It is interesting that it's pretty obvious that the original reason for
adding hunger, thirst and sleepiness to IF was to provide additional
realism. However, just as you say, almost all games that use these devices
are utterly unrealistic in htat you starve to death after a few hundred
moves, which would perhaps take a few hours in real life.
Part of the problem is that time, as measured in moves, is highly
non-linear; a move may correspond to something that takes a lot of
time in real life (say, climbing a mountain, crossing a lake in a
small boat), or something that's very quickly done, like lighting a
match or taking a gulp of water. Yet most adventure games simply
measure time by the number of moves.
IMHO adding thirst and hunger "just for realism" is a plot device that
has far outlived its novelty. Like those endless "drop an object and
try all exits" mazes, they used to be great, now they're only boring
and irritating.
Things such as thirst, hunger and the need for sleep should *only* be
present in a game if they add something to the plot (I'm of course
discussing "traditional" IF here, not simulationist games). In
Enchanter, for example, there is a day-night cycle which plays a role
in the plot, and not only does the player get sleepy at night, but
some puzzles can actually be solved only by sleeping. That's great.
What's not so great about the same game is that you get hungry and
thirsty and have to find food and water - apparently for no reason at
all bu to make the game harder. (I might be wrong since I haven't
played the game for many years).
For a modern example, consider Fire Witch: you get sleepy and have
to sleep, but again one puzzle can only be solved by sleeping, and
you only have to sleep once (which is realistic, since the entire plot
takes place in one day).
Magnus Olsson (mol@df.lth.se) / yacc computer club, Lund, Sweden
Work: Innovativ Vision AB, Linkoping (magnus.olsson@ivab.se)
Old adresses (may still work): magnus@thep.lu.se, thepmo@selund.bitnet
PGP key available via finger (to df.lth.se) or on request.