Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
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From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: you people are masochists: on quitting
Message-ID: <G45vtz.791@world.std.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 09:03:34 GMT
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Lines: 257
Xref: news.duke.edu rec.games.int-fiction:58529

Zarf, speaking of "The Clock":
>I got stuck almost immediately, and played directly
>from the walkthrough from then on.
>When a critical exit isn't mentioned in the room
>description, I lose confidence fast.

When I saw the same thing, I didn't lose confidence--
I stopped playing.  What are you people, masochists?
(Especially when there are 50 games on the table,
knowing when to quit seems to me a valuable skill.)

Well, in truth, it appears I missed out on at least
one reasonably highly-regarded games with this strategy.
To wit, in temporary lieu of my eventually-to-be-released
reviews, I provide my list of games I gave up on (as
opposed to running out of time on, or having finished),
and why I gave up on them, and after how long.  To the
degree that I am publically posting bug reports, sorry,
but them's the breaks.  Hopefully this is useful not
just for each particular author, but to suggest things
not to do in general (at least for me, it might help
if other people suggested this).

Comments in 'single quotes' indicate the notes I
wrote down at the time I quit.

In the order I played them:

  Jarod's Journey (time not recorded)
     'Don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, screw it.'

  1-2-3  (0:20)
     'oh well, I've done everything in the walkthru and the
      next trigger didn't occur, screw it'

  Infil-traitor  (0:10)
     Too bare bones. (I got inside the house.)

  What-IF
     I didn't even read any of the essays.  I just saw
     that they were essays.

  The Masque of the Last Faeries (0:30)
     Grammar errors and spacing problems and general
     disjointedness.

  Marooned (0:10)
     'Ok, invetory limitations (driftwood & tires),
     a maze (perhaps unintentionally? the jungle),
     basically just a pile of locations, screw it.'

  Futz Mutz (0:30)
     Read-the-author's mind, events gated on unrelated
     actions, and the timing for escaping the dogcatchers
     is way too restrictive.  'For example, if you go
     west then north, you get points for evading the old
     man.  Now go south.  On this turn you hear the
     dogcatchers coming.  Now run for the alley...
     oops, you won't make it.  You do get another try,
     but still...'

  Comp00ter Game (0:13)
     I may have finished this, I don't know.

  Guess The Verb! (0:30)
     My first scenario was UNDO, which the author notes
     is the hardest scenario.  The author might want to
     consider whether he wants fully 20% of his audience
     to have their first experience be the hardest
     scenario.

     I personally don't like games in which a given action
     has different outcomes depending on an apparently
     unrelated game state (to wit, the effect of the funyun
     spell when you don't have a companion).  This was
     enough to make me expect I wouldn't enjoy it, so I quit.

  Escape from Crulistan (0:15)
     Paraphrasing:  To the east is the desert.  In every
     other direction is certain death.  To the north are
     guards.  To the south are guards.  No description of
     the west is provided.
     >WEST
     There seems to be a wall in the way.
     >X WALL
     You can't see any wall here.
     >LEAN LADDER
     >PROP LADDER
     >TILT LADDER
     >USE LADDER
     >CLIMB LADDER
     [The word "climb" is not in the vocabulary you can use.]

  The Trip (0:15)
     I quit just when I went back to start investigating
     the lights.  I just didn't care about the character
     so why continue?  I had found the preceding sequence
     exceedingly dull.  If that was intentional, why put
     us through it?  I'm not interested in playing dull
     games.

  Unnkulia X (0:00)
     Didn't vote on it.  You start in a cell.  Sigh.

  Desert Heat
     As far as I went (a bit of a ways into the brothel),
     no options actually made any difference in the experience.

  Enlisted (0:05)
    '>TALK TO SERGEANT
     That's against Space Force Regulation 803.
     >SERGEANT, HELLO
     "If there are orders to be followed,
     I'll give them, not you!"
     >ENLIST
     That's against Space Force Regulation 1261.
     >ASK SERGEANT ABOUT RECRUITMENT
     "Show some initiative, find your own answer!"
     >X DISPLAY.G.G.G.G.G.G
     ...
     Have you asked your recruiter about 'enlistment' today?
     >ASK SERGEANT ABOUT ENLISTMENT

     I don't feel like playing guess-the-verb.'

  Aftermath (0:15)
     '"show stitching to woman" is way too guess-the-verb.
     (how am I supposed to know she didn't already notice
     it herself?)'

  Planet of the Infinite Minds (0:35)
     'Here's the problem: why in the world should I think
     I would WANT to create a library at the end of time?
     It's just a guess-the-action problem.'

  Punk Points (1:00)
     'I'm totally stuck in act II' (supposedly looking for
     tickets, and not finding anything to do)

  The Pickpocket (time not recorded)
     '10 minutes, 14 locations, one takeable object,
     nothing to do'--where by the latter I mean I didn't
     have any motivation to do anything.  There were no
     doubt puzzles I could solve but they had nothing to
     do with recovering my money.

  Letters from Home
     Some of these were way too arbitrary; the en-dash
     (why can't I take some of the letters?); the G
     string on the violin.  The timing constraint
     was way too tight.  I was about to degenerate
     into just playing from the walkthrough; why
     bother?

  Nevermore (0:30)
     Not-helpfully organized hints.  What am I supposed
     to be doing first?  Should I read the hints about
     getting through the door?  Do I need to be?

     The key puzzle is entirely read-the-author's-mind.
     The raven WAS just out here a minute ago already.
     On the assumption that's an example of the puzzles
     in the game, I quit.

  At Wit's End (0:40)
     I saw the complexity of getting the gas out of the
     barn and realized I could never have figured that
     out on my own, and punted.

  Asendent (0:08)
     Stuck on the widnow lege.

  Shade (0:15)
     '15 minutes, I'm stumped on the tickets, no hints, bye.'

  Castle Amnos (0:30)
     inventory limit, too many locations, no motivation
     to do anything, and then:

     ...Boxes and crates are piled high,...
     >X BOXES
     You can't see any such thing.
     >X CRATES
     You can't see any such thing.
     >X
     (the boxes)
     Old, dusty crates and boxes.  They are stacked
     tightly against each other.

  Got ID? (0:15)
     Once my fake ID is gone, my actions are totally
     unmotivated.  (Well, except my attempt at robbing
     the store.)  And then:

     'Hmm, 15 minutes, the light runs out while exploring
     the underground, boring, next.'

  The Clock (0:15)
     The discovery of the secret exit from the walkthrough.

  Wrecked
     Blah.

  VOID: CORPORATION
     'the silver slab is a key?'

  Withdrawal Symptoms (0:15)
     >X CUSTOMERS
     You can't see any such thing.

     >COLOR BANK RED
     I didn't understand that sentence.
     >USE CRAYON ON BANK
     This game doesn't support the verb 'use'.
     >RUB BANK WITH CRAYON
     >RUB CRAYON ON BANK
     I only understood you as far as wanting to rub the...
     >RUB CRAYON
     You achieve nothing by this.
     >SCRIBBLE CRAYON ON BANK
     That's not a verb I recognize.
     [read walkthrough]
     >PAINT BANK WITH CRAYON

     And then I read that I have to SHAKE the trash can.
     Not interested in reading the author's mind.

= = =

That's it.  But, while we're talking about coloring
things red, check out this abridged transcript from
the WINNER of the comp:

     >DYE SPARE ARMBAND RED
     I don't know the word "dye".
     >COLOR SPARE
     I don't know the word "color".
     >USE PAD ON SPARE
     I don't know the word "use".
     >RUB SPARE ON PAD
     I don't know the word "rub".
     >PRESS SPARE ON PAD
     I don't recognize that sentence.
     >TOUCH SPARE TO PAD
     I don't recognize that sentence.
     >PUT SPARE ON PAD
     There's no reason to do that.
     >PUT SPARE IN PAD
     or >POUR INK ON SPARE
     You grab the ink from your pocket and start
     pressing your orange armband.

And no, this is not me attempting to break the game,
this is me attempting to guess the verb.  I still
don't understand "IN" instead of "ON" for "PUT SPARE".

SeanB
