I have a TV’s power plug’s “initial” routine set to change, depending on whether or not it’s plugged in to the wall socket:
initial [;
print "The television's power cord ";
if (self has plugged_in)
print
"is plugged into the wall outlet.^";
else print
"is laying on the floor.^";
],
I assumed this wouldn’t cause any trouble, and indeed, upon entering the room, the room description shows it as “The television’s power cord is laying on the floor.” However, should the player pick the cord up, the game ignores this “initial” description from then on: dropping it back down, as well as plugging the cord into the wall socket, produce the quite undescriptive “You can also see a power cord here.”
I’ve tried a couple of workarounds (such as causing the act itself of plugging/unplugging the cord to change the “initial” description), and yet nothing seems to take.