Re: Amoral behvaiour in IF


Mon, 19 Jun 1995 11:50:52 -0400

bl947@torfree.net (Arlo Smith) writes:

> The morality is in the real world-- B & E, stealing in
> a world which doesn't exist is different. So different, that talking about
> the morality of it, or even using the word morality in reference to it is
> hard for me to accept (apparently! my second message about it).

I'm rather baffled that the discussion has got this deep.

IF is a kind of fiction. There is plenty of fiction where a hero
charges in, despoils, steals, kills everybody who opposes him, and
charges out again. Is he acting immorally? Sure. That story isn't
about morality. It's about action. There are endless reams of
celluloid come out of Hollywood to prove that this sort of art can be
popular.

If you happen not to like that sort of thing, there are plenty of
alternatives.

As to whether IF has a "tradition" of this sort of thing -- well, the
earliest games were that way. But, really, only the earliest. Infocom
caught on after Zork 3 that plunder was wearing thin as a plot line;
every game after that had some sort of story, and the protagonists of
those stories didn't behave any more amorally than in the average
novel.

Can anyone think of an example from an Infocom game *other* than Zork
1, 2, 3?

Other companies I paid less attention to.

--Z

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."