Re: Legend's lessons for IF


27 Mar 1995 19:52:55 GMT

In article <95085.041835MBS110@psuvm.psu.edu>,
Mark "Mark" Sachs <MBS110@psuvm.psu.edu> wrote:

[another insightful Legend message]

First of all, I'm glad to see that people are enjoying playing (and
criticizing) the game. It would difficult for me (and probably tiresome
for r.a.i-f readers) to respond point by point to all your comments, but I
am reading them and appreciate them.

There have been a few more harangues about the technical side. About the
crashes: it's too bad that Borland's DOS extender is being such a pain. If
you think it's frustrating to you, imagine how I feel, having put more than
two years of work into a game that crashes for reasons that I have no
control over! I'll try to get a GO32 (DJGPP) version out soon.

Several people have wondered aloud why the game can't run under DOS in real
mode (i.e., using the standard run-time). Well, the .GAM file is about
630K without debugging information; over 800K with it. Real mode DOS only
makes around 580K available to the run-time, and TADS itself takes up a
hefty chunk of that.

I take the fact that people can't see where all the memory is going as a
good sign. It's not *supposed* to seem like there's a ton of text to slog
through. I wanted to greatly increase overall text density without it
being painfully obvious. But yes, there is a lot more text in this game
than there is in something like UU2, and that's what takes up all the
memory. (I also put more objects in there, and these increase the code
size.)

Mark mentions the locations that "serve no purpose", like the barracks.
Haven't any of you played Unnkulia Zero? The barracks in particular is
there for the sake of cross-game continuity. I suppose what Graham told me
about Legend last year is true --- that it's a bit hard to "get it" without
having played all the Unnkulian games. You just have to take my word for
it that stuff like the barracks and the stationary bicycle will make a lot
more sense once you've played the other UU games. You could write a
five-page spoiler file just on all the cross-contuity in the Unnkulian
series. (Maybe I should have made an annotated version of the game?)

>To sum up, every Big Question should get its Big Answer (unless a sequel is
>explicitly promised in which the Big Answers will be delivered.)

This seems to be everyone's biggest gripe. First, I have to disagree that
things like the nature/technology question and Mare's relationship with JC
are left "unresolved". They may not be resolved in the way you expected.
Or the resolution may be understated for your taste. But there is a very
specific and unambiguous climax and resolution. In fact, I was worried
that the whole JC thing would be so obvious that it would seem hackneyed.

I left other things open intentionally. What the Watchmaker ends up doing
with the information you give her is another story entirely. You're
supposed to be left with a simultaneous feeling of hope and dread here.

And there is a definite story behind the bartender and Reb Glaz, but you
have to ask the right people the right questions to find out what. This
sumberged subplot tells you a great deal not only about the bartender, but
also how Mare found out how to make JC in the first place. We'll proabably
see more of the bartender in a future Unnkulian game.

One problem that (I believe) Mike Kinyon had with Legend when he tested it
last year, and that other people commented on recently, was that he felt
that he played only a tiny role in the outcome --- that his actions were
largely irrelevant. I can see why this might be disturbing, but it really
couldn't have been any other way. The story is not about you, ultimately.
You're just a witness; the real protagonist is JC. You're at best an
accidental hero. Your individual role must be tiny in such a gigantic
conflict.

It does disappoint me that people are having trouble sympathizing with JC.
The climax is, again, deliberately understated, but I guess I went too far.
I didn't think that such a monumental event needed any sledgehammer over
the head explication. And I didn't want the story to have the kind of
nice, neat wrap-up we always find in TV mini-series. In my mind, that's
not the way the story ends. A lot more things clearly *begin* at the end
of Legend than end. I think that if you witnessed the things that Gavin
did, you'd feel no sense of closure --- instead you'd feel as though an
epoch had just begun, messily --- chaotically.

>You shoulda beamed into an Akmi starship, connived your way into the Cheez
>Death Star, and then had an exciting time rescuing JC from security
>programs and being rescued by JC from traps.

While I admit that the puzzle aspect of the endgame could have been better
(the mirror is the worst-tied-in object in the whole thing), the game isn't
*supposed* to be space opera.

Dave Baggett
__
dmb@ai.mit.edu MIT AI Lab "Verbing weirds language" -- Calvin
ADVENTIONS: Kuul text adventures! Email for a catalog of releases.