Yes, another monolog


Tue, 28 Feb 95 20:20:00 -0500

Hello David.

(I apologize for taking so long in my replies. The mail is very slow at my
site and sometimes can take up to four days coming and going! For bizarre
technical reasons that actually make no sense at all--hrm!)

Okay, now that that parenthetical disclaimer is done, on to bigger and
better disclaimers! Yahoo! There is no stopping me now.

I have to unburden myself, at this point, with a startling confession. I
would throw myself on the interactive (though hopefully not fictitious)
mercy of the group! My confession may not even come as a surprise to many,
but here it is: I am ignorant.

Sigh.

The fact of the matter is that though I am a fan of interactive fiction/text
adventure i don't have a really wide exposure to a lot of it. And in fact
many of the things I mentioned in my previous article may exist--and things
i have not even imagined may exist. I of course have Zork in by shady past,
and Adventure, and a few others... Hitchhiker's Guide comes to mind. But
still, I have come to realize that there is quite a lot out there I've not
been exposed to, and i'm endeavoring to expose myself even as I type.

So what I'm saying (will I ever get to the point?!) is, for one thing, I
appreciate in your response your mentioning a few titles in relation to your
perspectives. It gives me something to check out, as time permits. I already
tracked down "shades of gray" and *think* "A mind forever voyaging" is in
Lost Treasures volume 2... anyhow I will keep these in mind.

DE= Think of "A Mind Forever Voyaging," the landscape of Rockville was
DE= HUGE!!

I should like to make myself clearer on this concept of size; as I have a
feeling you are talking size in a sort of physical dimension here (though i
could be wrong). When I spoke of bigness (and I believe "panoramic" was the
work I used), I was speaking more figuratively. I was thinking of lushness
of description, as one might find, for example in a Joseph Conrad novel.
(Sheesh, why am I using Conrad for an example?? I don't much like the guy!
<G>) Or perhaps certain Arthur C. Clarke writings. For example in his book
"Rondezvous With Rama" (I'm not picking great examples tonight, but oh
well!) the novel is not very big, but you get the feeling due to the
description that you've been somewhere entirely and mind bogglingly immense.

Um, well, I'm not saying all adventures should take place in large
cylindrical abandoned spacecraft--i'm just trying to get at (and not very
well) a certain quality of description and prose.

DE= I finished both of these games with a feeling of being told a good
DE= story.

Yes, that's good. The author has certainly succeeded if that is the case.

DE= And the good thing about the so-called "superfluous" details just give
DE= you more things to look out for the next time you play.

Heheh, I hope you didn't take "superfluous" in a bad way. I was only
pondering the danger of certain types of details or clutter to take away
from the plot. Clutter or detail certainly need not take away from a plot.
And also you make a very good point, even if it does, it has certain charms.
Especially for replayability.

I also don't want to be dogmatic. I'm sure lots of people have different
perspectives for different reasons. I'm not (really) trying to claim
anything is -better- than anything else (at this time, at least <G>). I'm
just musing and trying to centre in on a particular style I have a vague
notion of ruminating in my brain.

---
 d CREEPERmail d  Please don't confuse rationality with empiricism.