In class on Tuesday we spent almost the whole class playing the interactive fiction game Varicella. This was the second time I’d ever played interactive fiction games, the first being the three games we played before Monday’s class. The first time playing I hated it probably due to my lack of knowledge of the commands. Once playing in class with two classmates I quickly caught onto the commands and became absorbed into the game. I really liked the blog on “Writing in IF.” I feel like the highly descriptive responses the computer gives back makes you feel like you are actually there. Varicella had really good descriptions of some rooms and a lack of description in other rooms. As stated in “Writing in IF” you can tell which rooms/elements of the game are important based on the amount of description of that element. I spent alot of time in the dining hall because so much description was given and there was a lot to explore. It took me a while to catch on to all the little details that you must pay attention to so you can obtain all the room has to offer.
The creator of the game has to decide what to include in the description and what not to include. I feel like in some cases, less description is better so the gamer can imagine his own world. But in other cases it’s important to include alot of details so the gamer will explore the entire room.