Acronyms: Point taken, an acronym is of course a safe default. I guess it clashes in the same way that (to pick a semi-innocent bystander) if you’d shown up and said “I’d like to thank AP for bringing this post to everyone’s attention”, and then had to explain “You know. Andrew Plotkin. Oh yes, some call him ‘Zarf’” it would have clanged.
I’ll just re-register my endorsement for “by all means, dial up the analysis, just give us the payoff for the conclusion you’re trying to reach.”
(in defense of my own hyperbole I’ll just mention that of course people like fos1 truly exist and really did have a galaxy of options and saw unlimited potential in their early machines which was not strictly bound by the relatively small range of relatively expensive add-ons. But I also think Mike Daisey’s account is a useful summary of what an awful lot of people without that level of drive and talent experienced…)
Looking over the list, we’ve got the other two Zorks, the first two mysteries, the three Berlyn games, the first two Enchanters, Starcross, Seastalker, and Planetfall. What would the other likely candidates have been? Maybe Deadline (which also got some decent popular press), Enchanter, or Planetfall?
I figured that Deadline, Starcross, and Planetfall would be big hits because they had strong narrative and a whole-game design process with a good arc. As opposed to the “throw puzzles at the wall as we think of them, then chop it in pieces” strategy that led to Zork 1 and 2. (Zork 3 was getting into the narrative era too, but by that token, felt a little weird as a sequel.)
Plus, that Starcross saucer package was pretty awesome. :)
For reference, I never finished Crowther/Woods Adventure until I played it for the blog, even though it was the first adventure game not typed from a book that I distinctly remember owning a copy of. (There’s also enough variants that I just plug author titles or point values whenever I talk about it.)
The first Zork I never finished until sometime in the 90s, I think. I certainly never felt like it was “unfinished” in the same way stopping a book in the middle was, though?
Related: I bailed on Half-Life on the Xen sequence at the end and technically have never “finished”, but haven’t felt at all like I’ve left anything out.
I absolutely love this reaction! That’s honest critical thinking and acting: seeing the truth in someone else’s criticism, adjusting your own thoughts accordingly and leaving the evidence of that change for all to see. Respect.
