For those who have received a beta:
The Lockable class changed in TADS3 3/23 and broke all my locks. The
fix will be out in a day or so. Give me time to work through my code;
it will require some patience.
Sorry about the problem.
Choices.
One more favor to ask, especially from those of you who keep asking
for hints.
You would do me a big favor if when you are stuck, you could tell me
the things you try when you are stuck. Your struggles are important to
me because they will give me clues on how to make a scene more
transparent to a player.
The immediate demand upon getting stuck, that I hand you a
walkthrough, ruins this. Sticking points are important, because if
everyone is getting stuck at a certain point in the game, (esp if
you're not supposed to get stuck there) then it points to the need for
more clues, or perhaps a partial scene rewrite.
The other point I want to mention is that I have someone who wants to
write a walkthrough already and I don't want to spoil his work.
Now, having said all this, I'll be happy to hand out clues if you're
stuck, but you help me immensely if you tell me ***what you tried when
you were stuck.***
Choices.
Joanna
R. N. Dominick <ur...@bookmice.net> wrote in message
news:Xns934A99BA530...@65.24.2.12...
He's just pissed off because he asked to beta test my game and I told him "no". ^_-
bwahaha... Choices.
> He's just pissed off because he asked to beta test my game and I told
> him "no". ^_-
Um... nope. Nice try, though.
This is the AIF forum.. people come here to discuss the games that are
under construction, help from other programmers and writers, and talk
to players what they want.. this is a place where people can voice
their opinion..
If the guy wants to talk about his AIF game, here on this AIF forum..
then let him.. too many people are to anal and should live and let
go..
Last I checked.. we're still a free country, and there's no such thing
as a PORN enforcer on our forums.. *gives you all the bird*
> This is the AIF forum..
No, it's cross-posted to alt.games.xtrek and rec.arts.int-fiction.
Thus the thread manages to annoy people in two *different* social
groups.
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
* Make your vote count. Get your vote counted.
>In rec.arts.int-fiction, Psimage <psi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> > He's just pissed off because he asked to beta test my game and I told
>>> > him "no". ^_-
>>>
>>> Um... nope. Nice try, though.
>
>> This is the AIF forum..
>
>No, it's cross-posted to alt.games.xtrek and rec.arts.int-fiction.
>Thus the thread manages to annoy people in two *different* social
>groups.
>
Okay, maybe I'm missing something here, but how did this original post
annoy anyone?
If you've never written a game before, then you obviously aren't aware
that some testers check the newsgroups more often than they check
their email; indeed some testers I tried using in the past *never*
checked their email. Choices was just covering all bases here and I
don't see anything wrong with that.
Chris C.
You do realise who you've replied to, don't you?
Bye,
--
Stuart "Sslaxx" Moore.
AIM: MrSslaxx ICQ: 144089571 YAHOO: mrsslaxx
WEBSITE: http://www.sslaxx.demon.co.uk LIVEJOURNAL:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sslaxx/
> Christopher Cole wrote:
>
> You do realise who you've replied to, don't you?
(warning: I feel a flame coming on...)
Being afraid to express your opinions just because you're disagreeing
with someone prestigious is fundamentally wrong. This is the kind of
thinking that will turn the infinite freedom of Usenet into an elitist
dictatorship that maintains its power by flaming (or, worse, completely
ignoring) those who would overturn their perfect self-appointed government.
Sometimes those in "power" are wrong, and all of us, regardless of how long
we've worked in a specific field, have the right to be heard.
Having said that, you have the right to flame people for disagreeing
with the all-knowing gurus of IF (who disagree with each other all the time,
by the way), or even for no reason at all. I just happen to think it's a bad
idea.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Ben Caplan -- philosopher, linguist, and thaumaturge
I think you will find that Andrew Plotkin has, indeed, written a game
before.
Adam
On the other hand, to be talking to Andrew Plotkin, and to say something
on the order of, "well, if you've never written a game, then you
wouldn't know....," which is what the poster *did*, means that you're
completely unaware.
Here's a clue, and take several, because they're real little: Andrew has
written quite a few games. His name appears on multiple commercial
games. He's very familiar with the process of recruiting beta testers
and with extracting feedback from them. The flamage now happening has
nothing at all to do with a defense of Andrew because he's part of the
cabal, but everything to do with the importance of knowing with whom
you're conversing.
It's sort of like my walking up to Dave Arneson and saying, "Well, yeah,
but if you had a roleplaying group you'd know...."
Adam
>> > He's just pissed off because he asked to beta test my game and I
>> > told him "no". ^_-
>> Um... nope. Nice try, though.
> This is the AIF forum.. people come here to discuss the games that are
> under construction, help from other programmers and writers, and talk
> to players what they want.. this is a place where people can voice
> their opinion..
As has been pointed out, this thread is cross-posted to
rec.arts.int-fiction. Besides which, in no circumstance is posting a
message to a newsgroup, thereby using bandwith and storage space on
thousands of machines worldwide, preferable to e-mail for contacting a
small, known group of people. The message I originally replied to could
have been of no use to anyone except those already testing "Dear Brian",
and it was the second message like that Choices had posted.
There was nothing wrong with the original "can I have some beta testers"
post, for either group. The rest, including this little flamelet? Just
clutter.
Also please note, what I've written, in my original post and this one, is
neither insulting nor rude. That's more than can be said for the follow-
ups.
Well those people can suck it up. Last I checked, there weren't any
rules against posting your opinions, or...God Forbid...leaving
messages for other people to read!
Again I ask. What is it exactly are we suppose to talk about here on
AIF forums? No wait! Let me answer this one, AIF games? *shakes his
head* you know. We get the usual bunch of people here who talk about
the current games, breakthrough's in TADS, and things that are wanted
done or is being done in the games. Those are the happy lot. Then we
get these people who barely respond except to gripe. No! Your ruining
our adult game enjoyment by talking about your game on here! Wah!
*sniffles* I'm not going to play here anymore! Wah! Im gonna take my
ball and go home! Wah!
You *DO NOT* have to read anything in this thread. Any annoyance you
suffer, any pain you feel, any outrage you have is purely self
inflicted. I hold no gun to your head. I can't make you read a thing
I write here.
This holier-than-thou attitude (on both sides) reminds me of the
little old lady in the Justin Wilson joke, who peeks in people's
windows to watch them "indecently exposuring" themselves, then
complains to the police.
This is a thread that should die. Let it.
Choices.
Then he should know that some testers can prove to be a little lax
when it comes to checking their emails. And I was, in fact, actually
referring R.N. Dominick who started this thread (it's quite possible
he's written games as well; my point was that they *should* know about
email-lazy testers, if they have).
Chris
I beg to differ. I found you to be arrogant and borderline obnoxious.
Now you're getting exactly what you started: a flame war that will
grow much larger than any original sin of mine.
The problem is exacerbated here by the way RAIFers treat AGX folk as
dumber than tree stumps. Some of us aren't quite the idiots you
portray us to be. One track minded, perhaps.
Did you consider possibly, Dominic, that a personal email wouldn't
have been better? If I should have been held to some arbitrary
standard of accountability, why can't you be held to that same
standard in your response?
Why? Because you're RAIFers. You're <I>Homo Superior</I>, that's why.
Rules only exist for the dumber-than-tree-stump folk ;)
Choices.
> For those who have received a beta:
>
*I* haven't. Why the fuck do you think the entire world gives a damn?
Are you really this stupid? Obviously your "game" WILL suck and
blow, given you haven't the sense to handle yourself in newsgroups.
Use yer friggin' head, idiot.
If you're so deeply offended by us, why continue posting to our group?
Your mother is a hamster.
<snip>
and
> Why? Because you're RAIFers. You're <I>Homo Superior</I>, that's why.
> Rules only exist for the dumber-than-tree-stump folk ;)
For pity's sake, guys.
If you read alt.games.x-trek for a while, you'll see that it has a
more relaxed and chatty atmosphere than rec.arts.int-fiction. There
are fewer people, they tend to be less critical of each other's work
and more supportive, and works-in-progress are discussed more
extensively. Beta-testing discussions etc. seem perfectly at home on
agx.
There's a slightly different culture on rec.arts.int-fiction, I think
partly because there's enough traffic to make private messages
distracting, but also just because people have, traditionally, taken
all WIP discussions off-line. I can only imagine what the newsgroup
would look like if, in the weeks before the annual comp, everyone who
was testing or writing a game posted all their exchanges via the
group.
On the scale of offenses, though, I think this is like someone who
speaks a different language using a word you think is offensive. It
wasn't *meant* to be offensive; punching the guy in the nose doesn't
improve matters at all. I can see the point in someone gently saying,
"just fyi, that's not what we usually do here," but as matter for a
flame war, c'mon.
ES
Use your own. "Choices IF" is the author of Rogue Redux, a very well
received IF game from 2001, and a very active member of this newsgroup.
While it may not have been very nice to use the newsgroup as an
announcement board for his beta-testing cycle, your outburst is totally
unwarranted.
That's great logic. Cant handle ones self in newsgroup. Talents in
writing and programming will suck.
But seriously. You realize in these posts people actually title it and
it was that hard for you or anyone else to notice its from that person
writing the game or the fact its titled with his game name that
perhaps its another one of those posts? Or perhaps after he gets
responses, that maybe anyone of the other programmers just getting
familiar with the new TADS 3 program could easily join in and help him
answer it? Or are you the type who peeks in on a man naked, then calls
the police for indecency?
If your so irritated by this man's posts, why not ignore the title
"DEAR BRIAN" by ChoiceIF instead of making such an issue on it till it
got this bad?
Oh my god! Thats such a difficult feat! Ignoring a post of something
you dont want to read. Its not titled Anonymous. on Subjects about sex
and anal rimming! Its not a surprise if you open it! Spare a brain
cell or two and just overlook the text. I'm sure you have more
important things to do then attack at random out of frustration.
> This is a thread that should die. Let it.
*Any* thread which is crossposted between two different newsgroups,
with different unstated conventions, will quickly fall into this sort
of mess. For exactly these reasons.
Example: My name is very familiar on one group, irrelevant on another.
The contexts are different. A statement taken one way in one place
draws a completely different response from the other crowd. Thence:
shouting, irritation, a thread which annoys everyone.
(Crossposts between rec.arts.int-fiction and rec.games.int-fiction are
accepted, as a rule. This is tolerable precisely because the
inhabitants of those two groups are nearly the same community.)
So: please don't crosspost threads. If you reply to a crossposted
thread, pick a single group, or limit followups to a single group.
To limit the damage of *this* crossposted message, I am setting the
followups to RAIF. (The one I read, so that I'll see replies.)
However, for precisely the same reason, crossposts between these two
groups are almost always unnecessary.
And of course you WOULD be the expert, since you've obviously played
the game already...
Jackass.
For the record, this game rocks and I can't wait to see what everyone
has to say when it's released.
Possibly because the AIFers write interactive fiction and, I guess,
come to this group a fair amount as well. It would be good for people
to accept that there are links between the two groups and therefore
some posts are applicable to both. This group (rec.arts) really has
got to the stage where you have to think before you post. This is a
community for discussion, so flaming fairly innocent posts (not aimed
at you in particular) does not help the atmosphere here.
>
>
> If you're so deeply offended by us, why continue posting to our group?
>
As I watch this rather bizarre thread, I kept wondering: Are the
xtrekkers unaware that they are cross posting everything to RAIF?
Despite the fact that it has been pointed out at least twice? And that
is why some in the RAIF-only community further pointed out that in a
newsgroup that generates 50 messages a day, adding personal missives
just is not appropriate?
I have to agree with this viewpoint. In a smaller group, the more the
merrier, but at some level of traffic it is necessary to cut down the
"Hello Joe" type of posts.
-Jim
And hey! I have a cross-post that really *is* relevant to both groups,
and a relevant follow-up:
If you want to see something *really* offensive, you should play _Stiffy
Makane: The Undiscovered Country_. If it doesn't offend you, then
you're probably a veteran of the Glory Days of alt.tasteless, or I did
something wrong.
Adam
Because I'm not deeply offended in the collective sense. A few
offensive folk with a superiority complex don't make a community
offensive. And to think a post into a cross-posted thread is a post
into "our group", I'll disagree. This is a multi-located thread. Two
communities are viewing it at once.
More in depth:
1) The original cross post was intentional, but the second a mistake
on my part. *oops*. However, Dominic should have had the brains to
realize that his *complaint* was injected back into AGX. Dominic's
tone and demeanor is perfectly fine for RAIF, but does it have any
cachet in AGX? Nope.
I could have predicted the result.
2) *Some* RAIFers are cool. The ones not named PN Dominic can be ;). I
can't say I read all RAIF threads, but I read most anything Adam
Thornton writes, because he seems to realize that adult literature
isn't the end of the free world (this dates back to his comments about
Playboy, in a thread that began with how trashy Playboy was. His
dissent was rather elegant). I read most of the TADS3 threads. I
generally post bug reports here.
3) Despite all that, there is a tendency to use AIF as a euphamism for
"crap" in RAIF, some of it deserved. I'm well aware I'm an AIF author,
that's I'm not 'in', by any stretch, and not entirely welcome by the
PN Dominics of this world. And I'll poke people like that in the side,
call them culture Nazis or worse, because they are. If you judge
people (and their work) by virtue of their backgrounds, you're a
bigot. And RAIF has its own peculiar strain of bigotry.
Choices.
I'll reiterate my original observation that no one forces you to read
anything in this thread. Any problems you have with it are self
inflicted.
There is a difference between the RAIF and AGX communities. Put a
bunch of AGXers in a sports bar, and they'll get sloppy drunk and
demand that the bartender change the channel away from the Iraqi War
and put on "The Man Show". I think RAIFers would complain about the
noise and find a library to hang out in.
Choices.
I love pissing people like you off, because the only person you have
to blame is yourself. You *don't* have to read anything I post.
Choices.
Well, the more stiff necks that react like this, the more I'm inclined
to piss them off further. There is a point at which complaints become
surreal, because the sin committed is so marginal in the first place.
What this reminds me of are the 1930s comedies. You could imagine Moe,
Larry and Curly on Harvard Square, one of the Stooges stepping on some
hallowed symbol, upsetting some matron, the Stooges taking offense and
starting a school-wide brawl. This whole series of threads is about as
meaningful.
And you know? The height of my RAIFish ambition for this game is to
appear on Emily Short's cheese list. I put cheese in my game
specifically for this purpose. I wanted (still want to) write the
first AIF game that appears on her cheese list.
Yea, I'm really ambitious here ;)
Choices.
Um, thanks.
I guess I am one of the few RAIFers who will come out and say that he
likes porn. But to confirm suspicions, I *do* look like I could behead
a trucker in one effortless swipe, as was once said about me on RAIF,
and I basically *am* a psychotically enraged hillbilly who also happens
to have some computer skills and a Master's degree. So I may not be a
fair picture of the High Intellectual RAIF Cabal. And as for the
drinking-in-a-sports-bar analogy, well, I certainly wouldn't insist that
we move to a library, but that's mostly because you wouldn't find me
drinking in a sports bar. Ugh. No, I'll be drinking in an Old Man Bar
(you know the kind: about a quarter full of dusty old men, smoking stale
cigarettes, drinking in a dusty old bar, very quiet, cheap), sitting on
a barstool, drinking cheap Scotch a little faster than is socially
acceptable, staring glumly into the row of bottles behind the bar.
Adam
On a different note...
if you're going to abuse someone, you could at LEAST get his name right.
Unless mine eyes deceive me, it's "Choices IF", NOT "Choice IF". :)
Now, please go away and stop annoying people in this forum with your
pointless banter. The only person you're making a fool of, at this time, is
yourself.
Paul.
> *Any* thread which is crossposted between two different newsgroups,
> with different unstated conventions, will quickly fall into this sort
> of mess. For exactly these reasons.
>
> Example: My name is very familiar on one group, irrelevant on another.
> The contexts are different. A statement taken one way in one place
> draws a completely different response from the other crowd. Thence:
> shouting, irritation, a thread which annoys everyone.
Devoting an entire paragraph to how well-known he is. Even by the pompous
standards of RAIF this is remarkable.
You're an asshole.
That un-pompous enough for you?
--
John W. Kennedy
"Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts. Only
the heir to the throne of the kingdom of idiots
would fight a war on twelve fronts."
-- "Babylon 5"
> One more favor to ask, especially from those of you who keep asking
> for hints.
<snip>
Y'know, I can't think of a game title any more gay than "Dear Brian".
No, wait. Yes I can. "Dear, Brian, Please Suck my Dick".
> And as for the
> drinking-in-a-sports-bar analogy, well, I certainly wouldn't insist
that
> we move to a library, but that's mostly because you wouldn't find me
> drinking in a sports bar. Ugh.
Quite right.
> No, I'll be drinking in an Old Man Bar
> (you know the kind: about a quarter full of dusty old men, smoking
stale
> cigarettes, drinking in a dusty old bar, very quiet, cheap), sitting
on
> a barstool, drinking cheap Scotch a little faster than is socially
> acceptable, staring glumly into the row of bottles behind the bar.
Is that so you can empty your bladder a little faster than is socially
acceptable?
Cheers
CK
> Y'know, I can't think of a game title any more gay than "Dear Brian".
>
> No, wait. Yes I can. "Dear, Brian, Please Suck my Dick".
Very good. Is Santoonie Corp going to write that one?
These adolescently homophobic comments came from a well-known RAIF
'troll' otherwise known as A. P. Hill. IMO there is little to add to
the measured comments of Atomicmoog, Emily, Andrew et al.
CK
Doesn't Peter mean dick? You know.. as in, My peter is itching I need
to scratch it. So shouldn't that say. "Dear Brian, Please suck my
Peter Lansford?"
Oh yes, a group of programmers talking about code or betatesting,
unacceptible. A homosexual man named Peter who wants a guy named Brian
to suck his hairy balls, okay practice on the aif to int-fiction
crosstalk?
And all because some guy was too lame to get a beta copy of the game
has to go tell on people, *wah! wah!* you cant be here! Look everyone!
I'll show him! I really wanted to play with myself that night, but
Choices If wouldnt let me! I couldnt wait till the game was finished,
because the family dog wont let me touch it anymore! Now lets start a
flame war with a guy named after a man's genitals! Wah!
Uhm... about that bukake thread again...
A) Not really My Kink, and
B) There is a bukkake scene, of sorts, in SMTUC.
Adam
Do I detect the faint aroma of elderberries ?
Hey, Einstein!
Ever heard of sarcasm?
Choice IF -> IF of superior quality
It's like calling a halfwit Einstein.
Get it?