i have found these games really, really frustrating. it's not at all intuitive what you are allowed to do and what you are not allowed to do. it seems like there's a logic to the games that you have to get used to, and it's a very different from how i usually think. i can imagine this sort of game being really, really cool with a better parser, but these early versions make me want to kill the computer. actually a bunch of times i tried to kill random objects out of anger ("kill rainbow," "kill grating,") and the game made some smart-ass remarks. that was probably the most fun part so far. it's interesting that the programmers realized that people would try to kill inanimate objects. maybe they anticipated very violent players, or maybe they realized how frustrating the inherent limitations of the game would be.
...
now that i've read some on electronic book review, i realize that i may have been going about this all wrong. having realized that it was much more fun to do things that don't make sense than to try to "win" the game, i should have abandoned my "quest" and just messed around:
"Solving puzzles in order to advance in the story is actually more work than play, related to mathematical and logical challenge more than ludic enjoyment. The operator who solves puzzles must labor to understand the author's intentions and slog forward, learning the correct operation of the text machine and then operating it. The one who pokes at the interface to see what will happen is actually being playful."
it's odd that i immediately decided to adhere to the rules the game had set out for me, rather than test the limits of the game itself. playing with the interface is actually much more fun. i especially like this example:
"Aarseth complains that some of the replies provided are "pure nonsense," giving the example of the work's response to the command "fingerprint me": "Upon looking over and dusting the me you notice there are no good fingerprints to be found.""
responses like this reveal the computational nature of the game and break the illusion of the narrator. you should definitely mess around with eliza. it's really fun:
You are being a bit negative.
>> i'm an electron! i can't help it!
Do you enjoy being an electron ?
>> i'm an electron! i can't help it!
Do you know anyone else who is an electron ?
>> i'm an electron! i can't help it!!
Is it because you are an electron that you came to me ?
>> no, i came to you beacuse i am a banana
Why not ?
>> banana banana banana
What does that suggest to you ?
>> banana!
Do you feel strongly about discussing such things ?
>> !!!
That is interesting. Please continue.
>> !!!!!!!!
Tell me more about that.
I have been enlightened.
> go back
He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the
kingdom of winners. In any case, 'BACK' doesn't work.
> go east
You are in a circular room with passages off in eight directions.
Your compass needle spins wildly, and you cannot get your bearings.
> go north
Unfortunately, it is impossible to tell directions in here.
I AM SO STUCK.
What a horrendously frustrating experience. I was supposed to work this afternoon and two hours later filled the dam room with water by pressing the blue button and couldn't get the tools I needed for whatever I needed them for.
I of course am not the type of person who saves, or registers for things. At least I got to work afterthat.
Well after reading walkthroughs and cheats and that sort of thing I got back to work.
I read gnu gnu's comments before beginning so was conscious of subverting the games structures. (I can't get the electronic review to work however, suggestions?)
I didn't enjoy doing so however. The marginal ability of the parser made any sort of testing of limits rather frustrating for me. There are by estimate around 30 command words which can produce any action by the parser. Finding silly responses to inane commands grew old quickly for me. It was like tripleclicking on characters in starcraft to see what they say in response, if anyone remembers that. I actually found the text itself, and its limitations due to computer intelligence more interesting. Not pushing at the boundaries, but marveling at the boundaries. For me it wasn't finding the computational nature of the game, because goddamn that just smacks you in the face, but thinking about how far we have come, and whether or not it has made a more or less cirtical environment, and a mroe or less immersive environment.
I played to return to zork when I was younger. I don't remember it well. It was the first zork with graphics. I enjoyed it but couldn't tell yiou if it really was any good. It seemed less literary, but some of that could be chalked up to me being 12. But maybe it had to do with image. I kind of feel that the more distance between and difficulty with a text a reader has the more critical a approach is taken. Thoughts? Is this habit or inherent to the form?
I have a slew of ideas on films and this idea I hope to bring up in class.
the link has a semicolon at the end that's not supposed to be there; take it out and it works
I have commented way too much on this thread already (although my other posts are really just unecessary crap that I posted for unknown reasons). Anyways, I totally agree with you about how frustrating these are. Mostly it is because of what you said--It's hard to figure out what commands are allowed and what commands aren't allowed. I played around with Zork for about half an hour without getting anywhere. I learned that "kick" is a valid command, but that things rarely need kicking. Finally, I gave up and found a website that explained the sequence of commands needed to succeed. Even then I got lost at the gallery after stealing the painting. (At this point I had gotten to 44 points in 39 moves, which made me an Amateur Adventurer). The website told me to go North, but I somehow got trapped in a room where my compass broke and I spent twenty minutes trying to figure out how to get back. Three times I closed my browser and tried to redo the commands more carefully. No dice. Still stuck in the room where my compass is useless. The website warned me to be very careful because, "... if you make a misstep somewhere, you might find yourself in trouble! Be especially careful to follow the directions when in the mazes; a wrong move there, and you could be lost for quite some time!" This could not have been more true. I guess I was dealing with the game on a "homework" basis, which meant that I had to put a time limit on my visit, which meant that cheating was a necessity. If I treated it the way I treated "Aladdin" (Sega Genesis) I would have spent months moving around the levels, figuring out secrets, and finally conquering the game. The website also encouraged me to look around and map out the game's landscape. The problem was that my imagination could only figure out the current scene and not the whole area. I could picture the white house and the mailbox, but as soon as I got to the trapdoor, I couldn't imagine how the passageways were spatially related to the forest and the house. It was too hard to see the big picture. The lack of visual component made it a lot more dependent on my imagination, and I got bored pretty quickly.
I found this while doing background research on Zork.
how do they know how many christmas tree monsters there are? what is a christmas tree monster?? so many questions and so few answers...
yeah, i really didn't like how you could get to places and not be able to leave. did anyone else go into that canyon? i kept going down and down and then i got to a point where i couldn't figure out how to get back. i guess life is like that sometimes, but i feel like games shouldn't be.