tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post3656853466420168997..comments2024-01-06T03:54:46.267-05:00Comments on the sceptical futuryst: Thoughts about feeliesStuart Candyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11847397597090443677noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-33822249313364440912009-04-20T20:57:00.000-04:002009-04-20T20:57:00.000-04:00The Infocom games' production wwas fantastic: ...The Infocom games' production wwas fantastic: the feelies for Suspended almost crossed the line over to some sort of hybrid interactive-fiction-board game, and even the invisible-ink hint book for Hitchhiker's was chock full of jokes and false turns.<br /><br />As much as I love Adams, though, his comment was a little blinkered: the problem wasn't language, but--as he alludes to by noting that people seem to enjoy talking to other people on the computer--the complete inability of IF to replicate natural language. I'd still rather play an Infocom game that most point-and-click adventures, but there's nothing inherently wrong with the form: Zack & Wiki on the Wii is just as clever and fun as any Infocom game, albeit in an entirely different way. No feelies, though, although the Mario Kart Wii Wheel is kind of a useless-yet-perfect feelie in its own way...<br /><br />Actually, my most immersive experience from that era was with a straight-up graphical RPG. Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar also came with some heavy-duty feelies: cloth map, metal ankh, fake lizard-skin cover for the "spell book," the works. But it was its ethical slant that really encouraged character identification: instead of allowing you to choose your character class, your answers to a series of tricky moral dilemmas determined it for you, as you "were" the character in the game. (In fact, this where "avatar" (as a computer term) comes from.) <br /><br />The goal of the game is to hone eight ethical virtues; this also led to enormous narrative immersion, especially for a gullible 11-year old: even though the algorithms behind it were laughable in retrospect, at the time it did feel like every action I took was being judged by 64K of pure panopticon. Immersion through guilt!Jesse Fhttp://www.tic-tac-totality.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-81580366051540004442009-03-03T16:39:00.000-05:002009-03-03T16:39:00.000-05:00Thanks, Jake! I'd be curious to read more from you...Thanks, Jake! I'd be curious to read more from you about how this fits into your thinking on intellectual property regimes.<BR/><BR/>James, I can't say for sure that I had heard about Wheatley's Crime Dossiers before. Thanks for sharing. Perhaps it rings a faint bell because I'm vaguely aware of other interactive publications -- but the detective story is really an ideal site for the practice of <A HREF="http://futuryst.blogspot.com/2008/02/evidence.html" REL="nofollow">evidencing</A> a narrative world, isn't it?Stuart Candyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11847397597090443677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-64228457001270678252009-03-02T06:10:00.000-05:002009-03-02T06:10:00.000-05:00Have you not come across Dennis Wheatley's Crime D...Have you not come across Dennis Wheatley's Crime Dossiers, released in the 1930s? They were basically DIY CSI: here's the documentation of the crime scene, here's photos of it, here's the witness statements, here's the fingerprints, here's the telegram, here's the strand of hair we found, here's the lipstick-stained cigarette end... Awesome stuff. I've got the first one; you can pick them up from ABEbooks reasonably cheaply.James Wallishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06422856991822440964noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27290920.post-31715626307834990342009-02-26T19:46:00.000-05:002009-02-26T19:46:00.000-05:00Blogging at its best! Tangible artifacts as a stal...Blogging at its best! <BR/><BR/>Tangible artifacts as a stalwart against the 'destabilizing effect of the copy' is a goldmine. Won't be hearing the last of that concept, I'd wager.Jake Dunaganhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16528268521664914702noreply@blogger.com