From: cnquinn@spectrum.cs.unsw.oz.au (Clark Quinn)
Subject: Re: Do we need Text?
Reply-To: cnquinn@spectrum.cs.unsw.oz.au (Clark Quinn)
Organization: none
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 03:28:51 GMT

In article <neilg.712193229@sfu.ca> neilg@fraser.sfu.ca (Neil K. Guy) writes:

> Of course, if we're on the topic of games with a non-text interface,
>does anyone remember the Deja Vu, Uninvited and Deja Vu II series of
>games that ICOM Simulations put out for the Mac a few years back?
 
> They were a reasonably good implementation of a non-text interface,
>IMHO. They'd have a detailed (well, fairly detailed given that they
>only ran in B&W) picture of your surroundings in the middle, available
>exits to the right of the screen, a brief text description at the
>bottom and a series of buttons on the top. The buttons were the verbs
>- open, consume, operate, speak, etc. So to unlock a door you'd click
>on a key, click on Operate and then click on the door. To pick
>something up you'd simply drag the object you wanted out of the "room"
>window and drop it into your inventory window; a window which had both
>"Clean Up" and "Mess Up" commands.
 
Yes, the ICOM games were really quite elegant in their utilization of
"direct manipulation" interface.  You could use the buttons to
accomplish actions, but for the most obvious ones there were more direct
ways to execute.  For instance, rather than click on the open button,
you could double-click on the door and it would attempt to open it.
Double-clicking on an object would pick it up if it was in the room, or
examine it if it was in your inventory (this may not be exactly right,
memory is haze, but the gist is the important thing).  Also, there might
be active areas in the picture you could click on to reveal that a rock
was movable and therefore also a door.  There was a place to type text,
but only for talking/communication.  

The point here is that the field of human-computer interaction has
determined that there may be more direct ways of accomplishing goals
with a computer than a command interface.  The "direct manipulation"
notion is that you act with an interface device in some analogically
related way to the way you act in the world.  The only time a keyboard
is useful is when you're entering text (still the best device).  And if
you want to act in a game the way you act in the world, a more direct
way to pick up an object is to have it "stick" to your mouse pointer
and be draggable the way you'd grab it for real.  Menus support
recognition so you don't have to recall commands, visible icons of the
objects in a room and in your possession don't require the execution of
an inventory or look command.

I've noticed in this group a strong preference for text oriented games, and 
that's clearly an individual choice.  But there is a lot to be said for 
graphic representations of information.  Mapping, for instance, is a skill 
I have but do not necessarily care to exercise in every game I may
encounter.  Graphic maps remove the burden from me.  

While some may take interactive 'fiction' to suggest text, I'd like to
consider that interactive entertainment can be fictional or not, and
that graphic versions are an appropriate topic of discussion.  In my
research I've developed a graphic adventure game that *does* include
text (necessary for the cognitive reasons the game was developed), but
uses a (relatively) direct manipulation interface (the other benefit of
this environment is that it not only supports problem-solving research
but also HCI research).  The project for our group in the next few months
is to improve the interface to the point where the interface is
effectively "transparent", so that subjects can use the game with a
minimum of computer knowledge and no typing skills.  

And *that*, I'd argue, is a worthwhile goal, interactive fiction that
doesn't require typing skills so there's a wider base of potential
enjoyers.  -- Clark

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