Newcomer to IF games…

I have never played an interactive fiction game before. Interactive games require the player to think out their actions before actually acting them out. The game will also tell the player that they cannot complete a certain action or that completing an action will have no effect. Games that are not considered interactive fiction allow the player to act without thinking. Much of the action in those games comes from basic instinct. Interactive fiction games (or works) require a lot of strategy from the player. Each different answer I use with the story in the game Aisle provides a different scenario to follow. There are many options to type in and it forces the player to become more creative. Being new to interactive fiction, I find these games interesting but I feel like they could get tedious and/or boring after a while. There are only so many scenarios one person can come up with, so the player comes to a creative roadblock after a while. After reading the description of interactive fiction games with instructions on how to play, the most common commands, etc., I was able to play more effectively. I don’t know about other people, but I tend to skip the instructions part of the game and find out for myself how to play. That is easy to do in games like Super Mario Brothers but I think it is almost impossible to play these games without reading the instructions.

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4 Responses to Newcomer to IF games…

  1. MikeM says:

    I agree with you completely. Not knowing some of the simple commands that are in the game is like not knowing there are more than four buttons on your game controller. You need to have a good grasp of how to move and examine the environment effectively in order to progress anywhere. Anyone reading this who thinks they can play the games first really should at least read these IF instructions – http://jerz.setonhill.edu/if/gallery/help.html.
    Read it, or you will get frustrated and rage quit. I assure you in your time spent playing the game you will not get very much out of it in comparison to those who have a basic understanding of how an IF works, and you would be missing out on many aspects the author intended you to get out of the game. It would be like reading a book and skipping chapters!

  2. Jason Ko says:

    I would disagree. Think that IF require the player to consider the consequences of their actions less than in a game such as Super Mario Bros. In IF, if you type a command which doesn’t work, the game simply tells you that action is not valid. In Mario, if you make a wrong jump, you have to start the level over again. As a result of this, I was much more willing to experiment with weird commands in these IF works than in most games that I play.

  3. Rebecca says:

    I think you have to consider your actions just as much in IF as in regular games. When we played Varicella in class, my group decided we should see what happens when you punch a guard. Not knowing that the guard had a gun, we died. In a regular video game, it’s easier to judge what the result of your action should be, since you are able to see it. In IF, since you don’t actually see anything, you have to actually think about what could happen more. In a regular game, if you’re making a jump, you know you may make it, you may not, that’s just what happens.

  4. Meghan Walsh says:

    I agree that interactive fiction games usually require a good deal more thought that than the basic action game. Whereas action games have very limited options for commands, the only limit for IF games is the imagination of the player. However, I find that these games would prove more interesting and rewarding in the long run than those of action games. For example, if by typing in something completely random, such as “kiss guard”, results in the guard letting me into a secret chamber where I find the key to winning the game, I would instantly feel like a literary genius. In fact, whenever I play IF games, I feel like the smartest person in the world. Though it’s true that once in awhile I may hit a roadblock of sorts, I am not above cheating and thus can move past it and continue with the game. Additionally, these sorts of roadblocks can happen in action games as well as IF games. I once spent hours stuck on a level in Paper Mario because I hadn’t realized that I had to enter a secret passageway. However, when I eventually figured it out, I again felt like a genius. Though the ability to become creative with commands might not happen quite as often in the ordinary action game, it is not entirely absent.

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