>What are your opinions on hunger and the need to sleep in IF? I've
>often had the feeling that hunger (dying of starvation) is punishment
>for taking too long... when you run out of food, saving doesn't always
>help; you have to back up and play through some large chunks more
>"efficiently" to get to the previous point with less hunger. Are there
>any good reasons to have a major-nuisance hunger in a game?
There are many things that used to be common practice that I've never found
acceptable. Among them:
* Need to sleep
* Need to eat
* Arbitrary limit on how much I can carry (the rucksack in Curses and
Jigsaw is the best way I've seen this handled--the "no limit" model in
Legend got a bit silly)
* People walking around randomly that must be studiously avoided (e.g., the
Boot Patrol)
* twisty passages, all alike
>Can anyone show me where needing to eat and sleep every X turns (as
>opposed to eating and sleeping when it fits the plot) is beneficial to
>the game?
I agree, sometimes these facts of life can fit into a game quite well, but
should be hinted and not keep coming up. Sleep is very important in A
Change in the Weather, and works marvelously. (Even though I needed the
walkthrough and never could have solved Weather's ridiculous puzzles by
myself, I can't bring myself to dislike it. Great story, great writing.)
For whatever reason, I tend to appreciate games that are deterministic--I
could play next time with the exact same set of moves and not encounter
anything different. This way, I can concentrate on the puzzles and not
petty annoyances.
Matthew