[COMP01] Craxton's Comp Critiques
Craxton
(or, The Incredibly Good Ideas That Stopped Living And Became
Mixed-Up Comp Games)
**************************************************************************
Another year, another IFComp. Among the things this year's competition will
likely be remembered for is the liberal bending of the no-discussion rule.
As of this writing, no opinions on specific games have been offered, but
there has been not insignificant discussion about the quality of the games
in general, with several people, including prominent IF author Adam Cadre,
calling it a step down from previous years.
I would have liked to start this summation by saying Cadre is a grumpy old
fart. Unfortunately, the facts say he may indeed have been on to something.
My personal median/mean for this year was 4, and although the statistical
distribution was more or less normal, it was skewed two points lower then
what it should have been, and had an ugly spike on the low end, with 11
games being rated a two.
But that, too, is somewhat misleading. Under further scrutiny, it seems the
main cause of this low ebb was failed experiments. Ideas that weren't quite
what they could have been, innovations that didn't quite make it, ambitious
concepts that needed a bit more work. And I see this as something hopeful,
since in former years it's been games with little effort put into them that
have caused such low ebbs. An experimental concept takes some thought to
conceive and execute, and thus is more praiseworthy then just imitating what
has been successful in years past, and more importantly, it speaks of an
individual who is not willing to just settle for a can of Ass-Kicking
Peanuts.
So, despite the tone of disappointment this year, the future is looking up.
In other news, the search for a review format that accurately expresses my
opinions continues. Last year's Comments/Bugs/Suggestions fromat I thought
good at the time, but in retrospect it was an abject failure, accentuating
the negative to such an extent that I was positively nasty in my criticisms.
I was so nasty that Stephen Grande initially "forgot" to include me amongst
the archived reviews on his About.com site, and frankly, I don't blame him.
I reread them the other day and thought to myself, "*I* wrote this? What the
hell kind of bug got up my ass? 0_o;;;;;" I'd like to extend a too-belated
apology to anyone who's ego I bruised last year.
This year, I opted for a format oriented towards more constructive
criticism: First a brief summary of the game's concept or storyline, then an
analysis of both the positive and negative points, and finally a summary.
This worked much better in terms of keeping things in perspective,
unfortunately, it was also an extremely labor-intensive path to take, and I
soon found my critical neurons severely fatigued. This resulted in a shift
to abbreviated, one-paragraph reviews. I think the latter suited me better,
so that's probably what I'll be doing next year.
Without further ado, then, let's get to the nitty-gritty. Following is a
brief summary of my scores, and thereafter the actual critiques, in the
order the games were played.
***************************
Games rated a 10:
Moments Out of Time
Games rated a 9:
No Time To Squeal
Games rated an 8:
The Cave of Morpheus
All Roads
Grayscale
Games rated a 7:
Kallisti
The Evil Sorcerer
Vicious Cycles
Fusillade
Triune
Games rated a 6:
A Night Guest
The Chasing
The Beetmonger's Journal
You Are Here
Carma
Games rated a 5:
Silicon Castles
Journey from an Islet
Bane of the Builders
Volcano Isle
Schroedinger's Cat
Elements
Stiffy Makane: The Undiscovered Country
Games rated a 4:
The Isolato Incident
Best of Three
Fine Tuned
The Cruise
Earth And Sky
Film at Eleven
The Coast House
Games rated a 3:
Stick it to the man
Colours
Heroes
To Otherwhere and Back
The Gostak
The Newcomer
Games rated a 2:
an apple from nowhere
Crusade
Prized Possession
2112
Lovesong
Stranded
Shattered Memory
The Last Just Cause
Invasion of the Angora-fetish Transvestites from the Graveyards of
Jupiter
Mystery Manor
Jump
Games rated a 1:
Timeout
Goofy
SURREAL
The Test
You Were Doomed From The Start
Games not rated:
Begegnung am Fluss
**********************
Elements (elements.z5)
Rating: 6
The Story
---------
While swimming at the beach, you get dragged underwater. Awakening in a
strange cavern, you wander around collecting notes that clue you in to
what's go on and seeking to master the elements.
The Good
--------
COME TOGETHER, RIGHT NOW: At first glance, the quest to master the elemental
forces seems fairly cliche. (_Metamorpheses_ comes to mind.) But there's a
bit more at work here: You're not just collecting powers for personal
enlightenment, your bringing the elements to each other- bringing fire to
the earth, air to the water, earth to the air, and so on. Weaving parts into
each other until you have a whole. Good concept for a surrealist game.
The Bad
-------
MAGICAL, MYSTICAL, BLAND: Is this setting suppossed to be surreal and
dreamlike? Because it's not working. A mystic realm should be impressive, it
should have a sense of wonder to it. It should leave the player inclined to
explore the mysteries therin, and stare curiously at things otherwise
mundane. Here, everything is described in one line. Most of the scenery
(which HELP asks you to examine) is unimplemented. One location is described
in a single line. Others seem to be simply holding grounds for pages. The
Nymph will give some information, but other then that responds to only a
kiss, and that doesn't do anything. I mean, for god's sake, if you're going
to make a mushroom shaped like a phallus, at least implement some wiseass
response to EAT MUSHROOM.
"USE THE ALARM CLOCK ON THE TENT!": I walkthroughed the second half of this
game because I was completely clueless. I just could not figure out what to
do with any of what I was given. Possibly this points to how horribly I suck
at solving puzzles, but it's also possible that the actions required were
just too obscure. Unlisted exits didn't help matters.
"ERR... OOPS.": Ugh, ugh, ugh... people... for the love of God... if you're
going to submit something to the comp, please at least make sure the
SOLUTION WORKS! A bug making your game unwinnible automatically consigns you
to the low end of the ranking tables. Game over, man, Game over.
The Verdict
-----------
Some interesting ideas, but underdeveloped. Game world seems insubstantial,
dull. Maybe useful as a time-killer. Walkthrough misleading due to a bug.
Recieves 5 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. Correcting bugs would make it a 7,
to score higher requires developing the atmosphere and gameworld more as
well. Better hint system would also help.
*******************************
Stick it to the man (sittm.ulx)
Rating: 3
The Story
---------
Female anarchist starting to doubt the cause goes to a rally with her
friends, something goes awry... then bugs eat the game inside out.
The Good
--------
<insert witty title here>: The way the game introduces you to Iris' friends,
and for that matter Iris herself, is certainly interesting. You get a sense
of their character and lifestyles through just interacting with them. As a
result, the exposition doesn't seem clunky or overwrought. Unfortunately,
once the plot proper starts up and you get to the actual rally...
The Bad
-------
SCREW THE PLACARDS, WE NEED RAID!(tm): The game is hopelessly infested with
bugs, it may even be unwinnable. Some lines of conversation crash the
interpreter. Others cause dialogue blocks to repeat themselves. sometimes
the game returns internal errors. And there's always a delay between the
moment I hit return to enter a command and the moment the game responds, as
if something were slowing down the interpreter.
YOU WANT ME TO DO *WHAT?*: I only got as far as jail before time ran out,
but from what I've seen, you can't do anything the author doesn't want you
to do. Not in terms of advancing the plot, anyway. You can't leave the rally
peacefully (unless a bug blocks such an exit), and I can't for the life of
me figure out how to get the cuffs off- everything I think of returns "Not
while I have these handcuffs on." In another bug, typing LOOK after the cop
leaves the cell mentions "the cell I used to be in", implying that I'm
outside now. In which case, how did I get there?
The Verdict
-----------
Might be interesting, but too damn buggy to get a good picture of it.
Receives 3 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. Better beta-testing would have
helped.
***********************
Kallisti (kallisti.gam)
Rating: 7
The Story
---------
In an unnamed European city (Paris?) Gustav, a handsome but sleazy fellow,
attempts to seduce the virginal Katie. A game in three acts (before, during,
after the fateful deed), with the last taking a bizarre twist.
The Good
--------
TRIPPINGLY ON THE TONGUE: The game's florid, poetic writing sets and
maintains the mood well. I often bitch about one-line descriptions, but
maybe I should instead be bitching that they're the wrong lines. Take this,
for example: "Though Katie's scarf was mostly white, Gustav could see golden
fibres woven into the fabric. It was some gauzy material, light and
transparent as gossamer." Two sentences, painting a picture far clearer then
five times as many could by listing every detail, nuance and facet. Though
things aren't described in depth, they don't really have to be. You can,
such as here, describe how they feel to the psyche, and let the player
extrapolate the specifics.
IS IT HOT IN HERE?: I consider myself something of an expert on the subject,
so let me assure you: This is good sex here. Well-paced, with an intuitive
progression, and not a little bit of talent on the writer's part. Kudos!
The Bad
-------
WTF?: After the fairly straightforward nature of the first two acts, the
bizzarre and surreal third act is jarring. Just what is this suppossed to
signify? That our antihero is mad? That the tables have been turned on him?
That his victory was pyrric? Maybe I'm just missing some symbolism, but...
it left me confused, and as a result is something of a letdown.
"UHHH... HOW ABOUT THOSE METS?": This game is perhaps the greatest argument
in favor of conversational menus I have ever seen. ASK/TELL is okay for most
purposes, but an in-depth conversation like the first act often comes off as
an interrogation. Complicating the matter is the fact that there's only one
response to each command, some rather obvious synonyms are missing ("memory"
for "memories") and you can't pursue lines of conversation for more then
about 3 turns. And the lines on both sides are dry, to say the least. I lost
interest after flailing at random topics for about forty minutes, and had to
close down the game and come back later. (Once I did, of course, the path to
the next act was blindingly obvious...)
The Verdict
-----------
A stuttering first act, leading to a steamy climax, then on to a confusing
denoumant. Uneven, but the good outranks the bad by a decent amount. Nicely
evocative writing. Recieves 7 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. A more even
beginning and less opaque end would have improved the score.
**********************************
The Isolato Incident (isolato.acd)
Rating: 4
The Story
---------
A bizarrely surreal short about isolation and a search for self. You're the
monarch of a decidedly odd kingdom (for example, ghosts are killed and
processed into bees, which produce 'history', which you read by smearing it
on your skin), but someone's disrupting it, and you set out to make things
right.
The Good
--------
"DUDE, THIS IS SOME GOOD SHIT.": The writing is... trippy. There's no other
word for it. It's the kind of thing you imagine someone with a vague idea of
what the world is like, but some crucial problems in how it's put together,
would come up with. "We need the planetsword to open the apple! Alas, the
planetsword has been lost in the shrouds of myth for some months now." and
so on, producing a distinctly offsetting environment. Unfortunately...
The Bad
-------
"I DON'T KNOW WHETHER TO LAUGH OR SCREAM": ... the writing never finds a
resonent tone. It teeters on the border between silly and disturbing,
attaining neither. With no clear tone, and a wildly interpretive plot,
_Isolato_ soon becomes simply weird, and fails to have any affect on the
player.
BLINK AND YOU MISS IT: The game is too short by half. It says what it has to
say, yes, but it doesn't go into nearly the depth necessary. As soon as
things start getting interesting, things are over.
The Verdict
-----------
Bizarre and not completely satisfying. What it really needs is more
fleshing out, tone is non-existant, and the story is over too quickly.
Recieves 4 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
********************************
Moments Out of Time (moments.z6)
Rating: 10
The Story
---------
You're a StreamDiver, a time traveller who visits the past to conduct
historical research. The game starts in the prep room, where you must choose
six of the fourteen available pieces of equipment for your latest mission.
Then you dive to a residential house 12 hours before it's incinerated by a
nuclear blast. You mission is to collect as much historical information as
you can using the devices at your disposal. Of course, there's a
complication or two...
The Good
--------
PH33R MY L33T N3KKID SK1LLZ!!!: GodDAMN, you can't NOT respect coding like
this. We have: dynamic verb lists, a customizable command menu, automatic
fixes for compatability problems, sound effects, extensive documentation,
all implemented with few bugs or oversights that I could find. Mr. Raszewski
obviously put a *lot* of work into this game.
LOOKING BACK: The tone of the writing is exactly what you'd expect from
someone visiting a doomed past. A little sadness, a little admiration, a
little bafflement, and an overwhelming sense of discovery. Each scene and
room is described from an historian's viewpoint, with talk of how the
architecture or decoration reflects the times. EVERYTHING is analyzed in a
historical context, even with the occassional arrogant "how did they ever
survive without..." comment. This is also a really big house- not just in
terms of size, but in terms of detail. It's all incredibly alluring, and
it's a delight to get lost in the exploration of this tiny microcosm.
PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM: Anyone here played Megaman X4? That game was a textbook
example of turning one game into two. You could play as either X or Zero.
Both characters went through the same levels and challenges, but their
abilities differed wildly. While X could use projectile weapons captured
from the enemies, Zero had only his beam sabre and a few short-range
techniques. This meant, while they both had to overcome the same challenges,
they had to overcome them in different ways, because X couldn't do what Zero
could, and vice-versa. Result: one puzzle becomes two, a single challenge
becomes a pair. Raszewski uses a similiar technique in _Moments_ to give it
the quality that is ever out of reach of the IF genre: replayabiliy. Even
though the house is the same, you want to go back to it to find out how you
can use the visualizer, what good the library chip would do, just how you
might be able to decode those letters. Just one little problem...
The Bad
-------
THIS OR THAT: ... hemming the player in based on his earliest actions has
long been considered a cardinal sin in IF, and not for no reason. If, for
example, he decides midway through that he may have been better off with the
autokey rather then the visualizer, then he must start over to get it.
Either way, the only way he learns what he can using the autokey is by
retracing old steps. This can be annoying if the game isn't good enough to
reward such. _Moments_ is, for the most part, good enough. But it's a close
call sometimes.
OUT OF MEMORY ERROR: As I said, this is a very large and detailed house. So
large, in fact, that it can at times be overpowering. There's so much to
investigate, and so much text to read through, that the experience
eventually becomes a tedious sequence of X's, SEARCH's and miscellaneous
console commands. It's quite easy to overwhelm the player with the sheer
amount of things that HAVE to be done to get the full story, and I did feel
overwhelmed once or twice. A less patient player may give up entirely.
The Verdict
-----------
Innovative, ambitious, and incredibly appealing, despite minor
shortcomings. High marks for technical merit. Decently replayable. Recieves
a deserved 10 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. Good job! ^_^
***************************************************
Stiffy Makane: The Undiscovered Country (smtuc.blb)
Rating: 6
The Plot
--------
Stiffy Makane, recently appointed captain of a federation starship, boffs
his sole crewmate, lives out holodeck fantasies, disposes of pretentious
intellectual blowhards, and finally settles on exploring the mysteries of
homosexuality.
In-depth analysis would probably show more care for this game then is
healthy, so I'll keep it short:
The Good
--------
-Humorous in places. (Chris Crawford's easter egg, especially.)
-Good use of Glux multimedia capabilities.
-Sailor Jupiter hentai. ^_^
The Bad
-------
-Offensive, juvenile humor.
-Minimal implementation aside from multimedia.
-Sailor Jupiter miscast. (Jupiter is the strong, sensitive, maternal one.
Venus is the giggly, charmingly, airheaded one.)
-An insult to everything I stand for as a connesuire of interactive
erotica.
The Verdict
-----------
Lord Craxton rolls a ten-sided die, subtracts 1 just for the hell of it,
and gives this game a 5 out of 10.
********************
Timeout (Timeout.z5)
Rating: 1
The Plot
--------
Based on the RPG _Paranoia_. A mission to deliver pizza to an obscure
corner of Alpha Complex is an excuse to wander around doing completely
irrelevent stuff. Or so the walkthrough says, anyway...
The Good
--------
"THE COMPUTER IS YOUR FRIEND": The author seems to have done his research.
At least, what he knows of the Paranoia universe matches my admittedly
cursory knowledge. The downside, however, is that those who don't know about
it will have no clue what's going on.
The Bad
-------
"ZZZZZZZZZ...": Dear God, this game is dull. There is absolutely no
encouragement to do anything. At best, you get a suppossedly humorous
cutscene which involves someone dying in an allegedly funny way. At worst,
nothing at all happens. Practically every joke thrown out falls flat on it's
face. There's not even any effort given to making the complex, or your
teammates, look vaguely interest. Paranoia was a popular game, it could not
POSSIBLY have been this mind-bendingly boring. Not even the walkthrough
provides anything remotely humorous or interesting.
The Verdict
-----------
A yawn from start to finish. Skip it. Receives 1 out of 10 from Lord
Craxton.
*******************
Triune (triune.gam)
Rating: 7
The Story
---------
The slow and painful deteriaration of a young woman's childhood dreams,
told as a parable about a magic forest. Multiple endings, all of which are
somewhat depressing.
The Good
--------
";_;": The game is definately, shall we say, impactful. "Heart-wrenching"
would be a good term. It takes a lot of effort to depress me, so I think
success indicates that you did a good job of writing. Good enough, in fact,
to balence out most (but not quite all) of the problems I'm about to list...
The Bad
-------
THIN AS GLASS: Triune doesn't properly establish it's environments or
characters. What does get a response gets a useful one, but there are
nagging problems... spaces where *something* should be. The prince responds
to your questions of everything, even the things in his castle, with a
canned response, for example. Penda has nothing to say about her child, for
another. Neither the bloody patch in the forest, nor the remains of the
bird, can be examined. And forests where you type "x trees" and get "You can
see no trees here" make me twitch.
WHO'S SIDE ARE YOU ON, ANYWAY?: Triune is a story about the conflict between
fantastic dreams and ugly reality, with reality naturally winning out in the
end. So probably the biggest problem is that the author seems to be on the
side of fantasy. The fantastic world of the forest is a blossoming one, one
written of with joy and happiness. The realistic world it later becomes is a
barren one, wretched and destitute. To an extent, this is acceptable
because... well, life ain't pretty. But the author doesn't show any shred of
hope or potential in the destroyed world, and thus neither the protagonist
nor the player can reach any kind of understanding or enlightenment. The
result is a story that is torturous, sad, depressing... and nothing more.
When, on the final move (as listed in the walkthrough) there finally is some
attempt at attaining real closure, it doesn't work. It's too forced, it
feels like a bad joke, and it's a poor way to end a piece such as this. A
depressing work should also be... cathartic, I guess. Triune doesn't reach
that, in the end there is no light at the end of the tunnel, no purpose for
the suffering that has been endured, and thus the story is just depressing.
The Verdict
-----------
Poignant, but never reaches an epiphany. Thin implementation in places.
Receives 7 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. Fleshing out the scenery would bring
it up to an 8, but without some cathartic moment, it's still a muted
experience.
********************************
an apple from nowhere (aafn.ulx)
Rating: 2
Well, now we know who burglarized Rybread's stash...
Rated twice what most games of this type would be because it's amusingly
written, and at times even approaches some kind of coherancy.
***************************
Best of Three (Bestof3.blb)
Rating: 4
The Story
---------
Two intellectuals who knew each other in high school meet unexpectedly at a
coffee shop and tie up loose ends, after beating around the bush for a
while.
The Good
--------
WINDOW DRESSING: The story projects a strong, but not invasive sense of
"thereness". The waitress peters about, shoppers on the street come and go,
your companion toys with his drink- all described in the sense of how much
it applies to you, which is usually one line. You and Grant are the focus,
everthing else exists outside the metaphorical shell surrounding your table.
The result is you get a remarkable sense of time and place without ever
typing "look"
TALK TO ME: The game strongly mirrors a real-life conversation- instead of
the expositionary monologues and snappy back-and-forth common to discussions
in literature, we have a slow, meandering, step-by-step walk through topics
mundane and deep, with no real destination other then the journey itself.
However, I'm afraid more the anything it shows why this isn't done more
often in storytelling...
The Bad
-------
"BLAH BLAH BLAH, BLAHBLAHBLAH BLAH BLAH...": ...doing this in real life is
interesting. Watching it from behind a monitor is unbelievably DULL. An
absurd amount of time is spent beating around the bush. I didn't identify
with these people, or their conversation. Something... some profound
connection between the player and player character, is just not there. I
spent the entire two hours leaning on my hand, typing numbers, and wishing
to God we could GET somewhere, already. Which brings up problem numbers two
and three...
ON THE RAILS, GOING ROUND AND ROUND ETERNALLY: Despite the amount of
branching in the conversation, the game feels incredibly linear. Your really
have only one topic you want to talk about. Subjects come up, are batted
around for a while, and then dropped, leaving you back where you started.
It's realistic, yes, but it makes me yawn. I want to get to the point,
already. The small talk should not take an hour and a half of real world
time.
The Verdict
-----------
It probably seemed like a good idea at the time, but put into code it's
uninteresting in the extreme. Lord Craxton applauds new concepts, but
rewards it in the only way an honorable critic can- with his honest and
forthright opinion, which is a 4 out of 10. And, unfortunately, I can't see
it improving without fundamentally changing. Sorry
**********************
A Night Guest (ng.gam)
Rating: 6
The Story
---------
Rich englishman has an encounter with the devil. Told in verse, with the
player recommending courses of action to the PC.
The Good and The Bad
--------------------
KOMEDY!: With the last few games having taken a toll on my Comp enthusiasm,
this dose of silly humor was much appreciated. Is it deep, philosophical,
elegant, ironic, heartwarming? Hell, no. But it's fun, it's not too
torturous once you get the general idea of it, it's innovative in it's own
small way, and it's quite content with what it is. That deserves... well, a
golf clap, at least. *golf clap*
The Verdict
-----------
Pointless but harmless fifteen-minute diversion. Receives a 6 out of 10
from Lord Craxton.
****************************
Silicon Castles (castles.z5)
Rating: 5
Another abuse of the z-machine- a chess simulator, which also contains, as
an bonus, essays on the rules and history of chess and it's many cousins.
Well-implemented, but, well... it's chess. Chess is chess. Receives a 5 out
of 10 from Lord Craxton.
************************
Fine Tuned (finetune.z8)
Rating: 4
The one phrase that comes to mind when thinking of this game is "U $t00p!D
N00b!!!11!".
A very promising start, which establishes a fast pace, sets the stage
quickly, and sketches out characters cliche yet familiar. The game then
continues along, it's straightforward linearity neatly disguised by the
delightfully campy writing. But then the bugs take over, and oh dear... The
game scores your actions despite the fact that you can easily go over the
maximum score, and fullscore elicits a bafflingly buggy response. Also,
"score" is disabled in the second chapter, incongruous. More damning is the
way I was somehow able to get the game into an unwinnable state, and the
walkthrough that has UNDO commands in it is just funny. A lot of promise,
but too many bugs to be enjoyable. Still, the writing is enjoyable, and the
predictability of the plot keeps it's otherwise harsh puzzles down. Receives
a 4 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. Keep trying.
***********************************
Journey from an Islet (journey.gam)
Rating: 5
The Story
---------
Brief atmospheric piece, with some benign puzzles, in which you explore a
small island with an unrealistically but whimsically diverse ecology.
Alludes to _The Little Prince_.
The Good
--------
PAINTING A PICTURE WITH WORDS: As the author himself said, the main point of
this game is to show off the scenery. Which, I must say, isn't half-bad. The
picture painted with words isn't especially detailed, but it's pleasing to
the eye. Sort of like a slightly blurry watercolor- more relaxing to look at
then anything else. Additionally, the scenery is very well implemented-
virtually everything mentioned in the room descriptions is examinable.
The Bad
-------
WHAT'S MY MOTIVATION?: The goal to the game is extremely vague, and deduced
more by running out of ideas then anything else. (Or, more accurately, by
looking at the hints). And the solution is something of a stretch- requiring
a rather unlikely suspension of disbelief (unless the snake is suppossed to
be a hint, in which case, it's too vague).
The Verdict
-----------
Thoroughly implemented and relaxing, if rather forgettable on the whole.
Recieves 5 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
********************************
Begegnung am Fluss (amfluss.tag)
Rating: n/a
I can't read German, so this goes unrated. Sorry.
********************
Crusade (crusade.z5)
Rating: 2
As the leader of a band of Crusaders, you guide your men through the desert
to an infidel city, (by means of goose worship), and then convert the pagan
king with the story of Jesus Christ, Action Hero. Vaguely amusing in a
"South Park" kind of way, but very sparsely implemented, and rather dumb as
well. Likely to offend some people.
*************************
The Chasing (chasing.acd)
Rating: 6
In a bucolic setting, you retrieve seven horses representing human virtues
by demonstrating those same virtues. Short but satisfying.
***********************
The Cruise (cruise.gam)
Rating: 4
A cruise ship is the setting for a silly plot which has you first searching
for magic crystals, then gambling to earn money for diving gear so you can
eat a herring. It's nowhere near as interesting as I'm making it sound, and
even the author (who inserts himself as an NPC) doesn't seem to care much
about it. I'd wager he designed the cruise ship first, and then realised
that he didn't have an actual game to go with it. In any event, this is a
well-coded first effort, but I find it to have little entertainment value.
***********************************
Prized Possession (possess/Alys.z5)
Rating: 2
The Story
---------
Alys, he orphaned daughter of a minor nobleman, searches for a happy life
in 12th century England.
The Good
--------
POWERLESS: If there's one good thing about this game, it does make you see
Alys' sense of powerlessness. She is hardly ever able to do anything active
about her fate, and thus neither are you. Oh, sure, you can avoid bad guys,
you can say yes or no at crucial points, but when it comes right down to it,
your fate is entirely in the hands of the men you associate with, and you're
really just along for the ride. The player is boxed in because the character
is, which brings Alys' central problems into sharp focus. But this doesn't
count as much as it might. First, this has been done before, in last year's
_Rameses_. Second, and more fatally, it was done *better*. So _Prized_ is,
at best, a good idea that's too late.
The Bad
-------
SHE WHO HESITATES IS SCREWED: This game has the most draconian time limits
I've ever seen. You have absolutely no time to do anything, even get a feel
for the scenery, before you have to make a life-or-death decision. Even
taking a casual EXAMINE around the room, you have to step-UNDO-step-UNDO
just to avoid running into the next chapter break. You're flung from
decision to decision, often having to survive on very little information.
Needless to say, this is both annoying and jarring.
"IF I WANT TO READ A BOOK...": _Prized Possession_ feels very much like a
static story with an interactive component grafted on. There's only one path
start to finish, and the player's involvement is solely in making the right
choice at the right time. You have to do *exactly* what the author wants, or
you're dead. Honestly, it feels that this story could have worked better if
it was merely written.
The Verdict
-----------
Thin implementation, utterly static plotline, and draconian time limits
shoot it down. Recieves 2 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. Allowing the player
to get a good feel for his surroundings would have helped immensely.
********************
Colours (colours.z5)
Rating: 3
Abstract game about an acrostic note, NPCs in search of words, and colored
objects that must be returned to their proper rooms. After you figure the
above out, it's pretty easy, and rather entertaining to follow through on.
Unfortunately figuring it out required the walkthrough, in my case. Even
more unfortunately, a critical design oversight makes the game unwinnable.
Still, there's potential here, and the NPCs are amusing caricatures.
Receives a 3 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
*******************************
The Cave of Morpheus (tcom.taf)
Rating: 8
The Story
---------
A cute little college story that's kind of hard to explain. Suffice to say,
it incorperates dream analysis and Adventure-550 into a story of college
angst... or something like that. Railed and brief, but still interesting.
The Good
--------
"SHEESH, YOU NEED ME TO TELL YOU EVERYTHING?": _Morpheus_ treats the player
with intelligence. There's a consistant air of tongue-in-cheek humor. The
game doesn't explain things fully, and knows it doesn't need to. It presents
as much as it can without the text becoming incongruous or out-of-place, and
relies on the player to make the logical leaps. In other words, it makes
your brain work to get the meaning from the piece. Not work HARD, mind you.
But work enough that there's a small sense of accomplishment from getting
through it.
The Bad
-------
BUT IS IT ART?: The question will be raised: is this truly interactive
fiction? A lot of the longer sections are railed, the clearest example being
when Steven is playing Adventure on his PC (dramatic irony, perhaps...).
Does incorporating a classical text adventure into the plotline *justify*
it's being called interactive? I don't care personally, because I had fun
with _Morpheus_, and felt it was time well spent. But others may pick nits.
The Verdict
-----------
Amusing and intelligent game with enough tongue-in-cheek humor to carry a
somewhat railed plotline. Recieves an 8 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. Good
job! ^_^
***************
2112 (2112.exe)
Rating: 2
The Story
---------
Arriving on Mars for a class trip, you steal your classmate's stuff and
follow a string of clues to a destiny involving the aforementioned
classmate's father, a man-made goddess, and saving the planet from
destruction. If you can befriend a cockroach and elude a host of somewhat
different bugs.
The Good
--------
JUST LIKE OLD TIMES: Ah, yes, the wonders of the old puzzlefest text
adventure. Wandering around, seeing the sights, having to puzzle things out,
and the neat little way everything comes together at the end.
THEMATIC UNITY: The world is well-designed. Virtually everything has a
meaning, usually one not readily apparent. The coloration of the
"monuments", for example, are replecated in the floors of the hotel. The
memos about the bathroom key, likewise, prove to have meaning later on.
Everything is woven very tightly, nothing is there without a purpose.
"I WAS JUST TRYING TO CALL FOR SOME TAKE-OUT...": Ooma deserves special
mention as one of the... well, cutest NPCs I've seen in a while, and very
well-realized, as well. You can ask her about a wealth of topics (a complete
list is in the walkthrough, check it out.)
The Bad
-------
TOO MUCH LIKE OLD TIMES: Inventory limits. Actions without motivation.
Exhaustable resources. The ability to lock yourself out of victory early and
easily. Ugh, ugh, ugh. There's a REASON people don't make games like this
anymore. Annoying the player is not the way to go. Jeeze...
WHO ARE YOU, NELSON?: Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, UGH! I have nothing against
homebrew parsers per se. But they have a tendancy towards compatability
problems and bad bugs. The bugs, in fact, are the reason this game gets only
1. Now, there's not really a LOT of bugs, but you don't NEED a lot to shoot
you down. In this case, two suffice. 1) Frequent and seemingly random
crashes. 2) Restore does not work properly.
A moment of silence while we reflect on THAT...
The Verdict
-----------
Has much potential, including good writing and an appealing NPC, but
outmoded design ideas and serious implementation problems shoot it down.
Recieves a 2 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. Fix up the bugs (or port it to a
more established language, maybe HTML-TADS,) and it's up to a 7. Five points
for two bugs? Harsh? Maybe. But I have no sympathy for an author who makes
me restart because he can't figure out how to save/restore properly.
******************
Heroes (heroes.z5)
Rating: 3
The Story
---------
In an idea reminiscent of _Quest for Glory_, undertake a quest to retrieve
a magic gem as five different characters. While all five must face similiar
challenges in the course of doing so, they overcome these challenges in
different ways- the Adventurer with charisma and cleverness, the Enchanter
with magic, the Thief with sneakiness, the Royal with authority, and the
Dragon with a carefully-controlled Godzilla impersonation. Has a frame plot
which went right over my head.
The Good
--------
MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE: Each character sees the same scenes in a different
light. The thief, for example, sees things in terms of stealth and profit.
The temple is good because it contains lots of hiding places, the streets
bad because there are few alleys or climbable roofs to allow stealthy
passage. A glass ball's value is insignificant, a magic staff's much moreso.
To the enchanter, the garden has been carefully arranged, the temple
carefully constructed. But to the adventurer, it's all just pretty. To the
dragon this is all greek- he sees houses as constructs of rock and dead
trees, where humans see a great temple he sees only an irritating enclosed
cave. Each character brings a different perspective to the town, and all
these are reflected.
The Bad
-------
*YAWWWWWWWWN*: Despite the cute gimmick, the game itself is neither
particularly involved nor particularly interesting. Absconde from an evil
nobleman's lair with a magic McGuffin? Puh-lease. Seen it. The game attrits
interest further with uninspired writing and some extremely dodgy puzzles
(MELT CANDLE?). On top of that, the author clearly expects you to play as
the adventurer first, and have a good sense of the city's layout once you're
done. Otherwise all of the other characters will be facing severe handicaps
in the form of unmentioned exits. Honestly, this game is amatuerish, and I
think it could have stood to have some more spit & polish put into it.
The Verdict
-----------
Frustrating without the walkthrough, and only marginally interesting. Not
really worth the player's time. Recieves a 3 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. If
the game was more fleshed-out, it could be a 7 or even and 8.
***********************
Lovesong (lovesong.asl)
Rating: 2
Well, the writer doesn't seem to have a good grasp of English, and the
parser is crap. But at least he recognises this, and has the sensibility to
keep thing quick and painless. Receives a 2 out of 10 from Lord Craxton,
since it's more or less glitchless, and that has to count for something.
*****************
Goofy (goofy.htm)
Rating: 1
Err, okay, this game sucks. The plot is about the stupidest I've ever seen,
the design is minimalist in the extreme, the puzzles obscure, and it suffers
from a very slow Javascript implementation. JAVASCRIPT? Why? Receives a 1
out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
***********************
Stranded (stranded.gam)
Rating: 2
Escape from a deserted island while attempting to secure an ancient relic.
This involves, among other things, hunger puzzles, rooms of instant death,
and mazes. Not to be overly harsh, but someone needs to read up on modern
text-adventure design philosophy, as in how not to annoy the player into
playing something else. But the pictures are pretty, as well as consistant.
One can easily believe they all came from the same general area. Receives 2
out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
*********************************
To Otherwhere and Back (toab.acd)
Rating: 3
This is a Walkthrough Comp game. And thus somewhat out of place without the
rest of them. Recieves a 3 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
*****************************
Shattered Memory (shatmem.z5)
Rating: 2
You wake up in a long line with no memory, and have to figure out who you
are and what's going on. A decent premise with utterly horrid execution.
Every move in the game has to be guessed. Even if you hit the walkthrough,
you're still guessing at the syntax. Plus, the reality of the situation,
which you're suppossed to be clueless about until it's revealed, is obvious
pretty much from the get-go. Disappointing. Recieves a 2 out of 10 from Lord
Craxton.
****************************
Bane of the Builders (bb.z5)
Rating: 5
In a sci-fi story, a professor has vanished on a planetside dig and it's
your job to find him. Not bad, but not especially good either. Receives a 5
out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
***************************
The Evil Sorcerer (evil.z5)
Rating: 7
Another old-school puzzlefest game. The plot is a mess of cliches: Waking
up with amnesia, you set out to first recover your memory, then find out
what happened to the woman who brought you here, and finally take out the
evil sorcerer. Decent game with very thorough implementation of scenery and
seeming irrelevancies (which earns points from me, read back through reviews
past and present and see how many games I've blasted for not being
atmospheric or evocative enough), but highly forgettable. Dialogue is
mediocre, and the primary way to move the plot forward is to reach the
appropriate place, which makes the game more or less a excercise in
exploration, with occassional scavenger-hunt aspects. Suffers from an
abundance of useless items and an inventory limit. Receives a 7 out of 10
from Lord Craxton. Not bad for a first effort. ^_^
**********************
The Gostak (gostak.z5)
Rating: 3
Guess-the-verb taken to a new, more annoying level. Okay, *maybe* earlier
in the Comp I would have had the patience for this, but no thanks. It's one
thing to read Jabberwock and be pleasently mystified, but to try and play
through it using the original words is an exercise in frustration. You can
be surreal at this level without resorting to arcane command syntax. Look at
For A Change. Receives 3 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
******************************
The Last Just Cause (TLJC.exe)
Rating: 2
This game has a lot going against it- first of all, it's a homebrew parser,
and an extremely limited one- only a very few verbs are supported. This
effectively reduces the game to running around in search of cutscenes.
Second, it attempts to blend RPG elements with traditional puzzling, but
it's no good- you wind up in a random encounter at seemingly every turn, and
they quickly become very, very tedious. Third, the writing is not great. It
seems the author does not speak english as a first language. Recieves a 2
out of 10 from Lord Craxton. Too limited technically, and very irritating
design-wise.
**********************
Earth And Sky (eas.z5)
Rating: 4
The Story
---------
Comic-book story where you play the female half of a brother-sister
superhero team. In this episode, the origin of Earth and Sky, and then their
first battle, against a giant monster. More episodes are promised.
The Good
--------
THOSE DUSTY X-MEN BOOKS IN MY ATTIC: As an attempt to create a game in
comic-book style, _Earth and Sky_ hits the Bull's-Eye. Heavy dialogue
scattered across scenes that move forward in starts, (in fact, the
similiarity between turns in this game and panels of a comic book is
astonishing) complete with overblown dialogue, angsty characters, and
slightly silly "SCIENCE!" fiction make this entertaining to read, at least
while it lasts.
The Bad
-------
OH, LIKE YOU NEED MY HELP: This game is interactive to an extent, with some
interesting if straightforward puzzles and decent if irrelevant plot
branching, but it gains nothing by being so. It could have been written as
static fiction and be almost exactly the same. The conversation interface
tries way too hard, becoming a mish-mosh of different approaches, and just
the same has little effect on either the plot or focus of the story. (Though
the list of "We can't be superheros!" options was amusing.) The player seems
rather auxilliary. He basically sits behind the keyboard, twiddles his
thumbs, and does the obvious thing at the obvious moment.
The Verdict
-----------
Not quite interactive enough to be considered IF, and not especially
interesting, unless you want an example of how to render a comic book as a
text adventure. Receives a 3 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. Could be good, but
needs a lot of work.
**************************
Vicious Cycles (cycles.z5)
Rating: 7
In a science-fiction world dominated by corporations, you find yourself in
a time-loop reminiscent of _Delusions_. The reason for this isn't quite
clear at first, but is revealed in bits and pieces over the course of the
game, with two large chunks of exposition near the middle and end. Not
particularly groundbreaking, but well put-together, at least the first half.
The second half of the game is passable, but could have used some work. One
scene is just looking around a room while the plot happens around you, and
the subsequent climactic sequence consists of you talking to an NPC for a
set number of turns, and nothing more. The ending is kind of sudden, too,
and anticlimactic. Still, these are only minor flaws, and the first half,
which requires you resolve a delicate situation using information gained
over multiple play-throughs, makes up for the problems later on. Recieves a
7 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. A little work with the pacing would help.
*****************************
SURREAL (surreal/SURREAL.BAT)
Rating: 1
Homebrew game that has you exploring a myst-like island. Well-intentioned,
but held back by a severely limited parser (requires syntax such as UNLOCK
MACHINE WITH ACID) and a number of bugs and design shortcomings, including a
gate that doesn't even try to block your path, plot events in the room
descriptions, item descriptions that don't change after the items themselves
change (for example, a machine that looks unopenable even after you've
dissolved it open), a room where seven of eight exits lead to death, death
being treated as a room by the parser, and very little of the promised
surreality. Receives a 1 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
**************************
Volcano Isle (volcano.gam)
Rating: 5
Treasure hunt on an island. Contains a few homages to ZORK. Receives a 5
out of 10 from Lord Craxton
***********************
All Roads (AllRoads.z5)
Rating: 8
The Story
---------
An interesting but bizarre tale of political intrigue in Rennaisance Italy.
Confusing plot centers around your character- a hired assassin with an
unusual supernatural ability.
The Good
--------
THINK FAST!: Like "Fine Tuned" above, this game makes sure to keep you
moving. The opening sequence, where you look around for a method of escaping
death, and then finally find one unexpectedly, sets the pace for the game to
follow. It's been said that one way to make good interactive fiction is to
distract the player from the linearity of your game. "All Roads" pulls it
off. (Well, "linear" is probably a bit inaccurate: the path I took is
slightly different from the walkthrough, so there is some varience...)
The Bad
-------
WHERE AM I? WHO AM I?: The main problem with All Roads is that it plays fast
and loose with the player/character relationship. In some place, protagonist
knows a good deal more then you, but you don't know it until he tells
someone else. In others, he seems to not know things that he logically
should. This occurs repeatedly, and it's disconcerting. The player is so
busy getting thrown from one setup to the next that he can't start piecing
things together until very late in the game. And even then...
WHAT? WHO? WHEN? WHERE? WHY? HOW?: The plot only *probably* makes sense.
It's difficult to tell what exactly is happening, since the game's central
conceit- the protagonist's bizarre ability- isn't well-explained. In _My
Angel_ Ingold didn't need to explain things a lot- it's telepathy, everyone
knows about telepathy- but here the ability in question is quite a bit
odder, and near the end seems to be a combination of two things. There's a
point in the middle where it ALMOST makes sense, but after the second scene
in the palace, things go nutsy-cuckoo. The final result is just plain
confusing.
The Verdict
-----------
Well-coded, tightly paced, and appealing, but in the end it doesn't make
sense, eliciting nothing so much as a "huh?" from the player. Receives 7 out
of 10 from Lord Craxton. The concept needs to be better realized.
**********************
The Test (thetest.taf)
Rating: 1
Stuck in a math test, you get mysteriously zapped into a strange world
where you must, among other things, take 500 turns to unlock a door. Ugh.
Receives a 1 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
****************************************************************************
***********
Invasion of the Angora-fetish Transvestites from the Graveyards of Jupiter
(angora.exe)
Rating: 2
(Thank you for wrecking my formatting. Ź_Ź;;;;;;)
I tried to like this. Really I did. But it just ain't working. NPCs moving
in real time is a bad idea, you just have to run around chasing them because
you can't type in commands fast enough. Plus, the map is too big, too
complicated, and too featureless, the text formatting is whacked, the
grammer is occassionally laughable, and the goals of the game are unclear. I
wander around a lot and get killed by a serial killer in the end. I am
suppossed to avoid this how? Receives a 2 out of 10 from Lord Craxton
***********************************
The Beetmonger's Journal (Beet.gam)
Rating: 6
The assistant to an aged archeologist tells (in the third-person past
tense) the story of his final expedition, which brought him a journal from
whence he recites (in the first-person past tense) the tale of it's owner, a
legendary beetmonger who brought either war or peace to a troubled land. The
tongue-in-cheek humor of the beetmonger's tale is a minor plus, as are the
cute monkeyings with narrative voice. On the other hand, we have some
problems conversing with NPCs and a few points where the player has little
direction. Very average overall. Receives a 6 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
**************************
The Newcomer (newcomer.z5)
Rating: 3
"A most interesting game... the only winning move is... not to play."
Conceptually at least, it's intriguing... give up and win, try to do
something and die. But though this is a cute gimmick, I don't see much
point... plus the idea isn't very well realized, I can think of a number of
better ways to do this concept, the foremost in my mind being _Cattus
Attrox_ with the endgame cut out. Plus, the fact that several rooms are
already implemented creates the impression that the author started to code a
more conventional game, then after a few rooms said "screw it" and did this
instead. Points for originality, but needed some more consideration.
Recieves a 3 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
************************
Grayscale (gryscale.gam)
Rating: 8
Mysteriously transported to a castle, you must uncover the secrets within
with the help of a knowledgable but strangely immobile woman. Very thorough
implementation. Everything can be examined, and many things may be
interacted with, even those that need not be. Simple puzzles that
occassionally seem tacked-on, but ultimately tie together. Odd twist ending.
Receives a 8 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. Nicely done. ^_^
**************************************************
You Were Doomed From The Start (doomed/DOOMED.EXE)
Rating: 1
I knew if I was patient enough, I'd find a game to which I could award the
Craxtonian Middle Finger Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of
Half-Assed Game Design. The big joke here is that this game is intended to
be "a[sic] 'Example work' to teach programmers how to program a Text-based
game". I can't help but laugh at that. Recieves a 1 out of 10 from Lord
Craxton
**************************
Film at Eleven (eleven.z5)
Rating: 4
Uncover corruption in a small town. Small and very forgettable game that
centers around using bribery, burglery, and trickery to get a story.
Receives a 4 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
***************************
Mystery Manor (mystman.taf)
Rating: 2
A haunted house game which completely fails to generate any sense of fear,
because the annoying music, fussy parser, and questionable coding keep
yanking you out of any immersion the writing manages to generate. Receives a
2 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
*****************
Carma (carma.blb)
Rating: 6
An angry comma leads a mob of punctuation marks in a mission of revenge
against a bad writer (you) who has misused, underused, overused, abused, and
spliced him one too many times. Cute and humorous, but ultimately static
fiction with some cool multimedia bells & whistles. The constant playing of
"We shal overcome" during the punctuation protest irritates me, I just
wanted to call in the riot cops.... Receives a 6 out of 10 from Lord
Craxton.
************************
You Are Here (URHere.z5)
Rating: 6
An advertisement for an up-and-coming "multimedia theatre production"...
cleverly disguised as a cliche-ridden text adventure! Some mildly humorous
bits, including referances to MUDding and an amusing sidekick, lift this a
cut above the average, earning it a 6 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. But watch
that debug mode...
************************
Fusillade (fusillad.gam)
Rating: 7
High-concept piece which has you jumping from jumping repeatedly from one
off-the-wall scenerio to the next. Although there is a point to this, it's
only revealed in bits and pieces, and the rest is suppossed to be divined
from examination of recurring elements. Unfortunately, although the seperate
scenerios are well-realized and the MIDI adds tremendously to the feel, the
constant jumping around leaves the player unable to get a grip on what's
going on, leaving the game instead confusing. The idea also gets rather old
quickly, there are just too many scenerios to work through, and it becomes
tiring. Good idea, not great execution. Still worth playing, because the
overall atmosphere comes through splendidly. Recieves an 7 out of 10 from
Lord Craxton.
***************************
The Coast House (coast.gam)
Rating: 4
You return to your grandfather's old home to find some legacy from your
dead grandmother. Short, simple game that incongruously ends with you
desecrating your grandma's grave for mostly selfish reasons. Notable for
creating the atmosphere of a dying fisherman's town, but not much else of
significance. Receives a 4 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
****************************
No Time To Squeal (ntts.gam)
Rating: 9
I don't normally take note of the authors of Comp game, but this time they
caught my eye- Mike Sousa and Robb Sherwin. Now *there's* an interesting
pair. Sousa is reasonably well-known as the author of last Comp's _At Wit's
End_, and Sherwin is known for his... err... unique narrative style. What
these two have produced is... odd, to say the least. During the first half
of the game, you're jumping back and forth between several scenerios. While
I criticised this is both Fusillade and All Roads, here it's done right. The
first scene introduces you to all the characters you'll meet in the
subsequent ones, and it soon becomes apparent that they're all centered
around one crucial event. Thus, it's easy for the player to keep the story
in focus. The second half has you marching through a bizarre and gory
reimagining of Alice in Wonderland, which ties into the first half
eventually. Considering the widely differing natures of the subject matter,
and a whole sequence near the end that is more or less superfluous, _Squeal_
holds up remarkably well, and the atmosphere is broken only by the puzzles
in the second half, which require some measure of UNDOing. The abuse of
metacommands in the first half is also a no-no. Still, it's enthralling as a
story, and especially effective is a climactic chase scene that slowly
elevates the tension in a way few works of IF are able to pull off. Recieves
a 9 out of 10 from Lord Craxton. Good job! ^_^
**************
Jump (jump.z5)
Rating: 2
Short piece about teen suicide. Tragic in a way, but not tear-jerking. Also
extremely limited, and sparse with details. Given the subject matter, it's
surprising how little is done with it. Recieves a 2 out of 10 from Lord
Craxton.
*******************************
Schroedinger's Cat (schroed.z5)
Rating: 5
Appears to be a simulation of scientific deduction and theorizing. Given an
infinite space full of various unexplained phenomenom, your objective is to
figure it all out. The trick is, there's no bells and whistles when you do,
in fact there's no way of knowing if you have, except that you'll be able to
predict the consequences of your actions. Bizarre and too abstract for me,
but others might find it interesting. Recieves a 5 out of 10 from Lord
Craxton.
Kevin Bracey
"Craxton" <cra...@erols.com> wrote:
> ********************************
> Moments Out of Time (moments.z6)
>
> PH33R MY L33T N3KKID SK1LLZ!!!: GodDAMN, you can't NOT respect coding like
> this. We have: dynamic verb lists, a customizable command menu, automatic
> fixes for compatability problems, sound effects, extensive documentation,
> all implemented with few bugs or oversights that I could find. Mr.
> Raszewski obviously put a *lot* of work into this game.
Bet you were playing it on the same interpreter he wrote it on. There are all
sorts of problems with the display, particularly very broken fixed/
proportional switching and malformed style changes. It's even possible to
visit the manual and return to find the whole game in fixed space :)
I've been helping him sort out these problems over the last few weeks. It's a
pretty good attempt though, given the state of interpreter support at the
moment.
It was Moments Out Of Time that prompted me to start serious work on Zip 2000
again.
> **********************
> The Gostak (gostak.z5)
> Rating: 3
> Guess-the-verb taken to a new, more annoying level. Okay, *maybe* earlier
> in the Comp I would have had the patience for this, but no thanks. It's one
> thing to read Jabberwock and be pleasently mystified, but to try and play
> through it using the original words is an exercise in frustration. You can
> be surreal at this level without resorting to arcane command syntax. Look
> at For A Change. Receives 3 out of 10 from Lord Craxton.
Oh man, I just know this is going to win the Golden Banana of Discord. I
LOVED this game. 10 out of 10, superb, deep respect, I'm not worthy etc etc.
--
Kevin Bracey, Principal Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology plc Tel: +44 (0) 1223 518566
645 Newmarket Road Fax: +44 (0) 1223 518526
Cambridge, CB5 8PB, United Kingdom WWW: http://www.pace.co.uk/
Betty Munroe
> Kallisti (kallisti.gam)
> Rating: 7
>
> IS IT HOT IN HERE?: I consider myself something of an expert on the subject,
> so let me assure you: This is good sex here. Well-paced, with an intuitive
> progression, and not a little bit of talent on the writer's part. Kudos!
>
Am I missing something. I played this game (rated it 5) but I just
replayed trying to find the _good_ sex. I failed. I found the second
act a little stale and predictable, and it didn't do much to change my
already negative view of the pc. I found Gustav's actions and Katie's
responses dull, and felt that Katie did not react as she should in
this situation. I also felt that while the game responded to the
cruder names for the female anatomy, the anatomically correct name
went unrecognised (although I could use an anotomical male part). For
one who may not feel comfortable using the _very_ blunt 'c' word in a
tender moment of love (or just raw sex, whatever!), this jarred with
me.
Maybe I am the wrong gender for this game, but I have seen
interactive-intercourse accomplish more. Maybe it is just a chick
thing!
Otherwise, good game, few bugs, but WTF was the ending about?
Well, my two cents - thanks
Betty.
Adam Biltcliffe
rec.games.int-fiction had Betty Munroe thrust upon it:
> I also felt that while the game responded to the
> cruder names for the female anatomy, the anatomically correct name
> went unrecognised (although I could use an anotomical male part).
Well, the game -does- recognise the anatomically correct name, but for
some reason refuses to respond to it, and tells you to use a different
word instead. To me, this seems to be breaking mimesis for no obvious
reason. Is this some AIF tradition that I'm unaware of, or just the
author being perverse (in the non-sexual sense, for once), or what?
jw
Carl Muckenhoupt
abiltcliffe@bigfoot.__NOHORMELPRODUCTS__.com says...
Perhaps it's an attempt to make the player stay in character. Gustav
isn't the sort to think in terms of Latin words when there's an Anglo-
Saxon one available.
Andrew Plotkin
> Perhaps it's an attempt to make the player stay in character. Gustav
> isn't the sort to think in terms of Latin words when there's an Anglo-
> Saxon one available.
TAKE UNCLEFTISH HANDLIGHT
KENNINGCRAFT, FIRE THE LIGHTBIT BOLT
BACKTURN THE LADING OF THE NEITHERBIT FLOW
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
* Make your vote count. Get your vote counted.
Adam Thornton
Carl Muckenhoupt <ca...@wurb.com> wrote:
>Perhaps it's an attempt to make the player stay in character. Gustav
>isn't the sort to think in terms of Latin words when there's an Anglo-
>Saxon one available.
I disagree.
Well, he may not *think* in them, but you can be sure that he'll spend a
bunch of intellectual capital to translate them into polysyllabic Latin
cognates before he *says* any of them.
Adam
Betty Munroe
> rec.games.int-fiction had Betty Munroe thrust upon it:
>
I am sorry if my post about Kallisti was out of line. I hope I didn't
offend anyone, I was just making a comment about the game from my
(female) perspective. This is something I have noticed in other
'Adult' IF as well.
I was responding to this game as I would like to see 'adult' IF deal
with sex in a way that may please female readers more. I know we are
a minority, so maybe this is something I will have to live with. The
game's use of sex did not offend me, nor it's choice of words (I have
said much worse.) I just feel that the sex wasn't brilliantly
portrayed, and I would have like to used the other word.
Again, sorry if I offended, won't do it again. Also sorry if I posted
out of line, I will be more reserved in the future and keep my
thoughts to myself.
Betty.
Adam Thornton
Betty Munroe <betty...@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>> Some are born Betty Munroe. Some achieve Betty Munroe. But
>> rec.games.int-fiction had Betty Munroe thrust upon it:
>I am sorry if my post about Kallisti was out of line. I hope I didn't
>offend anyone, I was just making a comment about the game from my
>(female) perspective. This is something I have noticed in other
>'Adult' IF as well.
Huh? What?
Are you objecting to the intro-to-your-quoting line? It's <whoever's>
standard line (adapted from, I believe, Catch-22).
>Again, sorry if I offended, won't do it again. Also sorry if I posted
>out of line, I will be more reserved in the future and keep my
>thoughts to myself.
No, no, no.
Share them.
We need more discussion, especially from people we don't know, around
here. I mean, on a given IF-topic, I probably already pretty much
*know* what Zarf, Adam Cadre, and Emily (to pick Three Of The Cabal) are
going to think about it, because, having observed their reactions to a
wide variety of stimuli over many samples, I have established a
reasonably good model of their behavior in this particular problem
domain.
And besides which, none of them are shy about sharing their reactions,
so I get to confirm my hypothesis and refine my models. Then, of
course, I can unleash them on an unwitting world in my next
devastatingly parodic genre-sci-fi-with-gratuitous-sex-scenes piece.
Adam
D. Jacob Wildstrom
>Are you objecting to the intro-to-your-quoting line? It's <whoever's>
>standard line (adapted from, I believe, Catch-22).
Originally Twelfth Night, actually, in a forged letter from Olivia to
her steward Malvolio in Act 2, Scene 5:
"If this fall into thy hand, revolve. In my
stars I am above thee; but be not afraid of greatness: some
are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have
greatness thrust upon 'em."
Incidentally, I'm not sure it was in the original stage notes, but
every production I've ever seen seems to demand raunchy body motions
on the third clause <g>. The line is borrowed in Catch-22 (and
doubtless other places as well): "Some men are born mediocre, some men
achieve mediocrity, and some have mediocrity thrust upon them. In the
case of Major Major Major, it was all three."
Also, I second Adam's comment that we all respect your opinion here
and are interested in hearing it, whether or not we agree.
+--First Church of Briantology--Order of the Holy Quaternion--+
| A mathematician is a device for turning coffee into |
| theorems. -Paul Erdos |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
| Jake Wildstrom |
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
Papillon
>I was responding to this game as I would like to see 'adult' IF deal
>with sex in a way that may please female readers more. I know we are
>a minority, so maybe this is something I will have to live with. The
(This is not meant to be negative towards you in any way) Actually, as a
female reader, I found that I enjoyed the sex scene in Kallisti much more
than the rest of the game... of course, I characterise the rest of the game
as "a desperate hunt for keywords" (since I couldn't think of anything to do
with her in the first scene except ask her about stuff, and it kept refusing
to let me kiss her, until finally I apparently exhausted its stash of words,
allowed me to kiss her, and we moved on) followed by sex, followed by "a
bizarre ending that held no value for me". It wasn't the greatest sex scene
in the world, but it wasn't bad, and I liked some of the little details
(can't remember them now).
Now, granted, I am not the typical female reader/player/writer... I sell
porn and play hentai games. ;) So careful not to group all girls into the
same basket.
As a general statement about sex in story-based games, I find that
interactivity tends to break the flow for me. Games that have very little
plot and are more about playing around, I'm fine with there being lots of
options for how you want to go about the sex - especially in standard hentai
games, when you're picking from pictures to be displayed, and are likely to
back up and pick each option to see all the pictures available. Maid's Story
would be an example of a game with lots of options to pick from and lots of
pictures to see, and very little plot to get in the way. (It's also a crap
game for other reasons, but That's Another Story.)
Honestly, reading a slightly varying text passage describing the sex act of
choice isn't that exciting. I mean, yes, reading good smut is exciting. But
getting a different paragraph isn't in itself much of an achievement.
(Unless it's a REALLY REALLY FUNNY paragraph.) So if the object of a sex
scene in a story game is to be erotic, then I would rather the whole sex
scene were presented as a dump, possibly with (More) prompts, rather than
waiting for me to type
touch breasts
lick breasts
squeeze breasts
and so forth. This is just my opinion. (And don't take Desert Heat as an
example of what I want in a smut game, please. I know I have trouble writing
sex. You'd think a girl who makes money selling smut online wouldn't be so
inhibited. You'd think wrong.)
Betty Munroe
> isn't the sort to think in terms of Latin words when there's an Anglo-
> Saxon one available.
OK, good point. I hadn't thought about it being in character for
Gustav to use those words.
I suppose my problem was that I wasn't in character (actually didn't
like the character etc) so I suppose I didn't notice that it would
make sense for Gustav to think in that context.
BTW, are there any female-oriented sex scenes in IF, or is this
uncharted territory?
Betty.
Magnus Olsson
>Betty Munroe <betty...@yahoo.com.au> wrote:
>>> Some are born Betty Munroe. Some achieve Betty Munroe. But
>>> rec.games.int-fiction had Betty Munroe thrust upon it:
>>I am sorry if my post about Kallisti was out of line. I hope I didn't
>>offend anyone, I was just making a comment about the game from my
>>(female) perspective. This is something I have noticed in other
>>'Adult' IF as well.
>
>Huh? What?
My reaction, exactly. What makes you think you've offended someone?
Your comments didn't strike me as particularly offensive, considering
that the subject (both sex-in-games in general and this game in
particular) is a rather controversial one. Please continue to
share your opinions!
(By the way, it seems to me that this year's Comp discussion has
been remarkably free of flaming - previous years, we've always had
some quite inflammatory remarks about the games; even such a seemingly
inoffensive game as Graham Nelson's _Tempest_ caused quite a tempest
of name-calling. Or is this only me?)
>Are you objecting to the intro-to-your-quoting line? It's <whoever's>
>standard line (adapted from, I believe, Catch-22).
You know, I've been waiting for this to happen for quite some time now;
some people's "I'm quoting NN's post #X here" lines can look rather
rude when taken out of context.
--
Magnus Olsson (m...@df.lth.se, m...@pobox.com)
------ http://www.pobox.com/~mol ------
J. D. Berry
> I am sorry if my post about Kallisti was out of line. I hope I didn't
> offend anyone, I was just making a comment about the game from my
> (female) perspective. This is something I have noticed in other
> 'Adult' IF as well.
>
Well, the next thing you'll want is intriguing plot and believable dialog.
Then what, Betty? I ask you... then what? ;)
> I was responding to this game as I would like to see 'adult' IF deal
> with sex in a way that may please female readers more. I know we are
> a minority, so maybe this is something I will have to live with. The
> game's use of sex did not offend me, nor it's choice of words (I have
> said much worse.) I just feel that the sex wasn't brilliantly
> portrayed, and I would have like to used the other word.
Write something yourself? Seriously. We men have to be told
what works and what doesn't... >;D
> Again, sorry if I offended, won't do it again. Also sorry if I posted
> out of line, I will be more reserved in the future and keep my
> thoughts to myself.
If what your wrote offended anyone, then we'll have to remove 90% of
the other posts on here. I for one enjoy your comments. Keep
posting, please.
Jim
Cedric Knight
> > Kallisti (kallisti.gam)
"spoilers"
> Am I missing something. I played this game (rated it 5) but I just
> replayed trying to find the _good_ sex. I failed. I found the second
> act a little stale and predictable, and it didn't do much to change my
> already negative view of the pc. I found Gustav's actions and Katie's
> responses dull, and felt that Katie did not react as she should in
> this situation. I also felt that while the game responded to the
I think that is the general impression of most reviewers. The
programming was unsophisicated and a little buggy or mimesis-breaking if
done in the wrong order (why did anyone think to undress in the
office?), but it does depict the "initiation" of a young woman for the
purposes of the story. Perhaps you could say more?
> cruder names for the female anatomy, the anatomically correct name
> went unrecognised (although I could use an anotomical male part). For
> one who may not feel comfortable using the _very_ blunt 'c' word in a
> tender moment of love (or just raw sex, whatever!), this jarred with
> me.
"vulv@" is possible - is the author a pedantic doctor?
>
> Maybe I am the wrong gender for this game, but I have seen
> interactive-intercourse accomplish more. Maybe it is just a chick
> thing!
I found it quite arousing, but then again that's not too difficult, and
no points there. A lot of men find the idea of getting a woman turned on
is the biggest turn on for themselves - maybe that was what this was
aiming for. There is also a group who find the idea of deflowering
erotic, although I'm not one. But at least there's foreplay (cf. Stiffy
Makane, which I only looked at because SMTUC suggested it).
Several reviews have said that Gustav appears to be a rapist or stalker.
I didn't start off on that foot, particularly as Katie 'is interested'
and ultimately suggests going back to her flat. It is because I thought
I understood Gustav's actions that the final scenes were so memorable
for me. All we have initially is:
' Gustav was a printer who had recently started work at Katie's firm.
Though they laboured in the same building all day, he had little
occasion to be with her. Regardless, Gustav had noticed her on his first
day. He watched Katie leave, and when he came to close the workshop at
the end of the day he thought of her and said to himself, "I will have
you." '
The motivation appears to be simply lust, which many players may find it
easy to relate to and comprehend. I also thought the omniscient 3rd
person viewpoint was interesting - it does allow "head-hopping" as Paul
calls it. It also allows us to understand and sympathise with Katie
(whose motive is as much loneliness as lust), far more than with Gustav.
In fact we know very little about him *at all*.
Interestingly, it appears you scored it higher than many male judges. I
gave it 3 because it did indeed seem stale & predictable, and described
it as the comp's 'interesting dud' (along with 'The Newcomer').
What made me wary of underestimating this piece was the room title for
Part II - 'The Chamber of the Sacred Heart'. It immediately made me
think that we are probably in Paris or fin-de-sie'cle Montmartre, which
I hadn't realised until then. However, it also was a reflection on the
"goodness" of Katie, the sacred heart. We don't realise what we have
done (in this less liberated society) until we hear the (somehow
ruined?) Katie's screams.
Forget whether AI is possible in IF - is 'Ai No Corrida'?
>
> Otherwise, good game, few bugs, but WTF was the ending about?
"A few children played incomprehensible games." IMO the end makes more
sense if you see sex as somehow corrupting. That's what I meant about
an unhealthy view of sex.
If it's simply an attempt to justify what would be simple p0rn
otherwise, the author should have more courage in his convictions. But
the way I interpreted it was this:
The first thing is that it is a vivid hallucinatory experience, "Madness
in the Rue Harmala", supposedly a Parisian street. "Madness" for
starters. Now, it is interesting that 'harmala' is a bitter psychedelic
alkaloid. It was once used in medicine and (according to my trusty
encyclopedia) is obtained from the "rue", which because of a pun is a
"symbol of repentance and compassion". "Rue" also means regret or
sorrow, in this case Gustav's. He has destroyed the innocence that he
both loved and hated - he sees Katie in the gutter, totally degraded and
corrupt as a result of what he has done.
Chillingly:
>kiss katie.
[Gustav has no reason to kiss Katie.].
You can also see him as a force of the dark satanic city, taken with its
spectacle, who is charged with debasing everything pure, Blake's
"invisible worm who flies in the night". Yet she captured him at the
moment he lost her, driving him mad (oh, pooh, I'm beginnning to sound
like the game here.) OK, the player has learnt their lesson. But that
she was "the last virgin in the whole city" I don't believe, unless it
wasn't Paris after all...
The glow from the south that Gustav follows is perhaps gaslight from the
brash city, but perhaps also the glow from the Golden Apple. This
clearly is the Golden Apple (Paris's lust for Helen) that started the
Trojan War, since "read apple" produces "Kallisti" (Greek for "to the
best-looking chick in Olympus"). (also Callisto? chick lusted after by
Zeus). The original Golden Banana of Discord if you like.
But otherwise it could also be related to the "fruit" of Genesis 1, the
mythical original loss of innocence, which here when consumed expands
outwards to engulf the city, and all of Adam & Eve's sprogs. Only, so
far as I can make out, this is a Fall in reverse, or maybe it's just
because the game has to end somewhere. Weirdly it is also one of at
least three (symbolic?) apples in Comp01.
Anyway, maybe the author could say something. But even if he doesn't, a
little ambiguity is OK, and if it's some kind of acid trip, that would
explain the lasting vividness and incomprehensibility. Anyone else?
>
> Well, my two cents - thanks
Thanks for that.
CK
Magnus Olsson
Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
>Carl Muckenhoupt <ca...@wurb.com> wrote:
>
>> Perhaps it's an attempt to make the player stay in character. Gustav
>> isn't the sort to think in terms of Latin words when there's an Anglo-
>> Saxon one available.
>
>TAKE UNCLEFTISH HANDLIGHT
>
>KENNINGCRAFT, FIRE THE LIGHTBIT BOLT
>
>BACKTURN THE LADING OF THE NEITHERBIT FLOW
Which would mean what in colloquial, Latin-and-French-infested English?
Carl Muckenhoupt
The Discordian stuff. Discordianism is a joke-religion along the lines
of the Church of the Subgenius, but unlike the Church of the Subgenius,
people can take it halfway seriously. It's based on the worship of Eris
(aka Discordia), goddess of strife and chaos who precipitated the Trojan
war. Discordianism is best known for playing a large role in Robert
Anton Wilson's "Illuminatus!" trilogy, and is included as a major
conspiracy in Illuminati-based card games from Steve Jackson.
The title "Kallisti" and the golden apple are important Discordian
symbols. This could be just Trojan War myth references, but there's
more. Discordian cosmology has five phases: Chaos (primordial oneness),
Discord (the drawing of distinctions between things), Confusion (the
distinctions prove inadequate), Bureaucracy (an attempt to return to
Discord by means of increasingly complex rules), and Aftermath (the whole
system collapses and starts returning to Chaos). These five words are
recognized as conversation topics. Also recognized is "Eris", with a
telling reply. Also, the sex scene seems to me to be related to Robert
Anton Wilson's notions of sexual alchemy.
Make of it what you will. I merely provide a data point that should be
taken into account.
David Given
m...@df.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) writes:
> In article <9teivh$qie$1...@news.panix.com>,
> Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
>>TAKE UNCLEFTISH HANDLIGHT
>>
>>KENNINGCRAFT, FIRE THE LIGHTBIT BOLT
>>
>>BACKTURN THE LADING OF THE NEITHERBIT FLOW
>
> Which would mean what in colloquial, Latin-and-French-infested English?
The first is:
GET ATOMIC FLASHLIGHT
The second is:
<something>, FIRE THE PARTICLE BEAM
The third is:
REVERSE THE POLARITY OF THE NEUTRON FLOW
...but I can't seem to work out 'kenningcraft'. Could we have some more
context?
(The Google keywords you're looking for are 'uncleftish beholding').
--
+- David Given --------McQ-+ "'My country, right or wrong' is a thing no
| Work: d...@tao-group.com | patriot would think of saying... it's like
| Play: d...@cowlark.com | saying, 'My mother, drunk or sober'." -- G.K.
+- http://www.cowlark.com -+ Chesterton
Carl Muckenhoupt
> >
> >TAKE UNCLEFTISH HANDLIGHT
> >
> >KENNINGCRAFT, FIRE THE LIGHTBIT BOLT
> >
> >BACKTURN THE LADING OF THE NEITHERBIT FLOW
>
> Which would mean what in colloquial, Latin-and-French-infested English?
Not sure about the first one (Take something lamp?)
But the second looks like "Computer, fire the photon torpedo", and the
last one is definitely "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow".
Hey, this could make an interesting game.
Andrew Plotkin
> In article <9tgcpo$dvo$1...@news.lth.se>,
> m...@df.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) writes:
>> In article <9teivh$qie$1...@news.panix.com>,
>> Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
> [...]
>>>TAKE UNCLEFTISH HANDLIGHT
>>>
>>>KENNINGCRAFT, FIRE THE LIGHTBIT BOLT
>>>
>>>BACKTURN THE LADING OF THE NEITHERBIT FLOW
>>
>> Which would mean what in colloquial, Latin-and-French-infested English?
> The first is:
> GET ATOMIC FLASHLIGHT
> The second is:
> <something>, FIRE THE PARTICLE BEAM
> The third is:
> REVERSE THE POLARITY OF THE NEUTRON FLOW
> ...but I can't seem to work out 'kenningcraft'. Could we have some more
> context?
Carl Muckenhaupt:
> But the second looks like "Computer, fire the photon torpedo",
David Given:
> (The Google keywords you're looking for are 'uncleftish beholding').
There you go. :-) _Uncleftish Beholding_ is a short essay about atomic
physics, written by the late Poul Anderson, from which I stole this
gimmick.
All the words I used were straight out of _UB_, or simple combinations
like "handlight". (Actually, I was looking at parts of the essay
quoted in _Le ton beau de Marot_.) The only one I made up was
"kenningcraft" -- a device built to know/understand.
Atomic flashlight courtesy of _Bane of the Builders_, used without
permission. :-)
Magnus Olsson
Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
>David Given <d...@pearl.tao.co.uk> wrote:
>> In article <9tgcpo$dvo$1...@news.lth.se>,
>> m...@df.lth.se (Magnus Olsson) writes:
>>> In article <9teivh$qie$1...@news.panix.com>,
>>> Andrew Plotkin <erky...@eblong.com> wrote:
>> [...]
>>>>TAKE UNCLEFTISH HANDLIGHT
>>>>
>>>>KENNINGCRAFT, FIRE THE LIGHTBIT BOLT
>>>>
>>>>BACKTURN THE LADING OF THE NEITHERBIT FLOW
>>>
>>> Which would mean what in colloquial, Latin-and-French-infested English?
>
>> The first is:
>> GET ATOMIC FLASHLIGHT
>> The second is:
>> <something>, FIRE THE PARTICLE BEAM
>> The third is:
>> REVERSE THE POLARITY OF THE NEUTRON FLOW
>> ...but I can't seem to work out 'kenningcraft'. Could we have some more
>> context?
>
>Carl Muckenhaupt:
>> But the second looks like "Computer, fire the photon torpedo",
>There you go. :-) _Uncleftish Beholding_ is a short essay about atomic
>physics, written by the late Poul Anderson, from which I stole this
>gimmick.
>
>All the words I used were straight out of _UB_, or simple combinations
>like "handlight". (Actually, I was looking at parts of the essay
>quoted in _Le ton beau de Marot_.) The only one I made up was
>"kenningcraft" -- a device built to know/understand.
Ah, I see. Nice :-).
If you want a Germanic word for "computer", I suppose "reckoner" would
be more literal (the Germans actually use both "Rechner" and
"Computer").
The Swedish word for computer is interesting: "dator", which was
originally short for "datamaskin", "data machine" (composed of one
Latin and one Greek word, so it's of course cheating), but can also be
seen as a valid neo-Latin noun (I have this on the authority of the
former professor of Latin at Lund).
And if we're going for literal translations, "bitlet" may be
more appropriate than "lightbit" :-)
But the best examples can be found in Icelandic - the language
is quite similar to Old English and the authorities have decided
to keep the language pure of foreign influences, so they keep
invent new words from Icelandic roots rather than borrowing or
using Latin roots. Their word for computer is fascinating; I've
forgotten exactly what it is but IIRC it's derived from "Völva",
the seeress of Norse mythology.
J. D. Berry
> > went unrecognised (although I could use an anotomical male part). For
> > one who may not feel comfortable using the _very_ blunt 'c' word in a
> > tender moment of love (or just raw sex, whatever!), this jarred with
> > me.
>
> "vulv@" is possible - is the author a pedantic doctor?
After we had "made out", I typed
Mulva, take off your clothes
She looked at me with indignant and amused disbelief, then she
left my apartment.
Jerry
Adam Biltcliffe
rec.games.int-fiction had Magnus Olsson thrust upon it:
> You know, I've been waiting for this to happen for quite some time now;
> some people's "I'm quoting NN's post #X here" lines can look rather
> rude when taken out of context.
I've noticed this myself in the past, although I didn't realise that
this might have been what caused Betty's apologetic reaction. Do you
think it's sufficiently dangerous as to be worth changing?
In any case, apologies for whatever offence I may inadvertently have
caused.
jw
Magnus Olsson
Adam Biltcliffe <abiltcliffe@bigfoot.__NOHORMELPRODUCTS__.com> wrote:
>Some are born Magnus Olsson. Some achieve Magnus Olsson. But
>rec.games.int-fiction had Magnus Olsson thrust upon it:
>
>> You know, I've been waiting for this to happen for quite some time now;
>> some people's "I'm quoting NN's post #X here" lines can look rather
>> rude when taken out of context.
>
>I've noticed this myself in the past, although I didn't realise that
>this might have been what caused Betty's apologetic reaction. Do you
>think it's sufficiently dangerous as to be worth changing?
To be honest, I don't know. Your "quote header" (or whatever it's
called) isn't very bad in this respect; the worst cases I've seen are
of a somewhat different nature, where a very bright, positive and
good-humoured quote header is used when quoting a rabid flame, or,
even worse, used to quote something to which the poster then replies
with a flame.
And people take offense for the strangest reasons; just think of my
outburst last week when I thought Sean was being sarcastic when he
wasn't. :-(
Betty Munroe
> Write something yourself? Seriously. We men have to be told
> what works and what doesn't... >;D
>
Write something myself??? Mmmm, interesting. However I suffer from
terminal programming impairment. I have attempted both forms of
conventional treatment for this (TADS and Inform) and even tried the
radical Adrift therapy, however I still cannot string two objects
together. I could write female-perspective sex scenes (I think) but I
could not possibly get them into a game format... so back to the
drawing board for that idea.
As for what works, it all works, sometimes you just need to listen to
the instructions. ;-)
Betty.
Betty Munroe
> Well, the next thing you'll want is intriguing plot and believable dialog.
> Then what, Betty? I ask you... then what? ;)
>
Ever read a Mills and Boon? Intriguing plot? Believable dialog? I
don't think porn (sorry, Romance) writers of either sex believe these
two concepts exist.
Betty.
Betty Munroe
>
> My reaction, exactly. What makes you think you've offended someone?
> Your comments didn't strike me as particularly offensive, considering
> that the subject (both sex-in-games in general and this game in
> particular) is a rather controversial one. Please continue to
> share your opinions!
>
> >standard line (adapted from, I believe, Catch-22).
>
> You know, I've been waiting for this to happen for quite some time now;
> some people's "I'm quoting NN's post #X here" lines can look rather
> rude when taken out of context.
Thank you to everyone who has told me I was wrong. Yes, I was
responding to the quote line, however I didn't realise at the time
that it was a standard line this guy used. It made me feel terrible
that I may have been out of line. The last thing I wanted was anyone
feeling like I had 'thrust' myself upon you all.
I understand the reference from Shakespeare, however I think I was a
little nervy about posting in the first place, particularly about such
a controversial subject, so I took his line literally.
I enjoy participating in this newsgroup, and have found you all very
welcoming and helpful. Thanks for your postings saying I am still
welcome. I will (hopefully) continue a long and enjoyable posting
life.
Thanks again,
Betty.
Betty Munroe
> Another thing that should be explained for those who didn't get it:
> The Discordian stuff. Discordianism is a joke-religion along the lines
> of the Church of the Subgenius, but unlike the Church of the Subgenius,
> people can take it halfway seriously. It's based on the worship of Eris
> (aka Discordia), goddess of strife and chaos who precipitated the Trojan
> war. Discordianism is best known for playing a large role in Robert
> Anton Wilson's "Illuminatus!" trilogy, and is included as a major
> conspiracy in Illuminati-based card games from Steve Jackson.
>
[Snip]
WOW!
OK, I totally did not think that much about the third scene. I moved
from the second scene, wandered around a bit in a confused state,
found the body of Katie and then it ended. I missed the comparison
with ancient Greek literature and mythology and completely didn't even
know about the alternative relgion stuff. You guys have put way more
thought into this part of the game than I did. [hangs head in shame]
So, basically, after seducing and deflowering (I hate that term)
Katie, Gustav feels remorse over 'ruining' her? So much so that he
enters an altered dream state and visualises her as a lifeless corpse?
How very Victorian of him. ;-)
Since Gustav was primarily motivated by lust in the first and second
acts, I feel odd about his change of heart. Surely this would have
not been the first time he 'had' a virgin... but this wasn't part of
Gustav's nature that was fully explored.
The concept of sex as a corrupting act is also a little Victorian to
me. Is it just me, or did we leave behind the 'corrupting and ruining
of innocent maidens' with the concept of wives as chattel? I feel
that Katie was just as responsible for her actions as Gustav was for
his (even though I don't understand how she would protect her 'virtue'
with the artist, a man she truly loved, yet allow Gustav to seduce her
even though she just met him. Again, maybe just a chick thing!)
Well, I now feel a little cheated with my non-classical education, I
suppose I should have spent more time in the youth reading Homer and
less playing Zork.
Oh well.
Betty.
Betty Munroe
Thanks for your view on this, and I quite agree with a lot of what you
said. (BTW, what is Hentai?)
As for the sex scenes, I don't need Mills and Boon passion, I actually
enjoyed the rawness of 'Moist'. I played Generic New York Apartments
and enjoyed it except for the menage-a-toi with the two girls (didn't
do much for me!)
A boring and tedious range of commands to type is not interesting in
itself, and I agree that if it is going to do it, just give me the
paragraph explaining the whole thing and move on (such as the Elsa
section in Moist). As far as this game went though, it just didn't do
it for me. I didn't identify with the character, didn't understand
Katie's motivation for waiting this long and then choosing Gustav, and
certainly didn't understand the third scene.
Thank you for your point about all girls in the same basket. I have
strenuously tried to avoid this, however......I understand that
everyone is different, and I am sure there are some males who find raw
erotica off-putting (surely, anyone?). Definately not every game is
going to please everyone, and this game uses concepts that require
some guts. Good try, just didn't work for me, although some seem to
have really liked it. Such is life.
As for getting Katie aroused, I had trouble at first, but then worked
out that if you ask her about one thing, touch her hair, face, neck
and then kiss her neck and ear (?), you could progress further. Maybe
this wasn't supposed to happen this way, but the ear seemed to be the
thing which progressed the game each time I played it (twice, because
I totally missed the point in the beginning but hadn't saved it,
d'oh).
Betty.
Betty Munroe
> I've noticed this myself in the past, although I didn't realise that
> this might have been what caused Betty's apologetic reaction.
Yep.
>Do you think it's sufficiently dangerous as to be worth changing?
Yep.
> In any case, apologies for whatever offence I may inadvertently have
> caused.
No worries, I think I may have taken offence too quickly, so I, in
turn, apologise for that. I was just a little nervous about my first
real post, and when I read your response-thingy, thought I may have
spoken out of line. Anyway, all cleared up now?
Betty.
Papillon
>Thanks for your view on this, and I quite agree with a lot of what you
>said. (BTW, what is Hentai?)
Ask Craxton. :)
Generally it refers to anime sex. (It's a Japanese word.) So, naked pictures
of Sailor Jupiter is hentai or "h". There are a great many hentai computer
games in Japan. Only a very few have been translated into English (They
don't sell many copies) and Craxton used to write reviews of them here
(Although he hasn't covered the latest releases!). The writing in many of
them is not very good / very well translated, but you get to see lots of
naughty pictures. Mostly they seem to be pirated and played by teenage boys.
If you want to try them, my favorite is True Love (I like some others, but
that one's still my fave.)
Richard Bos
> Some are born Magnus Olsson. Some achieve Magnus Olsson. But
> rec.games.int-fiction had Magnus Olsson thrust upon it:
>
> > You know, I've been waiting for this to happen for quite some time now;
> > some people's "I'm quoting NN's post #X here" lines can look rather
> > rude when taken out of context.
>
> I've noticed this myself in the past, although I didn't realise that
> this might have been what caused Betty's apologetic reaction. Do you
> think it's sufficiently dangerous as to be worth changing?
No. Some people (and I speak in general here; I've seen this phenomenon
in a lot of places, triggered by a lot of silly remarks taken way too
seriously) should get a skin. This is Usenet; people do say things you
could take the wrong way, and always will. If one started taking
seriously all the silliness on Usenet, one could spend a lifetime being
insulted by .sig-files alone.
Richard
L. Ross Raszewski
>
>But the best examples can be found in Icelandic - the language
>is quite similar to Old English and the authorities have decided
>to keep the language pure of foreign influences, so they keep
>invent new words from Icelandic roots rather than borrowing or
>using Latin roots. Their word for computer is fascinating; I've
>forgotten exactly what it is but IIRC it's derived from "Völva",
>the seeress of Norse mythology.
Literally, it means "digital prophetess"
Craxton
Papillon wrote in message ...
>betty...@yahoo.com.au (Betty Munroe) wrote:
>
>>Thanks for your view on this, and I quite agree with a lot of what you
>>said. (BTW, what is Hentai?)
>
>Ask Craxton. :)
>
>Generally it refers to anime sex. (It's a Japanese word.) So, naked
pictures
>of Sailor Jupiter is hentai or "h". There are a great many hentai computer
>games in Japan. Only a very few have been translated into English (They
>don't sell many copies) and Craxton used to write reviews of them here
>(Although he hasn't covered the latest releases!).
I have, actually, I just haven't been posting them to any of the NGs around
here. (Laziness more then anything else.) They are up on www.jmate.com ,
however. And the scene appears to have ramped up again, with an upstart
company called Peach Princess having secured the rights to several games
intended for release in the coming year, including an H-RPG called Brave
Soul.
Actually, I should probably start reposting my reviews here... the scene
needs more publicity.
-Craxton
Florian Edlbauer
some conversation topics that I feel should have been included. As
I've found no mail address, I'll just post them here.
In general, I often tried to expand upon a subject, using topics that
were mentioned in the text. And was frustrated that it didn't work:
>crime
"What is a crime?" asked Gustav.
"Anything that goes against what you know at heart, whether the
law knows it or not," she said
He watched her silently for a moment.
If, after this, you expect to be able to talk about HEART and LAW and
KNOWLEDGE, you're mistaken.
So, anyway, here's my list:
FOOD, DINNER, LUNCH, HOBBIES, POLITICS, SPORTS, CAR, PUB, RESTAURANT,
BOOKS, MOVIES, POEMS, NOVELS, ECONOMY, DOOR, WAY, EVENING, NIGHT,
AFTERNOON, CONVERSATION, WORLD, MARATHONS, FRENCH, RUSSIAN, GERMAN,
EUROPEAN, BRITISH, DATE, CALENDAR, LIFE, SUNDAY, FRIDAY, NEWSPAPER,
SHYNESS, PEOPLE, STORIES, HEARSAY, LAW, MUSIC, RED, GREEN, BLUE,
BLUES, NEAR, PROXIMITY, FATHER, MOTHER, BROTHER, SISTER, CHILD, BABY,
FIRM, COMPANY, AFFECTIONS, MIND, LOGIC, PHILOSOPHY ...
On a side note, can anybody tell me how to reach the second scene of
the game? (Yeah, I'm curious, after all the discussions...)
Florian
Jonathan Penton
news:67815c45.01112...@posting.google.com...
And where is th author, anyway?
Here's a walkthrough. It's probably not the only one.
<spoiler space>
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take scarf. z. z. z. z. z. z. z. z. z. greet katie. ask katie about scarf.
give scarf to katie. ask katie about girls. ask katie about friends. ask
katie about school. ask katie about ballet. ask katie about dancing. ask
katie about accident. ask katie about leg. x face. x ear. x mouth. x eyes. x
nose. ask katie about eyes. touch ear. touch neck. ask katie about love. ask
katie about sex. kiss hand. kiss ear. kiss neck. kiss mouth. kiss neck. kiss
mouth.
--
Jonathan Penton
http://www.unlikelystories.org
James Mitchelhill
> "Florian Edlbauer" <florian....@zdnet.de> wrote in message
> news:67815c45.01112...@posting.google.com...
> > On a side note, can anybody tell me how to reach the second scene of
> > the game? (Yeah, I'm curious, after all the discussions...)
Since I accidentally forgot to remove a couple of debugging verbs, you
can just type scene2 or scene3.
> And where is th author, anyway?
Lurking and slowly working on making Kallisti less broken.
--
James Mitchelhill
Jonathan Penton
news:73e5ed87.01112...@posting.google.com...
Ah-hah! :)
So now will you tell us about Act 3?
LizM7
[snip]
>
> On a side note, can anybody tell me how to reach the second scene of
> the game? (Yeah, I'm curious, after all the discussions...)
Try complementing her. I *think* that's how I got to the second act.
- Liz
Carl Muckenhoupt
betty...@yahoo.com.au says...
> So, basically, after seducing and deflowering (I hate that term)
> Katie, Gustav feels remorse over 'ruining' her? So much so that he
> enters an altered dream state and visualises her as a lifeless corpse?
> How very Victorian of him. ;-)
Lifeless corpse? When I played, she was laughing at the end.
Betty Munroe
Wow, she is laughing.... I just thought she was dead, didn't think of
looking at her. (d'oh)
Betty.