Re: [Inform] Superbrief

[pk@NO-TINNED-MEATlittleraven.com (Plant Kingdom)]

On Tue, 07 Mar 2000 07:19:35 -0800, Adam Cadre <ac@adamcadre.ac>
wrote:

>Brian Uri wrote:
>>       Out of curiousity, how often is SUPERBRIEF ever used?
>
>Andrew Plotkin replied:
>> I removed the command in _Hunter_. Nobody complained.
>
>Not only has no one complained (or indeed even noticed) that
>superbrief has been removed from my last three games (I think it's
>three, anyway), but I've even taken to rigging games to start in
>verbose mode, removing both superbrief *and* brief, and again, no
>one's complained or even asked me about it.
>
>  -----
> Adam Cadre, Sammamish, WA
> http://adamcadre.ac

I loathe BRIEF mode.  My opinion of SUPERBRIEF can be safely
extrapolated from that one datum.  I could consider BRIEF marginally
justifiable if, say, the adventure is running on a very slow computer,
or if the author has the protagonist running endlessly from one side
of the map to the other.

Verbose is good.  Adam, I approve strongly of VERBOSE as default.  In
my opinion, it helps maintain mimesis.

An twist on this is an imperfect-knowledge game, such as Suspended,
where one must explictly request information about the environment
(and obtaining such information has a cost, at least of time).

Sb. Plant Kingdom
"You, Sir, talk like a Rosicrucian who will love nothing but a sylph, who
does not believe in a sylph, and who yet quarrels with the universe for
not containing a sylph."
                               --Thomas Love Peacock, _Nightmare Abbey_