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From: David Adrien Tanguay <dat@thinkage.on.ca>
Subject: Re: Are text adventures *really* better?
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Date: Tue, 26 Nov 1996 22:19:06 GMT
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In the past couple of years I've played Zork I-III, Return to Zork, and Zork
Nemesis. Many people on the net talked about the lack of humour in the last.
On the other hand, I found the game right in tune with I-III. Why the
discrepency? Am I a mad giggler or is there something deeper at work?

Well, after a ponder or two I came up with the following thesis. In a text
adventure, most of the world is left up to your imagination. After a general
description of a location, only unusual things are commented upon, and that
includes the funny things. In a graphic adventure, you are presented with
everything, mundane and exotic, and it's up to the player to filter out the
mundane to see the unusual. Many humourous elements can hide in the details,
whereas in a text description they're bought directly to your attention. The
act of filtering itself can change the effect of the humour, since it becomes
only an occasional flourish of the presentation as opposed to a dominant
element.

I'm not sure how this relates to better or worse, but I think it shows how the
medium can change the perception of stories of similar texture. If Nemesis had
been done in LucasArts cartoon style, but otherwise exactly the same game,
would people have complained about it being too whimsical for Zork?
-- 
David Tanguay       dat@Thinkage.on.ca       http://www.thinkage.on.ca/~dat/
Thinkage, Ltd.           Kitchener, Ontario, Canada          [43.24N 80.29W]
