Re: Gameplay theory: leaving object behind..


12 Sep 1995 23:10:44 -0700

> But these "subconsious" messages can, if they are used consistently,
> be used to inplant thoughts and ideas in the player.

I agree, and that's _one_ method I hope to use in my game to make it
more 'literary' and less puzzle-oriented. It should be possible to
do it subtly and work it into the realism of the game.

Another one is perhaps (?) a
fairly basic departure from standard practise: instead of placing the
"hero" in a situation where everything is entirely new and unfamiliar,
he/she will be returning home after having left as a child thirteen
years ago.
I haven't played many IF games, and am plotting my first, so I don't
speak from much experience, but here's some other ideas I have about
this kind of thing:
The hero can "Think about (object / (location) / actor)" -- thus
trying to access her store of knowledge and memory -- not only about
things and places from the past, but also about subjects she has
trained in / read about. He has certain mental / psychic abilities of
a fairly common nature, and can "meditate on" things to try and
understand, or have some kind of vision about them. This is used in the
game "One Hand Clapping," where using the verb "meditate" may give you
a "vision" as a clue, but I believe in One Hand it depends
totally on where you are -- so you end up meditating at every
location that seems to have any significance at all.
Another idea is to manipulate the hero's attributes, -- such as
'calm' vs 'excited,' 'sleepy / tired / drugged' vs 'refreshed /
alert' -- in response to actions and events, and have these attributes
affect the success level of mental actions (or spells.)
The end result would hopefully be a more realistic feel, at least
to the hero character, and be a step closer to role-playing than
the standard "anonymous solver of puzzles."

> [ ... ] To create an experience that has the same
> high quality I think we must aim for the goal that the actions of the
> hero significantly influences the river of events that surrounds him
> (or at least makes him/hero believe so).

A worthy goal. And I think perhaps the essence of that might be
simply good "writing" -- that is, plot, storytelling, realistic
background. You could perhaps inform the player of distant events
resulting from their actions, as well as letting them see the results
in their immediate world.
What I _wonder about_ is ... how far can a good writer go in
_involving_ the player the way a good book can involve the reader,
without relying on mechanistic puzzle-solving? Something tells me that
IF _needs_ good puzzles, regardless of well the "story" aspect is
developed. But maybe puzzles don't all have to be mechanistic, linear,
and logical.

> One way to limit the
> simulation of the entire universe (and all the parallell multiverses)
> we could 'create' ideas, feelings, opinions and emotions in the player
> in the same way that authors of non-interactive fiction does. }}

I can't quite picture what you mean by 'creating' these in the
player. Any examples come to mind?
On the other hand, I do see the hero of my game as having
spent the past thirteen years training as a Druid, and thus having
the skills and world-view consistent with that background.

> On the other hand I don't like games that refuses to let you perform
> things that you really want to do ("You can't jump of this cliff, you
> would die of you did.")

Let the player jump, then describe the result is
the preferable thing. But it quickly comes up against the "describe
the entire universe" problem, doesn't it?

Dennis Carlyle - dgcarlyl@freenet.vancover.bc.ca

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