Re: Wow, I'm a genius (Shrapnel)

[John Hill <johnhill@onefuse.net>]

In article <FrFC79.56F@world.std.com>, Sean T Barrett
<buzzard@world.std.com> wrote:

> Hmm, I found Shrapnel to be one of the least mimetic games
> I've ever played (which says nothing about your main point--I
> don't think pauses necessarily break mimesis). I have a short
> posting I want to write at some point about mimesis in several
> of Adam Cadre's games, but I'm curious, did anyone find Shrapnel
> or any other similarly self-aware work to provide mimesis?
> To me, things like the 'restart' trick and the Zork references
> constantly made me aware of the boundary between player and game.

Cool. Looking forward to your post.

For me, mimesis, if that's the right word (Webster's is not
helping...bah), goes in and out rapidly. Reading a book, what have you.

Also, Shrapnel was played under special conditions: I knew about the
r e s t a r t schtick going in, so I bounced right out of mimesis.
But I did not know that I would be fgnevat ng zl tevfyl erznvaf. That
was distubing enough that it sucked me right back in, on a dime.
However, by the eleventh time this happened, I'll admit that what I was
having was a good old-fashioned postmodern hootenanny.

Another mimesis moment, another time, a different game, also under
special conditions, not reproducible anywhere else, ever:

My Mac was suffering an infuriating extensions conflict. My brand new
shiny printer driver and god-knows-what were conspiring against, well,
plenty of their other little friends. Weird behavior everywhere. I was
starting to get a little paranoid, thinking maybe I was on the wrong
track, maybe I had a virus. I was sick of hunting it down, so I decided
to take an IF break.
There were recent posts that Bad Machine was a nifty game.
The download went without incident.
"Oh, it's a .gam.
 Haven't fired up MaxTads in a while. Where the hell did I put it?
 Okay, there you are."
 (clickity-click)
And I was presented with screens and screens of gibberish. And I
believe I said something like "LEAVE TADS ALONE. LEAVE TADS ALONE."
 (whack whack whack whack whack)
                                BAk M3_eIN~
                                   BAp MAxHIN~
                                      BAD MACHINE
It was sublime.

-- 
One equals spamblock