Yes, another monologue˙˙˙


Wed, 22 Feb 95 06:19:00 -0500

I have been reading about Zun's text based virtual reality aspirations, and
it does sound good. But it also raises a question in my mind that I have yet
to resolve for myself--and that is, does too much detail (as much as I
personally am drawn to it) detract from the STORY.

If I tie all the posts I've been reading here together I then think about
someone's post suggesting that one fill in the details after the basics have
been accomplished. This makes a certain amount of sense and I find that as
I am playing with Inform that is what is naturally evolving for me (I
think). I find if I keep dwelling on room details i get bogged down by it
and the story does not progress.

But of course, i wouldn't want to say my experience is the only experience.
As with most creative processes, people have wildly different approaches
that seem to work for them.

The thing that I find most curious though is the difference between text
adventures that are really mostly a string of rooms with some objects placed
in such a way as you have to collect them and use them in a certain order
and place to get to the next area. There is a plot of course, to thread it
along, but (and I'm not saying this is bad) really it's a puzzle game more
than a work of literature (for example).

There is a place in the post suggesting to leave the details to the end (and
in fact Zun referred to this as well) where it is suggested a rich victorian
england environment could be created for sherlock holmes adventures.

I'm sure gas-light objects would not be very hard to code in stunning
realism (ha!), but that aside I then think of sherlock holmes stories and
think... but the only common setting in any of them is 221b Baker street!
The rest of the settings are always original and created just as the STORY
needs. In fact Doyle's stories are very exacting, there is not a lot of
detail or flowery description given except what is essential (even if it
doesn't seem essential when someone is describing something).

I'm also not against creation just for the sake of creation. For example I
think it would be great fun if someone coded a startlingly detailed 221b
Baker street with no plot or story at all! It would be interesting to just
wander around and see what's there (if it's well written) I think. However
that might just be an eccentricity of mine.

The thing that really fascinates me about this whole I-F thing is the
theoretical possibilities of something more panoramic though. I wonder if I
am capable of write an I-F adventure that it's not the puzzles that draw you
along but the plot, and the story, and the characters. And for this to
happen I then wonder if too much superfluous detail isn't in the end doing a
disservice to the story and distracting the reader/adventurer from what as a
writer the author wants to direct them to. Perhaps this is slightly more of
a deterministic vision than I-F should be (if anyone can say what it
`should' be), but the question remains as how effective a vehicle for a
LITERARY endeavour (at least experimental) it could be.

However for now, in my Inform diapers, I too, trying to grasp the concepts
of the tool, go for detail object and environmental! My favorite object so
far being my "microwave oven-like" object. Heheh. And there is beauty in
it. But I don't think it's the direction that I want to go in for myself if
I should actually go in any direction, eventually. (As much as I love
Origin's ULTIMA games (except ultima 8!) which try also very much for as
much environmental realism as possible, in a graphical way--)

I think though, as an example, of the photograph on the wall in the dark
room in `Curses'. I was struck reading it's description (my god, what DRY
wit Graham has!) about it looking as if the gentleman in it was being held
up momentarily, while the picture was taken, by some sort of metal
clamps--and he was (it goes on to add!). That's the sort of excellent and
subtle commentative description only text makes possible. No matter how
funny or strange that picture might have appeared if `Curses' happened to be
a graphical adventure there is no way that the player would have gleaned
that whimsical detail.

It's with examples like that that I'm inspired that perhaps I-F could be for
me a (minor?) vehicle for literary expression. Adventures are fine, and I
even read some occasionally--but the fiction I'm most drawn to is usually
of a more psychological nature and based on character rather over
plot--exploration over problem solving--and above all they are usually
trying to express something profound about the author's vision of life and
reality. Now can such a thing be made interactive... or is it best left to
the disguised soap box of a book?

I do not exactly know, all I know is it's all very interesting--VERY
interesting!

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Tim Middleton -=-=-=-=<when sense makes no sense>=-=-=-=- 02/22/95 06:20
<Internet: tim.middleton@canrem.com>=-=(Fidonet: 1:229/15)=-={Rime:->118}
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I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colours will bleed into one
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I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For -U2

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