One person’s thoughts on The Greatness of Text Adventures (Hacker News forum thread here).
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It’s funny to watch all the Hacker News users talk about interactive fiction while mostly not knowing this little community exists. Makes one feel like a zoo animal being studied by the visitors through the glass.
As for the article itself, there are some juicy opinions there, and some potentially controversial ones:
if I wanted a good work of fiction, I’d pick up a book. I play text adventures for the interactivity in a simulated world, and there I want good game mechanics before a good narrative. Calling it interactive fiction puts the emphasis on the narrative over the game, which is not what I’m looking for.
This is “your mileage may vary” territory, and I imagine each person in this forum has their own taste for mechanics vs. narrative. Personally, I like interactive fiction as a way to explore new avenues of narrative, i.e. choices and interactivity, and I put little to no emphasis on game mechanics. As for “text adventures” vs “interactive fiction”, pretty sure that’s an age-old semantic debate and cause of flamewars.
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Sorry, that’s entirely on me for not doing a better job of advertising this community. Will fix.
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Oh, the actual writer! I liked reading your reviews on IFDB. Thanks for making the change, the community demands fresh programmer blood for its human sacrifice rituals.
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NOOOOOO! Keep the Hacker News people over there, thanks.
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