Re: "Serious" IF (was Re: Gareth's competition comments)


16 Oct 1995 17:20:33 -0700

ceforma@rs6000.cmp.ilstu.edu (Christopher E. Forman) writes:

>While it's good that you can recognize what you percieve as limitations in
>your own work, I wouldn't advise doing the same to another author for a
>simple reason -- the differences of opinions people have. Another author
>might not see the points you make in reference to "Christminster" as
>flaws or limitations, particularly your criticisms of your NPC's, since
>virtually all text adventures to date have these same limitations.

I may have a slightly different perspective on this than a lot of the
other folks on r.a.if, so I wanted to chip my two cents in.

I got my undergraduate degree in English/Creative writing, and I'm now
getting a masters degree in the same subject. The most common question
people have when I tell them about my coursework is: "How can you teach
writing?"

To answer their question, I describe how the classes work. Each week,
several students distribute their work to their classmates before class
(usually a few days before, to give people time to read the work with
some care.) Then, during class, we sit around and pick apart the stories
we've read. Since everybody knows that their story is going to be
discussed in the same way, everybody makes an effort to offer thoughtful
and constructive criticism.

Usually, there's disagreement about any given story. But after listening
to people argue about your work for forty-five minutes, you get a sense
of which criticisms and compliments you agree with, and which ones you
don't.

I can say, without any doubt, that I've learned tremendously from this
process--not just by hearing my own work discussed, but by discussing my
classmates' work.

The relevance of all this is that, in my opinion, there's no substitute
for hearing other people who are serious about your medium discussing
your work. "How to" manuals, like Graham's or Whizzard's, are useful
starting places. But until you sit down and write something, and find out
whether people had the reaction to it that you intended them to have, you
will never grow as a writer.

And this applies, I think, whether you're approaching IF as a kind of
entertainment or as an art formQor as both, for that matter.

I think, then, that the recent discussion on r.a.if has been extremely
valuable. I've learned from reading what people have to say about
Toonesia, and I've learned from debating the merits of other people's
games. As long as the discussion continues to be constructive and
intelligent, I think we'll all benefit from it.

-Jacob