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From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: [Comp2k] Results
Message-ID: <G460qG.HEC@world.std.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 10:49:28 GMT
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Suzanne Britton <tril@igs.net> wrote:
>[My pet peeve of the day: people who think "interactivity" is synonymous
>with "being able to control the PC".]

Can you offer some other definition of "interactivity" in the
sense of IF?  I mean, pressing space to go to the next page
of a text is "interactive" in the technical sense for computers
(e.g. "human-computer interaction"), but it's not any more
interactive than turning the pages of a book, and none of us
consider a comic book "interactive fiction".

Ok, yes, I can imagine a work of IF in which it's not the PC
who is controlled, but, say, the tone of the descriptive text.
(Of course, at that point, there IS no PC, only a protagonist.)

I tend to think of "interactive" in the IF sense as meaning
"the player can affect what experience is had".  However the
proposed "interactivity" for Rameses--the ability to get
background and suchlike at the player's choice of time--seems
to be to met equally well by a book with footnotes or a glossary.

SeanB
