Letters

I was intending to write this little note after part 2 of Doug Atkinson's article on character gender in interactive fiction appeared, but the recent discussion about gender in r.g.i-f (about the gender of characters in Graham Nelson's Jigsaw) spurred me on. As a gay man, I think I may have a slightly different perspective on gender in interactive fiction.

I am occasionally annoyed with games that come with a heterosexual assumption; you choose your gender at the start of the game, but then the game requires intimate relations with members of the other sex. For example, in Leather Goddesses of Phobos, you choose your gender in the opening scene by using either the Ladies' of the Gents' room. From then on, a variety of sexual encounters occur with members of the other sex. When I played the game, I finally had to grit my teeth and choose the ladies room (and then play as a male character) just to get the genders of the NPCs correct.

But in my opinion, games that ask you to choose a gender are usually asking the wrong question. Often what is more important is the gender that the player is attracted to. I think i-f game programmers can easily come up with ways of determining this. My solution to the LGOP problem would be this: You are in Joe's bar, and there are attractive members of both sexes there; to continue the game you must make some sort of advance toward the one of your choice (buy one of them a drink or make some other affectionate move); this would determine the genders of the other NPCs without the game even needing to know your own.

(Similarly, games that require seducing a NPC in order to solve a puzzle could get around the problem of determining the player's gender by allowing for two equally acceptable "solutions" to the puzzle -- one of each gender.)

David Wagner
wagner@vsopb7.cern.ch

To XYZZYnews:

I enjoyed Graeme's trivia quiz (though it was rather tough), but I did find a couple of errors in the answers:

#72: "Grueslayer" is actually found in Beyond Zork, not Zork Zero.

#95: Trinity also has a scene set in Japan.

I also have another addition to the bug list; I got this from New Zork Times, actually. When you put objects in the raft and then deflate it, they effectively cease to exist, allowing you to carry as much weight and as many objects as the raft will hold (it won't hold the gold coffin, unfortunately, and of course sharp objects are out). This is because the game handles the pile and the raft as two separate objects, and there's no provision for handling the objects in the raft when the switch is made.

Doug Atkinson
datkinson@lisp.purdy.wayne.edu

Eileen,

Yet another person has rediscovered IF through XYZZYnews. I'm currently bashing my head against Christminster and slowing getting back into things. Yes, as the review states, it's good! But I really don't have the time for these games...

Anyhow, the survey published in the last issue of XYZZYnews was intriguing.

I am left wondering about other aspects of XYZZYnews readers.

1. The top two occupations of the readers were either students or technical-based. Of the students, what majors are they pursuing?
2. An interest in text-based adventure games (interactive fiction) would also suggest an interest in reading. Is this the case?
3. If so, what types of books do people prefer? science fiction, cyberpunk, mystery, fantasy, romance, westerns, nonfiction?
4. What are their favorite books and authors?
5. How many of the readers have written an IF?
6. How many are writing or thinking about writing an IF?
7. Do the readers like other forms of puzzles? puzzle books, Rubik's cube, mathematics...?
8. What number of IF games has the average reader finished?

David W Palmer
David_W_Palmer@ccm.jf.intel.com

David -- Your questions sound great -- I know I'd like to know these answers on a large scale too. For a second survey, I'd like to ask all those reading this to dash off their answers to these eight questions listed here, in as much detail as desired, and mail the info here to me at eileen@interport.net. I'll put answers in issue # 7.

Eileen

To XYZZYnews:

I've just come across the first four issues of XYZZYnews (thanks to a search in the Open Text index, which located only the first issue). Congratulations on a wonderful product.

I do admit some pain at the criticism of the Adventure Game Toolkit (AGT) parser. Remember, after all, that the core parser was written in 1985, and that the "meta-language" extensions that Dave Malmberg added were quite powerful if properly used. The "guess-the-verb" games are really the game-writer's fault, not the fault of the parser itself (which, after all, is only the core of a game). My experience in 1985 (when the Generic Adventure Game System was released) and in 1987 (when the Adventure Game Toolkit was released) was that the parser in AGT was superior to any other adventure-game-writing system available. Heck, we even got a very favorable review in PC Magazine in December 1988. Of course, I do hope that others have built better parsers and other tools that make gamewriting more enjoyable and less like computer programming.

I'll also make a confession: I am not much of an adventure game player, and it may well be that I have never actually solved an adventure game. What I always enjoyed was the high quality writing and humor in certain games -- particularly some of the Infocom games but also a number of shareware games out there. In judging the annual contests, I generally had to rely on the author's walk-through -- and it's safe to say that a lot of very frustrating games (including CosmoServe) are a lot more entertaining and enjoyable if you can just cheat and enjoy the writing.

I am constantly amazed at the popularity of graphical "adventure games" that not only lack the literary creativity of most text adventure games, but also lack the interactivity and inspiration.

In any event, I am writing to let you and your readers know that although I have recently cancelled my CompuServe account (after 10 years), I can still be reached on the Internet, via mail to either markwelch@aol.com or markwelch@trivalley.com or through my home page (but don't expect any AGT or adventure game stuff on the home page -- I'm an estate planning attorney these days).

Mark J. Welch
Pleasanton, California

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