From: magnus@thep.lu.se (Magnus Olsson)
Subject: Best and worst problems (was: Re: Info-flop and new thread (mild spoilers))
Organization: Theoretical Physics, Lund University, Sweden
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 22:12:09 GMT

In article <1992Oct7.111433.3007@wkuvx1.bitnet> mollems@wkuvx1.bitnet writes:
>What is your all-time single favorite puzzle or problem in an IF game? 
>(by "problem" I define a single quandary or tightly defined section of
>a game - for example, the "12 cubes" puzzle in _Spellbreaker_ or the
>coal mine area in Zork I both qualify, but the whole endgame of
>_Trinity_ is too broad for what I'm talking about -- though I loved
>it).

>Also, what is your opinion on the "dumbest" problem or section in an
>IF game?  "Dumb" can mean either so blatanly obvious that it wasn't
>even a puzzle, or just so aberrantly stupid that you wonder what the
>designer was smoking.
 
[ I'll try to avoid giving explicit spoilers in the following ]

Well, my favourite problem (or perhaps I should say problem complex)
is the sequence of problems leading up to the defeat of the Wizard of
Frobozz in Zork II - the hunt for the spheres, the way to use them,
and the final magic battle: it's all very well written, gradually
increasing the suspense when you're slowly beginning to understand
what it's all about. It ties most of the puzzles of Zork II together,
and ends in a nice climax. All in all, a nice piece of interactive drama.

If this is too much to qualify as a single problem, tthen my nominee
is the problem with the babel fish in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy - I've never seen a problem where I've been fooled so many
times into believing that I've finally got it, only to be faced with
another "layuer of the onion".


As for "dumbest" == simplest problem: I think most games contain small
"problemettes", that is things that have been made just a trifle less
than obvious. For example, if you have a door, you can leave it open -
then there's no problem. You can have it locked, and force the player
to use the key he/she found in the adjoining room - still not a
problem. But you can hide the key somewhere, and then it's beginning
to achive problem status. If the key is hard to get (say guarded by a
dragon) then you have a real problem. But if all you have to do is to
open a drawer in the desk next to the door, then you may have a
"problemette". 

Now, my point is that some of these "problemettes" are so simple that
you never even notice them. But if they're just a bit less obvious,
you notice them, but get annoyed that it's so obvious. I think there
are dumb problems of this kind in most adventures.


Then there are really stupid problems. The worst I've ever seen is the
"baseball problem" in Zork: I've had it explained to me, I've read
Infocom's InvisiClues, and I still don't get it - it's still
incomprehensible. (Maybe that's because I don't know anything about
baseball, not being American).

Then there's the problem of catching the bird in ADVENT: How the
!("/#* are you supposed to find out that the bird is scared by taht
particular object? I mean, there's no logic to it!

And that final point in ADVENT: the action needed to get that point
really makes me wonder if the authors believed in mind-reading on the
part of their users...

The dragon problem in ADVENT is also pretty silly, but at least it
gives you a good laugh - I suppose it's deliberately corny...


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