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From: erkyrath@netcom.com (Andrew Plotkin)
Subject: Re: How good are you folks at these Infocom games
Message-ID: <erkyrathDwnptw.6Aq@netcom.com>
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Date: Sat, 24 Aug 1996 19:22:43 GMT
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Kory Heath (kheath@mail.1connect.com) wrote:
> Andrew Plotkin wrote:
> > I never reach that point of
> > diminishing returns -- or if I do, it's at about six or nine months. So
> > if I look at the hints, I have irretrievably blocked myself from the fun
> > I would have had on that part of the game. Of course I'm angry at myself.

> I understand this; however, for me, when playing a new work of IF, there is
> a sense of coherency, immersion, and excitement of exploration, that is
> *irretrievably* lost if I get stuck and stay stuck for nine months.  Given a
> choice between two irretrievable losses, I'm going to sacrifice a single
> puzzle in favor of the overall experience.

> So my question is, are you able to retain a level of immersion (which
> satisfies *you* - our levels may be different) even while being stuck
> for months?  Or is this just not much of an issue for you; i.e.
> the fun of solving puzzles is *the* 

I'm just good at getting back into the immersion. (This happens in other 
areas of my life, in fact. If I go on vacation, and then return to work, 
I get right back into the groove I was in before I left. Tired, grumpy, 
and in need of a vacation, in other words. Bleah.)

> A related question is: just what does "being suck for nine months" mean
> to you?  Does it mean playing a little every day?  Playing longer sessions
> once a week?  Putting it aside for a whole month and then coming back
> to it with a fresh perspective?  Do you do the "spinning-plates-of-IF"
> trick and keep ten games going at once?

All of the above. Except maybe the last; I don't think I've ever had more 
than a couple of games going at a time. (Very rarely, I've just dropped a 
game after being stuck for a very long time. Ok, once. Ballyhoo. But in 
that case I didn't have hints available.)

--Z

-- 

"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the
borogoves..."
