Re: Instant Death


7 Mar 1995 22:57:35 GMT

neilg@kits.sfu.ca (Neil K. Guy) writes:

> Over the past few weeks I've downloaded three or four free or
>shareware games from ftp.gmd.de. And have been very disappointed by
>all of them. Why? Because all of them killed my character without any
>real warning after a handful of turns.

> ...

> I know I type "quit" when I'm randomly killed for no reason, but
>perhaps I lack the true stamina to be a diehard adventurer. Or does
>everyone else just roll their eyes and type "undo"?

> Puzzled,

> - Neil K.

Speaking for myself, I figure that dying a lot can just be part of the
game, if the game is set in a very dangerous setting. Nearly every
adventure has the ability to save game state. I suppose that the "without
warning" aspect is the frustrating one. If the game lets me know that
my life is in peril, I'm not as taken aback if I die due to a misstep.
In terms of adventure gaming frustation, I am much more ticked off by having
to play "guess the verb".

Incidentally, I hope that I didn't contribute to your frustration with
my games! (They are "starship.acx" and "gorreven.acx" under the
games/archetype directory.) If so, I apologize!

Some very fine adventure games never really endanger the player character.
"Myst" comes to mind as one in which you have to go to some trouble to "lose"
the game.

--Derek Jones
dtj@primenet.com

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Derek Jones
dtj@primenet.com
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