[Not coming home]
> Obviously, the best sort of thing is to just not have any situations like this
> at all in a game :P But that's pretty tough to do. If you must have them, I
> would rather just be allowed to board the ship. Possibly, it might be a good
> idea to suggest a save before the player sets sail, if it's obvious this could
> be a one-way trip. In general, I prefer the author to stay out of the game as
> much as possible. I wouldn't like getting a "strange feeling I'm forgetting
> something" (and that could be *real* frustrating if you can't figure out what
> it is), and in general, I don't like messages that say "The game would be
> unsolvable if you did that. Better not." Let the player have all the rope
> they want, that's my motto :P
THE LEGEND LIVES! asks you if you want to save before boarding the shuttle.
IMO this is a better method than if it said "You have a nasty feeling ..."
once you had taken off. The `save' method gave me the impression "Oh hell!
Once I get on that shuttle things are going to turn *nasty*.", while the
`message' method (can't think of any examples) would make me think "Bugger!
What haven't I done this time?", as well as making the author sound a bit
smug. I agree with Dan though. For most games the author should remain
invisible for as much as possible.
-- Jools Arnold jools@arnod.demon.co.uk