Re: Gameplay theory: leaving object behind..


11 Sep 1995 13:54:01 GMT

In article <42rahq$s3q@nntp4.u.washington.edu> scythe@u.washington.edu (Dan Shiovitz) writes:

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

But these "subconsious" messages can, if they are used consistently,
be used to inplant thoughts and ideas in the player. A 'book'
(non-interactive?) author can always describe the thought process of
the hero, but in the IF genre this is more difficult, especially if
you are going along with the feelings&emotion-algebra proposed by the
Oz project and others.

I can imagine some story lines which require more precise control over
the order of the thoughts and insights the hero experiences. If we
consider the idea of trying to mimic the experience of reading a
(non-interactive) book, this involves laying out a story which evolves
in which where the hero plays an essential role, or at least is the
view point to that story. To create an experience that has the same
high quality I think we must aim for the goal that the actions of the
hero significantly influences the river of events that surrounds him
(or at least makes him/hero believe so). One way to limit the
simulation of the entire universe (and all the parallell multiverses)
we could 'create' ideas, feelings, opinions and emotions in the player
in the same way that authors of non-interactive fiction does.

This does *not* necessary mean that there is only one solution, or
that it must be a 'linear' game. It only means that it for some
purposes it might be necessary to 'manipulate' the player/reader in
order to give him the most.

On the other hand I don't like games that refuses to let you perform
things that you really want to do ("You can't jump of this cliff, you
would die of you did.")

Anyone care to comment, or give suggestions on how to do this?

/Thomas

--
"Little languages go a long way..."
(ThoNi of ThoNi&GorFo Adventure Factories in 1985)
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