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Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 08:23:17 -0400
From: John Colagioia <JColagioia@csi.com>
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Subject: Re: What is IF really?
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Andrew Plotkin wrote:

>Here, John Colagioia <JColagioia@csi.com> wrote:
>
>>On the other hand, perhaps Colossal Cave and Zork I are really only
>>"honorary" IF, having given the medium its biggest push.  It certainly
>>eases categorization...
>>
>I think of them (although I just came up with this analogy) as the
>marsupials of IF.
>

Close enough for my tastes.  Does that make the set of Z-Abuses the
monotremata of IF?  Or would that the the set of poorly-tested games...?

[...Zork plots...]

>You took a lot more from those three games than I did. :) Of course, I
>played them when I was ten-to-twelve, and I wasn't looking that far
>below the surface.
>

I played them, originally, oh...my first exposure to them (which was
engrossing, but I never got anywhere) was probably when I was around
eight.  And, yes, all I got was the surface "treasure hunt" story, even
in Zork III, to a great extent.

You might want to give them another whirl, though, now that you've
developed a(n obvious) sophisticated literary sense.

>But in fact I'm agreeing with you.
>

Heh.  As they say, "OK."  Which, I suppose, was my original reason for
the post (to make sure yours was acknowledged), but posting just "OK"
seemed a bit pathetic, if not impolite...

[...]

