be saying \"well, the example I just gave really can\'t be analyzed and there isn\'t much to it, but nevertheless I\'m going to show you some more examples like that, and there\'s nothing to them either\".  Now, it becomes more or less apparent in the next paragraph that the point of the Zork examples was to contrast the examples from Shrapnel, which build upon them.  It would be good, though, to restructure this somehow so that the reader can more quickly understand this.  As it is, there is too much example text and not enough connecting explanation to guide the reader in his comprehension of the point that is being made.  Then, when the example from Shrapnel is given, it too seems overly large compared to the discussion of its meaning.  Essentially the only thing mentioned about the Shrapnel text is that it has more detail than the Zork example.\r\n<P>\r\n     Now, I\'m not exactly sure what should be added here, and as I mentioned about I did more or less understand what was meant to be illustrated by the examples.  I think, though, that the article should explicitly highlight the important features of the examples in some detail, compare those features, and draw a conclusion about them.  As it is, it seems to be simply putting up a lot of example text and jumping straight to \"therefore, you should do this, not this, in your game\".  Or, to be more blunt, too much example text is being used in the service of too little real discussion.  (This problem is also particularly evident at the end, where several pieces of example text are simply inserted into the article with almost no discussion of their salient features.)\r\n<P>\r\n     Also, I don\'t think the \"you should do this in your game\" form of address is the best choice.  It seems to put the article into the tone of a how-to instruction book, but the actual content of the article -- the analyses of examples from actual games -- is on a more general level than that, which makes for an inconsistent feel.  My feeling is that the \"you should do this\" style does not work well when interspersed with detached analyses of example games.  The article seems to alternate between these two styles, and I found that somewhat jarring.  (The variation between referring to these advice-receivers as \"authors\" and \"you\" was also somewhat disruptive to the flow.)  Just to illustrate what I mean, here\'s an example:\r\n<P>\r\n     \"Cadre has embroidered them with just enough extra detail to evoke an actual setting, a sense of time, place, and character that are missing from the original. Choose your details carefully, because they can tell a whole story.\"\r\n<P>\r\n     To me, this is uncomfortable to read.  The transition from analysis of an actual example to generalizing a morsel of advice aimed directly at the reader is much too abrupt, and hence off-puttingly didactic.  I think it would be better to weave the points into the analysis, rather than simply tick off features of the example and finish with a sudden \"here\'s the moral of the story\" conclusion.\r\n<P>\r\n     \"The next sentence starts with [. . .] works in this context. \" -- This seems an unnecessary digression; it points out the grammatical oddity (beginning a sentence with \"and\") only to dismiss it immediately without making any real statement about it.\r\n<P>\r\n     \"[. . .] an equivalently nostalgic setting [. . .]\" -- This just a matter of taste, I suppose, but it seems like \"equally\" would fit better here.',1,'2005-01-24 16:30:08','2005-01-24 16:31:31',2),(38,46,10,'The Parser at the threshold: Lovecraftian horror in Interactive Fiction\r\n<P>\r\nI haven\'t read any Lovecraft stories yet (but will do shortly!) but I was\r\nfamiliar with this style of horror, so read this article with interest.\r\nAlthough it\'s compact it covers a lot of ground and contains much that is\r\nof interest and use to IF authors/readers in general, not just those\r\ncrafting Lovecraftian IF.\r\n<P>\r\nParticularly good were the analogies that were drawn between this form of\r\nhorror and IF, i.e. why IF is particularly well suited to implement it,\r\ne.g. uncovering a hidden story, a single protaganist, comparatively few\r\nNPCs to deal with, etc. This makes the reader reflect on what typically\r\nmakes up an IF game today, not just the specific requirements of this genre.\r\n<P>\r\nHowever, on the subject of NPCs:\r\n<P>\r\n\"Since non-player characters are one of the most difficult elements in an\r\nIF game to craft well, it is convenient that Lovecraftian settings\r\ntypically have so few of them. ...\r\nSomeone always writes it down. The written record is the protagonist\'s primary\r\nlink to what is really going on, and it is the most important segment of the\r\nLovecraftian quest. Diaries, letters, police reports, newspaper clippings,\r\ncarved hieroglyphs (which must be translated, of course), patient files,\r\ngenealogical records, even the ****spoken testimony of a broken old man****\r\nwho knows too much -- all pieces of a puzzle told in words. Here is where\r\nthe actual player and the fictional protagonist are in perfect\r\nsynchronicity: the goal of both is to unlock as much text as possible.\"\r\n<P>\r\nAlthough NPCs may be rare in this genre I\'d still expect the investigator\r\nto have to encounter people, to interview them, or to seek their help.\r\nUnless that just involves going to them and the interaction happens\r\neffortlessly then NPCs must be dealt with and coded somehow. I may be\r\nwrong, but generally in this genre I\'m not so convinced that NPCs are as\r\neasily avoided as this article suggests. That was the one weak point as I\r\nread through this, but otherwise it\'s very good, very tightly written,\r\nwell-structured, and of a wider interest than just Lovecraftian Horror\r\n(although that would be enough for me on its own!).',1,'2005-01-24 17:16:45','2005-01-24 17:17:53',2),(39,46,14,'This is a very clear and easy to read article, and covers a surprisingly\r\nlarge amount of material. Perhaps one area in which it is less strong is\r\nthat it doesn\'t have many examples of poor scene descriptions. There is one\r\ndescribed as \'weaker\' but it may help authors to have more examples of\r\nthings they should avoid. But for examples of good things to do the article\r\nis very informative and uses many good examples from IF games (both old and\r\nnew) to make its point.\r\n<P>\r\nWhile starting to read the \"secondary sense descriptions\" section I was\r\nreminded of the puzzle (or series of puzzles) in Hitch-Hikers Guide to the\r\nGalaxy, where the player wakes up in the dark (on the Heart of Gold) and\r\neach time has to use a new sense to make sense of the surroundings. It\r\nmight be worth mentioning that here. In that case the 5 senses formed the\r\nbasis for almost a meta-puzzle, and even on a smaller scale thinking in\r\nterms of the other 5 senses (not just for scene descriptions) could give an\r\nauthor ideas for other puzzles thay could be deployed, and to build up a\r\nbetter picture of the scene the player would see. How much of that gets\r\ninto the scene description is another matter though.\r\n<P>\r\nThe sections dealing with changing scene descriptions were particularly\r\nstrong, both changes with time and plot, but also change of character (e.g.\r\nfrom \"Being Andrew Plotkin\"). When I started to read the article this type\r\nof thing was in my mind as something that must be covered. I was glad when\r\nI found that it was.\r\n<P>\r\nThe sidebar about scene descriptions and a short paragraph/sentence after\r\nthe main point was really good for me: I hadn\'t thought about that before!\r\nPlease make sure that that section of the article stays in, either as a\r\nsidebar or brought into the main part of the text. It was very useful and\r\nenlightening.',1,'2005-01-24 17:17:06','2005-01-24 17:21:03',2),(60,62,13,'The article \"Descriptions Constructed\" was, on the whole, very well-written.\r\nI only found a few minor points that were confusing to me on first read. In\r\nthe fifth paragraph, the word \"assembling\" appears in the fifth sentence.\r\n\"I\'m taking a nuts-and-bolts approach to the task: if I have three goals for\r\na description, how do I go about assembling sentences to achieve those\r\ngoals?\" This word choice was slightly jarring and alienating to me in the\r\ncontext of writing, although I understood it was continuing the metaphor of\r\n\"nuts-and-bolts\". I felt that it took the metaphor a little too far, to the\r\npoint where it came across as slightly clunky and jarring, at least to me.\r\n<P>\r\nI found one word misspelling in the eighth paragraph, in the second\r\nsentence. The word \"contrast\" was spelled \"contract\".\r\n<P>\r\nIn the thirty-sixth paragraph, the first paragraph under the sub-heading\r\n\"Northern Cold Basin\", there was a phrase which tripped me up. I had to\r\nre-read it several times before understanding the meaning. The sentence was:\r\n\"All three walls of the basin have niches; from them, water jets from a\r\npipe.\"  The phrase \"from them, water jets from a pipe\" was not clear to me\r\non the first few readings. Possibly, it could be rewritten \"from the niches\r\nextends a pipe, and from the pipe, water jets\". I think it would be even\r\nmore clear and graceful if it were written something like: \"A pipe extends\r\nfrom the niches, water jetting from it.\" This would take care of the\r\nsentence style, but leaves the meaning yet vague to me. I have a hard time\r\nvisualizing one pipe extending from multiple niches. Does it lie\r\nhorizontally, attached to the wall within several niches? Or does it jut\r\nfrom just one niche?\r\n<P>\r\n The only other critique I have is that I felt that the beginning of the\r\narticle set me up to expect much more radical things to be done with\r\ndescriptions, than what was actually done in the examples of descriptions\r\nthat were provided in the article. I don\'t feel, after reading the paper,\r\nthat the strong wording in the beginning (i.e., \"The word \'description\' is a\r\nlie\"...) was entirely justified. I think it may have some rhetorical value\r\nin piquing interest, but the risk is that the reader will feel a little let\r\ndown. I thought it would have been more accurate to say something like, the\r\npurpose of  desciptions can be regarded too single-mindedly, causing an IF\r\nwriter to miss out on the possibilities of wielding its multi-valent\r\neffects. The examples in the article were descriptions, but they weren\'t\r\n*just* descriptions. They were simultaneously accomplishing several goals\r\nwithin the work of IF. It\'s not that it\'s a lie to call the descriptions in\r\nthe article \"descriptions\"; it\'s that it\'s too reductive. It\'s not that they\r\nare not descriptions; it\'s that they\'re more than descriptions.\r\n<P>\r\nThe other possibility would be to provide more radical examples of\r\ndescriptions, rather than rendering the wording in the introduction less\r\ndramatic.\r\n<P>',1,'2005-02-13 18:59:54','2005-02-28 17:07:47',2),(41,46,11,'This is a very good article: clearly focussed and executed. I had a slight\r\nconcern at the start that it was another \"how I did my game\" one - so\r\nreadily available elsewhere. However this one is well worth reading because\r\nof the ambition/scale and success of the chosen setting.\r\n<P>\r\nA couple of minor things struck me as reading and may be worth reworking:\r\n<P>\r\n1/ the first paragraph ends with a very detailed set of steps for getting\r\nup, each carefully coded for by the author. Not every IF game (rightly or\r\nwrongly) implements its setting so thoroughly and it might be worth\r\nrewording this to take out or lessen that basic assumption.\r\n<P>\r\n2/ Re the comment in para 3 about few IF works based on real-life settings\r\nthis is true, but it might be worth noting that even those that do use\r\nreal-world settings often tend to use them in a looser more abstract way.\r\nExamples that I thought of as I read this include All Roads\' Venice (only\r\nthe Piazza and Doge\'s Palace are implemented in any kind of faithful\r\ndetail) and Sherlock\'s London (all those quick journeys around the city -\r\nmentioned later in your article)',1,'2005-01-25 01:18:41','2005-02-06 13:10:27',2),(42,49,17,'I\'m very glad to have had the opportunity to read this draft of your chapter. Certainly the argument is decisive and insightful. I\'ll save the bulk of my praises for the warm review, soon forthcoming I hope. For now, I\'ll politely aim low my critical machine-gun, with all necessary apologies -- I figure straight frank criticism will be of the most help.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\n==Theory==\r\n<P>\r\nA theoretical introduction to simulationism might want to emphasize what\'s interesting about it, and get a bit more in detail about the intriguing problems. E.g.: light- (or more generally, sense)-transmission; liquids; states and state-actuation (broken, colored, burned); NPC AI behavior.\r\n<P>\r\nMore generally, I think the more interesting material can be explained in such a way that you excite the attention of both novice and expert -- early and often, throughout this text. In this essay, in this context, I do not think you are quite so compelled to gradually build from the basics without introducing complexities early, as you are when writing a manual for example.\r\n<P>\r\nA point on theory or terminology: it might be useful to introduce the concept of \"default behavior\", and perhaps explain simulationism as working on the level of \"default behavior\", as opposed to \"declarative\" (or what one might call \"case-specific\") behavior.\r\n<P>\r\nIt is not until the fifth section, \"Design vs. Implementation,\" that the reader understands why case-specific behavior is here called \"declarative\" (because simulationism is algorithmic). Perhaps a sentence on this distinction is worthwhile in the introduction, if only to settle the terminology.\r\n<P>\r\nA quibble: Certainly, simulationist or general-case behavior governs groups of objects, while case-specific or \"declarative\" behavior governs only the individual object for which the rule or behavior is declared. This implies that simulationist rules are more economical (just as first-order logic is more economical than predicative logic), but this does not really imply that the rules in a simulation are small in number; my experience writing simulations is quite the contrary. One upshot: I\'m not entirely comfortable with the claim (two sections below) that Chess is not purely simulationist.\r\n<P>\r\nA Typical Simulation\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph1 typo: \"the the\"\r\n<P>\r\nAny explanation of basic containment simulation is going to be a bit dry, and should be explained as economically as possible. (I\'d cut or distill most of the second paragraph.) Although this section is interested in \"a typical simulation,\" and certainly the containment/object-manipulation is *the* example, this is also an opportunity to address complex room spaces, such as we have in _Shade_ or ConSpace (a Tads-3 extension) -- a closing paragraph on this would add a lot of interest to the section.\r\n<P>\r\nWhile we\'re talking about containment, MultiLoc objects and inter-room sense passing is also quite interesting. (You understand this from Tads-3 I\'m sure).\r\n<P>\r\nSimulations in Gaming\r\n<P>\r\nAny enumeration of the rules of Tetris is going to be a bit tedious.\r\n<P>\r\nThe most interesting concept introduced in this section is \"emergent behavior.\" (Indeed, it\'s worth suggesting that this is why the titular concept is called \"simulation\" in the first place.) If Tetris doesn\'t have any noteworthy emergent behavior, the example might be dropped entirely. Magic the Gathering might also be dropped, unless there\'s something specifically interesting to say about it. The two interesting examples of Doom and Chess are entirely sufficient; more is perhaps less.\r\n<P>\r\nOn the other hand, more could be said about \"fully declarative\" games (e.g., Choose Your Own Adventure, HTML/Hypertexts), if only to provide a backfoil for our better understanding of \"simulationism\".\r\n<P>\r\nA quibble: by your analysis, crosswords are not so much an \"extreme\" case (of which? declarative or simulation?) as they are a \"debatable\" case. (I like the debate here, especially its deconstuctionist potential, but is it useful to the argument?)\r\n<P>\r\nComputers Meet the Real World\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph1: The first sentence is difficult to understand. The large parenthetical remark, if necessary, needs more elaboration; but it seems unnecessary to the larger argument. The final sentence is quite puzzling.\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph2: I\'d begin with the analysis of modeling American Football in AI: beginning with examples is good, and it seems good here. Perhaps close with some modification of the currently-first sentence. Still, it\'s unclear how this leads into the next point.\r\n<P>\r\nBefore the main argument of paragraph3, it would be useful to clarify something like the following: \"Simulationism could be understood to imply \'simulation of the real world\' -- and indeed we have seen that simulation is a major basis of our game-world. But as we have also seen, simulationism is primarily a technique for centralizing the rules governing the behavior of similar objects. The \'real\'-ness of any given simulationism, and specifically its desirability and usefulness in a game, can easily be overestimated.\"\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph4 is very strong. The logic, argument, and energy of this entire section should be singularly geared towards these points. In fact, perhaps a slightly modified version of this paragraph could go first in the section, with the rest of the section developing these excellent points.\r\n<P>\r\nIn the first paragraph of the next section, you re-introduce the notion of simulationism producing a sense of \"the game feels real.\" This needs to be squared with the current section\'s caveats on realism.\r\n<P>\r\nDesign vs. Implementation\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph1: \"predictable consequences\" has not yet been thematized, so some definition or explanation of this concept is warranted.\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph3: I wouldn\'t mention the competition in your commentary for \"Fit For a Queen,\" unless there\'s something about the competition that\'s relevant to the argument. If there is, it\'s lost on the reader unless you explain the relevance. Also, it\'s unclear how the weights puzzle is directed at a \"non-simulationist design.\" The main problem: the logic of the paragraph does not emerge naturally upon the first reading. You appear to be making an very neat, excellent and sophisticated analysis: explaining one game as simulationist-designed, but declarative-implemented, and another game as simulationist-implemented, but declarative-designed. Particularly because this is a sophisticated argument, this logic of the paragraph might be signaled in the introduction of this paragraph\'s analysis.\r\n<P>\r\n==CRAFT==\r\n<P>\r\nThis is the first major division (indicated by \"==\" on each side of the heading) since the very opening section, Theory. (There\'s very shortly the final large division (\"Fifty Simulations\").) This relatively small \"Craft\" division is tightly squeezed between them. Perhaps you might reorganize this division scheme into theory and examples (more on this below). But if we need a small division on craft, some transition is probably useful here, to introduce the new section: \"In the preceeding discussion we have focused on concepts of simulationism [summarize, etc.]. Now we turn more towards the art or craft of simulationism, focusing on the handling of text, the beginning and end of all IF.\"\r\n<P>\r\nText Synthesis\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph3: I would omit the specific v-space correction of \"You see nothing under you,\" and instead address the more general problem of appropriate pronoun substution.\r\n<P>\r\nParsing\r\n<P>\r\nThis section is short; you might consider joining this section to the previous: Text Synthesis and Parsing. Or, if this is really tangential to your larger discussion, you might eliminate the section. Or, you might take a more basic approach to these issues, and explain the problems more elaborately.\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph1 typo: there is a bad \')\' in the middle of the first parenthesis.\r\n<P>\r\nRealism and Abstraction\r\n<P>\r\nThis text might be best located in the \"Computers Meet the Real World\" section.\r\n<P>\r\n==Fifty Simulations==\r\n<P>\r\nI don\'t think this closing division best serves the essay. This division does good work in categorizing simulationist projects, and it\'s great to enumerate them, although this is not necessarily a good idea in this essay. I strongly recommend you incorporate the more interesting commentary into the preceeding sections, and if you want to discuss the remainder, rename the section something like \"Further Simulations of Interest\" or something like.\r\n<P>\r\nIt would not necessarily be difficult to incorporate most of this material into the essay proper. For example, the \"baseline simulations\" are explained in the second section; there\'s no need to reiterate. \"Physical Properties\" could be worked into more prosaic section, probably placed third. I\'d discuss in preceeding sections the more general problem of simulating a physics. You could make a really cool example of emerging a Gallelian thermometer from a sufficiently sophisticated liquid/density/temperature simulation. Of course the commentary in this division is very intelligent and useful, but I recommend you move what you can up to the essay proper, and leave the rest as said.\r\n<P>\r\nI really don\'t think this kind of commented list should be appended to the end of this essay. This division reads like \"notes on things I should incorporate into the essay.\"',1,'2005-01-25 01:49:08','2005-01-27 03:07:03',2),(43,46,20,'This is an extremely well-written article with a clear structure and\r\nexcellent use of numerous examples, together with a thorough discussion of\r\ntheir relevance. My one major niggle was at the very start: the stated\r\ntriangular relationship between Landscape, Character and Action. I\'d have\r\npersonally viewed the relevant triangle more as Landscape, Character and\r\nPlot, with Action being the interaction between each of these pairs, and\r\nspecifically:\r\n<P>\r\n character & plot - what the player wants to do\r\n character & landscape - what the player does\r\n plot & landscape - what the player can do\r\n<P>\r\nRaising plot to be more fundamental also addresses a related problem for me\r\nat the start of para 2 : \"In this formulation, the only one of the\r\ntriumvirate completely under the game\'s control is Landscape. Action is\r\nentirely in the hands of the player, and Character lies halfway between the\r\ntwo.\" But here I\'d argue that Plot is the other big thing under the\r\nauthor\'s control, and Landscape can only absorb Plot if it means\r\nnon-physical landscape too ...\r\n<P>\r\nSo I had a big problem with the initial premise! However I agreed with the\r\nimportance of landscape and character, and their relationship, so could\r\nhappily read the rest of the article.\r\n<P>\r\nThe only other criticism I\'d make is that the \"Nothing More, Nothing Less\"\r\nbathroom example is probably too long and certainly seemed that way as I\r\nread it. Despite not having played the game I anticipated what was coming\r\nin the example later on, so got a bit bored: a good sign that the example\r\nneeds shortening. Perhaps drop one of the later game quotes, or shorten the\r\nparagraph before the last quote. It\'s a very relevant example but doesn\'t\r\nbenefit from being worked through in quite such length.',1,'2005-01-25 17:27:23','2005-02-06 13:09:39',2),(44,46,16,'This is an interesting article but could benefit from some restructuring in\r\nthe middle section, the shift between general discussion of\r\nfantasy/surrealist works and how to implement them. The problem is that the\r\nimplementation section starts of too generally, with an author\'s\r\nreflections on implementing in general. There are many other places where\r\npeople can read about IF authors reflecting on implementation issues. This\r\narticle must be different. The fantasy/surrealist slant gives it that. Keep\r\nit strictly to that genre and resist any temptations to discuss\r\nimplementation in more general terms. Also use relevant examples liberally,\r\nas with the Djinni case study here but more are needed, preferably from\r\nother IF or fiction in general. For example relevant to the comment about\r\nchanging player perspectives how might an IF author implementing \"The\r\nPrisoner\" cope with both the ever-changing number 2 and number 6\'s evolving\r\nviews of who is in command of the Village and what they want? In an IF\r\nversion of Alice in Wonderland how would the IF author cope with the\r\nfrequent intricate word-play?\r\n<P>\r\nA few other points jarred as I read and may be worth reworking:\r\n<P>\r\n1/ in the opening half there are probably too many quotes from others, or\r\nat least it appears that way by the time Paul O\'Brian\'s quote appears. I\r\nknow that he is commenting on the author\'s game but a quote of this length\r\nin an article of this length is shockingly long. It also represents a very\r\nabrupt/unexpected shift towards discussing character issues. Ideally write\r\nsomething heralding that shift towards character and shorten that quote\r\ndrastically.\r\n<P>\r\n2/ \"The player, upon his realization that he\'s in a lazy medieval setting,\r\nwill attribute laziness to the author.\" - Well no I wouldn\'t, especially if\r\nthe game was a clear pastiche. Recommend changing \"will attribute\" to \"may\r\nattribute\".\r\n<P>\r\n3/ \"A tree can be only as tall as its roots allow. The deeper you dig your\r\nworld, the fuller your work will be.\" - Is this eastern mysticism, or Yoda,\r\nor what? This seemed so out of place, a very strange form of writing to\r\nencounter as a reader compared to the clear/direct writing of before and\r\nafter.\r\n<P>\r\n4/ \"The rules of the world never change ...\" - Are there no games where\r\nthat happens, or effectively happens? It might be worth rewording that a\r\nlittle bit.\r\n<P>\r\n5/ \"Both IF and StF authors work from a set of \"world rules\".\" - is this\r\nreally true, particularly for all \"StF\"? Don\'t some write more organically\r\nand see what evolves, including the world around the story? Perhaps add \",\r\nimplicit or explicit\", to allow for people with implicit rules in their\r\nhead as they write.',1,'2005-01-25 17:34:10','2005-02-06 00:13:23',2),(46,31,18,'[Interesting ideas. My main objection is that you use the term \"simulation\" and seem to regard it as a type of puzzle, but what you\'re talking about is more along the lines of \"internal consistency\": having the player infer rules by which the game\'s world operates and encouraging her to apply those rules in creative ways. Savoir Faire is a good example of this, but I wouldn\'t call the main puzzle-solving approach \"simulationist.\" There\'s certainly something important here, but I don\'t think it\'s a puzzle category as such. I\'m also not sure your \"intuition\" category manages to convey what it describes.]\r\n<P>\r\nThe Narrative and Crossword Get Friendly\r\n -- on The Use and Deployment of Puzzles\r\n<P>\r\nContents\r\nIntroduction\r\n A Thought\r\n The Role of Puzzles\r\nThinking Like A Player\r\n Hunter-Gathering\r\n Research\r\n Simulation\r\n Intuition\r\nThinking Like an Author\r\n Plot\r\n Geography\r\n Hooks\r\n Sheer Amusement\r\n Rewards\r\nConclusion\r\n Finally\r\n<P>\r\n-----------------------------------------\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nI - Introduction\r\n=================\r\n<P>\r\nSince I started writing Interactive Fiction four years ago I\'ve spent a fair\r\namount of time not just creating but trying to introduce and explain it to other\r\npeople. The synopsis given always begins the same way: \"You remember those\r\ngamebooks where you choose which paragraph to read?\"\r\n To most IF devotees (including myself) such a description is toe-curling, and\r\nmassively inaccurate. \"IF,\" we exclaim, \"is nothing like a gamebook. They were\r\ntoys - and this,\" (here our eyes flash with artistic madness), \"THIS is real.\" [I\'m confused. I thought you were explaining to others. If you don\'t like this gambit, why use it? In other words, set up this anecdote better.]\r\nThat said, a mathematician (such as myself) might say IF is just a gamebook with\r\na wider parameter space - instead of five options per paragraph there might be\r\nthree hundred. Oh, and with the options not on display. So where does the border\r\nline between the toy and the experience occur [lie]?\r\n<P>\r\nA Thought\r\n----------\r\n<P>\r\n I would [delete \"would\"; you do argue] argue that IF is made what it is by the prompt - the blank chevron\r\nthat waits, blinking and mocking, for the player to have an idea. You can\r\ninteract with it without thinking, of course: you can type \"LOOK\" or \"INVENTORY\",\r\nand indeed do so repeatedly. But to make any progress in the game-world, and in\r\nits story, the player is required at some point to think of something to do;\r\nsomething which is then further constrained by the set-up of the game-world and\r\nthe vocabulary of the parser. It is in this process - in which a player is forced\r\nto think in the context of the world and translate his ideas into a form that can\r\nbe understood - that the sense of immersion, \"mimesis\", the plain old suspension\r\nof disbelief that IF junkies live for, is generated. [Yes and no. The process of \"translating\" into something that the parser can understand is not what creates mimesis--optimally, it should be effortless, invisible--and any limitations in the parser tend to be responsible for breaking mimesis.  I\'d drop the line about \"translating.\"] The [most?] important element of\r\nInteractive Fiction is not the ability to decide, it\'s the requirement to\r\nconsider that decision first. She must therefore read the text, closely; picture\r\nthe world it describes, perhaps imagine the character she is playing and so move\r\nherself into the story, losing a little of the chair beneath her  and the screen\r\nin front. What this idea boils down to is simple - if a game\'s parser could\r\nexecute \"WIN GAME\" then something of the magic would be lost.\r\n<P>\r\nThe Role of Puzzles\r\n--------------------\r\n<P>\r\n So how do we, the writers and designers of an IF game, encourage the players\r\nto make this effort? (And it is an effort - so many people introduced to IF get\r\nbored after the first few moves; indeed, so many regular players still do. IF is\r\nperhaps one of the hardest mediums [media] with which to get involved emotionally, simply\r\nbecause it requires more than just an exercise of the eyes or ears).  The\r\nanswer is two-fold: carrot and stick. Graham Nelson wrote in his seminal essay\r\n\"The Craft of Adventure\" (1995): \"The author of a text adventure has to be\r\nschizophrenic in a way that the author of a novel does not.\" That is, when\r\ndesigning an text game it pays both to think both as a writer and a player. In\r\nthinking as a writer, you need to ensure they cannot help but engage - that they\r\nneed to think at the prompt, that they need to be aware and awake when they are\r\nasked \">\"? by the game. If a lazy player can complete your game simply typing\r\n\"WAIT\" (or more probably, just \"Z\") at every prompt, then what\'s to ensure they\r\nread any of the text at all?\r\n In thinking as a player, you need to make the game accessible, and rewarding.\r\nYou have to ensure that the thought the player is putting in is worthwhile.\r\nPerhaps more importantly, you have to ensure they believe the thought to be\r\nworthwhile. If you are a writer with a famous name, then this should be easy. If\r\nnot - you may need to bring every skill to bear to prevent players quitting in\r\nthe first three turns of the game.  In this approach - that of enticing\r\nplayers with the promise of reward for the payment of thought - the puzzle is\r\nperhaps the strongest tool you can apply. This two-edged beast glares stoically\r\nat the player through the glass, telling her that if she is capable, and if her\r\nthought is up to its, then she will proceed and be rewarded. A pause for\r\nconsideration, maybe, or a series of frustrated attacks before a problem is\r\ndefeated is then rewarded both in the game - as progress, or perhaps sheer mental\r\nsatisfaction - but also more subtly, by having had the player think herself into\r\nthe world. [I see the carrot. Where\'s the stick? I\'m not sure there is one.] [Also, there\'s room for a point here, one you get to only much later: puzzles can be, and usually are, a means by which the author controls how the player experiences the world, i.e.: at what pace, in what sequence, through what means. A game where everything is available at the outset tends to be more vulnerable to the player\'s idiosyncratic choices about what to experience when.]\r\n Here we ought to define [\"]puzzle[\"]. A Tower of Hanoi is a puzzle, so [as] is a maze.\r\nSo is a code, or a complicated system of pulleys. However, puzzles are not\r\nrestricted to [little trinket-boxes that one might get in a Christmas cracker\r\nbought from the Science Museum catalogue] [too cute; just say \"gadgets\"] - they extend to anything for which the\r\ncorrect method of procedure is not immediately visible. Interaction with another\r\ngame character might classify [qualify], from the standard (feeding the animal with food,\r\nso that it doesn\'t notice you leaving) to the more cunning (upsetting the\r\ngrandmother with a photograph of her late husband, so that she doesn\'t notice you\r\nleaving). A closed, unlocked, well-hinged door, in a game which understands the\r\nverb OPEN, is not a puzzle. The same door, if found in Carl Muckenhoupt\'s \"The\r\nGostak\" (2001), is a puzzle - because that game is entirely in an invented\r\nlanguage, and finding what the word for OPEN (and indeed, deducing the presence\r\nof a door) is extremely difficult indeed.\r\n This leaves \"puzzle\" as an unhelpfully wide category. We now proceed to look\r\nmore closely.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nII - Thinking Like A Player\r\n============================\r\n<P>\r\n Magicians have long known that the way to cover a trick is with a careful\r\npatter, distracting and involving the audience on the one hand whilst the other\r\nis frantically rooting around in a pocket for the right playing card. Similarly,\r\nthey\'ve known that the easiest way to invent a new trick isn\'t to invent a new\r\nmathematical device, or a new black-velvet-box-with-string, but simply to dress\r\nup the same trick in different patter. An audience with no knowledge of magic may\r\nwell never realise that five cards tricks are all the same, and indeed, that they\r\nare the same as the appearance of a lit cigarette behind the magician\'s ear or of\r\na new Fiat Punto in his garage.\r\n And conversely: someone who does know how the trick works (say, the magician\r\nhimself) will categorise all these seemingly-different variants by the underlying\r\nmechanism behind them, rather than as \"card tricks\" or \"cigarette tricks\". In\r\nviewing the player\'s approach to the puzzles, we need the same idea: rather than\r\nthinking of \"puzzles involving mazes\", \"puzzles involving keys\" and \"puzzles\r\ninvolving the Archbishop of Canterbury[,]\" the important issue is the mechanism by\r\nwhich the puzzle works. Here the metaphor with magic breaks [you\'ve never really set it up in the form \"the author is like a magician,\" so I\'d leave it out and go straight to the point] - whereas the\r\nmechanism of a card-trick might be a sleight of hand or mathematical device, in a\r\ntext game the mechanism by which the puzzle works is the mechanism by which the\r\nplayer works the puzzle. That is, the way the player (ideally, not counting for\r\nluck) is supposed to solve the problem. So; the problem of finding a gold key for\r\na gold door is the same puzzle as finding cheese for a hungry mouse - both rely\r\non an obvious connection, and the finding of an object the player will guess is\r\npresent even before he sees it. On the other hand, finding a full-length mirror\r\nbehind which to hide when slipping past a vampire, is a very different puzzle\r\nindeed. [I don\'t really get this comparison. Perhaps there\'s a better example of nonlinear puzzle-solving you could put here?]\r\n<P>\r\nHunter-Gathering\r\n-----------------\r\n<P>\r\n Every puzzle game for time [immemorial] has had a fork under a table, a diary\r\nunder a bed or a handkerchief in a handbag. Generally speaking, authors of games\r\ndon\'t like to leave every important object in plain view, just lying around; they\r\nprefer instead to stack them tidily away. Before this was easily possible (in the\r\nearly Cambridge games published by Acornsoft and Topologika, for instance) they\r\nwould still trouble to hide things in convoluted maps (the woods at the start of\r\n\"Colossal Cave\") or full-blown mazes (\"Crobe\", \"Fyleet\", \"Zork\", etc). [Nitpick: not sure about Topologika, but Zork\'s code had containers galore, so I\'d drop that as an example.] Is this\r\nsquirrel-like instinct of designers a true puzzle?\r\n The answer is sometimes, and usually only then in retrospect. When a player\r\nransacks a house top to bottom it\'s usually done with the aim of ruthless\r\nefficiency rather than cunning. Many old-school players (my brother is one of\r\nthese) will enter rooms, examine all available nouns, then look under, open,\r\nbreak and kiss everything; only then leaning back to steeple their fingers and\r\nthink. [FOOTNOTE: Players such as these are completely lost when dropped into a\r\ndeeply implemented game. I have yet to convince my brother to play J. D. Berry\'s\r\nexcellent Art Show winner \"Ribbons\"; but I imagine he\'ll be there for a full hour\r\nbefore moving onto the second room. I hate to think how long it would be before\r\nhe realises there is only one after all]. [Nitpick: actually, there are four, IIRC. Perhaps cite a true one-room game like Trapped in a One-Room Dilly or Out of the Study?]\r\n This is a perfectly valid method of solution for what is a perfectly valid\r\ndesign choice. Some exponents claim that \"LOOK UNDER\" is now outdated, but in\r\nfact it serves a clear function. A player, if trapped into a small enough set of\r\nlocations, will read every description twice and take his inventory every turn.\r\nBy hiding things (say, the key to leave the first room of the game), you force\r\nthe player to familiarise himself with what is available (say, his identity and\r\nhis initial inventory items). You can be reasonably sure that a player who has\r\n[explored] every nook and cranny for his sister\'s diary will have found the hairpin\r\nwith which to pick the lock, and indeed, may even have put on the reading glasses\r\nhe\'s carrying before the tome is open. Further, if later on he finds an ice-cube\r\ncontaining something he needs (a particle of guilty conscience, perhaps, in the\r\nstyle of Meretzky and Adam\'s \"Hitch-hiker\'s Guide to the Galaxy\") [I\'d delete--probably a needless spoiler], then you can\r\nreliably expect him to think very quickly of the blow-dr[y]er on the dresser, just\r\nby the bottles of spot-\r\ncream.\r\n And just as one room, or one collection of objects[,] can be made familiar, so\r\ncan the game map itself; if you force the poor player to traipse backwards and\r\nforwards for a while, []in later scenes of the game it will be [acceptable] to require him to trace a route with step-perfect accuracy. [Mileage varies widely on this sort of thing. You\'re entitled to think this, but as most of your observations up to now have been on general IF conventions, the state of the art, perhaps you should qualify statements like this.] If your game\r\nis going to have a car chase later on, it seems only fair to allow him to learn\r\nthe street map. Since your player may not realise this will be important, it\r\nseems only fair to force him to do so, too. On an immersion level, a good use of\r\nsearching rewards the player with a wider vista, a deeper visual model and the\r\ncertainty of where to find a telephone.  A really good use will do so without\r\nthe player noticing.\r\n \r\n The problem is, players are wise to this sort of thing, and quickly resent\r\nany attempt to make them type repetitive things. Hiding an important object\r\namongst several identical containers (say, a tree in a forest) is unlikely to win\r\nrespect, just as hiding an important room in a tangled maze with no map or clue\r\nas to the goal is widely considered a fatal mistake. Indeed, if you start a game\r\nwith a large map or inventory, many players will turn off on seeing the first\r\nchoice of direction. [Can\'t parse that. \"Turn the computer off,\" maybe, but capture better the point where players say \"too complex.\"] Nelson\'s seminal 1994 game \"Curses\" audaciously opens with\r\naround twelve rooms and expects us to draw a map; by contrast all of Plotkin\'s\r\ngames, with the possible exception of \"A Change in the Weather\" (1995), begin\r\nwith the player chained to the spot, or at least moving in a straight line (not\r\nthat \"Weather\" is a loose and unshackled game). [Hunter, in Darkness? Dreamhold? Maybe qualify this a little more.]\r\n To get around this, you either want the player not to notice what you\'re\r\ndoing, or to be convinced that it will be worth it. The first can be achieved by\r\nincluding one large, complex, possible insoluble-at-the-\r\ntime puzzle in plain view, in the middle of a room which needs to be ransacked. [This is an interesting idea, and it may be true, but I can\'t think offhand of any examples. Please provide. If Curses, below, is supposed to be an example, I\'m not sure it qualifies.]\r\nThe player, in between staring and restaring at the chess problem before him,\r\nwill hopefully find the pawn under the rug. In \"Curses\", the author can be sure\r\nthat, eventually, a frustrated and bumbling player will find the four-leaf-\r\nclover which is waiting for him, almost from the very beginning of the game. [Spoiler? And why can the author be sure? Because the author is Graham Nelson, so players will have faith? Spell this out more clearly.]\r\n The other method is aided by a strict (and possibly \"metaphysical\") control\r\nof how much ransacking the player must do. Plotkin\'s \"Shade\" (2000) opens with a\r\nsearch for plane tickets, which will always be in the last place of three you\r\nlook - enough to achieve its effect (a bit of irritation, a bit of\r\nfamiliarisation, and a lot of contextualisation ready to be attacked in the\r\ngame\'s later phases) - but not enough to outstay its welcome. Similarly, an\r\nold-school player of \"My Angel\" (Ingold, 2000) will find the knife in the\r\nhay-barn long before more careless players tread on it underwater, several\r\nlocations further on. [Very nice examples.]\r\n A nice touch to reward the player and elicit some forgiveness for having them\r\nrunning around like children, is to give your treasure hunt an elegant solution.\r\nThe jigsaw-piece in the pyramid in \"Jigsaw\" (Nelson, 1995) will be found by most,\r\nbut found quickly by those who have ever done a real jigsaw. A player - or one\r\nwho notices, anyway - will be pleased to find the diary under the pillow, the\r\nwatch in the magpie\'s nest, or the new car in the avaricious magician\'s garage.\r\nEven if she only found an object by typing every permutation of verb and noun she\r\ncould summon up, it will at least feel more worthwhile if there was a good reason\r\nfor it to be there.\r\n<P>\r\nResearch\r\n---------\r\n<P>\r\n Just as most puzzle games have a hidden key, most will also have a\r\ncombination lock. Here the \"object to be found\" is non-physical and stored in the\r\nplayer\'s head rather than his hands. The canonical example of a research puzzle\r\nis a magic potion; where the right books and cross-references yield a list of\r\nrandom objects which can be boiled up to create infinite youth (\"Christminster\",\r\nRees, 1995), deep sleep (\"The Mulldoon Legacy\", Ingold, 1999) or violent\r\nexplosions (\"Trinity\", Moriarty, 1986). [Spoiler warnings needed, and I\'d call this a recipe puzzle rather than a research puzzle. A research puzzle suggests gathering knowledge from various sources and applying it to solve a puzzle.] This is a much cleaner and more efficient\r\n(and perhaps, more prone to bit-error [explain]) type of hunting puzzle; but works in\r\nessentially the same way.\r\n However, there is room for much more, as research offers a perfect\r\nopportunity for the author to sit the player on his knee and tell him a story,\r\nand furthermore, to force him to listen - or more importantly, force him to ask. [This sounds more like actual research. Categorize separately from recipes.]\r\nA locked door will act as an infallible ice-breaker with the Palace Guard (who\r\nmay prove to be a fascinating, deep and humorous fellow). The need for a password\r\nto begin that conversation will have the player happily reading every volume in\r\nthe British Library (so long as you\'ve convince him the puzzle is still fair).\r\nAlong the way he may need to understand the crazy indexing system - but no doubt\r\nthere\'s a book that will tell him how. And if that book drops information on the\r\nweird old man who built the library, his alchemical secrets and the tragic fate\r\nof his sister, then so much the better. Indeed, it could be argued that this kind\r\nof retrospective, detective-like story-telling is what Interactive Fiction does\r\nbest. \"Curses\" constructs its story entirely by in footnotes, in the form of\r\nbiographies and diary entries. [A little confusing. I think you mean that the backstory is provided in unexpected places: entries in the history, but also offhand anecdotes provided at surprising moments. Rephrase.] A measure of the skill here is that, of course,\r\nthe \"Vol. II\" label on the book \"History of the Meldrews\" cannot help but raise a\r\nsmile in anyone who has played the game. Similarly, games often have players\r\nexploring places long abandoned or emptied; partly because it means less\r\ncharacters to code, partly because the player can then fill in the plot from\r\nresearched snippets.\r\n<P>\r\n Actual research-based puzzles tend to fall into three sub-categories:\r\nBookword, Librarian and Gen[i]us. A Bookworm problem is the direct equivalent of a\r\nsmash-every-cabinet hunt: the player is given eight books and not allowed out\r\nuntil he knows Chinese. This can obviously be pretty unfair - and pretty tedious\r\n- and is probably best avoided unless the contents of the eight books are very\r\ninteresting, or very funny, as of themselves. [Amusing, but give an actual example, avoiding spoilers as much as possible. You haven\'t convinced me that \"Bookworm\" is an actual design choice people have made, and I can\'t think of an example.] A much better way of posing the\r\nsame problem is the Librarian approach, which is the same, except that the game\r\ndoesn\'t put the books on the table but has them neatly on the shelf, with the\r\nplayer left to find them. The crux of the difference is the additional thought\r\ninvolved - it\'s no longer just enough to read a book, you have to think of which\r\nbook to read first. The player must choose a title, or a chapter number, or a\r\ntopic on which to interrogate a character; and in finding the right topics to\r\napproach she will immerse herself just that little bit more, paying more\r\nattention to what is said. Essentially, you may have a better chance of making\r\nthe player care about the rambling old man\'s comments on the safe if she has\r\nrealised, of her own accord, that they may contain a clue as to the combination. [Better example? If you want the combination, it\'s no great insight that you\'d listen to someone\'s comments.] \r\n[The key is to strike] a balance between the game telling the player what is\r\navailable for her to find, and the player feeling as though they have discovered\r\nsomething on their own.\r\n Finally, Genius (or more properly, Genius!), is reserved for those research\r\npuzzles which take the Librarian model to its intuitive climax, by requiring the\r\nplayer to work out, through a leap of logic, what topic to research in the first\r\nplace. All the best examples of this are in \"Curses\": the romance novel problem\r\nor the prayer book, for example (though finding the English Bible in\r\n\"Christminster\" also qualifies). [I\'d hide these behind a full-blown spoiler warning and explain more explicitly for those who don\'t care or who have played the game but forgotten the puzzle.] These are puzzles where that elusive starting\r\npoint of information is clued subtly and cunningly, and in solving it the player\r\nwill feel a great rush of satisfaction. A good research puzzle can be hugely\r\nrewarding, both in terms of plot-progression and immersion, and sheer\r\ncrossword-puzzle entertainment; with the bonus of allowing you to wheedle your\r\nfiction even further into a player\'s mind. Although the \"CONSULT\" verb appears to\r\nbe going out of fashion somewhat, in favour of the more direct but more difficult\r\nto code \"ASK ABOUT\"; the effect is still much the same.\r\n[Is it necessary to break these into subcategories? The difference between \"Librarian\" and \"Genius\" seems to be the cleverness of the puzzle, not a useful distinction in the abstract, and I\'m not convinced there\'s actual content to the \"Bookworm\" subcategory.]\r\n<P>\r\nSimulation [parallel structure needs attention; simulation isn\'t a type of puzzle in the way you\'ve set up \"research\" and \"hunter-gathering\" as puzzle types]\r\n-----------\r\n<P>\r\n Simulation is an inherent feature of the IF medium; any game is a narrative\r\nat war with a crossword inside a VR boxing ring. [Cute, but I\'m not sure it adds anything.] To some extent it could be\r\nargued that any and all manipulations of objects are simulated (indeed, that this\r\nis true by construction [I\'m not sure what this means]) - but by this argument, gamebooks are also simulated in\r\na specific case-by-case way: so this section will reserve the term for those\r\ninteractions which the game can process in a generic fashion. From the player\'s\r\npoint of view, this therefore covers those interactions where some general rule\r\nthat the player learns in one set of circumstances (say, a light source allows\r\nyou to see) is still applicable in a different but comparable set. To give a\r\nconcrete example, a microwave is not simulated if the only thing that can be\r\nheated is a microwave meal (anything else meeting with a \"Why would you do that?\"\r\nmessage, say); and is simulated if a player can heat more or less anything - cups\r\nof water, maybe, or plastic rods. A decent simulation should also allow the\r\nplayer to blow himself up (or at least, be warned specifically not to) by filling\r\nit with metal trinkets.\r\n The standard IF simulations are quite familiar: takeable objects and the\r\nplayer\'s inventory [bad example; nothing\'s less simulationist than your standard infinite inventory], systems of containers and supporting objects which can nest\r\n(an arrow in an apple on a terrified boy\'s head) [qualify: some containers are realistic, others are not], and also the opening, closing\r\nand locking of doors. Geographical simulation loosely covers the compass\r\ndirections and vertical motion, though what goes up will not come down and north\r\nneed not be inverse to south. Within locations there is little geography - the\r\nconcept of \"next to\" is extremely rare (the boy is not by the tree, even if the\r\narrowhead is contained in the bark). [What? \"Behind,\" \"under,\" \"on,\" etc. convey internal geography just fine. Approximately three million games have allowed the player to drag a chair \"under\" a window to climb out. For whatever reason \"near\" as a preposition has never caught on, but there\'s definitely geography within locations in your standard IF.] Later versions of languages may well extend\r\nthese - Mike Roberts[\'s] TADS will handle sound-passing in its third release - and\r\nmany code-\r\nsnippets of Inform exists handling moveable people, pourable liquids, even\r\nwriteable notepads.\r\n The current default behaviour (doors, for instance) has the advantage of\r\nbeing common knowledge, taken for granted by experienced players and picked up\r\nquickly by the novices. (Though perhaps a few are frustrated that \"PUT KEY IN\r\nKEYHOLE\" is rarely a way to unlock doors). However, most games at some point\r\nextend the simulation in some way - with magic spells or microwaves, robots or\r\nwrist-watches. By doing so, a whole new avenue of puzzle development becomes\r\navailable.\r\n These usually take the form of strategy puzzles - in which the result and\r\nprocess are clear, but the ordering of steps becomes important. The most simple\r\nsimulated problem is the Tower of Hanoi (the irritating children\'s toy involving\r\nstacked discs on pegs) - where the goal is stated (move stack from peg A to peg\r\nB), the governing mechanics are clear (one disc moved at a time, larger discs\r\nalways below smaller); but the problem is to apply the correct move at each\r\nstage. Chess problems are a similar idea, though much more complex in nature. [I\'m not convinced that ToH and chess puzzles have much to do with simulation; they involve steps, certainly, but so does everything.] IF\r\ntakes this concept and codifies it into the manipulations of containment,\r\nvisibility, gravity and so forth. Most also make use of timers - the simulation\r\nof events occurring outside of a players control. \"A Change in the Weather\"\r\nsimulates a thunder-storm into an extremely evil timing puzzle. [Again, I\'m not sure this is simulationism as such.] \"Metamorphoses\"\r\n(Short, 2000) simulates a variety of substances and the ability to morph objects\r\nbetween them, and then has puzzles which require fragility, or density, or\r\nflammability in the object produced. Although this game does not, it could be\r\neasily extended to a full strategic challenge, in which a player must balance his\r\nhoop-shaped resources against the need for glass objects, and so forth, and not\r\nburn everything in one go, say. [You could draw on the puzzles the game does offer, though, many of which rely on recognizing the properties of certain objects when transformed into certain states.] Cadre\'s \"Varicella\" (1999) takes this idea to an\r\nextreme, in a game in which the simulated actions of several people in a palace\r\nare tightly interwoven, with the player attempting to thread a manipulation of\r\nhis own through the mesh. [Once again: simulationism? It doesn\'t constitute the modeling of any object or process anyone has ever seen in real life.] This codifying process, however (unlike the abstracted\r\nbusiness of research problems) has a very real effect on a player\'s sense of\r\nimmersion into the game, arising from the fact that - unlike reading about topics\r\nin textbooks - her very actions are now subject to new rules and forces which the\r\nplayer may not be aware of.\r\n The player entering an IF game will start with some hazy expectations of what\r\nis simulated and what is not. She will expect, for example, to be able to carry\r\nsmall things around with her, though she may not be sure whether she can carry an\r\nunlimited number, or an unlimited weight. She will most likely not expect to be\r\ntold which hand she\'s carrying things in, or which pocket, and will probably\r\nbecome annoyed if told her hands are too full to push door handles if she\'s\r\ncarrying two items (even if this may be true in real life). To say the simulation\r\nshould be as accurate as possible is quite simply untrue; players automatically\r\nexpect a level of simplification on entering the text game world. No novice will\r\nexpect to have to type \"BLINK\" every four moves. However, they may be (and, I\r\nfind, often are) surprised to find \"WALK OVER TO DESK\" is not understood. The\r\nsame trend persists in experienced players - the best example being in\r\nconversation with game characters: players will not bat an eyelid (i.e. blink) [one or the other] if\r\nasking the same question elicits a word-for-word repeat of the response, for the\r\nsimple reason that this is what games have done time immemorial. Further, most\r\nplayers will not complain when a poison gas puzzle cannot be solved by typing\r\n\"HOLD MY BREATH\" (there being no \"breath\" object in the game-world), but\r\nconversely if this is the only solution players are likely to be irate and demand\r\nto know how they were supposed to think of something so outlandish.  [Maybe. I\'m not so sure experienced players wouldn\'t try this.] What we\r\nhave here is the Interactive Fiction version of Chek[h]ov\'s gun; the old principle\r\nthat if a gun is to be fired in Act III, make sure it is visible on the\r\nmantle-piece in Act I. [Actually, the principle is that if there\'s a gun on the wall in Act I, it should get fired in Act III. Properly ordered, I\'m not sure this example is useful for you.] If a puzzle relies on the player knowing that waving a gun\r\naround will make characters react, then you\'d better show him early on that\r\ncharacters can see what he\'s waving. Further, they\'d better react to everything\r\nelse as well - no good them seeing a bloodied murder weapon if they don\'t see\r\ntheir wife who\'s been killed by it.\r\n The two important things then are consistency, and re-education. Consistency\r\nconsolidates the player\'s world-model; if it breaks in a few places most players\r\nwill believe they\'ve encountered a bug, if it breaks in almost every place then\r\nmost player\'s won\'t believe it\'s simulated at all, and will not expect it work\r\nelsewhere. If you want the player to know how your game-world operates (what\r\nliquids can do, what fire can do, so forth) then you must be prepared to make\r\nsure it does everything one would expect. This doesn\'t mean every fire has to\r\npotentially devour the entire game-map; but it does mean every sheet of paper\r\nstuck into it won\'t be described as \"Unlikely to do anything\". \"Everything one\r\nwould expect\" means \"Everything one would expect on the basis of what has already\r\noccurred,\" not \"on the basis of the real world.\" The real world is neither here\r\nnor there.\r\n Re-education is the subtler point, and one not commonly implemented, except\r\nin platform games. The popular \"Tomb Raider\" series of games, published by Eidos,\r\nintroduces the various jumps, rolls and runs the heroine can perform in a series\r\nof simple, obvious challenges on a \"exercise course\" level. This serves to allow\r\nthe player to practise, not just the act of performing a manoeuvre (which is not\r\nrelevant in a text-game, unless it is a typing tutor), [not necessarily: see the \"practice\" skill-building dynamic initiated in Edifice and used in several other games] but also the process of\r\ngauging distances and timings. Similarly, an IF game which extends the simulation\r\nshould give the player a series of simple manipulations to perform so that they\r\nlearn how the simulation works in various conditions; how liquids respond to\r\nheat, whether some objects float, if flame spreads to nearby objects. [Very true, but if it\'s a simulationist game model this should be obvious, not a revelation, and if the objects are so unfamiliar--\"ah, I have here this object that the aliens call a Gzort; let us see what it does\"--it\'s not simulation of anything, though consistency in world-modeling is of course still required.] If the\r\nplayer must produce a noisy distraction in the endgame, then make sure, earlier\r\non, he inadvertently knocked over a vase and brought the housemaid running. [Again, this is just a matter of establishing how the world works and making it sure the internal rules are consistent. It\'s not necessarily simulation of anything external to the game.] If a\r\ncharacter will reveal more information on repeated interrogation (maybe if the\r\nplayer now knows more about the topic himself and so \"phrases the question\r\ndifferently\" [no quotes needed]), then make sure the player is forced to ask the same question\r\nrepeatedly at some point, even if you employ a simple, pointed \"Perhaps he\'s not\r\nletting on all that he knows.\" at the end of his first surly reply. [I don\'t think this example fits, even with the category relabeled.]\r\n A well-designed set of simulation puzzles start with those which shift the\r\nplayer\'s expectations of what the game will understand, then consolidate it, and\r\nthen rely on it for more and more complex puzzles exploiting the ways the various\r\nfeatures interact. [FOO[T]NOTE: Which is to say, \"Lemmings\" is one of the\r\nbest-designed games of all time.] The characters in \"Christminster\" work on this\r\nprinciple, with the player finding more and different ways throughout to cajole\r\nEdward into helping her, and to use his various skills (or lack of) to further\r\nthe game.  [Once again: character manipulation != simulationism.] Another branch of simulation arises in sufficiency puzzles, where\r\nthe player looks around the current map, or object list, with the knowledge that\r\nhe must be able to do something, and proceeds to deduce what it is he needs to\r\ndo. [This term is new on me, and I\'m not sure it conveys what you\'re describing.] This is a solution-method which requires the player to look at the simulation\r\nin its most abstract form: a set of objects available, a limited set of rules,\r\nand the knowledge there is a correct route. Effectively, he is viewing the\r\nsituation as a brief puzzle-tree set within the narrative. An excellent example\r\nof this is the award-winning puzzle from \"Spider and Web\" (Plotkin, 1998)\r\nconcerned with escaping from the chair. The player will not solve this by thought\r\nthrough cause-and-effect, simply because he does not have enough information -\r\nbut rather by looking at the only options available to him, and the knowledge\r\nthat one must be right. [I\'m not sure this is how most people solve this puzzle. It seems more like your \"intuitive\" puzzles below. It wasn\'t obvious to me that the options available were so limited; if it had been, I would have solved the puzzle sooner. Given that, I think you need a better example, though I\'m not sure what it is.] [Also, if you keep this one in some form, be sure to hide it behind a spoiler warning.] It should be noted that requiring a solution by this\r\nmethod has a negative impact on immersion - a player looking at the design of the\r\ngame, and at available information, is not a player emoting. [Wrong word. Not sure what you\'re trying to convey. Perhaps \"relying on intuition\" or \"relating to the character\"?] In game[s] [like]\r\n\"Spider and Web\", which place a distance between player and player character,\r\nthis isn\'t too much of a problem. Similarly, in wider puzzle-oriented games it\r\nwill not matter either. Games in-between [these aren\'t two ends of the same spectrum; rephrase] should be careful, though, as otherwise\r\nthey give their protagonists something verging on precognition. [This whole subcategory is so abstract that by now I\'m not sure what we\'re talking about. I recommend either finding better examples and explaining more clearly or deleting.]\r\n If the simulated aspect of a game is well-executed it will both extend the\r\ndesign possibilities in unique ways and allow for interesting new puzzles (the\r\nEnchanter trilogy of Infocom introduced magic spells to great effect) [again, is that simulation? it\'s an interesting set of rules for how the world works, applies with some though not perfect consistency, but it\'s not simulation] but it will\r\nalso increase the player\'s confidence in the author, allowing for more and more\r\nambitious leaps of logic to be expected as the game continues. If the game\r\nremains fair, then players will expect it to remain so and be willing to give you\r\nthe benefit of the doubt on later, harder, problems. This leads finally to a\r\nbranch of problems which can only be described as \"beta-tester puzzles\"; being\r\nthose which the player solves less from a desire to overcome an obstacle and more\r\nfrom a desire to break the game and come out with a permutation which has not\r\nbeen accounted for. A good example is the robot cleaning mouse in \"Starcross\"\r\n(Lebling, published by Infocom 1982) which disappears into a service hatch at\r\nvarious intervals, leaving the curious player to wonder if the room beyond is\r\nactually implemented or not, and devise a nefarious [why nefarious?] method of entry. These\r\npuzzles can be some of the most satisfying to solve, as the player will feel\r\nquite certain before trying his solution that it should work, but they can also\r\nbe some of the hardest, because there is no direct indication in the game that\r\nthere is a challenge to be attempted at all. [An interesting subcategory, though I\'m not sure \"trying to break the game\" is the only motivation that would lead someone to solve one of these puzzles. \"Idle curiosity\" might also qualify. But the category of puzzles that aren\'t obviously puzzles at all is worth highlighting. Getting the cube from the grouper\'s nest in Spellbreaker is arguably another.]\r\n \r\nIntuition\r\n----------\r\n<P>\r\n These are an [many?] examples of intuitive puzzles. The definition of an intuitive\r\npuzzle is essentially \"an unfair one\"; as these are the problems in which the\r\nplayer is expected to make a mental leap on the basis of little logic and very\r\nfew, usually obscure clues. They are the black magic of puzzle design;\r\ngame-quitting [ruining] failures when they miss and immersion-creating moments of true\r\nconnection when they work. There are a hundred examples, and whether they work or\r\nnot often depends on the individual player, and how receptive she is to the\r\nsubtler hints of the authors general mode of thinking. A few have been touched\r\nupon already - the Genius! category of research; the beta-tester mode of\r\nsolution; these both rely on leaps within the player\'s mind. [Now your categories are crossing. Perhaps inevitable, but it renders your taxonomy suspect.]\r\n A concrete example of a puzzle uniquely in this category: the chipped square\r\nin Plotkin\'s \"So Far\" (1996). Here the player is given an alien object in its\r\nnatural setting with a few clues to its function which are only really\r\ncomprehensible in retrospect, and asked to deduce its operation. It\'s a pretty\r\nsimply object, and a one-word solution, but the important point is that, once\r\nsolved, it all seems clear and natural. The square\'s minimal decorations and its\r\nnotch are transmuted from opacity to transparency in a flash. These are the\r\npuzzles the player can solve at the bus-stop; he can wake up and know that the\r\nidea he has had is right. (It was while waiting for a 42W [a what? a bus? explain] that I worked out what\r\nthe soft grey [it wasn\'t soft or grey--it was \"square\" and \"felt like clay\"] brick in \"Zork II\" (Lebling and Blank, 1982) was for, after a three\r\nyear break from the game).\r\n Hints are crucial to intuitive puzzles; the best are those a player only\r\nrealises are hints once the puzzle is solved and yet somehow plant the seed of\r\nsolution in the player\'s mind. They can be placed in a thousand ways - and\r\nperhaps should be in as many as possible - though elegance is an obvious plus.\r\n\"So Far\" is excellent in its hinting, simply by constructing a logic behind every\r\npuzzle but refusing to present anything but the elements at face-value, leaving\r\nthe player to construct every implication. [I think I know what you mean, but this could be a lot clearer.] This is the same mechanism by\r\nwhich cryptic crosswords work; that the player knows, for certain, when she\'s hit\r\non the solution - though there are several 8 letter words for \"most likely to\r\nlose\", there is only one which is an anagram of \"grounded\". Now [omit], cryptic\r\ncrosswords are solved mainly by working out the way the setter writes clues, and\r\nlearning all his idiosyncrasies. A simpler approach works in text games - the\r\npuzzles in \"So Far\" share a thematic feel (beyond simply being really rather\r\nhard) - so do the puzzles in the author\'s earlier \"A Change in the Weather\". Fans\r\nof Infocom\'s David Lebling admire his tight logic and scientific use of\r\ncause-and-effect in games like \"Starcross\", \"Spellbreaker\" (1985) and \"Zork III\"\r\n(1982); and there is a clear contrast with Brian Moriarty\'s more sprawling works\r\n\"Trinity\" and \"Wishbringer\" (1985). (If nothing else, Lebling would never have\r\nwritten a game designed to be easy). [I agree with the latter two sentences, but do Lebling and Moriarty rely on \"intuitive\" puzzles as you\'ve defined them? If so, examples.]\r\n<P>\r\n The leaps of intuition made by a successful player have a [reward], as\r\nsuddenly instead of the player having to read the mind of the author it seems the\r\nauthor has read the mind of the player. (This is of course not the case, in fact\r\nthe former has occurred, but it\'s a lovely effect to generate). By tuning oneself\r\ninto the author\'s mindset the player becomes more deeply immersed in the patterns\r\nof game-world and story, and by allowing himself to believe in [the existence of]\r\nan underlying logic, the world develops a continuity outside of the players\r\ninteractions and feels all the more real. These are the puzzles which remove the\r\ngame as far from a game-book as is possible - when the action to be taken must be\r\nconstructed almost in its entirety in the player\'s mind before it can be applied\r\nto the game itself.  Often, the best intuitive puzzles are easy ones - where a\r\nplayer walks into an area an immediately types the correct input, without really\r\nknowing how. Many players found the puzzle with the hatchway in \"Spider and Web\"\r\nto work this way; myself I spent about half an hour with permutations of boxes\r\nand wrenches, far overcomplicating the problem. Similarly, I think the best\r\nintuitive puzzle I have ever written myself is at the start of \"All Roads\"\r\n(2001), in which the player\'s hands are tied with rope and the only available\r\nobject is a bottle of wine. Yes, the solution is quite clear - but to produce it\r\nthe player must take the phrase \"bottle of wine\" and apply his knowledge of what\r\nbottles of wine are really like. To do this she must fully visualise the object,\r\nand this situation is elevated from being an inventory listing:\r\n<P>\r\n You are carrying:\r\n  a bottle of wine\r\n<P>\r\n...to a character, holding a bottle between loose and shaking fingers.\r\n Many good intuitive puzzles work by this method - expecting the player to\r\ntake his knowledge of the real world and assume that the game follows the same\r\nrules.  However, it should be stressed - use intuition with caution. If used\r\ntoo much players may feel utterly adrift, without any help at all. There is a\r\nfine line, and an art, to producing puzzles which can be fairly solved by no\r\nsystematic means at all.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nIII - Thinking Like an Author\r\n==============================\r\n<P>\r\n Just as there is an art to designing puzzles which will linger in a player\'s\r\nmind, there is also an art to codifying them into ropes and rabbits and\r\nrodeo-machines and placing them in the right order to achieve your effect. This\r\nis where the authorial mindset comes in - in planning the structure and plotting\r\nthe order by which you unfold your story and your world. Here the game\'s status as\r\nnarrative and crossword becomes quite pointed [wrong word; maybe \"the game\'s use of narrative and crossword becomes particularly delicate\"], as puzzles can be deployed to aid\r\neither or both. The following sections detail the most important areas of\r\ninfluence.\r\n<P>\r\nPlot\r\n-----\r\n<P>\r\n The most obvious use of puzzles is to slow down plot development, and allow\r\ninteraction to break up the text from a single chunk into a series of responses.\r\nIn an old AGT game, \"Murder at the Folkestone Inn\" (Anne Laughlin, 1993), the\r\nplot occurs entirely in room descriptions, and the player simply moves from one\r\nto the next to experience the story. Most games are more sophisticated than this,\r\nbut the basic idea is perhaps the same. Puzzles can be used as a device to\r\nbullet-point the plot and also have the story react to the player\'s presence in\r\nsome way (fixed or flexible, it doesn\'t matter) [can this be more concrete? I think you mean that puzzle-solving can drive the plot, but I\'m not sure what \"fixed or flexible\" means).\r\n Gareth Rees remarked in an article on the design of \"Christminster\" that the\r\nmotive for one puzzle - in which the player is trapped in a small room with\r\nProfessor Wilderspin - is to force the player to talk to him, even though this is\r\nnot important to the solution of the problem. This is an example of another trick\r\n- using a puzzle to constrain the player\'s ability to wander away from something\r\nthey should be paying attention to. This can be just an extension of the Research\r\npuzzle idea; just as you can bury a password in a family history book, you can\r\nbury a key in a family graveyard, and either way the player must scavenge through\r\nthe past if he wants to continue, collecting information along the way. It can\r\nalso be more active, having the player confined to an area in which events are\r\noccurring; or indeed, having the player\'s solution to a problem affect the plot\r\nin some way. (Taking care to ensure the outcome does not feel too arbitrary,\r\notherwise the player may start taking his decisions without any thought, just as\r\nhe does in a gamebook.) [I\'m not sure what that means. If it\'s that plot outcomes should flow logically from puzzle-solving outcomes, say that.] There will come a point in the game, of course, when the\r\nplot is interesting enough for its own sake that players will be happily rooted\r\nto the spot [you mean, at the computer? be clear] - however, if they are not, providing them with a point of interest,\r\na point on interaction on which to centre, is a clear way of drawing attention to\r\nanything important around. [which is to say, if they\'re not fascinated, fascinate them; I don\'t think this adds much] In a way, this is the Hunting idea again, only now the\r\nsearch the player does not realise he is on is for the story-line itself. [strained]\r\n Interactive Fiction needs this sort of device to pace it, due to the inherent\r\nlack of structure arising from the flexible pace of the player\'s progress. [yes; say more about this] More\r\ncunning ways are available, not using puzzles - a game could keep track of how\r\nwell a player was doing and advance the plot if he is failing to do so, for\r\ninstance. However; puzzles are probably the easiest - and most widely understood\r\n- mechanism to date.\r\nFinally, puzzles can form the very stuff of your story - making them attractive\r\nto the plot-hungry player and decisive in your game design. [That\'s awfully vague--be more specific if you can. Your example seems to be a puzzle whose solution is also a turning point in the plot; if that\'s what you mean, say it.] The chair problem of\r\n\"Spider and Web\" is a classic example of this, being a moment where the plot\r\nmoves round and become something quite unexpected. [Spoiler warning.] Placing this [placing what?] on the end of a\r\npuzzle allows the player to feel that it\'s her achievement, that it\'s her work\r\nwhich has produced the outcome - and allows [the author to] make the player properly receptive\r\nfor the moment, when it comes. [wait, how does the author do this in advance?] She will be reading more closely after solving a\r\nproblem than whilst simply exploring around.\r\n<P>\r\nGeography\r\n----------\r\n<P>\r\n A player mapping a game uses the same convention that authors do; no open\r\nhallways or expanses of grass and trees sketched in delicate pastel shades, but\r\nrather boxes on a grid with lines for doors, and the occasional frown of\r\nirritation when presented with an up/down connection. [Ha!] Each location is marked out\r\nas a separate object are [or?] linked by teleportation walls which could be vertical,\r\nhorizontal, widdershins [Britishism not accessible to most; \"counterclockwise\" will be more readily understood] or inside-out for all a player may care. There are ways\r\nto try to alleviate this - designing maps that fit neatly together, or\r\nimplementing larger rooms in two or more sections to give the sensation of space.\r\nBut the real problem is the lack of connectivity between discrete locations, and\r\nthis is best overcome by implementing something which causes the rooms to bond [makes the rooms part of a whole]. A\r\ngame may include, for instance, a roaming character who goes from room to room,\r\n(such as the thief from \"Zork\") but this sort of approach is not tailored towards\r\nthe player\'s own actions and so feels less relevant. (Indeed, the thief never\r\nmade \"Zork\" feel like a real world - being more just a source of irritation for\r\nmappers, treasurer-seekers and anyone trying to avoid the grue) [omit; adds little here].\r\n The solution once again comes down to thought - to placing the idea of\r\nconnectivity into your player\'s mind. If he is told - by the entrance of a thief,\r\nor the presence of a river - that rooms are connected, he will draw a line on his\r\nbox-grid map as required. If, however, he is required to realise that the\r\nsolution [for a] puzzle relies on a continuity between locations (floating\r\nsomething down the river, or setting a trail of gold coins for the thief), then\r\nthe act of thinking of this connection will implant it firmly into the player\'s\r\nmind. It\'s the same idea again - that forcing a player to visualise rather than\r\ncatalogue the text game world will increase his immersion within it. So - by the\r\nconstruction of puzzles which exploit geographical links - chutes from floor to\r\nceiling, windows looking out over other rooms, pulleys down well-shafts or\r\nattached to mine-buckets - we glue the map together. Indeed, Nelson wrote in \"The\r\nCraft of Adventure\" that a good game map has a river running through it, and this\r\nis true - but note your river could equally well be a conveyor belt, a\r\ndumb-waiter, or anything else which allows remote manipulation of one location\r\nfrom another.\r\n This also allows for pleasingly devious puzzles. One could have a search for\r\na secret door motivated by a \'hole\' in the game map, which then requires the\r\nplayer to deduce which room is above the missing space and work his way down. A\r\ntime-travel game could allow the players knowledge of the future map to influence\r\nhis explorations in the past. A game based on C. S. Lewis\' \"The Silver Chair\"\r\ncould have players exploring a region which, when viewed from above, spells out a\r\nmessage. And so forth.\r\n<P>\r\nHooks\r\n------\r\n<P>\r\n \"Lemmings\" is one of the best designed games ever, and is also one of the\r\nmost addictive. Why? Because the basic problem is so easily remembered, and so\r\nfrustrating[ly] tricky, that it sticks in the head and refuses to leave. [explain for the uninitiated] So too the\r\nbest IF puzzles, which keep players wanting to play. The \"Lemmings\" addiction\r\nstems from the desire to make \"just one more attempt\" - in the text-game set-up\r\nthis corresponds to problems involving complex machinery and with rich feedback\r\nand a lot to fiddle with (such as the machines in \"Metamorphoses\"). [I don\'t think this comparison is adding much--both Lemmings and IF puzzles can be addictive enough that the player wants to solve them. That doesn\'t say anything about what they have in common.]\r\n You can hook the player whilst no longer at the keyboard, too, with a\r\ndifferent kind of problem. If the goal is clear and the set-up quickly committed\r\nto memory, players can be inadvertently solving - and failing to solve - your\r\nproblem as they catch the bus or as they sleep. To construct a good hook [hook = something that draws me into the story, in my understanding, not a compelling puzzle; maybe a different term, or define up front], you\r\nneed to ensure your puzzle doesn\'t require too much fiddling about, or\r\nexperimentation; and the solution should be intuitive. Mazes do not fit this\r\ncategory. Perhaps the classic fox-goose-grain-and-boat problem does - but\r\neveryone learns how to solve that at primary school.\r\n A good type of puzzle for the player to carry around is the \"unfamiliar\r\nobject\" problem - such as the chipped square in \"So Far\" or the grey brick in\r\n\"Zork II\"; which require the player to make a deduction from a small amount of\r\nvery relevant information, and possibly through connections with other things\r\nseen before. However, for a puzzle of this type to truly hook the player your\r\nobject needs to be intriguing, or the world it is in must be. The mundane is no\r\ngood for a hook. [This is pretty vague. I\'m not sure I understand what a \"hook\" in your terms is other than a puzzle that I can keep batting around in my head after I leave the keyboard. You\'ve given me a few examples, but they don\'t seem sufficient to fill out the category.]\r\n<P>\r\nSheer Amusement\r\n----------------\r\n<P>\r\n \"The Hitch-Hiker\'s Guide to the Galaxy\", written by Steve Meretzky and\r\nDouglas Adams in 1984, contains numerous puzzles whose sole purpose in the game\r\nis that they\'re fun. Not fun-to-solve in the brain-bashing sense, but silly,\r\nwacky and downright weird. The experience of solving the best is akin to\r\nproducing the punchline of a joke, and I have memories of putting up with all the\r\ndifficulties, restarts and dead-ends as a child simply because, when it came down\r\nto it, \"WRAP TOWEL ROUND HEAD\" was a funny way to avoid a carnivore. [spoiler warning needed] The puzzle\r\nof Marvin\'s door, involving as it does no tea and tea, is a classic. [big spoiler warning]\r\n Infocom\'s games were good for this sort of pay-off. Meretzky\'s masterpiece,\r\n\"Leather Goddesses of Phobos\" (1986) contains the infamous T-remover, capable of\r\nproducing rabbis and unangling cream; as well as the black paint with which to\r\nturn a white spot into a fully function teleportational black spot. More\r\nrecently, Neil DeMause\'s \"The Frenetic Five vs. Mr. Redundancy Man\" (1999) had a\r\nside-splitting climactic puzzle.\r\n Writers have long known that punctuating a piece with humour is an excellent\r\nway to avoid the tedium of a single atmosphere or situation, and to lessen the\r\nsensation of pretentiousness that monotonic works can quickly attain. [or you can make them not \"monotonic,\" if that\'s really the word you\'re after] Comedy\r\ngenerally makes the reader more amenable to the writer, and the occasional\r\nwell-placed witty puzzle will refresh your player a little and prevent them\r\nbecoming too bored or restless. Which bring us to the subject of. [can you say more about how to carry off an amusing puzzle? what makes some good and others just irritating? there\'s not much here other than that funny ones are good, which is true but doesn\'t move the ball]\r\n<P>\r\nRewards\r\n--------\r\n<P>\r\n We note, to begin with, that puzzles are often hard to solve.\r\n Playing \"Curses\", I found one of its weaker moments to be just after solving\r\nthe problem of the garden\'s hedge maze. This is one of the cleverest puzzles the\r\ngame offers; requiring a moment of inspiration followed by a long sequence of\r\nmoves in which to implement it. Upon returning to the site of the maze, once\r\nsuccessful, a new location has opened up - but this is not enough reward in\r\nitself, because the location is not very interesting and there is very little in\r\nit, just one object, of no use until very near the end of the game (the stone\r\nrose), and another locked door. [spoilers, spoilers, spoilers] This anticlimax was partly down [due] to the game\'s\r\nwidth - the author had no way of knowing [at what point in solving all the other,\r\nunrelated, puzzles I would be] [substitute \"how many other puzzles I had solved\"] - but also partly to the assumption that the player\r\nis grateful for any new object. This is not true. Rather, the player - like the\r\nreader of a novel - is rewarded by those things that spark his imagination. It\r\ncould be a beautifully rendered location (though this may be unlikely in IF as\r\nplayers are not often in it for the prose), an empathetic moment, a twist of plot\r\n- but equally it could be a fresh idea on a thorny problem, a ray of hope, a new\r\nobject with which to toy in interesting ways and experiment. A player of a game\r\nwith puzzles follows both the narrative and the progress of the puzzle-structure\r\n- progress in either is rewarding, but progress in neither is not. A new location\r\nin itself progresses neither, an object with no properties of intrinsic interest\r\n(such as the stone rose) similarly, and the promise of a new puzzle which the\r\nplayer has no idea how to solve or even start is perhaps actively demoralising.\r\n The problem could be alleviated perhaps by a more vigilant game which cheats\r\nto overcome the width problem, providing different objects upon the solution of\r\nproblems depending on where in the game the player is. In \"The Mulldoon Legacy\"\r\nthere are four \"key\" objects  to [be] collected and then used in sequence; but since\r\nthe methods of acquiring each are somewhat unrelated the game is careful to\r\nprovide the next useful key on solution of any of the four problems: thereby each\r\ntime direct progress is made. A similar device could be employed more subtly -\r\nconsider a magic-based game in which the spell received on a spell scroll is\r\ntailored to where you are stuck, or a game with money in which the level of pay\r\nreceived is measured by what you next need to buy. Rewarding the player is one\r\naspect of design which it is vital to get right, and there is absolutely no\r\nreason not to cheat, if it furthers your goal as an entertainer. [I\'m not sure why you call it \"cheating.\" It sounds more like flexible game design to me. I suppose this sort of malleable world-building diminishes the story in favor of the puzzle-fest aspect, but if that\'s what you mean, say so.]\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nIV - Conclusion\r\n================\r\n<P>\r\n The principles and mechanisms outlined above do not apply solely to\r\npuzzle-oriented games, such as the much-quoted \"Curses\" and \"Christminster\".\r\nRather they are general principles relating to the way players experience the\r\ninteraction element of a game. As soon as a player is expected to think about the\r\neffect of their actions and manipulations of the game-world, then the game is\r\nasking for input beyond a simple level, and there needs to be a reward\r\naccordingly. Interactive Fiction works are not game-books, they cannot be plotted\r\nout as simple finite trees, which a computer could step through in optimum time.\r\nBut neither are they unaware of their status as simulations and approximations of\r\nboth worlds and stories. [\"unaware\"?] The balance between the two states is managed by the\r\nplayer\'s thought process within the world, and so it is the cultivation of that\r\nthought-process which is the mainstay of good design. By asking the player to\r\nthink on what he has learnt, you cause the player to paint between [how about \"assemble\"?] fragments of\r\ninformation and create a continuity and a picture of his own. [yes--get the player to think on the game\'s terms, under the rules of the game\'s world; I think this is what you\'re driving at in the \"simulationist\" section, but I think some term-renaming is in order]\r\n<P>\r\n By being aware of the design decisions taken, the path a player will (most\r\nprobably) take, and the way their expectations of the world change as they take\r\nit, an author can make the game far more accessible, far more rewarding and far\r\nmore complete than by simply placing ideas into an arena and letting the player\r\nwalk around them, poking. \r\nFinally\r\n-------\r\n<P>\r\n To follow T. H. White:\r\n<P>\r\n\"What makes a good puzzle?\" asked the King.\r\n \r\nMerlyn chewed his bear a moment and frowned, before finally announcing:\r\n<P>\r\n\"To make a good puzzle you need some sort of simulation.\r\nAround the simulation you need to build feedback-rich experimentation.\r\nAlongside this experimentation, you need complementary information buried in the\r\ngame world.\r\nRiddled throughout the information should be gaps, patterns and inferences for\r\nthe player to speculate upon.\r\nAmidst the speculation you should give a suggestion of the author\'s mindset.\r\nWhilst communicating that mindset, you must be mindful of the rewards of the\r\neventual solution.\r\nFor the solution you should have a cunning idea.\"\r\n<P>\r\nArthur waited a moment to be sure the wizard had finished, then asked:\r\n<P>\r\n\"Do any but the last have any relevance at all?\"\r\n<P>\r\nMerlyn shook his head.\r\n<P>\r\n\"None whatsoever.\"\r\n<P>\r\n\r\n-- Jon Ingold\r\n<P>',1,'2005-01-25 21:03:29','2005-03-04 15:11:31',2),(47,51,17,'SIMULATIONISM ARTICLE<br>\r\n=====================\r\n<P>\r\nComments on Overall Structure and Content<br>\r\n-----------------------------------------<br>\r\nThe first half of the article looks fine to me, but I have a few concerns\r\nwith the structure of the second, and in particular, the \"FIFTY SIMULATIONS\"\r\npart. For one thing, the introduction to this part seems to be only\r\nhalf-written (note the author\'s comment in double square brackets). For\r\nanother, it would be helpful to the reader if the introduction to this\r\nsection explained *why* it was useful to give a list of simulations at this\r\npoint, and also, perhaps, how the list relates to the previous discussion\r\n(more on which below).\r\n<P>\r\nI also felt the ending of this section (which also constitutes the end of\r\nthe article) seemed a bit abrupt, effectively leaving the reader stranded in\r\nmid-air (or at the top of a ladder, perhaps). It may just be my personal\r\ntaste, but I\'d prefer to see a paragraph or two rounding the whole thing\r\noff.\r\n<P>\r\nThe author may also want to consider the ordering of this section. At the\r\nbeginning we are given a list of \'baseline simulations\', and at the end a\r\npair of \'challenges\', suggesting a general movement from what is already\r\navailable to what might be most difficult to implement. In between, however,\r\na different principle of arrangement is followed, and although the logic of\r\nit is clear enough, it may not be the most helpful principle to follow here.\r\nThe problem is that a large number of suggestions are mixed together with\r\nlittle or no comment on their relative feasibility or reliability, or\r\nwhether they are proposals for inclusion in standard libraries or\r\npossibilities for authors of individual games to explore. They range from\r\nthings that already more or less exist in TADS 3 (see below), to suggestions\r\nthat look highly specialized and potentially quite tricky to implement.\r\nAlthough I haven\'t given much thought to how one would go about implementing\r\nthese suggestions, some of them look like they would probably need more\r\nadvanced mathematics than the integer arithmetic supported by most IF\r\nsystems (although TADS 3 would be able to cope with this). Also some of them\r\n(e.g. keeping track of 3D co-ordinates)  seem to me to be moving far enough\r\nalong the simulationist route to be in some tension with the reservations\r\ntowards pushing simulationism in IF too far expressed in the previous text.\r\nThat doesn\'t mean that such suggestions should not be made, but some comment\r\nor recognition of this tension would be welcome, otherwise the reader could\r\nwell be left a little confused over what position the author is actually\r\nespousing. One way to meet these concerns might be to order this section in\r\nterms of priority of desirability, generality or feasibility. Splitting the\r\nsuggestions into only two or three such categories might help, especially if\r\nsupported by an explanation in the text introducing the list.\r\n<P>\r\nComments in Relation to what is Already Available in TADS 3<br>\r\n-----------------------------------------------------------\r\n<P>\r\nNote: it will be difficult to cite many examples of what follows in\r\npublished games, since there are very few TADS 3 game currently published,\r\nand only a few of those make full use of some of the newer features in the\r\nTADS 3 library. Although not a good game (and not intended to be), Eric\r\nEve\'s \'The Quest of the Golden Banana\' does try to work through a good many\r\nof the TADS 3 library features in a systematic fashion, and the accompanying\r\nTADS 3 Tour Guide (for which the game was written) can be consulted for most\r\nof the examples of the TADS 3 classes and features noted below. Other games\r\nthat make use of a number of these features include \"Return to Ditch Day\" by\r\nMike Roberts, \"The Battle of Walcot Keep\" by Steve Breslin and Eric Eve, and\r\n\"Square Circle\" by Eric Eve.\r\n<P>\r\nThe second paragraph under the heading \"A Typical Simulation\" indicates that\r\nthe only model of location is a simple containment relationship, so that\r\neven if a painting is on the wall or a chandelier is hanging from the\r\nceiling, \'the program has no notion of this when processing objects based on\r\nlocation\'. In TADS 3 this is not necessarily the case, since it is possible\r\nto locate an object in a room and at the same time associate it with a\r\nspecific room part (e.g. by setting the paintings\r\ninitNominalRoomPartLocation to defaultWestWall). The effect of this is that\r\nthe object will then be mentioned when the player examines the room part in\r\nquestion (e.g. X WEST WALL could respond with \"On the west wall you see a\r\npainting. \"). I can\'t think of a specific example where this is used in a\r\npublished game, other than \"Golden Banana\" (where an example is given under\r\nthe Decoration section in the Tour Guide).\r\n<P>\r\nBASELINE SIMULATIONS<br>\r\n_Location_ TADS 3 can also model items being \"under\" or \"behind\" other\r\nobjects. (The Inform Platypus library also deals with \"under\", IIRC,\r\nalthough I can\'t remember whether it also deals with \"behind\"). \"Golden\r\nBanana\" provides several examples (see the sections on Underside,\r\nRearContainer and RearSurface in the Tour Guide); a real game example occurs\r\nin the first room of \"Square Circle\", in which (mild spoiler) the bed is\r\nmodelled with an Underside.\r\n<P>\r\n_Light_ TADS 3 models not only absence/presence of light but light intensity\r\n(in practice on a scale 0 = dark to 4 = very bright).\r\n<P>\r\nSPATIALITY<br>\r\n_Attachment_ The TADS 3 Attachable class goes some way towards providing a\r\nframework for handling this, though the precise details have to be left to\r\nthe author. See the Attachable section in the Tour Guide.\r\n<P>\r\n_Proximity_ The TADS 3 ConSpace library extension partially implements this,\r\nin so far as in models a \'near to\' relation that can be used, for example,\r\nto enforce the condition that the chair is but near to the high window\r\nbefore the PC can stand on the chair to exit via the window. But this\r\ndoesn\'t go on to model the kind of transitive proximity relation also\r\nsuggested here (which would involve another level of complexity, I think).\r\nSo far this has not been used in any actual game, so the only example would\r\nbe the sample game that comes with the ConSpace extension.\r\n<P>\r\nSENSING<br>\r\nQuite a bit of what\'s mentioned here is either implemented or partially\r\nimplemented in the TADS 3 library. The propagation of sense data in and out\r\nof containers is central to the TADS 3 library\'s implementation of sense\r\npassing. Passing such data through microphones, cameras and the like can be\r\nachieved by the standard SenseConnector class. Passing to neighbouring rooms\r\ncan readily be achieved using a DistanceConnector. \"Walcot Keep\" used\r\nDistanceConnectors all over the place to allow the PC to see what\'s\r\nhappening in neighbouring locations (e.g. when standing in the castle\r\ncourtyard). \"Square Circle\" also makes fairly extensive use of\r\nDistanceConnectors, for example to list what moveable objects are currently\r\nin the neighbouring locations visible from the prison roof.\r\n<P>\r\nThe TADS 3 SensoryEmanation class and its more specialized sublasses (Noise\r\nand Odor) implements quite a bit of what\'s mentioned under the _Active vs\r\nPassive_ sensing section. At least for sounds and smells a SensoryEmanation\r\nobject can be associated either with a location or a specific object within\r\na location, and can be made to display both active and passive sensory\r\ninformation under different locations. For example, a ticking bomb concealed\r\nunder a pile of rubble could have a Noise object attached to it which could\r\ndisplay a passive sensing \"You hear a quite ticking from somewhere\" message\r\nat intervals determined by the author (a display schedule can be defined\r\nthat, for examples, starts by displaying the message every turn, then every\r\nsecond turn, then every fourth turn, and finally every eighth turn, thereby\r\nmodeling the PC\'s reduced conscious awareness of the ticking as time\r\npasses). In response to a LISTEN TO TICKING command the same Noise object\r\ncould display \"It seems to be coming from inside the pile of rubble\" while\r\nthe bomb is invisible, but \"The bomb is ticking loudly\" when the bomb is\r\nuncovered (precisely this example is used in \"Golden Banana\" and discussed\r\nunder Noise in the Tour Guide; a simple olfactory example is provided by the\r\npig in \"Square Circle\"). The opening scene of \"Return to Ditch Day\" provides\r\na response to LISTEN that is probably implemented using a simple\r\nSensoryEmanation.\r\n<P>\r\nThe TADS 3 _Sensory Event_ class provides another part of what is being\r\nspoken here. A SightEvent, SmellEvent or SoundEvent may be activated, and\r\nthis can then be detected by any interested observer (animate or otherwise),\r\nwho can respond to specific SensoryEvents as the programmer determines (see\r\nthe section on SensoryEvent in the Tour Guide for more details). I don\'t\r\nknow of any actual games (other than \"Golden Banana\") that make use of this\r\nyet; since an author could probably achieve the same effect in different\r\nways in TADS 3 it would in any case be almost impossible for players to be\r\nsure whether SensoryEvents had been used in a game without inspecting the\r\nsource code.\r\n<P>\r\nTADS 3 provides at least a partial implementation of the features mentioned\r\nunder _Sight & Light_. In addition to containers being opaque and\r\ntransparent they can be obscured or attenuation (reducing the amount of\r\nlight passing in an out). A light level of 2 is considered not enough to\r\nread by. Self-lit objects (such as an alarm clock seen in the dark) can be\r\nmodelled by being given a brightness of 1: they can then be seen themselves,\r\nbut do not enable anything else to be seen. Objects can also be given a\r\nsightSize property (or its equivalent for other senses) that determines how\r\nmuch detail can be discerned under less than ideal viewing conditions (e.g.\r\nfrom a distance).\r\n<P>\r\nEverything mentioned under _Sound_ is standard in the TADS 3 library. It is\r\npossible to define the sense-passing properties of any container (each sense\r\nindependent of the others), and a DistanceConnector will pass sound as well\r\nas sight from one location to another (or only sound, or only sight, or\r\nwhatever combination of senses the programmer cares to define).\r\n<P>\r\nTADS 3 allows most of what\'s mentioned under _Touch_. A container can allow\r\ntouching through while at the same time preventing extraction from.\r\n<P>\r\nTADS 3 allows reduced scent at a distance or partially odor-blocking\r\ncontainers, although there\'s no simulationist provision for mixing smells\r\n(with the standard library you\'d just seem them listed separately).\r\n<P>\r\nIt is possible in the TADS 3 library to implement new senses. I\'m not sure\r\nhow easy it would be to block the existing senses on different actors,\r\nhowever; I suspect an author would need to do quite a bit of work to achieve\r\nthis consistently throughout a game.\r\n<P>\r\nIt\'s very easy to write game text in TADS 3 that switches between \'the\r\nmysterious stranger\' and \'Bob\' as appropriate (though I\'d have thought TADS\r\n2, Inform and HUGO could all cope with that reasonably easily too, by simply\r\nreferring to the object\'s name property).\r\n<P>\r\nMost of what\'s mentioned under _NPC Sensing_ could be achieved through\r\nSensoryEvents in TADS 2, since (as mentioned) any game object can be\r\nprogrammed to response to SensoryEvents.\r\n<P>\r\nDIVISIBILITY<br>\r\nSome of what is mentioned under _Noticeable Individuals_ is handled in TADS\r\n3 through the CollectiveGroup class. I can\'t think of a real game use of\r\nthis, so I can only refer you to the discussion of CollectiveGroup in the\r\nTourGuide (and the associated example in \"Golden Banana\").\r\n<P>\r\nDAMAGE<br>\r\n_Defacement_. For an example of marking objects, see the rubber sheet, the\r\nglobe and the note in \"Square Circle\" - although this a game-specific\r\nimplementation, not part of the TADS 3 library.\r\n<P>\r\n_Burning_. The TADS 3 Candle and FireSource classes provide some of this,\r\nbut only at a fairly basic level (again the candles in \"Golden Banana\" are\r\nthe only example I can supply).\r\n<P>\r\nEXTENDING THE PLAYER CHARACTER<br>\r\n_Modelling Player Character Knowledge_. Most of this is standard in TADS 3.\r\nThe TADS 3 standard library keeps track of what keys the player character\r\nhas successfully used as described here. In addition it keeps track of which\r\nobjects the player character has seen (mostly) and which the PC knows about,\r\nand this is used in the TADS 3 conversation system to determine which topic\r\na player is referring to (for example, if the PC has yet to see or hear\r\nabout the lighthouse, ASK BOB ABOUT LIGHTHOUSE will not trigger the specific\r\nlighthouse response). The TADS 3 library also allows the system to be\r\nexpanded to track NPC knowledge as well, although this requires more work on\r\nthe part of the programmer. Steve Breslin has written a library extension to\r\nmake NPC knowledge tracking a bit easier.\r\n<P>\r\nAny TADS 3 game involving keys or conversation (respectively) will\r\ndemonstrate these features: \"Return to Ditch Day\" and \"Square Circle\" are\r\nprobably the most obvious examples.\r\n<P>\r\nCHALLENGES<br>\r\n_Ladders_ The TADS 3 Game \"The Battle of Walcot Keep\" attempts to implement\r\nladders of a sort (specifically, scaling ladders), though not quite in the\r\ndetail mentioned here. The Walcot ladders must be leant against an\r\nappropriate wall before they can scales, and actually take actors from one\r\nlocation to another. There is no actual tracking of height as such, though.\r\n<P>\r\nTypos and Other Quibbles<br>\r\n------------------------<br>\r\nUnder \"A TYPICAL SIMULATION\", quite early in first paragraph, \"provided by\r\nthe the library\" (delete one or other \"the\").\r\n<P>\r\nUnder \"TEXT SYNTHESIS\", first paragraph, final sentence; \"quantiative\"\r\nshould read \"quantitative\".\r\n<P>\r\nUnder \"FIFTY SIMULATIONS\" the sentence \"Because simulations are just a tool\r\nto use in a game, any given simulation is really useful on a game by game\r\nbasis.\" Has the word \"only\" been omitted  between \"really\" and \"useful\"?\r\n<P>\r\n\"_Opacity_\" Should this be \"_Opacity/Transparency_\"?\r\n\"Light_\" Should this be \"_Darkness/Light_\"?\r\n<P>\r\nUnder \"PHYSICAL PROPERTIES\"<br>\r\nShould \"_Mass_\" really be \"_Weight_\", since the ensuing discussion indicates\r\nthat it is actually weight, not inertia, that is under consideration here.\r\n<P>\r\nUnder \"SPATIALITY\"<br>\r\n_3D coordinates_ \"A numeric height simulation is 1/3...\"; this should really\r\nbe \"A numeric height simulation is one third...\"\r\n<P>\r\nUnder \"SENSING\"<br>\r\n_Propagation_. The spelling of \"propagation\" becomes somewhat wayward in\r\nthis paragraph. Both \"propation\" and \"propogation\" need to be corrected to\r\n\"propagation\".\r\n<P>\r\nUnder \"DIVISIBILITY\"<br>\r\n_Discrete Divisibility_. \"chopping off characters arms\" should be \"chopping\r\noff characters\' arms\" (i.e., an apostrophe is needed).\r\n<P>\r\nUnder \"MAGIC\"<br>\r\n_Transformation_, last sentence: \"which uses changes the attribute...\" is\r\nclearly wrong; either \"uses\" or \"changes\" needs to be deleted.\r\n<P>\r\nUnder \"EXTENDING THE PLAYER CHARACTER\"<br>\r\n_Inventory_. The sentence \"But there are in other possibilities, such as\r\nabstract notion of there being at most one or two \'ready\' objects.\" is a bit\r\ngarbled. I suspect \"in\" needs to be deleted and either \'the\' or \'an\'\r\ninserted between \'as\' and \'abstract\'.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\n<P>',1,'2005-01-26 02:07:12','2005-01-29 16:17:19',2),(51,55,25,'',1,'2005-02-05 20:55:33','2005-02-05 20:55:33',0),(52,56,24,'General Comments:\r\n<P>\r\n-- There is a  lot of interesting content in the essay, but it\'s poorly-organized, lacks a unifying theme, and most of the examples are either the author\'s own work or fairly obscure non-IF references.\r\n<P>\r\n-- The chief weakness is that on the main topic -- NPC dialogue --  the author has apparently not decided what the main point of the essay is.  Is it the need to select an appropriate conversational system for the type of game you\'re writing?  Is it a how-to on how to write good dialogue?  Is it an exposition on why dialogue is essential to rich NPC development?  Is it a reference source for examples of good dialogue, and a parsing of what makes those example good?  The essay has a little bit of all of these, but doesn\'t really nail any of them.\r\n<P>\r\n--  The author assumes that the reader has more specific knowledge of some of the references than they may necessarily have.  In the discussion of conversation systems, for example, he assumes that \"Ask/Tell,\" menu systems, and \"Talk to\" as he references them are common to the reader\'s vocabulary.  But they may not be, and without more description of each system, there is small hope that a \"newbie\" author would understand the fundamental differences between the systems described. <i>[Ed. note: given the other content of the book, I wouldn\'t worry about this too much.]</i>\r\n<P>\r\n--  There are numerous digressions to other media and or other game types which don\'t really heighten what the author is trying to say about NPC dialogue.  They are not uninteresting (I like Justice League of America comics, for example) but these references are not really relevant as to \"how\" or \"why\" to write good NPC dialogue if IF.\r\n<P>\r\n-- Most references to modern IF works not written by the author are just that -- brief mentions, not fully analyzed examples.  The detailed references are either the author\'s own work or very dated examples from a Level 9 game and Infocom\'s Circuit\'s Edge.  Yet the modern IF works  he cites -- Galatea, Kaged, Pytho\'s Mask, and Varicella  -- would offer a rich vein of examples for \"good dialogue\" if they were explored more fully.  Not to mention other games like Being Andrew Plotkin, The Cabal, Photopia, and others where dialogue with/between NPCs plays an equally significant part of the delivery of the game itself.\r\n<P>\r\n-- Overall, the author needs to (1) pick the major theme/point, as suggested in the first & second bullets (2) organize the essay better so that it flows naturally and ends with a reinforcement of the author\'s points and (3) make better use of IF references and less use of obscure authors and non-IF games as contrasts.  Right now, for example, the essay ends on a bullet point that could have been -- in a slightly rewritten fashion -- the starting point and organizing theme for the whole essay.  As it is, it\'s interesting but just leaves you thinking -- \"Why didn\'t he concentrate on this?\"\r\n<P>\r\nSome other specific comments are interleaved in the text below.\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\n Text adventures, unlike many other kinds of computer games, are really well positioned when it comes to creating rich and memorable non-player characters. Examples abound from both the old school (\"Floyd,\" from \"Planetfall,\" \"Trent/Tiffany\" from \"Leather Goddesses of Phobos\") and the new (The alien from \"Fail-Safe,\" \"Galatea\" from the release of the same name).\r\n<P>\r\nThis starts off sounding like its going to be about NPCs in general, not good dialogue.  The point might be better stated as, \"If you want to have great NPCs, you have to give them great dialogue.  That\'s the only way they come alive and step off the screen.  Otherwise, they are cardboard cutouts or scenery characters.\"\r\n<P>\r\nHowever, one tactic that today\'s IF author can employ to both create deep and rich NPCs that both compare favorably to Infocom\'s and the average character in a commercial release is dialogue.\r\n<P>\r\nBy \"commercial release,\" I assume he means non-IF games or the current versions of commercial \"graphical adventures\" that Andrew Plotkin often reviews on r.g.i.f.  I assume that, because he doesn\'t spell it out.\r\n<P>\r\nThe extreme disk size limits that Infocom and others faced twenty years ago no longer really apply to modern authors, and many more characters within professionally developed computer games are more concerned with selling you additional data crystals or getting out of the way of your rocket launcher than they are in holding any kind of meaningful or entertaining conversation with you.\r\n<P>\r\nThis is a bit of a non-sequitur.  If I were editing with a word limit, I would simply change it to say,  \"Modern IF is one of the few media where you can have NPCs hold meaningful and entertaining conversations, so why not exploit that feature?\"\r\n<P>\r\nSeveral different types of conversation systems are available\r\n<P>\r\n<SNIP>\r\n<P>\r\n (Further exploration of these and additional methods can be found in Chapter xx: NPC Conversation Systems.)\r\n<P>\r\nIf these systems are actually going to be covered in another essay in more detail, I would condense all of this down to nothing but the reference to that fact.  I don\'t think the type of conversation system actually limits how you write the dialogue, it only limits how the interpreter is going to display your choices to you.  If the other essay covers the systems in detail, then let it.\r\n<P>\r\nAfter selecting a conversational style based on the kind of game you are writing, it will eventually come time to place some words in your characters\' mouths. Dialogue is a facet of writing that intimidate some authors who are otherwise quite adept at illustrating their games within a text-based medium. It\'s common enough where the jobs of plotter and scripter are sometimes split in other mediums: for instance the first sixty issues of the old \"Justice League America\" comic book run had Keith Giffen plotting the books, and J. M. DeMatteis just handling the dialogue:\r\n<P>\r\n<SNIP>\r\n<P>\r\nAgain, this is interesting but just doesn\'t belong in this essay.  Presumably, if you\'re writing an IF game, you\'ve decided that you\'ll try to write some dialogue.  If not, I\'m not sure you\'d be reading this essay in the first place.\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\nAdditionally, even Douglas Adams had expressed some self-doubt as to whether the women he wrote came off as genuine (Gaiman, xx).\r\n<P>\r\nAssumes everybody knows Douglas Adams, which may or may not be true of the younger gen of IFers.\r\n<P>\r\nWhile general tips in making your characters sound real include a lot of listening at real conversations and the devouring of books known for their characters\' interactions\r\n<P>\r\nThese are good tips but passed over in an eye blink.   I thought the essay would have lots of these types of things in it.\r\n<P>\r\n(I can certainly recommend the novels of George Alec Effinger, Gregory McDonald and Elmore Leonard, and the screenplays of Kevin Smith as good launching points)\r\n<P>\r\nWhy not reference IF works here?  Surely, IFers would be more interested in references to actual games than to novels.  But these 3 are also not even the tip of the iceberg if you\'re talking about novels.  I won\'t go on and on, but except for Elmore Leonard, the others are fairly obscure.  A better way to say it might be:  \"Crime/detective novels are traditionally the home of brilliant dialogue.  I can personally recommend <insert his refs> and I\'ve heard good things about <insert other refs>.  Other good sources are screenplays, which are almost all dialogue.  Kevin Smith, who wrote <insert some of KS\'s credits> is one of my favorites.\"\r\n<P>\r\nthere is really no substitute to spending time with your characters and getting to know them (and what they are likely to do) as people, as friends. If you\'ve only got a few character traits to start with, I have found that it helps to \"model\" characters after people you know quite well while beginning your game.\r\n<P>\r\nThis is a great tip.  Unfortunately, the whole discussion of \"Fallacy of Dawn\" that comes after it is hard to follow and uncertain as to the point it is trying to make.  When he finally gets to actually quoting the conversation from the game, it is difficult to tell whether the whole paragraph is from the game, or is interleaved with the author\'s comments.  I would recommend quoting from the game in game style, e.g.,\r\n<P>\r\n\"\"He was a teaching assistant for one week in one of my classes,\"\r\nsays Clara. \"He wasn\'t around for very long, but he left an\r\nimpression. Then I saw him out here a few weeks ago.\"\r\n<P>\r\ntalk to Clara\r\n<P>\r\n\"What, did he quit?\" I ask.\r\n<P>\r\n\"Mmm-hmm. They make us all take a few computer classes\r\nin art history because a lot of us end up taking jobs where we are\r\narchiving pictures and scans onto DVD. Using \'Toast\' or some program\r\nlike that.\"\r\n<P>\r\n Though I confess to being a proponent of using the first-person narrative in text adventures on knee-jerk general principle alone, being able to do things like that through dialogue would be a precise reason why.\r\n<P>\r\nDo things like what?  Presumably, he is talking about the character\'s inner dialogue.  But it is hard to be sure that\'s what he means.  He could expound on inner dialogue more,\r\nbut note that this dialogue is the PCs -- not the NPCs -- thought process.  While that can be a useful way to help delineate what the PC thinks about the NPC, it\'s not really the topic of NPC dialogue.  It\'s the topic \"benefits of using 1st person as the narrative voice.\"\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\nFollowing are two scenes relating to the characters of George Alec Effinger, an author whose novel \"When Gravity Fails\" was the basis for the 1990 Infocom release \"The Circuit\'s Edge.\" First, the character Marid Audran is depicted having his own back within \"When Gravity Fails\" during an attempt to get hustled:\r\n<P>\r\nThis long example fell pretty flat for me.  It\'s too involved, and though I know of Effinger I haven\'t read his books.  Nor did I ever play \"The Circuit\'s Edge,\" being on hiatus from IF during that period.  The two scenes are not similar enough to see why one is so preferable over the other and, to some extent, the medium of IF always suffers from those kinds of direct comparisons to novels.  If the author had rephrased the game example and shown how a good IF rendition could have kept the punchiness of the original Effinger novel, then it might\'ve worked for me.\r\n<P>\r\n Although we only have words at our command to really present our characters, as developers of interactive fiction, we do have two distinct advantages over more traditional gaming fare:\r\n<P>\r\n o Our players are already in a mindset to read.\r\n<P>\r\nI\'m not sure this is the right way to express this point.  One of the challenges of IF is what to do if you\'re audience IS NOT  in the mindset to read.   I think one answer is more dialogue, which is easier and more fun to read.  The non-IF references don\'t go down well with me, as I have virtually zero interest in RPGs and their many variants.\r\n<P>\r\n o Allowing the player to choose the exact response, the best quip or put-down with which to reply to NPCs is alien to not only novels and cinema, but most graphic adventures as well.\r\n<P>\r\nYes.  IF is about choice.  Having dialogue choices impact plot variables is a key benefit of IF.  But he doesn\'t detail how/why/where that is or could be done other than with a drive-by reference to some good IF games at the very end of the piece.   Much more on this topic would have made the  whole essay a lot stronger.',1,'2005-02-05 22:15:40','2005-02-13 18:21:30',2),(53,57,13,'Overall, I enjoyed this piece and found it thought-provoking and\r\ninteresting.  I like the alternate take on the common \'how to write\r\nroom descriptions\' pieces.  Two points where I\'d like to see further\r\ndetails:\r\n<P>\r\nIn the 3rd paragraph, Mr. Granade writes: \"An author can write a\r\ndescription that lies, if the narrator of the story is unreliable.\" \r\nHowever, no further details or examples are given of this idea, which\r\nmay be one of the more fascinating points he raises.  I\'d like to see\r\nan expansion of this idea, although this may get more into the concept\r\nof who the \'narrator\' is, and what role (it) plays in I-F, rather than\r\nremaining strictly about room descriptions as dynamic devices.\r\n<P>\r\nSecond, towards the end of the piece, Mr. Granade writes: \"I said I\r\nwouldn\'t discuss how you deal with room exits in room descriptions...\"\r\n I\'ve read this piece through several times, and have yet to find the\r\npart where he writes this the first time.  That said, I think this is\r\nanother area that could be expanded upon.  How does the way the exits\r\nare described give further information (meta-, mood, changing\r\nplayer/world state, etc.) about the room?  What about the ability to\r\n\'see\' into an adjoining room? I\'m thinking here of the \'peer\r\n<direction>\' command in some MUDs.  Talk about an opportunity for\r\nproviding the player with misleading/incomplete information about the\r\ntrials (and trails) ahead.  However, perhaps this isn\'t completely\r\napplicable to the essay as written.',1,'2005-02-05 22:34:52','2005-02-13 22:25:23',2),(54,58,23,'My critique style is to include any recurring thoughts as well as any criticism or applause. These extraneous considerations can safely be ignored, or they can be incorporated if the author deems them important or interesting. Of course, the criticism should also be taken with a grain of salt, since I\'m writing as someone with only a few months of IF authoring experience.\r\n<P>\r\n>Giving Your NPC a Life of His Own<br>\r\n><br>\r\n>Pick up any novel and chances are good that it will center around a <br>\r\n>character or group of characters, their activities, and what they do.<br>\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nThe last two items in this sentence sound like the same thing to me. Perhaps for the last item, the author meant something more like \"the results of what they do\" or \"the consequences of their actions.\" Or maybe they meant something else that I\'m not getting.\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nI enjoyed the brief discussion that followed about characters in classical novels. This flowed very naturally to a discussion of NPCs in early IF. The following section is particular well said and might succeed in motivating IF writers to put more effort into their important NPCs.\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\n>Thus, if an author has created a simple NPC who only reacts to a <br>\r\n>single \"correct\" solution, that NPC will stand in the same place for <br>\r\n>hundreds of moves while the player attempts to discover the key that <br>\r\n>will advance the game. The NPC in this case is little more than a <br>\r\n>locked door, infinitely patient and equally lifeless, and ultimately, <br>\r\n>not very interesting.<br>\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nSimilarly, the following is a good way to express the ultimate goal of writing a complex NPC.<br>\r\n>The NPC follows the script the programmer/author has written, and<br>\r\n>we, the players, forget  we\'re reading words on a computer screen<br>\r\n>and become entranced.<br>\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nIf the player forgets they are dealing with a prewritten script or program, the goal has been achieved. This gives an author a measuring stick for success regardless of their technique.\r\n<P>\r\n>When Should an NPC Have a Script?\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nI\'m not convinced this is the best title for this section. The first paragraph does answer the question, but then the bulk of the section goes on to cover how the author should handle an NPC who clearly deserves to be scripted. This latter information also bears great similarity to the included sidebar. Perhaps this section could be titled or ordered differently.\r\n<P>\r\nSimilarly, the pragraph below might be better off in the section \'Scripting a Life\' that follows. It would seem to be a necessary prerequisite for the advice in the rest of that section.\r\n<P>\r\n>Write out a description of a typical \"day in the life\" of your NPC. <br>\r\n>Our shopkeeper\'s day might include arriving at work in the morning, <br>\r\n>putting out his wares, cleaning, leaving for lunch, receiving new <br>\r\n>stock, making ice cream, discussing politics with the people in the <br>\r\n>store, managing money at the end of the day, and going home for the <br>\r\n>evening. Whether any or all of this is interesting or important to the <br>\r\n>game will affect how much of it is included.<br>\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\n>Scripting a Life\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nThe code examples in this section and throughout the remainder of the article are very clear and concise, in my opinion. I couldn\'t find a single example where I needed clarification on the code, even after reading through it twice to make sure.\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nHowever, I\'m a little confused when the author refers to \"returning control to the daemon.\" Isn\'t the daemon in control of the subroutine already? Or can the subroutine rest control away from the daemon indefinitely? It\'s quite possible this makes perfect sense to a more seasoned coder. As a newbie, I don\'t quite get the language.\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nHere are a couple of instances: \r\n<P>\r\n>In the first thirty minutes of gameplay, Merle does nothing...\r\n<P>\r\n>For this example, nothing  happens, so the subroutine returns\r\n<P>\r\n>control to the daemon.\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nAnd later on, at the very end of this section:\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\n>If the player is not in a position to see what Merle is doing, we <br>\r\n>simply return control to the daemon routine and don\'t print anything at <br>\r\n>all.\r\n<P>\r\n>NPCs with Something Special to Say\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nThis section is so clearly written that I have nothing special to add, other than that it strikes me as a nifty idea that would be easy to implement by an author who is a little intimidated by the idea of setting up a whole daily routine for their NPC.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\n>NPCs Who Listen\r\n<P>\r\nAgain, the explanation and code given is very clear. However, it might be nice to also discuss what happens when NPCs don\'t listen. I suspect the messages given for Ask, Tell, Give, Show, etc should indicate that the NPC goes back to their usual routine almost immediately.\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nA listening Merle\'s response to a question might be \"Merle considers the question a moment, then answers in the affirmative.\" And that might be followed by \"Merle waits patiently.\" A non-listening Merle might instead respond, \"Merle turns his attention to you just long enough to answer in the affirmative.\" This might be followed by a description at the end of the turn of Merle\'s continued actions, which were not significantly interrupted by the player\'s interaction.\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nThat\'s obviously an optional diversion from the main topic at hand, though.\r\n<P>\r\n\r\n>The NPC Lives!\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nThis section brings the article full circle, reminding the reader of the earliest two sections. It\'s a satisfying conclusion. I find myself considering how, in one difference between novels and IF, the IF player can decide how well they will \'get to know\' an NPC. The novel reader only learns as much about each character as the author has determined they will. As a result, I believe the IF player who takes the time to interact may develop a stronger personal bond with the NPC. Not only do they know a lot about the NPC, but it\'s an achievement they can be proud of.\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\n> The methods here can be improved upon and made much more complex.\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nThis might be an understatement. I\'m already wondering what happens if the player diverts Merle\'s attention by interacting with him during the period of time during which Merle would normally leave home and open the store. Does Merle suddenly pop out of existence in front of his house with no newpaper in hand, then pop in at his store with a newspaper? Or will a clever author tag certain sections of Merle\'s timeline as optional if he\'s behind schedule? (For instance, Merle opens the store as usual but skips making ice cream that day.) Hmm.\r\n<P>\r\n>Sidebar<br>\r\n>Questions to Ask an NPC\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nThe sidebar\'s title is an excellent reminder that the character needs to take on a life of his/her own before the coding process begins. A useful addition for less experienced writers.\r\n<P>\r\n \r\n<P>\r\nOverall, I think this is a pretty useful article. I\'m going to implement some of these concepts in a game I\'m currently working on. Though I\'ll probably have to research a little bit about the exact code needed for the design system I\'m using (Inform), I\'m sure it won\'t be too hard. The important thing is to understand how it works on a practical level, which I feel confident about.',1,'2005-02-06 00:08:13','2005-02-13 18:24:17',2),(55,59,2,'Okay. My comments are enclosed in brackets.\r\n<P>\r\n[This is a nice essay. If my comments seem a little\r\npersnickety, it\'s only because there weren\'t any major\r\nflaws in this article. Good work.]\r\n<P>\r\nShort works of interactive fiction offer many\r\npleasures. If the work is a more traditional game,\r\nwhen well-designed it is a fine Swiss watch, every\r\npiece meshing together and turning in time, with no\r\nunneeded parts. If it is more experimental, it can\r\nsurprise and delight without becoming tiresome, a\r\nbrief flurry of technical fireworks. In either case,\r\nthe main pleasure is in seeing something small done\r\nwell. Short works are constrained, the short story to\r\nthe novel of longer works, and have become the form of\r\nchoice for many interactive fiction authors.\r\n<P>\r\nShort games have not always been popular. For the\r\ntwenty years between the mid-1970s and mid-1990s,\r\ninteractive fiction authors generally ignored the\r\npossibility of a short game which was entirely\r\nself-contained, rather than a demonstration of or an\r\nad for a long game. Recently, the number of short\r\ngames has increased dramatically, spurred on by the\r\nfirst Annual Interactive Fiction Competition. Short\r\ngames have become so prevalent that in 1998 several\r\npeople asked in the Usenet group rec.arts.int-fiction,\r\n\"Is the yearly competition hurting the release of long\r\ngames?\" Given the dramatic shift in game size over the\r\nlast eight years, it is worth seeing how short games\r\ncame to be the near-standard.\r\n<P>\r\n[I thought this article was going to be a history of\r\nthe size of text-adventure games, but then it turned\r\ninto a history of experimental games. I think the two\r\nthings are related, as you say, and it\'s okay to talk\r\nabout both of them in the same article, but it would\r\nbe nice if the reader knew what the article was about\r\nfrom the introductory paragraph (which does mention\r\nboth traditional and experimental games, but seems to\r\nsay that the article is only going to discuss how\r\nthese games have gotten shorter over the years). Maybe\r\nyou could bring in the topic of experimentation\r\nearlier, by mentioning how a commercial concern, like\r\na text-adventure game company, is more likely to be\r\nrisk-adverse and mainly imitate previous commercial\r\nsuccesses. (Though Infocom should get credit for\r\npioneering the \"fiction\" aspect of text-adventure\r\ngames.)]\r\n<P>\r\nOne primary question must be answered before the\r\nevolution of the short game can be explored: what is a\r\nshort game? How do we measure the length of a piece of\r\ninteractive fiction? Works are considered long or\r\nshort based on how long it takes to play them to\r\ncompletion, but no reliable metric exists for\r\nmeasuring the length of play time across even a\r\nmajority of players. File size alone cannot serve, as\r\nsome games with multimedia resources such as pictures\r\nand music have large file sizes yet can be readily\r\ncompleted in the space of an hour. One of the longest\r\ngames on record, \"Journey to Alpha Centauri (In Real\r\nTime)\" (Julian Fleetwood, 1998), which would take 3000\r\nyears to play to completion, has a file size of a mere\r\n50 kb. \r\n<P>\r\n[I\'m not sure this is a good example of a long game.\r\nWasn\'t it one of those one-joke mini-games? Perhaps\r\nsomething along the lines of \"Muldoon\" or \"So Far\"\r\nwould be a better example, though it might not provide\r\nsuch a contrast between file size and play time. Maybe\r\nyou could contrast the file sizes of \"Curses\" and\r\n\"1893,\" both long games with very different file\r\nsizes, to make your point.]\r\n<P>\r\nOther similar numeric measurements, such as the number\r\nof rooms, the amount of descriptive text, or the\r\nnumber of puzzles in a piece of interactive fiction,\r\ncorrelate weakly with play time. The length of time to\r\ncomplete interactive fiction is very player-specific,\r\nand depends strongly on how much time a given player\r\nspends solving a work\'s puzzles, if any; the player\'s\r\nreading and typing speed; and how motivated a player\r\nis to finish a work. Since all but a few works of\r\ninteractive fiction do not occur in real time, players\r\nare free to pause for any length of time between moves\r\nand consider their next course of action, time which\r\nis by custom counted as \"play time.\"\r\n<P>\r\n[This is all true, but you might be overstating the\r\ncase for different play times for different players.\r\nI\'d be surprised to learn that play time varied by\r\nmore than a factor of, say, three for different\r\nplayers. The Interactive Fiction Ratings site seems to\r\nget a pretty good handle on how long a game is by\r\npolling players.]\r\n<P>\r\nThe Annual Interactive Fiction Competition, which was\r\ncreated as a showcase for short games, had to answer\r\nthe question of \"how short is short?\" G. Kevin Wilson,\r\ncompetition creator and organizer, settled on a fixed\r\nlength of play. Judges were to play games for no more\r\nthan two hours before voting on a game. Though play\r\ntime varies among players, the average time does not\r\nvary that widely on such a short time scale. In\r\npractice this has produced competition games that are\r\ncommonly regarded as short, and consensus about which\r\ngames are too long for the competition is readily\r\nreached. For the purposes of this article I will use a\r\nsimilarly nebulous definition and say that any work\r\nwidely regarded as taking ten or fewer hours to play\r\nis short.\r\n<P>\r\n[I\'d consider 10 hours to be a medium-sized game. It\r\nmight be helpful to add a few more categories for game\r\nlength because, otherwise, you\'ll end up implying that\r\ngames like \"Christminster\" and \"Savoir Faire\" are\r\nsimilar in size to games like \"Slouching Towards\r\nBedlam\" and \"Shade.\" I\'d, at least, go for short,\r\nmedium and long, and considering the number of\r\none-puzzle or one-joke games that have shown up, you\r\ncould probably add a miniature category too.]\r\n<P>\r\nEvery element of early works of interactive fiction\r\nwas a reflection of those in \"ADVENT\" (Crowther and\r\nWoods, 1976), and game size was no exception. \"ADVENT\"\r\nwas a sprawling game which took place in a large\r\nunderground land filled with puzzles and treasures.\r\nWhile some players were able to complete \"ADVENT\" in a\r\nhandful of hours, \r\n<P>\r\n[Really? Without a walk-through? I could be wrong, and\r\nI\'ve never completed \"Adventure,\" but from what I saw,\r\nI don\'t see how someone who hadn\'t played it before\r\ncould get all the way through it in two or three\r\nhours.]\r\n<P>\r\nmany took tens of hours to finish it. Early works\r\nmimicked \"ADVENT\" in size and length of play time.\r\nGames such as \"DUNGEON\" (Tim Anderson, Marc Blank,\r\nBruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, 1978) and \"Acheton\"\r\n(Jonathan Partington, David Seal, and Jon Thackray,\r\n1978) were large affairs taking many hours to\r\ncomplete. For a while, each successive game was larger\r\nthan the last.\r\n<P>\r\nThe trend towards increasing size was temporarily\r\nreversed when interactive fiction moved from mainframe\r\ncomputers to personal ones. Personal computers had\r\nsmall amounts of memory -- the standard maximum memory\r\nof 16 kb on the TRS-80 Model I was typical -- and\r\nprograms were stored on cassette tapes. Scott Adams\r\nled the way in this field, becoming the first to sell\r\ninteractive fiction commercially for play on personal\r\ncomputers. The adventures he wrote for his company\r\nAdventure International were tiny, and used every\r\nimaginable trick to squeeze more game into the finite\r\nspace available. His tricks were of sufficient\r\ninterest to warrant an article in the December 1980\r\nissue of Byte magazine. Adams\'s adventures lacked the\r\nprose of \"ADVENT;\" consider the following room\r\ndescription from Pirate\'s Adventure:\r\n<P>\r\nI\'m in a sandy beach on a tropical isle Obvious exit:\r\nEAST Visible items: Small ship\'s keel and mast, Sand,\r\nLagoon, Sign in the sand says: \'Welcome to Pirates\r\nIsland, watch out for the tide!\'\r\n<P>\r\nWhen Infocom was formed, its first product was\r\n\"DUNGEON\" ported to personal computers. To make this\r\npossible, \"DUNGEON\" was cut into three parts and each\r\npart rounded out to make a complete game. The results\r\nwere \"Zork I, II, and III\" (Tim Anderson, Marc Blank,\r\nBruce Daniels, and Dave Lebling, 1979). Yet despite\r\ntheir small sizes, works such as the three \"Zork\"\r\ngames and \"Pirate Adventure\" took a while to play. And\r\nworks did not become any shorter as time went on.\r\n<P>\r\n[I don\'t think I\'d characterize any of the \"Zork\"\r\ngames as short. Also, I\'ve been told that very little\r\nfrom \"Zork  III\" was based on \"Dungeon.\" I don\'t know\r\nhow relevant this is to the topic of this essay, but\r\nyou may want to mention that one of the reasons that\r\nInfocom developed a virtual machine for their games\r\nwas to get around the small amount of RAM available on\r\nPCs at the time. In other words, it was a different\r\n\"trick\" from the ones Scott Adams used, to get around\r\nmemory limits, and this trick allowed medium-sized\r\nadventure games to be played on PCs.]\r\n<P>\r\nEconomic pressures, more than mere homage to \"ADVENT,\"\r\ndrove the size of commercial works of interactive\r\nfiction. Once companies began charging for interactive\r\nfiction, players expected a certain amount of play\r\ntime for their money. Companies began to boast of\r\nhaving large games in an effort to attract customers.\r\nFor instance, Level 9 trumpeted the 7,000 rooms of\r\ntheir adventure \"Snowball\" (Mike Austin, Nick Austin,\r\nPete Austin, and Ian Buxton, 1983). (While a true\r\nboast, some 6,800 of those rooms formed a maze\r\nconsisting of near-identical rooms.) In addition, many\r\ncompanies used hint books as a revenue stream. The\r\nbest way a company could insure the sale of hint books\r\nwas to include fiendishly difficult puzzles in the\r\ncompany\'s works, \r\n<P>\r\n[I suspect this is true. I\'ve run across some truly\r\nbizarre puzzles in some of these games. But I think\r\nstatements about difficult puzzles being put in games\r\nto sell hint books should come from someone who worked\r\nin the industry. Perhaps you could dig up a quote for\r\nthis? I believe one of Infocom\'s play-testers reads\r\nand posts to r*if, and one of the people who worked\r\nfor Magnetic Scrolls has shown up in the IF community.\r\nAlso, another reason for some of the tougher puzzles\r\ncould have been that some of these companies\' target\r\nmarket was \"puzzle fiends.\" I remember reading an\r\narticle that said that Infocom felt some pressure to\r\nmake \"harder\" games from some of their fans and came\r\nup with the notion of also making \"easy\" or\r\n\"introductory\" games to keep from alienating people\r\nwho weren\'t \"puzzle fiends.\" At one point, they\r\nstarted putting difficulty ratings on their packaging\r\nand in their catalogs in an effort to let people know\r\nhow tough a game would be.]\r\n<P>\r\nwhich in turn led to longer play times for those who\r\nrefused to buy hint books.\r\n<P>\r\nAt the same time, economics, not just available memory\r\nand storage, kept works from becoming extremely long.\r\nLonger works require more time to design, develop, and\r\ndebug than shorter ones. As more memory and storage\r\nspace became available, works became deeper, with the\r\naddition of more prose, items, and non-player\r\ncharacters (NPCs), rather than more game play per se.\r\n<P>\r\n[Yes, but I believe the addition of more items and\r\nNPCs would, in addition to adding to the ambience of a\r\ngame, also drive up the play time to some degree and\r\nit would also increase a game\'s implementation and\r\ndebugging time. Also, the later years of the retail\r\ntext-adventure game produced some very long games,\r\ndespite the additional logistical problems that adding\r\nillustrations and sound to the games created. Legend\r\nEntertainment\'s \"TimeQuest\" has been mentioned fairly\r\noften as an extremely long game and some of Magnetic\r\nScrolls games took quite a while to play.]\r\n<P>\r\n\r\nThis situation remained more-or-less unchanged\r\nthroughout the 1980s and on into the 1990s. Even as\r\nthe commercial market for text-based interactive\r\nfiction declined, game length changed little. Given\r\nthis history, it is unsurprising that early works from\r\nthe nascent interactive fiction community were similar\r\nto commercial ones in size and scope, limited mainly\r\nby the capabilities of interactive fiction languages\r\nof the time, such as GAGS and AGT. A goal of many\r\nauthors who took part in the Cosmoserve online\r\ncommunity for interactive fiction was to make games\r\n\"just like Infocom\'s.\" \r\n<P>\r\n[The quotes suggest that someone else said this, could\r\nyou mention who it was? Also, you later mention raif,\r\nrgif, and the ifMUD specifically, so it would be nice\r\nif you mentioned the name of this forum too. Pintar\r\nwas available online not too long ago, perhaps you\r\ncould contact her to find out what the name of it\r\nwas.]\r\n<P>\r\nAGT games like \"Cliff Diver, Investigator for Hire:\r\nCrime to the Ninth Power\" (Patrick Farley, 1990) and\r\n\"The Multi-Dimensional Thief\" (Joel Finch, 1991), TADS\r\ngames like \"Save Princeton\" (Karine Schaefer and Jacob\r\nWeinstein, 1991) and \"Unnkulian Underworld: The\r\nUnknown Unventure\" (D. A. Leary, 1990), and\r\nindependently-programmed games such as \"Jacaranda Jim\"\r\n(Graham Cluley, 1987), were of moderate size,\r\ncomparable to the sizes of many commercial games of\r\nthe 1980s.\r\n<P>\r\n[In the context of a book whose target audience is\r\nr*if and the ifMUD, this probably won\'t matter, but\r\nthis is the first time you\'ve mentioned TADS, and\r\nInform is mentioned for the first time a short while\r\nlater, so it might help readers who aren\'t familiar\r\nwith the current community to mention that these are\r\nspecial-purpose programming languages too.]\r\n<P>\r\nShort games were rare, and the ones which did appear\r\nwere mostly sections from a longer work made available\r\nfor demonstration purposes or, like \"Unnkulia\r\nOne-Half: The Salesman Triumphant\" (David Baggett,\r\n1993), self-contained games which served as ads for\r\nother, longer games. One notable deviation from this\r\nwas \"John\'s Fire Witch\" (John Baker, 1995). Described\r\nby author John Baker as a \"snack-sized game,\" the work\r\nwas very favorably received. A large part of its\r\nappeal came from the novelty of its short length.\r\n<P>\r\nSuch short works would not remain a novelty for long,\r\nso to speak, as their creation experienced a\r\ntremendous boost later in 1995 with the creation of\r\nthe Annual Interactive Fiction Competition. The\r\ncompetition was organized by G. Kevin Wilson and the\r\ndenizens of the two Usenet newsgroups dedicated to\r\ninteractive fiction, rec.arts.int-fiction and\r\nrec.games.int-fiction. The competition\'s initial\r\npurpose was to increase the number of works written\r\nusing the interactive fiction language Inform; only\r\nafter much discussion was the competition opened to\r\ngames written in TADS as well. \r\n<P>\r\nThe decision to limit the competition to short games\r\nwas a pragmatic one, as judges were required to play\r\nall entries, and who would have the time to play five\r\nor six longer works? Thus the first competition had\r\nbut one rule: games had to be written to be completed\r\nwithin two hours of play.\r\n<P>\r\nThe works entered in that first competition were\r\nsimilar to \"John\'s Fire Witch,\" a short game with\r\ntraditional gameplay. Certainly \"Uncle Zebulon\'s Will\"\r\n(Magnus Olssen, 1995), which won the TADS division of\r\nthe competition, was much like \"John\'s Fire Witch\" in\r\nfeel and style. Even \"A Change In the Weather\" (Andrew\r\nPlotkin, 1995), winner of the Inform division, was\r\ntraditional in style despite its cruel scheduling of\r\nevents and rigid in-game timeline. The most unusual\r\ngame of the competition, \"Undo\" (Neil deMause, 1995),\r\nfinished last in the TADS division.\r\n<P>\r\n[Here and two paragraphs down, you start discussing\r\nchanges in content, rather than size. It appears as\r\nthough you\'re changing topics. You could also mention\r\nhow the IF community\'s attitude towards unusual games\r\nhas changed. \"Undo\" would be pretty respectable by\r\ncurrent standards, but, as you say, it was the lowest\r\nrated game in the TADS section.]\r\n<P>\r\nOther than the lengths of entries, what was most\r\nnotable about the Competition was the plethora of game\r\nreviews and discussion which came on the heels of the\r\nCompetition\'s conclusion. The community was asked not\r\nto discuss the games during the adjudication period,\r\nresulting in a pent-up flood of opinions which burst\r\nforth after the Competition. Entries were heavily\r\ndiscussed and reviewed, garnering feedback far in\r\nexcess of that enjoyed by non-competition games.\r\n<P>\r\nMost short games entered in the next several annual\r\ncompetitions remained traditional in style and design.\r\n\"The Meteor, The Stone, and A Long Glass of Sherbet\"\r\n(Graham Nelson, 1996), which won the 1996 Interactive\r\nFiction Competition, could easily have been an\r\nInfocom-era work which just happened to take around\r\ntwo hours to complete instead of twenty. A few\r\ncompetition works experimented with form and function;\r\nAndrew Plotkin\'s entry in the 1996 competition, \"Lists\r\nand Lists\" (Andrew Plotkin, 1996), was a compiler for\r\nthe computer language Scheme coupled with a Scheme\r\ntutorial.\r\n<P>\r\n[I\'m no expert, but I believe it was an interpreter\r\nrather than a compiler.]\r\n<P>\r\nMore unusual works were beginning to appear outside\r\nthe confines of the competition. \"The Space Under the\r\nWindow\" (Andrew Plotkin, 1997) was more an interactive\r\npresentation of text than a traditional game, while\r\n\"Pick Up the Phone Booth and Die\" (Rob Noyes, 1996)\r\nwas a dada-ist game whose title is entirely\r\ndescriptive: the work contains one room and one item,\r\na phone booth; should you pick up the phone booth, you\r\nwill die.\r\n<P>\r\n1998 was a turning point in the evolution of short\r\nworks. In late 1996 Eileen Mullin, editor of the\r\ne-zine XYZZYnews, created the XYZZY Awards. The Awards\r\nhonor works in given categories such as Best NPCs,\r\nBest Puzzles, and Best Game, and are chosen by any\r\nmembers of the interactive fiction community who wish\r\nto vote. Several games are nominated in each category,\r\nafter which a single winner is chosen. The 1997 awards\r\nwere voted on in early 1998, and every XYZZY award\r\nwent to a short game. All but \"I-0\" (Adam Cadre,\r\n1997), winner of Best Game, were entries in the 1997\r\nInteractive Fiction Competition.\r\n<P>\r\nThen, in May of 1998, Lucian P. Smith and Adam Cadre\r\nboth began mini-comps, small competitions in which\r\nentrants were to write short works which fit a given\r\npremise. Lucian\'s mini-comp involved a rich relative\r\nleaving behind a wacky will and a scavenger hunt,\r\nwhile Adam\'s merely specified that the game should\r\ninvolve chickens. The two mini-comps resulted in\r\ntwenty-five works between them, all short. \r\n<P>\r\n[This is why I have a problem with characterizing\r\ngames like \"Zork\" as short. Now we\'re talking about\r\ngames that can be played in half an hour or less. I\'d\r\ncall these \"miniature\" games, and the IF Comp games,\r\n\"short\" games.]\r\n<P>\r\nIf the Annual IF Competition had increased the\r\nacceptance of short works in the community, the\r\nmini-comps helped make short works the preferred form\r\nfor experimentation and one-off jokes, and made\r\nmini-competitions the standard way of encouraging new\r\nshort works on a given theme.\r\n<P>\r\n[It might be better to say that the short games\r\nrequired by the rules of the IF Competion, and the\r\nimplementation time limits for the mini-comp games,\r\nmade it easier, and less risky, for authors to\r\nexperiment or release one-joke or one-puzzle games.\r\nAlso, I think \"+=3\" deserves recognition, along with\r\n\"Undo,\" which you mentioned above, for pioneering the\r\none-puzzle or one-joke game.]\r\n<P>\r\nMore experimentation with the form was to follow. In\r\nOctober of 1998, David Cornelson held the first\r\nSpeedIF event on ifMUD, an online meeting place for\r\nmembers of the interactive fiction community. People\r\nwho were online and logged into ifMUD at the time\r\ngenerated a list of suggested requirements in the\r\nstyle of a mad-lib: David would call out a request for\r\nthings such as \"what you might find in a glass,\" and\r\nthen collate his favorite reponses. Entrants then had\r\ntwo hours in which to write a short work which fit the\r\nchosen requirements. Both the mini-comps and SpeedIF\r\nsparked the creation of short, often silly works whose\r\ncontent was as likely to be a convoluted community\r\nin-joke as a carefully-designed traditional game.\r\n<P>\r\nOne work in 1998 had arguably the greatest influence\r\non later short works: \"Photopia\" (Adam Cadre, 1998),\r\nwinner of the 1998 Interactive Fiction Competition.\r\n\"Photopia\" combined multiple viewpoints and a\r\nnonlinear narrative in a way which had not been seen\r\nin interactive fiction before. It eschewed traditional\r\npuzzles for narrative drive and a tightly-constrained\r\nplotline. Many authors later imitated elements of\r\n\"Photopia\" in their own short works. By winning the\r\nAnnual Interactive Fiction Competition, \"Photopia\"\r\nmarked the acceptance of \"experimental\" interactive\r\nfiction by the mainstream community.\r\n<P>\r\nDespite the inroads made by short works of interactive\r\nfiction, most of the 1998 XYZZY Awards went to longer\r\ngames such as \"Spider and Web\" (Andrew Plotkin, 1998),\r\n\"Once and Future\" (G. Kevin Wilson, 1998), and\r\n\"Anchorhead\" (Michael Gentry, 1998). Only two short\r\ngames, \"Photopia\" and \"Little Blue Men\" (Michael\r\nGentry, 1998), received awards, with each garnering\r\none award apiece.\r\n<P>\r\n1999 saw the arrival of \"Aisle\" (Sam Barlow, 1999), a\r\nwork which took exactly one turn yet had a multitude\r\nof possible endings, and the Interactive Fiction Art\r\nShow. The IF Art Show, the creation of Marnie Parker,\r\nfurther advanced the cause of short works. Entries for\r\nthe Art Show were meant to expound upon a single theme\r\nrather than to be complete games in their own right;\r\nto create a single object, scene, or character and\r\nexplore it fully. Galatea, the eponymous non-player\r\ncharacter of \"Galatea\" (Emily Short, 1999), which was\r\nentered in the second IF Art Show, is widely accepted\r\nas the best NPC to date to appear in interactive\r\nfiction; she appears in a work devoid of the usual\r\ntrappings of interactive fiction such as objects,\r\npuzzles, or even multiple rooms.\r\n<P>\r\nThe number of short works released each year continues\r\nto increase. In 2000, despite the release of such\r\nlauded longer works as \"LASH\" (Paul O\'Brian, 2000),\r\n\"Augmented Fourth\" (Brian Uri!, 2000), and \"Dangerous\r\nCurves\" (Irene Callaci, 2000), every one of the 2000\r\nXYZZY Awards went to short works. In addition, 2000\r\nmarked the first time that a SpeedIF game, \"You Are a\r\nChef!\" (Dan Shiovitz, 2000), was nominated for an\r\nXYZZY Award. \r\n<P>\r\n[Yes, but was this a joke on the XYZZY Awards by the\r\nifMUD?]\r\n<P>\r\nIn 2001 only one long work, \"First Things First\" (J.\r\nRobinson Wheeler, 2001), was released. During the same\r\nyear, there were 52 games entered in the Annual\r\nInteractive Fiction Competition, nine in SmoochieComp,\r\nsix in TelegramComp, four in the IF Art Show,\r\nseventeen IF Arcade Games, and countless SpeedIF\r\ngames, not to mention \"Textfire Golf\" (Adam Cadre,\r\n2001) and \"The Weapon\" (Sean Barrett, 2001). In just\r\nseven years the balance between short works and long\r\nones had completely reversed.\r\n<P>\r\nIn addition, the number of experimental games has\r\nrisen. \"For A Change\" (Dan Schmidt, 2000) used altered\r\nforms of English, while \"The Gostak\" (Carl\r\nMuckenhoupt, 2001) dispensed with known language\r\naltogether, using instead a language in which the\r\nsignifiers and signified were never clearly\r\nidentified. Games like \"Heroes\" (Sean Barrett, 2001)\r\nand \"Common Ground\" (Stephen Granade, 1999) employed\r\nmultiple viewpoints in the same time and place.\r\n\"shrapnel\" (Adam Cadre, 2000) is a deconstruction of\r\ninteractive fiction which, in the end, dissolves into\r\na jumble of random characters -- random, except for\r\none encoded message.\r\n<P>\r\nLong works of interactive fiction may not ever die\r\nout, but short games are undisputedly in ascendency.\r\nShort works give authors the chance to experiment with\r\nideas or gimmicks which would be stretched thin if\r\nused in a longer work. \r\n<P>\r\n[This should probably be up at the beginning of the\r\npiece as well as here.]\r\n<P>\r\nIn addition, they are more quickly written, as longer\r\nworks may take multiple years to write, and provide\r\nauthors with player feedback much sooner. In the case\r\nof entries in the Annual IF Competition, the amount of\r\nfeedback and number of reviews will likely be an order\r\nof magnitude greater than that associated with\r\nnon-competition games. The interactive fiction\r\ncommunity has come to expect short works, especially\r\nexperimental ones, and rewards them with reviews and\r\ncritiques. \r\n<P>\r\n[I think r*if and the ifMUD do encourage unusual\r\nworks, but experimental works might get talked about\r\nmore in the IF community partly because there\'s more\r\nto say about an odd game.]\r\n<P>\r\nGiven this dynamic, it is doubtful that long games\r\nwill once again become the default form in the near future.\r\n<P>',1,'2005-02-06 03:03:13','2005-02-06 16:33:13',2),(56,60,11,'Overall, I think it\'s well-organised and interesting, and it tends to stick\r\nto clear, specific advice rather than giving way to waffle (maybe with one\r\nor two exceptions - see below).  I especially liked the stretch from \"Become\r\nan Armchair Tourist\" to \"eager to try it out when you\'ve finished\".  Those\r\nbits were full of things I hadn\'t considered before, and they made me want\r\nto try them out.  The rest is perfectly relevant; it\'s just that I\'d come\r\nacross most of it in other advice about research methods or about designing\r\ninteractive fiction.\r\n<P>\r\nI\'ve got two main recommendations, one about the style of writing and the\r\nother about the headings:\r\n<P>\r\nMost of the article is friendly, informal and written in the second person,\r\nso I think the first four paragraphs should be changed to fit in with that.\r\nReplace \"the author\" with \"you\" throughout, contract \"it is\" to \"it\'s\", and\r\nmaybe cut the second paragraph completely.  It is a very clever point, I\'m\r\nsure, but it doesn\'t seem to me to fit.  The rest of the material in the\r\nintroduction is fine for putting into context what is really an article\r\nabout craft, but that point belongs to Nick-Montford-style literary\r\ncriticism.\r\n<P>\r\nI\'m happy with his decision to have two levels of headings, so that after\r\nthe introduction each paragraph has its own heading and then there are three\r\noverarching ones: \"Choosing a Setting\", \"Doing the Research\" and \"Building\r\nYour World\".  But I\'d rather not have a short blurb attached to each of\r\nthese main headings: I think it unavoidably forces him to say things that\r\nare either obvious or mentioned elsewhere.  So I\'d cut all the blurbs\r\n(\"Chances are... that choice:\", \"Once you have... dig deeper.\" and \"There\r\nare many... as protagonist.\"), although I would rescue the sentence\r\n\"Ideally, you should... a bit about it.\" by moving it to the \"Choose a\r\nSetting that Interests You\" paragraph.\r\n<P>\r\nIf he makes those changes, I\'ll be well pleased.  I found the Springer-style\r\n\"Final Thoughts\" to be a bit overdone, but I suspect that\'s just me.  I\'ve\r\ngot one other niggle, but it might count as a copy-editing issue: I don\'t\r\nthink you can really role-play that you are something.  I would replace\r\n\"role-play\" with \"believe\", or recast most of the sentence: \"...play the\r\nrole, just for a moment, of someone who was there and had an important\r\npurpose...\".\r\n<P>\r\nBut I think if the same amount of original thought has gone into the other\r\narticles, the book will be worth having.',1,'2005-02-06 13:39:28','2005-02-06 16:34:41',2),(57,49,18,'Congratulations on a superb article. I have read the piece very closely\r\nseveral times while producing this review, and I must say: well done.\r\nThis is very well theorized, of great practical use for game writers,\r\nand of great general interest to IF afficionados. But I should limit\r\nmyself to criticism, and save further applause for the warm review, soon\r\nforthcoming I hope.\r\n<P>\r\nBefore I get to the criticism, I should first remind you that my role as\r\nreviewer has naturally colored my reading. Your normal reader will not\r\nferociously note, as I have tried to do (motivated by the kindest\r\nintentions of course), the problems of this piece. When working through\r\nmy response, please keep firmly in mind your *reader*, and not so much\r\nyour reviewer -- they are two different creatures.\r\n<P>\r\nOk, so on to the criticism. There are two main problems I would like to\r\naddress, one being the strategy of introduction, and another problem\r\nwhich carries throughout the essay. In my extended commentary, I will\r\nbegin with the introduction, so I will first address the latter problem.\r\n<P>\r\nThroughout the essay, you frequently avoid concise theoretical\r\nexplanation, relying instead on the implications of \"made up\" examples.\r\nI strongly recommend that you work through the piece once more, and in\r\neach case where you have a \"made up\" example, explain precisely your\r\npoint in the abstract. Then, after this work is done, decide for\r\nyourself which way you think really works better, in each specific case.\r\nI expect you will find in most cases that a clear exposition of your\r\nidea is far more decisive and clear than an example\'s suggestion.\r\n<P>\r\n==Introduction==\r\n<P>\r\nA sophisticated reader might find in your roundabout introduction a\r\nwell-conceived performance of the excellent claim which you ultimately\r\nmake in the second and third sections: that in order to keep the\r\nreader\'s attention, you must puzzle them, and not drive towards the\r\nsolution straight away.\r\n<P>\r\nThat said, the introduction is puzzlingly indirect, and this is probably\r\nnot the best strategy. You linger here and there discussing yourself\r\nrather than discussing your subject. The first-person style is not\r\nnecessarily bad (though it is a conspicuous and therefore a distracting\r\nbreak with the assumed convention). But where the logic of the argument\r\nis interrupted by the intrusion of the personality, the reader\'s\r\nattention is all the more broken. One stops thinking about puzzles and\r\ntheir purpose, and one starts thinking about Jon Ingold. This is all\r\nvery flattering of course, but then again, that\'s the last thing you\r\nwant.\r\n<P>\r\nFurther, while sure the distinction between CYOA gamebooks and IF is\r\ninteresting, it does not clearly bear on the subject at hand. On a first\r\nreading, at least, it will appear that the introduction has no bearing\r\non the essay\'s topic. I fear that the introduction is a liability in its\r\npresent form. But a revision can recussitate; see my comments two\r\nparagraphs below.\r\n<P>\r\n==A Thought==\r\n<P>\r\nAh! Here we have a clear and compelling, (indeed, gripping) and truly\r\nrelevant bit of text: \"The important element of Interactive Fiction is\r\nnot the ability to decide, [but rather] it\'s the requirement to consider\r\nthat decision first.\" This is an excellent observation! I would not\r\nhesitate to put this sentence first in the essay.\r\n<P>\r\nThere is some room after this point to explain that the distinction\r\nbetween CYOAs and IF is a matter of complexity and concealing choices,\r\nas a way to elaborate on what \"consider the decision\" means.\r\n<P>\r\nBut very quickly I would proceed, as you do in the next section, to\r\nexplain that the greatest purpose of the puzzle is to force the reader\r\nto become interested in closely examining the text. You are then wasting\r\nno time getting to the subject at hand.\r\n<P>\r\nAgain, I certainly appreciate the roundabout performance of the point,\r\nbut I doubt many of your readers will have this specific appreciation,\r\nand I think a more direct approach would in fact be much friendlier and\r\nmore readable. As I said, I don\'t mind the casual first-person style,\r\nand I\'m sure that many will find it refreshing; but, again, at times it\r\nevokes (in this context) a sort-of egoism, so I think you\'re better off\r\nlimiting this \"intrusion\" somewhat.\r\n<P>\r\n==The Role of Puzzles==\r\n<P>\r\nThis is where the essay really takes off, and the essay remains superb\r\nfrom this point forward. The abovementioned problems mean that this\r\ntakeoff has come regrettably late.\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph 4: \"Here we ought to define puzzle. A Tower of Hanoi is a\r\npuzzle, so is a maze. So is a code, or a complicated system of pulleys.\"\r\nSo is an navel. This is a bit tedious. Perhaps more on-topic would be a\r\ntreatment of common IF puzzles: lock and key or, more generally,\r\nobstacle and obstacle-removal-mechanism. I would also say more (towards\r\nthe beginning of the piece) about the familiar \"eureka!\" moment, the\r\nfeeling of euphoria when the solution suddenly bursts to mind. That is\r\nthe really *exciting* and sexy part of puzzles, and celebrating it will\r\nsurely activate your readers\' interest. That\'s the aesthetics.\r\n<P>\r\n==Thinking Like A Player==\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph 1: I like very much the magician analogy. Your approach to the\r\nsubject is perfectly done. (One parenthetical remark: I have always been\r\nfond of the term \"misdirection,\" as applied to the art of the magician;\r\nyour term \"distracting\" does not carry, for me, quite the same romance.)\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph 2: You are a bit too long in introducing the point. The previous\r\nparagraph has already made the distinction between the trick and its frame.\r\nIn this paragraph, you can move directly to your theory for categorizing\r\nthe tricks proper.\r\n<P>\r\n==Hunter-Gathering==\r\n<P>\r\nYour treatment of \"scouring the area\" lines up perfectly with your\r\nlarger argument. Superb.\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph 2: why \"only in retrospect\"? I understand that puzzle-oriented\r\nIF will encourage players to scour the area, which is perhaps \"mimesis\"-\r\nor enjoyment-breaking; I see that sometimes encouraging scouring is\r\nclearly good, and sometimes it has questionable gains at best. If that\'s\r\nthe point, perhaps you can say so flatly.\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph 3: \"take his inventory every [other] turn\"? I know you\'re\r\ngoing for hyperbole here, but perhaps the point has already been made.\r\nIn this paragraph you suggest the point by example, but I would instead\r\nclearly explain the point theoretically, and demonstrate by specific\r\nexamples as necessary.\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph 5: \"To get around this\": there\'s no clear antecedent for\r\n\"this.\" I.e., what is the \"this\" you\'re referring to? (A careful reader\r\nwill backtrack and find that \"this\" approximately refers to the above\r\nnotion of \"the player\'s apprehension of the device forcing them to\r\nbecome familiar with the environment,\" but still.)\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph 6: This interesting and noteworthy device is not perfectly\r\nexplained. Your examples are perfect, but the reader may not be quite\r\nsure the point: that the actual location of the object is not static;\r\nwhere it can be found dynamically depends on where the player has\r\nlooked.\r\n<P>\r\n==Research==\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph 1: I wouldn\'t mention bit-error. Avoid distracting cleverness,\r\nespecially when it cries out as such.\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph 4: I think \"consult\" and \"ask about\" are on even footing. In\r\nTads-3, at any rate, \"ask about\" is not more difficult to code than\r\n\"consult.\" (And in any case I wouldn\'t mention that one is more\r\ndifficult to code than the other, as this is irrelevant to your point.)\r\n<P>\r\n==Simulation==\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph 1: I\'d kill the first two sentences, beginning simply:\r\n\"Simulation covers those interactions where....\" I suppose this\r\nsuggestion is a parcel of my general criticism that you occasionally\r\nspend a bit too much time in the wind-up. (Hm. I hope this is a useful\r\ngeneral remark; please understand that this is not an ugly general\r\ncondemnation.)\r\n<P>\r\nOn the other hand, this essay is not about simulation; indeed, Sean\r\nBarrett already has a simulation article in the book. Perhaps assume\r\nthat the concept of simulation is already clear, and get to the part\r\nabout how this is relevant to puzzles. (So, perhaps the first three\r\nparagraphs should be aggressively curtailed.)\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph 4: This is one case of many in this section where you\r\nexplaining by example, as opposed to explaining by explaining the point.\r\nIt is the task of the writer to synthesize the point, and then expound\r\nby example; leaving your reader to perform the synthesis is not ideal.\r\nIn this case you can fix by reordering the sentences with minor\r\nrevision: begin with the sentence \"IF takes this concept...\" and make it\r\nyour task to explain clearly from the beginning exactly what *this\r\nconcept* refers to.\r\n<P>\r\n[skipping some excellent bits]\r\n<P>\r\n==Plot==\r\n<P>\r\nparagraph 2: You are right to point out the connection with research.\r\nThe same can be said for \"hunter-gathering.\"\r\n<P>\r\n[skipping more]\r\n<P>\r\n==Hooks==\r\n<P>\r\nI love the comparison of Lemmings to Metamorphosis. Amazing.\r\n<P>\r\n==\r\n<P>\r\nMost articles in rough form are great towards the beginning, and get\r\nincreasingly unfinished towards the end. This is expected, as the writer\r\nhas read and revised the opening paragraphs perhaps ten times, while\r\nstill fleshing out the later parts. In this case, it\'s somehow the\r\nreverse; the essay gets increasingly better as it progresses.',1,'2005-02-06 13:45:20','2005-02-13 18:28:45',2),(58,61,23,'<i>[Ed. note: I exchanged some email with the author of these remarks, and ascertained that the reader thought this was to be the only material on NPC presentation. Given that, I would take the suggestions about further AI and NPC conversation with a grain of salt, since there will be some other discussion of this material elsewhere.]</i>\r\n<P>\r\nFirst, about the basic structure of the article: It\'s clear enough to me, and explains some basics about what a NPC should do and how it could be coded in Inform/TADs.\r\n<P>\r\nHowever, I immediately began thinking about some books/articles the author either might wish to cite, read, and/or include in his/her discussion:\r\n<P>\r\n- Chris Crawfor\'d latest book on Interactive Storytelling and his work on Erasmatron\r\n- Richard Bartle wrote some good articles about AI planning in http://www.skotos.net/articles/. They\'re the later parts of \"Notes from the Dawn of Time Column... \"\r\n- Informaiton about AIML for creating chatterbots\r\n- Some notes about AI state machines, as well as planning, and perhaps fuzzy state machines. I just read a good book on game AI, and I can get you the title. The book doesn\'t conver conversations though.\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\nWhich leads to another issue which I don\'t think you\'ll be able to deal with in your book: Inform and TADs do not have the infrastucture necessary to handle decent NPC architecture. I\'ve been dealing with these issues for my authoring system, so let me describe the modules, as they are brought up by this article:\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\nState machines - The article describes a simple state machine. I created a stack-based state machine (not sure if that\'s the right technical name) that allows several \"goals\" to be running at once. (A goal is a state machine.) Each goal has a priority. The highest priority goal gets to act, and continues to do so until it lowers its priority or it finishes. (A goal can raise its own priority based on circimstances).\r\n<P>\r\nFor the example of the NPC setting up shop, there would be a goal of the NPC spending 30 minutes preparing, 1 hour cleaning, 1 hour making ice cream. When the goal got to cleaning, it would create a sub-goal that would do all the cleaning tasks; the sub-goal would return control to the main goal when it had finished cleaning. Cleaning tasks might include their own sub-goal.\r\n<P>\r\nAnother example: I have a \"goal\" that causes the NPC to walk from point A to point B. It automatically uses A* to determine the best path. If there are any doors in the way, it automatically opens them, walks through, and closes them. It will even unlock and re-lock the doors. At some point I\'ll modify the goal so the NPC can automatically solve any puzzle\'s in its way, such as pressing the red button to open the door. (The author will need to tell write code so that NPCs will know to press the red button, though.)\r\n<P>\r\nA parallel goal would be running that would cause the NPC to notice any PCs entering the room and say hello. If the PC said hello back, another goal would be added to the system causing the NPC to wait N turns for the PC to respond. If the PC didn\'t respond, the NPC would abandon the wait-for-PC goal and go back to whatever goal it was doing. This system is much less hack-ish than the one described in the article. But, Tads/Inform can\'t handle it.\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\nDescriptions - TADs/Inform have a magical \"player\" object, and all other objects. Because of this, you get description problems described in this article. The author has to make sure the players aren\'t told, \"Fred cleans his icecream shop\", if the players aren\'t around. The root of the problem is the \"print ()\" statement. The print() statement need to be modified to only notify the occupants of the room.\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\nNatural language processing - The way AIML handles parsing makes for easier conversations with NPCs than the way Inform/TADs do their parsing. The way AIML interprets the parse isn\'t as good though. What you need for a conversation system is a NLP front-end that converts an english sentence into a simple command. For example: \"Hi, how are you?\" or \"Howdy there\" -> \"`hello\". \"Do you have any ice cream for sale?\" or \"I want a cone, please.\" -> \"`areselling `icecream\".\r\n<P>\r\nThe article seems to gloss over the problems that players will have when trying to talk to NPCs. The problem is that there are N ways to rephrase \"drop the nasty knife\", but M (where M is much more than N) ways to rephase \"I\'d like a vinalla ice-cream cone.\" This has to be dealt with through a number of mechanisms:\r\n<P>\r\na) A better parser. Plus, it has to be very easy for the author to add in hundreds of different phrasings.\r\n<P>\r\nb) Having the NPC say \"I\'m sorry, I don\'t undersatand. Do you want to buy an ice cream cone?\", or some wording that causes the player to rephase their request in the right manner. Speech recognition systems commonly use this trick to get listeners to say in-vocabulary utterances.\r\n<P>\r\nc) Keep a log of everything beta testers type in, and fine-tune the NPC\'s vocabulary accordingly.\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\nThe conversation - Having a conversation with a NPC is like wandering through a complex of rooms. Instead of a room being something physical, a room is a topic of conversation. (Furthermore, the player might be in several rooms at once.)\r\n<P>\r\nFor example: The first \"room\" is the greeting. Upon entering a \"room\", the player can say something that not only evokes a response from the NPC, but also moves to another room (topic of conversation). The NPC then has the opportunity to say something that\'s on its mind. The NPC\'s resposne potentially moves the converstion to another room. The player then his chance at the conversation and directs it to yet another room.\r\n<P>\r\nBasically, each convesation has a state or set of states, such as \"expecting hello\" or \"talking about the weather\" or \"talking about sports\". (A state corresponds to the \"room\" that the conversation is in.) The player\'s raw text is interpreted based on the context: An obvious example of this is if the player just types \"Yes\". What does this mean? It depends upon the current topic of conversation: \"Do you like green eggs and ham?\" or \"Do you think Sally is cute?\"\r\n<P>\r\nThe NPC also needs a list of \"questions\", or items that it might bring up when it gets a chance. Each one has a score that\'s based on how important the question is, as well as how well it relates to the current conversation topic. For example: A NPC might say \"It\'s sure is sunny.\" with a score of 0.1 and for any topic. If the topic is sports, it will say \"Don\'t those Yankees suck this year!\" with a score of 0.5. Or, if the topic is about rings, \"My aunt once had a magic ring.\" with a score of 0.5. Thus, if the NPC can\'t think of anything to say, it\'ll talk about the weather. (Each question is only brought up once per conversation.) But if the PC directs the conversation into sports or magic rings, he\'ll get more interesting information. If the NPC has something very important to tell the PC, such as \"Mad Dog Mahoy is out to kill ya!\" then this would have a very high score, so high that it would be brought up no matter what the topic of conversation is.\r\n<P>\r\nThis makes conversations more realistic, although far from perfect. Conversations are no longer a player-driven interrogation. Instead, it\'s a two way interaction (or duel) where the PC asks a question. The NPC answers, and potentially asks its own. The PC answer back and potentially asks his own.\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\nLike/dislike, trust/mistrust, and emotions (happy/sad, anger/fear) - I also have these implimented, although they may not be as relevent to the IF that you\'re thinking of where only a handful of NPCs exist in the game. Like/trust and emotions also tie into a conversation model.\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\nQuestions to ask a PC - There are many more questions than the ones listsed... I have a list I\'ve been writing up, although it\'s may not be strictly appropriate to IF. For example: One of the questions is \"Do you like NPC Y?\", and \"What does NPC Y do?\". Also, a PC might ask \"Do you like my necklace?\" to see if the NPC likes jewelry, and use that information to conclude that giving the NPC jewelry will make the NPC like the PC more, and perhaps reveal more information.\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\nNPCs talking to NPCs - Another issue. Chris Crawford\'s book discussed this in great detail.\r\n<P>\r\nNPCs remembering what they told to the PCs - Very useful.\r\n<P>\r\nNPC emoting to the PC - If a PC says something that upsets a NPC, the NPC needs to emote. Same for making the NPC happy, arousing the NPC\'s interest, etc. Likewise, if the NPC \"Takes a sip of coffee,\" how does that illustrate the NPC\'s emotional state and feelings toward the PC?\r\n<P>\r\nPC emoting to the NPC - Does a \"wave at NPC\" count as a \"hello\"? If the NPC tells a joke, can the PC \"laugh\"?\r\n<P>\r\nNPCs with common knowledge bases - Every NPC in the village should know where the inn, bank, and grocery store are.\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\n<P>\r\nSome other comments:\r\n<P>\r\n- The introduction to the article talks about how characters are important to a novel/story. It then ties this in with IF, unintentionally implying that such wonderful characters can also be created in IF. The fact is that until AI gets very good (many many years from now), computer AI will be uninspiring. The trick is to know what can be done well with the current technology, and what is too difficult for the technology to do.\r\n<P>\r\n- The more controlled the conversation is, the more realistic the author can make the character appear. BUT, some players may dislike the lack of control. Example: Linear fiction can make characters appear to be very real, but players can\'t interact at all. A fully interactive NPC with no predetermined conversation context will allow the player to ask anything, and will very-quickly show off the NPC\'s stupidity. For every NPC, the author must decide where the tradeoff between realistic-NPC and player-interactivity is optimum.',1,'2005-02-06 21:20:07','2005-02-13 18:17:50',2),(59,21,19,'I think the introduction should say more explicitly\r\nthat the PC needs motivation so that the player can\r\nknow what to do.  In this respect I think the old\r\nInfocom games give the PC plenty of motivation.  For\r\ninstance, the opening of Enchanter describes how Krill\r\nis gaining power and then has the Circle of Enchanters\r\ntell the PC that only he can stop Krill.  It\'s easy at\r\nthat point to infer that the PC is worried about Krill\r\nand would want to stop him.  Since to do so the PC\r\nneeds to find both Krill and the means to destroy him,\r\nit makes sense why the PC tries to get into all areas\r\nof Krill\'s castle and to pick up every spell scroll he\r\nsees.  The difficulty with motivations is that if the\r\nplayer is to have a lot of problems open to him at\r\nonce, which needs to be the case to keep the player\r\ninterested when he\'s stuck, then the PC has to be\r\nmotivated to solve a lot of problems at once---and\r\nit\'s not easy to find sufficently broad motivations\r\nother than finding some object or saving some person. \r\n(I\'m not sure Planetfall and The Lurking Horror are as\r\nundermotivated as the essay says.  In Planetfall, the\r\nPC is marooned and sick, so he has every reason to\r\nlook everywhere in the colony for an escape and a\r\ncure, even if the obvious actions can\'t be taken.  In\r\nThe Lurking Horror, once the PC sees the alchemy\r\nprofessor summon a monster, the PC would reasonably\r\nwant to look everywhere for a way to stop it.  Of\r\ncourse, in each of those games some puzzles may need\r\nto be solved before the PC sees how they\'re related to\r\nthese broad goals or to entering an area he hasn\'t\r\nsearched yet.)\r\n<P>\r\nThe idea that a game needs to make the PC\'s\r\nmotivations clearer as the game\'s goal becomes more\r\nspecific is very interesting.  Maybe that should be\r\nmore prominent, because, as the essay says, it goes\r\nagainst the general rule that you should show rather\r\nthan tell when writing.  Also good is the idea that\r\nthe game needs to get easier as the PC gets more\r\nspecific motivations, since otherwise the player might\r\nget stuck when the PC wants to do one small thing.\r\n<P>\r\nIt\'s good that the essay talks about games like 9:05\r\nand Spider and Web that trick you into thinking the PC\r\nis motivated to do one thing rather than another.  But\r\npraising these games seems to contradict the essay\'s\r\nidea that a game should tell the player about the PC\'s\r\nthoughts.  Maybe the essay could discuss more how\r\nthese two games are exceptions to this rule.  9:05\r\nworks only as a joke (though a good one) about how\r\nadventure games work.  Spider and Web seems to work\r\nonly because (and of course this is just my\r\ninterpretation), given the futuristic setting and the\r\nfact that the PC is a spy, it\'s plausible that the PC\r\ntook the precaution of giving himself false memories\r\nright before he was captured, and so he literally\r\ncan\'t tell the interrogator what happened.  But it\r\nwould be annoying if a puzzle depended on the player\r\nrecognizing that the PC feels something that the\r\nplayer would have no doubt about feeling if he were in\r\nthat situation---imagine how the going-to-the-bathroom\r\nscene at the start of Leather Goddesses of Phobos\r\nwould come off if the only indication the player got\r\nabout what was going on was the first clue, \"You feel\r\nan urge.\"  Maybe a game in which the PC, and hence the\r\nplayer, needs to pick up on his own subconscious\r\nmotivations would be interesting.\r\n<P>',1,'2005-02-13 18:37:24','2005-02-24 20:00:25',2);
