Re: Announcing: Fyleet, Crobe, Sangraal

[Nat Lanza <magus@cs.cmu.edu>]

Iain Merrick <im@cs.york.ac.uk> writes:

> You mean there are games which intentionally don't save properly at
> critical points, and _don't tell you_?!?
> 
> If so, there's a huge cultural divide here. I can't imagine enjoying a
> game like that. It sounds more like a cruel no-holds-barred struggle
> between player and author, which isn't the sort of thing I look for in
> IF.

Yep. And then there's the other objection to save limitations -- what
if I'm not saving so I can make a puzzle easier, but instead because
I'd like to stop playing the game? There are few things I hate more in 
a game than being told that I can't save and quit now because the
author was afraid that it'd make his puzzle too easy.

If saving makes the puzzle too easy, then perhaps the puzzle wasn't
designed very well. Also, if the player wants to make the game easier
by playing save tricks, why should you stop them? The only experience
they're ruining is their own.

As far as I'm concerned, save restrictions are a game author's way of
saying "Hi, I'd like to make my game harder, but I didn't want to have
to think up better puzzles, so instead I'm going to saddle you with
annoying restrictions."


--nat

-- 
nat lanza --------------------- research programmer, parallel data lab, cmu scs
magus@cs.cmu.edu -------------------------------- http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~magus/
there are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths -- alfred north whitehead