BAD adventures
Williamson, Gil
Except for the year in which I entered Sir Ramic Hobbs, I was a
judge in Dave Malmberg's AGT contest, and there were some REAL
dogs among the entries. However, the game play faults from
immature and computer illiterate "programming" were much less
offensive to me than the literary and stylistic faults from
immature and crude adventure writing. My top ten hates were:
1 Bad spelling (I'm not talking about typos) - so unnecessary
2 In-jokes (there was a thread about this here) but not just
in-jokes. Anything set in the author's own house/college/firm
3 Parodies of soap operas with which I was familiar
4 " " " " " wasn't "
5 Unnecessary detail in actions. In the midst of an adventure
about saving the Universe from man-eating Plasma Monsters, the
player has to perform a multi-command "puzzle" to get his shoes
on before he leaves his house, then he has to eat, drink and
visit the restroom every ten moves
6 Getting killed every 2 moves
7 Getting marooned. eg Once you've eaten the ice cream, there's
no way you're going to bribe the toddler that comes along much
later, so you have to start a large section again
8 HUGE epic-like adventures in boring worlds (borrowed from
Tolkien but with Weird Names) that you have no chance of
finishing in this lifetime (and nor has the author)
9 Unfair puzzles.
10 Unimaginative parsing. eg CLIMB STAIRS is accepted, but UP
isn't.
Of these, probably only 10 is partly the result of bad
programming. All the rest are bad style.
I found I seldom agreed with the final judgement, with the
exception of SOGGY, and my favourites were compact, classic
adventures which were soluble without resort to the source code.
Other judges seemed to favour the Grand Design (pet hate 8,
above).
What are YOUR top ten?
Gil
Kevin Soucy
On Aug 08, 1996 10:31:11 in article <BAD adventures>, '"Williamson, Gil"
>Except for the year in which I entered Sir Ramic Hobbs, I was a
>judge in Dave Malmberg's AGT contest, and there were some REAL
>dogs among the entries. However, the game play faults from
>immature and computer illiterate "programming" were much less
>offensive to me than the literary and stylistic faults from
>immature and crude adventure writing.
your Top Ten list as to why some games, in general, suck. (I'm not just
talking about AGT games either) Up until recently, I hadn't even put out a
game because it always fell into one of the ten categories. I'd step back
from my source code for a minute and say to myself "Boy this sucks." After
that, the idea for the game would sit on the back-burner of my brain where
it would simmer for many years it seems. But then, on a BBS I found a file
Called CA-TSA, written by none other than yourself, which changed my
authoring skills immsensely. My biggest problem was that I never fully
designed the game out on paper before programming. That design-as-you-go
style is actually the worst possable idea anyone writing IF could have, and
it leads to many of the top ten problems. This is mostly due to the fact
that programming takes energy away from the story generation. I suggest,
if anyone reading this is still writing their games that way, that you stop
and think for a second. Get out a big notepad and a sharp pencil. Think
about all of the possable rooms in a given area of the game, and write them
down in a column. Next to the room names, fill in some possable objects
that the player might find in each room. Then, begin the puzzle writing
process by tying those objects to each other and asking yourself questions
like "Is this logical?", and "How many things could I possably do with THIS
object?". You may be surprised at how well your games grow in that
environment. (I sure have.)
"AGT Master"
Stee...@Usa.Pipeline.Com
Kevin Soucy
Matthew Amster-Burton
Stee...@usa.pipeline.com(Kevin Soucy) wrote:
>object?". You may be surprised at how well your games grow in that
>environment. (I sure have.)
Are any of your games available for d/l?
Matthew
Kevin Soucy
On Aug 08, 1996 19:31:37 in article <Re: BAD adventures>,My first game, Godfery's Crusade, should be avalable as shareware by the
holidays. It might have been sooner had I not dreamed up a neat way of
conducting the battle scenes. I've always found killing an opponent with
one blow kinda drab, so I've devised a way to battle using action commands.
EX: SWING SWORD has a different response than THRUST SWORD. And you have
to DODGE LEFT, DODGE RIGHT, and BLOCK as well! Battles will be quite
different from one another, since the monster has to do the same!
"AGT Master"
Stee...@Usa.Pipeline.Com
Matthew Amster-Burton
"Williamson, Gil" <Gil.Wil...@syntegra.bt.co.uk> wrote:
>My top ten hates were:
>3 Parodies of soap operas with which I was familiar
>4 " " " " " wasn't "
What? Can you elaborate? Are you saying a common occurrence (common
enough to make #3 and #4 of your pet peeves) in the AGT contest was
people doing soap opera knockoffs?
Matthew
Cardinal Teulbachs
Stee...@usa.pipeline.com(Kevin Soucy) wrote:
> That design-as-you-go
>style is actually the worst possable idea anyone writing IF could have, and
>it leads to many of the top ten problems. This is mostly due to the fact
>that programming takes energy away from the story generation. I suggest,
>if anyone reading this is still writing their games that way, that you stop
>and think for a second. Get out a big notepad and a sharp pencil. Think
>about all of the possable rooms in a given area of the game, and write them
>down in a column. Next to the room names, fill in some possable objects
>that the player might find in each room. Then, begin the puzzle writing
>process by tying those objects to each other and asking yourself questions
>like "Is this logical?", and "How many things could I possably do with THIS
>object?". You may be surprised at how well your games grow in that
>environment. (I sure have.)
Agreed. It's one thing to come up with a great new toothpaste. It's
another to get it into the tube.
--Cardinal T
I mean, what the hell kind of villain thwarts the hero's
progress with soup cans in the kitchen pantry?
--Russ Bryan
Cardinal, I follow up your post in the hopes that some
day I too will be quoted in your sig.
--Matthew Amster-Burton
Hey! This isn't what I said! What'd you do with my
quote?
--Bonni Mierzejewska
Michael Blaheta
Quoth Kevin Soucy:
> My first game, Godfery's Crusade, should be avalable as shareware by the
> holidays. It might have been sooner had I not dreamed up a neat way of
> conducting the battle scenes. I've always found killing an opponent with
> one blow kinda drab, so I've devised a way to battle using action commands.
> EX: SWING SWORD has a different response than THRUST SWORD. And you have
> to DODGE LEFT, DODGE RIGHT, and BLOCK as well! Battles will be quite
> different from one another, since the monster has to do the same!
Urk. I will reserve judgement until I see it (and play it, which may
take longer since I use a Mac), but this has extreme annoyance
potential. My own instinct suggests that people who want an RPG will
play one.
Don
Bob Adams
In article <4udfer$o...@nntp4.u.washington.edu>, Matthew Amster-Burton
<mam...@u.washington.edu> writes
>
>What? Can you elaborate? Are you saying a common occurrence (common
>enough to make #3 and #4 of your pet peeves) in the AGT contest was
>people doing soap opera knockoffs?
And worse. However, there were some truly awful AGT adventures submitted
based on all sorts of storylines. I mean awful programming, spelling,
lack of play-testing rather than awful storylines. Fortunately a few
good ones also got entered.
I've felt for a long time that some of the adventures entered into the
AGT contests and given "highly commended's", reflected very badly on the
reputation of AGT. Sadly, a lot of this dross is still around today,
even in the IF archives.
An Alien ate my cardigan and suchlike... <Shudder.>
--
Bob Adams
Bob Adams
In article <4udk4m$m...@news1.t1.usa.pipeline.com>,
Stee...@usa.pipeline.com writes
>
>My first game, Godfery's Crusade, should be avalable as shareware by the
>holidays. It might have been sooner had I not dreamed up a neat way of
>conducting the battle scenes. I've always found killing an opponent with
>one blow kinda drab, so I've devised a way to battle using action commands.
> EX: SWING SWORD has a different response than THRUST SWORD. And you have
>to DODGE LEFT, DODGE RIGHT, and BLOCK as well! Battles will be quite
>different from one another, since the monster has to do the same!
For those of us who don't fancy a long drawn out typing session of
repeated "ducks" and "swings", can you include "kill monster" as a
command so as we can get on with the adventure?
--
Bob Adams
Kevin Soucy
On Aug 09, 1996 23:45:46 in article <Re: BAD adventures>, 'Bob Adams
<ams...@amster.demon.co.uk>' wrote:
>For those of us who don't fancy a long drawn out typing session of
>repeated "ducks" and "swings", can you include "kill monster" as a
>command so as we can get on with the adventure?
minor battles, there will be a different move that will kill the monster
with one blow. That move will usually have something to do with the
objects in the room. Of course the 4th and final battle is against a
necromancer whom hurls magical stuff at you.... You have to get close to
him in order to kill.
"AGT Master"
Stee...@Usa.Pipeline.Com
Kevin Soucy
On Aug 09, 1996 23:50:55 in article <Re: BAD adventures>, 'Bob Adams
<ams...@amster.demon.co.uk>' wrote:
>And worse. However, there were some truly awful AGT adventures submitted
>based on all sorts of storylines. I mean awful programming, spelling,
>lack of play-testing rather than awful storylines.
make me wonder what the author was thinking. Let me add to this by saying
that stinky storylines are not only isolated to AGT games. My most recent
example of this, (And I've probably said it before.) was the Inform game
Theatre. I was hooked to that game at first, enjoying the creepy
atmosphere and the nicely done puzzles. But everything came to a
screeching halt when I entered the sewers under the theatre and found the
witch. What really bugged me was that I thought a ghost was haunting the
place, not a for-some-strange-reason-she's-still-alive witch. And her
father, turned into a goblin, was equally dissapointing, because HE was
still alive! Those parts didn't make any sense, and took enjoyment away
from what might have been a very entertaining story.
"AGT Master"
Stee...@Usa.Pipeline.Com
Trevor Barrie
Stee...@usa.pipeline.com(Kevin Soucy) wrote:
>Aye. Almost all storylines start out good, but some of them do [falter] and
>make me wonder what the author was thinking. Let me add to this by saying
>that stinky storylines are not only isolated to AGT games.
Well, no, of course not.
>My most recent example of this, was the Inform game Theatre.
Now you're on thin ice, son.:) IMO, Theatre is one of the top, oh, six games
available at GMD, storywise.
>I was hooked to that game at first, enjoying the creepy
>atmosphere and the nicely done puzzles. But everything came to a
>screeching halt when I entered the sewers under the theatre and found the
>witch.
The ending was admittedly somewhat rushed.
>What really bugged me was that I thought a ghost was haunting the
>place,
Then you came to the wrong conclusion. Not the authour's problem.
>not a for-some-strange-reason-she's-still-alive witch.
The game made it quite clear early on that you were dealing with a being who
was, if not immortal, at least long-lived. Why shouldn't she still be alive?
>And her father, turned into a goblin, was equally dissapointing, because HE
>was still alive!
So...?
>Those parts didn't make any sense,
How not?
Admiral Jota
Stee...@usa.pipeline.com(Kevin Soucy) writes:
>On Aug 09, 1996 23:50:55 in article <Re: BAD adventures>, 'Bob Adams
><ams...@amster.demon.co.uk>' wrote:
***** THEATER SPOILERS *****
>Let me add to this by saying
>that stinky storylines are not only isolated to AGT games. My most recent
>example of this, (And I've probably said it before.) was the Inform game
>Theatre. I was hooked to that game at first, enjoying the creepy
>atmosphere and the nicely done puzzles. But everything came to a
>screeching halt when I entered the sewers under the theatre and found the
>witch. What really bugged me was that I thought a ghost was haunting the
>place, not a for-some-strange-reason-she's-still-alive witch. And her
>father, turned into a goblin, was equally dissapointing, because HE was
>still alive! Those parts didn't make any sense, and took enjoyment away
>from what might have been a very entertaining story.
I think that you may have misunderstood what was going on a little bit.
You may want to play the game over again. I rather liked the game's
story, and I think it was much more coherent than the majority of the AGT
games that I've played. Sadly, AGT seems to have a higher of really bad
games than any other system I know of.
--
/<-= -=-=- -= Admiral Jota =- -=-=- =->\
__/><-=- http://www.tiac.net/users/jota/ =-><\__
\><-= jo...@mv.mv.com -- Finger for PGP =-></
\<-=- -= -=- -= -==- =- -=- =- -=->/
Kevin Soucy
On Aug 12, 1996 02:09:12 in article <Re: BAD adventures>, 'tba...@cycor.ca
(Trevor Barrie)' wrote:
>The game made it quite clear early on that you were dealing with a being
who
>was, if not immortal, at least long-lived. Why shouldn't she still be
alive?
"AGT Master"
Stee...@Usa.Pipeline.Com
Julian Arnold
In article <4um3np$8...@bud.peinet.pe.ca>, Trevor Barrie
<URL:mailto:tba...@cycor.ca> wrote:
>
> Stee...@usa.pipeline.com(Kevin Soucy) wrote:
>
> >Aye. Almost all storylines start out good, but some of them do [falter] and
> >that stinky storylines are not only isolated to AGT games.
>
>
SPOILERS (btw, "Theatre," in its entirety, is not an example of a bad
adventure)
> Now you're on thin ice, son.:) IMO, Theatre is one of the top, oh, six games
> available at GMD, storywise.
>
> >I was hooked to that game at first, enjoying the creepy
> >atmosphere and the nicely done puzzles. But everything came to a
> >screeching halt when I entered the sewers under the theatre and found the
> >witch.
>
> The ending was admittedly somewhat rushed.
>
> >What really bugged me was that I thought a ghost was haunting the
> >place,
>
> Then you came to the wrong conclusion. Not the authour's problem.
>
> >not a for-some-strange-reason-she's-still-alive witch.
>
> The game made it quite clear early on that you were dealing with a being who
> was, if not immortal, at least long-lived. Why shouldn't she still be alive?
>
> >And her father, turned into a goblin, was equally dissapointing, because HE
> >was still alive!
>
> So...?
>
> >Those parts didn't make any sense,
>
> How not?
What I found disappointing about the game was the inconsistent use of
paradigms from two different schools of horror. On the one hand there
were elements such as the haunted ticket booth/haunted theatre/animated
mannequins-- sort of understated, supernatural,
there's-something-behind-you horror-- which were very well done.
OTOH there was the library slug and the pit monster-- basic
sub-Lovecraftian schlocky stuff-- which I guess is OK if you like that
sort of thing.
IMO these two elements didn't mix well.
You could even go further and say that, for the most part, the whole
underground tunnel bit bore little resemblance or relevance,
stylistically, to what had gone before, and the snake-in-the-box was,
again stylistically (and physically?), an anomaly.
The endgame was rubbish.
Jools
--
Susan
>>For those of us who don't fancy a long drawn out typing session of
>>repeated "ducks" and "swings", can you include "kill monster" as a
>>command so as we can get on with the adventure?
>I won't go that far....<G> But I will say that for each of the game's 3
>minor battles, there will be a different move that will kill the monster
>with one blow. That move will usually have something to do with the
>objects in the room. Of course the 4th and final battle is against a
>necromancer whom hurls magical stuff at you.... You have to get close to
>him in order to kill.
Okay, well, as long as there are not more than 4 battles you can
compensate us by not putting in any huge tedious mazes. :)
* Susan * <Sus...@ix.netcom.com>
Kevin Soucy
On Aug 12, 1996 10:52:44 in article <Re: BAD adventures>,
'Sus...@ix.netcom.com (Susan)' wrote:
>Okay, well, as long as there are not more than 4 battles you can
>compensate us by not putting in any huge tedious mazes. :)
considered a maze would be the forest outside the castle. It's actually a
series of rooms that look identical, giving the player the feeling of being
lost in an enchanted forest. (Every 5 steps in one direction will take you
back to where you started from.)
"AGT Master"
Stee...@Usa.Pipeline.Com
Greg Ewing
Bob Adams wrote:
>
> In article <4udk4m$m...@news1.t1.usa.pipeline.com>,
> Stee...@usa.pipeline.com writes
> >
> >to DODGE LEFT, DODGE RIGHT, and BLOCK as well!
>
> command so as we can get on with the adventure?
Actually I wouldn't mind something like this, as long
as there was some real skill involved in figuring out
the right techniques for fighting each opponent, e.g.
The dwarf takes a swing at you from his right
shoulder, momentarily exposing his left flank.
> thrust right
He dodges your attack, and you collect his axe
with your neck. Your life is over.
whereas if you'd done
> block left
His axe meets your sword with a mighty clash,
throwing him off balance.
> thrust right
Your sword sinks into his spleen and he crumples
to the ground, gasping "Who designed this combat
system anyway..."
Greg
Colm McCarthy
Sus...@ix.netcom.com (Susan) wrote:
> Okay, well, as long as there are not more than 4 battles you can
>compensate us by not putting in any huge tedious mazes. :)
(Looks at game currently in development)
Oh well, back to the drawing board :-)
======= Text adventure games =======
== They're not just for beautiful ==
========= people anymore ===========
Phil Goetz
In article <4uiv8q$f...@news1.t1.usa.pipeline.com>,
Kevin Soucy <Stee...@usa.pipeline.com> wrote:
>On Aug 09, 1996 23:50:55 in article <Re: BAD adventures>, 'Bob Adams
><ams...@amster.demon.co.uk>' wrote:
>
>>And worse. However, there were some truly awful AGT adventures submitted
>>based on all sorts of storylines. I mean awful programming, spelling,
>>lack of play-testing rather than awful storylines.
>
>make me wonder what the author was thinking. Let me add to this by saying
>that stinky storylines are not only isolated to AGT games.
There are very few people writing IF who know how to construct a story.
One reason that I haven't produced any IF computer games in the past, gee,
ten years, is that I decided I could get more of an edge on other IF writers
by learning to write traditional linear stories first. I decided not to
sink time into another interactive fiction until I got one short story
published. Since then I've been writing stories, reading mountains of
"How to Write" books, and papering my office with rejection slips.
The problem with this approach is that if you are inept enough, like me,
you can go ten years without actually publishing anything, and in all
that time get zero feedback, except from writers' groups
full of other people who don't know how to get published.
(After a few dozen photocopied rejection slip you begin to wonder if
the editors even READ your stories...)
Anyway, this group focuses on the hi-tech side of IF, and I think that's
appropriate, but people who want to write good IF should realize that
they're going to need a long intership studying the basics of story.
Our "puzzle" mindset may have obscured this, but I think it's true.
I would think people who are serious about writing IF would also
be serious about writing other types of fiction. Am I wrong?
Let me start an informal poll here. Who of our IF authors also writes
static fiction?
Phil Go...@cs.buffalo.edu
Phil Goetz
In article <4ueqci$l...@flood.xnet.com>,
Michael Blaheta <mbla...@flood.xnet.com> wrote:
>Quoth Kevin Soucy:
>> EX: SWING SWORD has a different response than THRUST SWORD. And you have
>> different from one another, since the monster has to do the same!
>
>take longer since I use a Mac), but this has extreme annoyance
>potential. My own instinct suggests that people who want an RPG will
>play one.
>
>Don
*** pedantic mode ON ***
Before we start splintering into hostile camps, let me gently suggest
that Michael meant "combat games". Combat RPGs bore me, but I think of
RPGs in general as what IF is striving towards.
Phil Go...@cs.buffalo.edu
hey, did I forget to switch pedantic mode off? funny, that...
Gerry Kevin Wilson
In article <4uoupo$d...@prometheus.acsu.buffalo.edu>,
Phil Goetz <go...@cs.buffalo.edu> wrote:
>I would think people who are serious about writing IF would also
>be serious about writing other types of fiction. Am I wrong?
>Let me start an informal poll here. Who of our IF authors also writes
>static fiction?
I dabble. I haven't had time in awhile though, with all my I-F projects.
The experience is useful, but is by no means an end-all be-all sort of
thing. There are simply too many differences between the two artforms to
port too many techniques over. A lot of fictional devices break down when
you aren't sure that the player will ever see them. Still, as shown by my
authorship guide, a sufficient amount of carry-over does exist to ensure
that I-F writers must have some skill in writing F.
--
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~>
< Join in the 1996 Interactive Fiction Competition. | ~~\ >
< The Deadline is September 30, 1996. Enter, judge, betatest or ?? | /~\ | >
<_______________________...@uclink.berkeley.edu_|_\__/__>
Kevin Soucy
On Aug 13, 1996 04:03:04 in article <Do IF writers write?>,You got my vote. I write static fiction every once and a while. The
difference with static and IF is that you have to decide how you want to
reveal your story to the player. The player, being the main character in
the story, is usually pretty clueless at the beginning. As the game
progresses it reveals to the player the story from an inside point of view.
In some ways, IF is much easier to write as opposed to static fiction,
since you really don't have to plot out the main character's emotion, or
dialog.
"AGT Master"
Stee...@Usa.Pipeline.Com
Andrew Plotkin
Phil Goetz (go...@cs.buffalo.edu) wrote:
> Anyway, this group focuses on the hi-tech side of IF, and I think that's
> appropriate, but people who want to write good IF should realize that
> they're going to need a long intership studying the basics of story.
> Our "puzzle" mindset may have obscured this, but I think it's true.
>
> be serious about writing other types of fiction. Am I wrong?
> static fiction?
Not me. The only writing I have done has been for puzzles and games. Some
of this has been more static than text adventures, though.
I'm certainly serious about *reading* static fiction. And I'm doing it as
comparison, not contrast. I mean, I read books and think "I want the
story / writing in my IF to do *this* sort of trick." Or, more often,
"Damn, I wish the story / writing in my IF were this good."
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
Neil K. Guy
Andrew Plotkin (erky...@netcom.com) wrote:
: I'm certainly serious about *reading* static fiction. And I'm doing it as
: comparison, not contrast. I mean, I read books and think "I want the
: story / writing in my IF to do *this* sort of trick." Or, more often,
: "Damn, I wish the story / writing in my IF were this good."
Oh, gawd, I can relate to that. I've tried writing (static, if you will)
non-fiction over the years but have concluded I'm really not very good at
it. Sometimes that makes reading a really good book a bit depressing.
- Neil K.
Nulldogma
Me three. I write non-fiction <blatant plug> (see, for example, the cover
story of this week's _In These Times_) </blatant plug>, but I haven't
written any static fiction since high school. One of the reasons I got
into writing I-F was that it would give me a way of writing fiction while
hiding my ineptitude behind the conventions of a game.
Of course, I want to make the F in my I-F better and better, but at least
I'm getting writing done, and read, without being smothered under a pile
of rejection slips...
Neil
---------------------------------------------------------
Neil deMause ne...@echonyc.com
http://www.echonyc.com/~wham/neild.html
---------------------------------------------------------
Den of Iniquity
On 12 Aug 1996, Admiral Jota wrote:
> Sadly, AGT seems to have a higher of really bad games than any other
> system I know of.
Ah, but isn't this inevitable when you make programming 'easy'? Is it not
true that if you give any fool the power to create his own adventure,
then you will get a lot of adventures made by fools?
Heaven knows what terrible things could issue forth if someone made it
possible to write a game with NO CODING... ;)
--
Den
,_________________________________________________________________________,
| "I don't know the word 'available'." - a hypothesised excerpt from the |
| forthcoming masterpiece 'Avalon' |
'~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~'
John Holder
Kevin Soucy (Stee...@usa.pipeline.com) wrote:
: On Aug 12, 1996 10:52:44 in article <Re: BAD adventures>,
: 'Sus...@ix.netcom.com (Susan)' wrote:
:
: >Okay, well, as long as there are not more than 4 battles you can
: >compensate us by not putting in any huge tedious mazes. :)
: Can't stand huge tedious mazes myself.<G>
Yay!
: The only area that could be
: considered a maze would be the forest outside the castle. It's actually a
: series of rooms that look identical, giving the player the feeling of being
: lost in an enchanted forest. (Every 5 steps in one direction will take you
: back to where you started from.)
This sounds kinda cool - a maze that isn't really... ;)
--
John Holder (jho...@frii.com) http://www.frii.com/~jholder/
UNIX Specialist, Paranet Inc., Denver, Colorado, USA, Earth
Death is just God's way of dropping carrier detect...
Matthew Amster-Burton
Den of Iniquity <dms...@york.ac.uk> wrote:
>Heaven knows what terrible things could issue forth if someone made it
>possible to write a game with NO CODING... ;)
Perhaps this is one of the weighty issues addressed on Pearl Jam's new
album, No Code.
Matthew
Matthew Amster-Burton
go...@cs.buffalo.edu (Phil Goetz) wrote:
>I would think people who are serious about writing IF would also
>be serious about writing other types of fiction. Am I wrong?
>Let me start an informal poll here. Who of our IF authors also writes
>static fiction?
I don't know that I can be considered an IF author, since I've never
actually completed anything more than a goofy exercise to show to my
friends, but I'll chime in anyway.
I've never been any damn good at writing fiction. In third grade or
so, I decided to write a novel. I plotted out all the chapters, then
got sick of it in chapter two and had everyone run over by a truck. I
don't think I'm any better now. So, like Neil, I'm a journalist.
Worse yet, a rock journalist. I write for Addicted to Noise
(www.addict.com), Microsoft Music Central (www.musiccentral.msn.com),
and freelance elsewhere, including (here comes my plug--prepare to hit
'n') the 9/1/96 Sunday San Fran Chronicle. "Pop Quiz," in the
Datebook section.
Strangely, though, as long as I don't try to write way outside my
experience, the writing I've done for IF project I've started isn't
too bad. Maybe it's the exhilaration of not having to produce more
than a paragraph at a time.
Matthew
Kevin Soucy
On Aug 13, 1996 13:33:23 in article <Re: BAD adventures>, 'Den of Iniquity
<dms...@york.ac.uk>' wrote:
>Heaven knows what terrible things could issue forth if someone made it
>possible to write a game with NO CODING... ;)
part of my huge agenda...)
"AGT Master"
Stee...@Usa.Pipeline.Com
Jacob Solomon Weinstein
go...@cs.buffalo.edu (Phil Goetz) writes:
>I would think people who are serious about writing IF would also
>be serious about writing other types of fiction. Am I wrong?
>Let me start an informal poll here. Who of our IF authors also writes
>static fiction?
I'm pretty much a jack-of-all-trades--as of yet, it remains to be
determined if I'm good at any of them. I've written, of, probably 200
pages worth of short stories--my first published fiction appeared in The
North American Review earlier this year. I spent a year writing
non-fiction for _Washingtonian_ magazine. I finished the first draft of my
first novel in the spring, and hope to have it revised and ready to send
out by the end of the fall. And I'm finishing up my first screenplay.
Also, I've written 3 TV spec scripts with a partner. If all goes well, in
a few weeks I'll be starting a paid job as a joke-writer for a humorous
Web page.
And in the best of all possible worlds, I'd finish my contest entry in
time to enter it--but I'm not sure that's going to happen.
I think that writing anything imporves ones writing; I'm a better writer
of IF for having written static fiction, and vice versa.
For one thing, writing Save Princeton gave me confidence that I can see a
major project through from start to finish. This was a useful thing to
know about myself when I sat down to write page 1 of my novel.
Also, I think that the intellectual rigor of programming is a useful skill
to apply to static fiction. It's much harder for a writer to cheat when
writing a game; in a static story, if two events don't quite follow
logically, one can often get away with it, but a logical flaw can render a
game unplayable.
Nonetheless, I think that, right now, it's easier to write an acceptable
game than an
acceptable novel, because we have lower standards for games. The plot and
characters of Save Princeton, for example, would not have been good enough
for a novel.
I do think it's harder to write a great game than a great novel--partly
because there isn't as long a tradition to show one how it's done, and
partly because programming is such a damn pain in the ass.
-Jacob