IF is not the real world, it is simply the manipulation of symbols in
order to see what happens. Often this involves the solution of
logical/illogical problems.
The problem 'put the square peg in the square hole' is identical in
coding to the problem 'stab the orc.'
However, to involve the player in the game, IF changes from a logic
puzzle into Interactive fiction. The objects are given a familiar
description and a context. This is why The 7th Guest was not a good
game - it was a bunch of logic puzzles, but they were in no way
connected, and in fact were completely seperate from the cut scenes that
seperated them.
To manipulate symbols, you must first aquire them. In the early IF
games, you did this by simply picking them up - more complex interactions
were often proscribed by the way the games were coded. Thus you get the
tradition in IF that all items are there for the player to manipulate,
and property is theft. After all, why bother to code the objects in if
the user is not allowed to manipulate them?
Actors in IF are usually problems to be overcome. They block a pass, or
hold a key that you want, the solution to a maze and so on. To be a
problem, there must be some reason that they do not want to give this to
you.
As for killing actors, This is also the simplest path to neutralise an
obstacle. If your enemy is dead, you have disposed of its symbol
permanently - there is no chance of it coming back, changing its mind and
so on. Examples in this thread have been an orc and a troll - elements
that we have been conditioned since Tolkein to regard as mortal enemies.
It has been my experience in IF that disposing of human enemies is a lot
less brutal - you are more likely to get them stoned, or trick them, or
give them some pizza. Even if you were to kill them, you are always aware
that they are simply symbols for yet another square peg, square hole problem.
Charles Miller