(spoilers deleted)
> What annoys me about these scenes is that they're quite arbitrary. I
>don't call "You feel uneasy about the archway" or "You see glittering
>red beams" to be adequate warnings at all. The descriptions of the
>deaths are gleefully morbid (ha ha - you died!). And then a couple of
>these games, like many games, insult the player by printing a snide
>rank (you have 0 out of 21303 points - this makes you a total loser)
>when you croak. In all, these scenes make me not want to play the
>games any further. And in fact I didn't.
Well, well, well. I can't say about _Waystation_ and _Veritas_, but you
certainly missed something when ditching _Fire Witch_ just because you
died. Of course, it's a matter of taste. Maybe WHizzard and the other people
compiling "guides to IF" should mention the "killing level" of each game,
like
0: Impossible to die (example: Predition's Flames)
1: Possible to die, but only after very definite warnings
("You're standing immediately north of a sheer, 1000-foot precipice.
> south
Doing that would surely get you killed!
> south
You fall and break your neck. Didn't I tell you so?")
2: Will occasionally kill you after a not quite explicit warning
(example: Waystation)
3: Will sometimes kill you without warning (example: Veritas)
4: Will kill you often, without warning, and gloat about it
(example: Another Lifeless Planet And Me With No Beer)
Would such a rating help you? Would many people appreciate that?
(The examples from Veritas and Waystation are the ones you quoted; as
I said, I haven't played those games so I don't know if they're
characteristic of the whole games).
As for your particular examples, here are my comments:
1. Veritas: I agree. I think you shouldn't be able to break your
neck just by typing the wrong direction in such a mundane situation.
After all, one might misread the room description...
2. Waystation: Again, I agree that the warning is not explicit enough.
Sure, the description of the laser beam is quite accurate; _however_,
as anybody who's been working with laser can tell you, most laser beams
(especially the kind used to monitor doors!) are of much too low power
to hurt you at all, unless you stared directly into the beam.
3. Fire Witch: Here I must protest! You're really being unfair - because
you've misunderstood the entire thing! This is *not* an "Instant death",
this is a *puzzle*. You have an entire move to get out of the trap, and
I can give you this much of a spoiler: unless you've dropped it, you
were carrying the means of survival when you get caught, you just failed to
use it. Blaming the author for that isn't quite fair, is it? Furthermore,
in fact you can't win the game without setting of the trap (though
under slightly different circumstances).
On the other hand, maybe the warning about the trap should've been a little
more explicit, like "you sense danger approaching the archway.
Are you sure you want to continue?"
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.