Playtester available immediately
Gerry Kevin Wilson
sin to try and make some money off of my hard work! As for 'instead of
game quality.' well, you just wait and see!
"I'll show you all! And someday, I'll RULE THE WORLD! AHAAHAHAHAHA!!!
erm...heheh, whoops."
Anyways, a large part of Infocom's success was their innovative packaging.
Who am I to argue?
Humph. Some 'mighty playtester'. I like my betatesters to wait until they
SEE the game before they criticize it. So just watch it, or I'll sic my
pet SPAM on you!
--
<~~~~~E~~~G~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~>
< V R I O Software. We don't make games, we create worlds! | ~~\ >
< T | /~\ | >
<_WATCH for Avalon in early '94!____wh...@uclink.berkeley.edu_|_\__/__>
David Baggett
>Self-promotion? Publicity? Packaging? Geez. You'd think it was a mortal
>sin to try and make some money off of my hard work! As for 'instead of
>game quality.' well, you just wait and see!
Net.cop is not a role I often play, but since I've periodically been on the
receiving end of similar flames, I'll share my experience:
There's nothing wrong with promoting your game(s), except that you're doing
it on Usenet. Since no one wants the net to go the way of Prodigy, people
are very touchy about use of the net for promotion of things that aren't
free. Shareware is borderline but seems to be OK as far as most people are
concerned.
A while back we had a longer section about Unnkulia Zero in the Unnkulian
posting. I took it out because a few people complained. You have to make
sure that your posts have some merit beyond simple advertising; otherwise
expect flames galore. This can be frustrating amidst the common "Gee, it's
really too bad no one's making text adventures anymore" posts in the
mainstream games groups, but deal with it.
>Humph. Some 'mighty playtester'. I like my betatesters to wait until they
>SEE the game before they criticize it.
Humor aside, good playtesters are of crucial importance to any text-based
IF project (moreso than for most other kinds of games, in my opinion) and
he is an excellent one.
Finally, overhyping stuff can backfire. People have gotten so sick of
hearing about DOOM (a new shareware PC game) that there's a fair amount of
animosity towards id Software in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action. (Don't get
me wrong; there's also a lot of admiration. But the fact remains that
exceeding the normal hype limits made them some enemies.)
Dave Baggett
__
d...@ai.mit.edu Boot up, log in, drop out. MIT AI Lab
ADVENTIONS: We make Kuul text adventures! Email for a catalog of releases.
PO Box 851 Columbia, MD 21044 USA / CIS: 76440,2671 / GEnie: ADVENTIONS
Michael Kinyon
Michael Kinyon, undisputed champion playtester, would like to take this
opportunity to announce his immediate availability to test any new
interactive fiction game. Having recently completed his highly
publicized world tour, he is ready to return to his computer and
begin testing once more.
** Testimonials **
Here are things that well-known game authors didn't say about Michael Kinyon.
But no doubt, they wish they had.
"Our games wouldn't be what they are today if Michael hadn't played them.
He is certainly my first choice for testing The Legend Lives. And The Horror
of Rylvania is much more terrifying now than before he tested it.
Wouldn't you agree, Baggett?"
"Yes, I would, and I would also like to mention his contributions to U.U.
Zero. Because of his insulting remarks about the yellow powder puzzle, I was
able to turn that game into something truly first-rate. Too bad he didn't
solve the completely trivial oar/snake puzzle by himself, though. Oh, by
the way, I'm not Baggett, I'm Leary. You're Baggett."
"Are you sure? I could have sworn..."
-- Dave Baggett and Dave Leary, Adventions
"I'm going to be sure to get Michael to test Unnkulian Unventures III.
At least, if I ever stop playing Klondike."
-- Bruce Nebel, Adventions
"Thanks to Michael, Enhanced has more of that combined Ingmar
Bergman/cyberpunk type of quality that Dominik and I were looking for.
Before Michael came along, it had more of a, well, Jerry Lewis/Las Vegas
showgirl type of quality."
-- Hans Persson, SophistiChaos
"I remember when I was thinking about designing a new game, and Kinyon
suggested that I write one in which the player had already died. Thus was
Perdition's Flames born. I also appreciated his help with the two
calculus problems on the driver's license test. If only he had been
around back when Deep Space Drifter was being designed; the part that takes
place on the planet wouldn't have been half as annoying as it is now.
Kinyon has even helped me improve TADS itself. Originally I wanted to
write it in BASIC, but he talked me out of it."
-- Michael J. Roberts, High Energy Software
"Due to Michael's careful constructiv criticism, I was able to corect
all of the speling misteaks in Lost."
-- Jeffrey Hersh, Cookies Under The Floor
"Michael helped me avoid being sued by all the people I used as characters
in Save Princeton, especially the jock. And of course, it was Michael who
suggested that I should create Modernism, with its over 300 different rooms
and 20 different characters."
-- Jacob Weinstein
"You know, before I met Michael, Curses was just a game about a person
trying to find a tourist map. Now it is an extremely large game about a
person trying to find a tourist map. Originally, I had wanted the whole
thing to take place in an English music hall, but Michael introduced me
to both T.S. Eliot and the Oxford History of England. My life was changed
forever."
-- Graham Nelson
"If I weren't so concerned about self-promotion, publicity, and packaging
instead of the actual quality of the game, I would have let Michael playtest
Avalon."
-- Gerry Kevin Wilson, Vertigo
"Michael is like a god to us. We are content to bask in the glory of his
achievements."
-- Liz Cyr Jones, Neil Guy, Adam Thornton,
Kevin Bolduan, and other playtesters
Michael Kinyon
Dept of Mathematics & Comp. Sci. phone: (219)-237-4240
Indiana University South Bend fax: (219)-237-4538
South Bend, IN 46634 USA mki...@peabody.iusb.indiana.edu
'"Bonvolu alsendi la pordiston - lausajne estas rano en mia bideo", and
I think we all know what that means.' - Rimmer
David Baggett
>"Our games wouldn't be what they are today if Michael hadn't played them.
>He is certainly my first choice for testing The Legend Lives. And The Horror
>of Rylvania is much more terrifying now than before he tested it.
>Wouldn't you agree, Baggett?"
Absolutely! Whoever I am!
>"I'm going to be sure to get Michael to test Unnkulian Unventures III.
>At least, if I ever stop playing Klondike."
> -- Bruce Nebel, Adventions
Bruce (Davis) and Chris (Nebel)'s collective schizophrenia is being looked
into by top pshychiatrists. Never fear -- we think they'll come out of
this *all right*.
>Originally I wanted to write it in BASIC, but he talked me out of it."
> -- Michael J. Roberts, High Energy Software
Someone should put this in their .sig.... :)
Dave Baggett/Leary
Anders Haavie
hahahhahaha....You are a funny guy !!!!!
Anderz
GTZaskarLeRingleManitou2StoneRosesCurvePixiesPavementInfocomBabesBoozeWinona
- Patricia: What is your greatest ambition in life?-
- Parvulesco: To become immortal and then to die.-
A bout de Souffle - Jean Luc Godard
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
aha...@ifm.uio.no Anders Haavie, Goerbitz gt 8, 0360 Oslo, Norway
WonderstuffSurrealismPuretyT-shirtsRecyclingGodardisgodCoppolaContactLenses.
Hans Persson
testers available...
/ Hans