>I don't want to pick on this game, because it's generally of good
>quality, but it seems to me that the puzzle-solving nature of adventure
>games makes such long room descriptions unwise. A player can never
>afford to relax and treat them as just "elegant prose", because they
>might conceal subtle hints.
As I recall, most of the infocom games I've played would set off such
long descriptions in a way which made it obvious that none of the
description was directly available to the player; a view from a mountain
ledge with only one exit, or from atop a rainbow. Essentially, they
would keep "elegant" room descriptions in rooms that had no other
real function. Maybe not the best solution, but it allows more freedom
in the prose that way.
John