From: rbryan@Mail.trincoll.edu (Russell L. Bryan)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.int-fiction
Subject: Re: Searching for a sense of wonder
Date: 15 Nov 92 15:59:51 GMT
Organization: Starving Writers of America (sole member)
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X-Xxdate: Sun, 15 Nov 92 16:02:26 GMT
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In article <1e5mvtINNnlp@terminator.rs.itd.umich.edu> Roger Espinosa,
roger@oit.itd.umich.edu writes:
>Anyway. Chalk another vote for finding extraordinary adventures
>and plots in everyday, ordinary surroundings. 

Just for the record, you don't really have to talk to the dolphin -- I
believe you only have to point at the coconut, and certainly that is an
action that would not be so extrordinary if it were your dog, right? 
Well, your average dolphin is much smarter than your dog.

Yes, the origami puzzle is odd, but you seem to have accepted time travel
through mushrooms without complain.  The puzzle IS intuitive, because if
you examined everything you were carrying, only one, the rice paper,
which you found folded into an origami swan, had even a hint of Asian
background.  It seemed pretty basic to me, and involved little more than
applying what I know.

Now, I will admit, I would probably enjoy an interactive game without
puzzles very much, but at this moment such a pastime is impossible.  The
reason that there are puzzles in interactive fiction is because the
parser hasn't been created yet that can accept any words and sentences
which you give it.  Think of it this way -- if all the puzzles were
removed from your favorite game, you could walk through the entire world
in the matter of maybe ten minutes' typing.  Therefore, a non-puzzle game
would have to be many, many times larger than an ordinary IF game to be
of any lasting interest.  However, the parsing problem mentioned earlier
will not allow for extremely large worlds because the vocabulary would
become unmanagable, not to mention the increased number of actors with
whom you would have to have far more detailed conversations, because you
would not be limited by the actor waiting to hear key phrases -- those
key phrases are stripped out with the puzzles.

Perhaps you believe that this is too extreme an example, but really it
isn't.  Perhaps you don't intend to remove ALL of the puzzles.  Perhaps
you only want to make then all easier.  Well, IMHO, any game which
doesn't contain at least one puzzle which will leave you thinking as you
try to fall asleep at night will be sucked dry within a day.  Software is
too expensive to be used up in a single day.

What I'm saying is that the puzzles to which I refer, and which I write,
may be fantastic or odd, but they are logical in some way.  They may be
frustrating, but when they're solved I make sure that there is enough
reward to make all of that frustration worth it.

Puzzles are presently a positive component of interactive fiction. 
Interactive fiction could not work now without them.  Why take part in
the action if you don't have to make any decisions?  What is the appeal
of interactive fiction when everything is obvious and laid out before you
like a road map?  I could have killed the folks at Infocom for including
hints on-line with their games!  Anyway, that's all for now.  Thoughtful
response is welcomed.

-- Russ