Superfluous rooms (was: Gameplay theory: leaving object behind..)


19 Sep 1995 12:15:50 GMT

In article <DF1DxJ.MvI@eskimo.com>, Erik Hermansen <daedulus@eskimo.com> wrote:
>In article <43b1n9$9tq@nntp4.u.washington.edu>,
>Dan Shiovitz <scythe@u.washington.edu> wrote:
>>>Exactly right. I would take it a step further and have more locations
>>>than should actually be visited. Think of how many locations there are
>>>in the real world that have absolutely no visitation value. You have to
>>>think about where you're going in real life to arrive at any place of
>>>interest.
>>Oh dear. Another case of simulation vs storytelling, methinks. IMO, having
>>the sort of excess rooms you're talking about here would be a big mistake.

(...)
>
>Well, not every game. But at least one like this would be interesting.
>

Have you had a look at the infamous "Detective"? There are lots of
rooms there that seem to have been added just as padding. "This is a
useless room. Go south". :-)

I think you'll have to think about what you're trying to create:

1) A simulation of reality.
Sure, go ahead, add as many useless rooms and objects as you like. However,
I think there are more pressing issues to deal with before you can even
dream of calling an adventure game a realistic simulation.

2) Interactive literature. Every author should think about economy.
The reader doesn't want to bother with pointless complications. The
reader wants a story, a plot, a mood. Every room and every object in
your game should have a purpose in advancing the plot, contributing to
the atmosphere, or whatever. Of course, you may consider adding rooms
for realism, but you shouldn't overdo it. There is such a thing as
"suspension of disbelief". Suppose, for example, that your game is set
in a large hotel. Having just one room in the enitre hotel would
perhaps be a bit too much for the reader to swallow. However, there's
absolutely no reason to implement all 450 rooms. You need to implement
just enough rooms to give the reader the impression that this is a big
hotel. And don't forget that there are more ways of doing this than
the brute-force method of just implementing a lot of empty rooms. Use
your writing to get the message across, and the reader will willingly
suspend his disbelief in a huge hotel where only five rooms or so are
actually implemented.

Of course, you may want to add a lot of empty rooms to create
atmosphere. But then they aren't quite pointless, are they? And surely
there are better ways of creating atmosphere?

3) A game.