Textfyre - Third Design/Writing Team
ChicagoDave
Paul O'Brian and Christopher Huang will be designing and writing a
science fiction series for Textfyre.
David C.
Mike Snyder
news:1185471798.7...@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
And these games will all be written for children? Is it possible you're
missing out on an older market too? This is a lot of talent that would be
great to see in games targeted at an older audience...
---- Mike.
namekuseijin
> And these games will all be written for children? Is it possible you're
> missing out on an older market too? This is a lot of talent that would be
> great to see in games targeted at an older audience...
While I feel sad to see the authors of Anchorhead and All Roads
writing for a younger audience, I wish them real good luck! IF needs
an audience outside old Infocom fans, otherwise it'll stagnate and
die.
Textfyre and Malinche seem to be both catering to a younger market and
this is good. Besides, if commercial IF becomes a solid reality again
-- hey, lots of portable computing devices these days with tiny
screens -- then we'll sure be seeing more of it. I hope then a mature
audience will also be ready for more literary, poetic and mature
approaches.
ChicagoDave
> And these games will all be written for children? Is it possible you're
> missing out on an older market too? This is a lot of talent that would be
> great to see in games targeted at an older audience...
The types of stories we're developing are more like Harry Potter than
Dick and Jane. The main difference I see in our games is that the PC
will reflect our target market. The stories themselves should have a
wider range of acceptance.
David C.
Urbatain
> "ChicagoDave" <david.cornel...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:1185471798.7...@w3g2000hsg.googlegroups.com...
>
>
> And these games will all be written for children? Is it possible you're
> missing out on an older market too? This is a lot of talent that would be
> great to see in games targeted at an older audience...
>
> ---- Mike.
Well, let Dave to try his enterprise with the younger ones. I'm sure
if he has success, he will soon expand his business horizont.
Urbatain.
Urbatain
>
> While I feel sad to see the authors of Anchorhead and All Roads
> writing for a younger audience, I wish them real good luck! IF needs
> an audience outside old Infocom fans, otherwise it'll stagnate and
> die.
>
Remember that you enjoy Lord of The Rings, 1984, Dracula, or Sherlock
Holmes between 12 and 16 of age (just a silly example). So I think the
textfyre games could be perfectly enjoyable with older people.
Urba.
David Whyld
Good point. I'm 33 and tomorrow I'm off to see The Simpsons Movie. I
think if something is done well enough, it can appeal to all ages.
Andrew Owen
wouldn't play IF written for kids if it was compelling enough.
Personally I think the best IF should be accessible to anyone. I'm
working on an IF that is aimed primarily at women, but I hope that
male and female players of all ages would find it enjoyable. The
problem with IF is the same problem with all other written works:
writing is hard.
Mike Snyder
news:1185619695.4...@r34g2000hsd.googlegroups.com...
Yeah -- but I wasn't thinking in those terms. After other replies like this,
I have a better picture of what to expect. Initially, I was thinking about
games that are more eductational and intended for the grade school level
(4th and 5th grade, for instance). I'm not sure where I got that idea. I
probably just haven't kept up enough with what info has been put out there
about Textfyre's target market.
Thanks,
---- Mike.
namekuseijin
> Has anyone heard of Harry Potter?
yes, what about it? Reading about wizards, dragons, elves, ghosts,
medieval castles and whatnot used to be a lot more fun in my youth.
Reading about teenagers learning the facts of life or whinning about
their typical teen problems is not fun at all today. This kind of
literature serves well to introduce kids to literature and that's fine
enough.
Andrew Owen
> On 28 jul, 07:48, Andrew Owen <cheve...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Has anyone heard of Harry Potter?
>
> yes, what about it?
Go back and read my post again. I wasn't talking about the literary
merits of the series.
namekuseijin
> I wasn't talking about the literary
> merits of the series.
you said "There's no reason why adults wouldn't play IF written for
kids if it was compelling enough." using HP as example.
I just replied teen literature isn't exactly compelling enough for
most adults: gone there, done that...
Mike Roberts
The whole reason Andrew brought up Harry Potter in the first place is that
it's the canonical counter-example to what you're saying. I think he
figured that the mere mention of the series pretty effectively refutes your
claim, but maybe you're not aware that the HP books are reputed to have a
large and devoted adult readership. So: HP is a children's series; it's
widely compelling to adults; therefore, empirically, not(what you said).
If you were to amend your claim to say *most* child/teen literature isn't
interesting to adults, though, you probably wouldn't get much argument.
This kind of crossover success seems rare. It would be equally silly to
argue that J.K. Rowling's success at it implies Textfyre's.
--Mike
mjr underscore at hotmail dot com
namekuseijin
> you're not aware that the HP books are reputed to have a
> large and devoted adult readership.
like the adult following of trekkies? or adults who love Nintendo and
their kiddy games?
Some people never grow up. Maturing has nothing to do with age, it
seems. Specially in consumerist societies always eager to feed
forever needing teens.
Zylon
news:1185832799.5...@k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
> Some people never grow up.
And thank goodness for that! If how you respond to things is what it means
to "grow up", I hope I don't.
The funny thing is that I even mainly agree with you. I do think a lot of
book material geared at "teens" tends not to be as enjoyed by adults. This
same kind of thing isn't necessarily true in games though. I've worked on
many game projects now for AGS that we've released publicly. You could argue
these were games that in their content anyway was sort of "teen" based. But
we've had the most of our sales with adults even with a relatively large
base of users between 15 and 19. Of course it must be that consumerist
society that is corporation-dominated and ruled, ultimately, by the
Illuminati.
Default User
> On 30 jul, 18:25, "Mike Roberts" <m...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > you're not aware that the HP books are reputed to have a
> > large and devoted adult readership.
>
> like the adult following of trekkies? or adults who love Nintendo and
> their kiddy games?
>
> Some people never grow up. Maturing has nothing to do with age, it
> seems.
Maturity is highly overrated.
Brian
--
If televison's a babysitter, the Internet is a drunk librarian who
won't shut up.
-- Dorothy Gambrell (http://catandgirl.com)
Andrew Plotkin
> namekuseijin wrote:
> >
> > Some people never grow up. Maturing has nothing to do with age, it
> > seems.
>
> Maturity is highly overrated.
Me, I spend a lot of time thinking about the computer games I was
introduced to when I was ten years old.
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
If the Bush administration hasn't thrown you in military prison
without trial, it's for one reason: they don't feel like it. Not
because of the Fifth Amendment.
Default User
> Here, Default User <defaul...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > namekuseijin wrote:
> > >
> > > Some people never grow up. Maturing has nothing to do with age,
> > > it seems.
> >
> > Maturity is highly overrated.
>
> Me, I spend a lot of time thinking about the computer games I was
> introduced to when I was ten years old.
I could try that, but it would be a short reminiscence.
Andrew Owen
because HP was a runaway success with adults is no guarantee that
Textfyre can do the same. There are further examples of cross-over
childen's fiction though: Tolkein, Lewis, Dahl, among others. And it
goes the other way as well. I found The Color Purple compelling when I
was a young adolescent. I suppose it all boils down to the two things
I keep going on about: good story and good writing.
The Wanderer
> On 30 jul, 18:25, "Mike Roberts" <m...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> you're not aware that the HP books are reputed to have a large and
>> devoted adult readership.
>
> like the adult following of trekkies? or adults who love Nintendo
> and their kiddy games?
Or the adults who love those weird cartoons from Japan?
It's just as narrow-minded for you to dismiss adult fans of HP, Nintendo
games and Star Trek as "immature" as it would be for Some People to
dismiss anime fans, including presumably yourself, as the same.
(For the record, I'm an anime fan myself, and also a somewhat
time-frustrated gamer and onetime Nintendo brand loyalist, and a
low-grade Star Trek fan though not obsessive or fanatical enough to be a
Trekkie, and enough of a HP fan to have read book 7 in one six-hour
sitting on release day. And apparently I also like IF as well.)
--
The Wanderer
Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.
Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.
John W. Kennedy
"Nothing is more characteristically juvenile than contempt for juvenility."
-- C. S. Lewis
namekuseijin
> "Nothing is more characteristically juvenile than contempt for juvenility."
> -- C. S. Lewis
said the man who had a strange platonic relationship with a little
girl...
Andrew Plotkin
Alice felt even more indignant at this suggestion. 'I mean,'
she said, 'that one can't help growing older.'
'ONE can't, perhaps,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'but TWO can. With
proper assistance, you might have left off at seven.'
--Z
--
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
Making a saint out of Reagan is sad. Making an idol out of Nixon ("If the
President does it then it's legal") is contemptible.
namekuseijin
> namekuseijin wrote:
> > like the adult following of trekkies? or adults who love Nintendo
> > and their kiddy games?
>
> Or the adults who love those weird cartoons from Japan?
I'm not excluding myself from behaving imaturelly sometimes.
But I won't say enjoying over-the-top animés is "adult entertainment"
just because many aged people enjoy it. More likely such aged people
are assuming an escapist behaviour, returning to the safety of their
teen years living with their parents, without problems,
responsabilities or commitments.
BTW, no, boobs&gore isn't "adult entertainment" either, regardless of
what most americans think.
namekuseijin
> Here, namekuseijin <namekusei...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 31 jul, 22:55, "John W. Kennedy" <jwke...@attglobal.net> wrote:
> > > "Nothing is more characteristically juvenile than contempt for juvenility."
> > > -- C. S. Lewis
>
> > said the man who had a strange platonic relationship with a little
> > girl...
>
> Um, perhaps you're thinking of a different man -- the one who wrote:
ugh! yes, Lewis Carroll. Somehow I associated the first C. with
Carroll...
Default User
> But I won't say enjoying over-the-top animis is "adult entertainment"
> just because many aged people enjoy it. More likely such aged people
> are assuming an escapist behaviour, returning to the safety of their
> teen years living with their parents, without problems,
> responsabilities or commitments.
Wow, nice psychobabble.