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IF programmers, see "The Game"...

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Ben Parrish

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Sep 21, 1997, 3:00:00 AM9/21/97
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A thought occurred to me as I was replaying Fincher's latest film, "The
Game", in my head.

The movie is a LOT like a text adventure.

The main character is put through so many trials and tribulations, yet he
seems to at the same time be following some pre-written script that has
been laid out before him, and he seems to always have just the exact right
object to solve whatever problem he's working on at the time.

I advise any fellow (heh) RAIF programmers to see this movie, just so you
can take each scene and say to yourself, "Yeah! That'd be a cool IF
puzzle!" :)

I get dibs on the car window puzzle.

Amusingly, most of the bad (misguided) reviews of the movie have in a
sense, criticized it for its "linearity". "This wouldn't happen in real
life," they cry, "It's all too tidy and structured."

Brendon, get to it.

--
[ pin...@emi.net : Ben Parrish : http://www.emi.net/~pinback ]

Adam Donahue

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Sep 23, 1997, 3:00:00 AM9/23/97
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O.K., apparently the New York Times' arts reporter Edward Rothstein lurks
in this newsgroup (and steals its ideas!). Check out his piece in today's
(Monday's) Times. Talk about a rip-off of your post. {grin} Well, not
really. He elaborates quite a bit on the theme. But he must have grabbed
that from here.


Adam

Ben Parrish (pin...@toledo.emi.net) wrote:
: A thought occurred to me as I was replaying Fincher's latest film, "The

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-- Adam Donahue
-- Internet and Media Consultant
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Den of Iniquity

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Sep 24, 1997, 3:00:00 AM9/24/97
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On 23 Sep 1997, Adam Donahue wrote:

>O.K., apparently the New York Times' arts reporter Edward Rothstein lurks
>in this newsgroup (and steals its ideas!). Check out his piece in today's
>(Monday's) Times. Talk about a rip-off of your post. {grin}

Hi Adam,
we don't all get the New York Times - could you elaborate? (Or
point to some online version or something?)

--
Den


tv's Spatch

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Sep 24, 1997, 3:00:00 AM9/24/97
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Wormer, he's a dead man! Marmalard: dead! Terence Fergusson:
> In article <6024qd$dvn$1...@cambridge.emi.net>, Ben Parrish

> >
> >Amusingly, most of the bad (misguided) reviews of the movie have in a
> >sense, criticized it for its "linearity". "This wouldn't happen in real
> >life," they cry, "It's all too tidy and structured."

Any gay characters?


- spatch, had to be said -

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More fun than gastrointestinal problems -- PUTPBAD!
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Terence Fergusson

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Sep 24, 1997, 3:00:00 AM9/24/97
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In article <6024qd$dvn$1...@cambridge.emi.net>, Ben Parrish
<pin...@toledo.emi.net> scribed:

>A thought occurred to me as I was replaying Fincher's latest film, "The
>Game", in my head.
>
>The movie is a LOT like a text adventure.
>
>The main character is put through so many trials and tribulations, yet he
>seems to at the same time be following some pre-written script that has
>been laid out before him, and he seems to always have just the exact right
>object to solve whatever problem he's working on at the time.
>
>I advise any fellow (heh) RAIF programmers to see this movie, just so you
>can take each scene and say to yourself, "Yeah! That'd be a cool IF
>puzzle!" :)
>
>I get dibs on the car window puzzle.
>
>Amusingly, most of the bad (misguided) reviews of the movie have in a
>sense, criticized it for its "linearity". "This wouldn't happen in real
>life," they cry, "It's all too tidy and structured."
>
>Brendon, get to it.

Heh. Haven't seen "The Game".

But I have seen a TV series called "McGyver"....

How many IF puzzles do you think you'd be able to get out of that?

Ciao,
Terence Fergusson
-- Student of Advanced Murphodynamics

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I must not fear; fear is the mindkiller; fear is the death that brings
total oblivion...."
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Adam Donahue

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Sep 25, 1997, 3:00:00 AM9/25/97
to

Luckily, though it's an arts article, they've archived it for the week in
the CyberTimes section.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/092297movies.html

If it's gone by the time you visit, let me know and I'll mail you a copy.

Adam

Den of Iniquity (dms...@york.ac.uk) wrote:

:

Russell Glasser

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Sep 26, 1997, 3:00:00 AM9/26/97
to

Ben Parrish wrote:
>
> A thought occurred to me as I was replaying Fincher's latest film, "The
> Game", in my head.
>
> The movie is a LOT like a text adventure.
>
> The main character is put through so many trials and tribulations, yet he
> seems to at the same time be following some pre-written script that has
> been laid out before him, and he seems to always have just the exact right
> object to solve whatever problem he's working on at the time.
>

I know I'm a week late on this thread (busy moving to a new apartment,
haven't had net access) but I just had to respond, because by God, I had
the EXACT SAME THOUGHT while I was watching the movie.
At least for a little while. Gradually I came to feel that it's not
quite like a text adventure, but more like a latter-day interactive
movie. It's the get-object-use-object syndrome: find a key, wait for a
lock to come along. Find a window handle, wait for a window with no
handle. Every situation has a solution immediately available with no
backtracking, and it generally seems like sheer luck (or plot design)
that enables the player to solve each puzzle.
I can understand critics' objections... of course it WOULDN'T be so
easy to orchestrate everything perfectly in real life. But heck, I
didn't have to suspend my disbelief any more than I already do every
time I play a Sierra game.
Anyway, good movie.

--
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all
progress depends on the unreasonable man."
-- George Bernard Shaw

Russell can be heckled at
http://www.willynet.com/rglasser

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