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<H1>[MUD-Dev] Re: Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie! -- By ErnestAdams</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: "'<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A>'" <<A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: [MUD-Dev] Re: Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie! -- By ErnestAdams</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: "Koster, Raph" <<A HREF="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Tue, 19 May 1998 08:42:44 -0700</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Sender</em>: "Petidomo List Agent -- Kanga.Nu version" <<A HREF="mailto:petidomo#kanga,nu">petidomo#kanga,nu</A>></LI>
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<PRE>
On Tuesday, May 19, 1998 10:00 AM Caliban Tiresias Darklock
[SMTP:caliban#darklock,com] said:
> On 07:11 AM 5/19/98 -0700, I personally witnessed Koster, Raph jumping
up
> to say:
> >
> >Anyone remember the infamous "Hitchhiker's" Gotcha, whereby if
> >you did not feed a sandwich to the dog in the first five moves, near
the
> >end of the game he ate the microscopic fleet you were in? And
speaking
> >of lateral thinking and bizarre puzzles, that one fits...
>
> I'd hazard the proposal that anyone who bought the HHGTTG game
*expected*
> things to be extremely lateral and bizarre, myself. Yes, I was
frustrated
> as hell and cursed Douglas Adams thousands of times over the course of
that
> game, but it was pretty much what I was letting myself in for in the
first
> place...
Oh, I'd agree. Which is why I took that article with a big grain of salt
when I first saw it on Gamasutra weeks ago, and still do. :) I loved
Infocom's work,and it was full of blatantly surrealistic stuff, cases of
bizarre lateral thinking that turned out to make sense when seen
cockeyed, fiction-shattering references (Infidel featured a mention of
the Egyptian god Neutrogena), mazes (of course), and other no-nos. I
think the lesson to take away from what the article says is that all of
those things can be extremely annoying--unless they are well presented.
What he describes as the "canonical RPG experience" (which he says
sucks) is the sum total of the gameplay of Diablo, which has sold over a
million copies. It was just done very very well.
-Raph
--
MUD-Dev: Advancing an unrealised future.
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00703" HREF="msg00703.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Mud Tales</A></strong>,
John Bertoglio <a href="mailto:alexb#internetcds,com">alexb#internetcds,com</a>, Tue 19 May 1998, 18:28 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00708" HREF="msg00708.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Mud Tales</A></strong>,
Caliban Tiresias Darklock <a href="mailto:caliban#darklock,com">caliban#darklock,com</a>, Tue 19 May 1998, 19:18 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00753" HREF="msg00753.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Mud Tales</A></strong>,
Marian Griffith <a href="mailto:gryphon#iaehv,nl">gryphon#iaehv,nl</a>, Thu 21 May 1998, 16:40 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00803" HREF="msg00803.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Mud Tales</A></strong>,
Jo Dillon <a href="mailto:emily#thelonious,new.ox.ac.uk">emily#thelonious,new.ox.ac.uk</a>, Sat 23 May 1998, 06:48 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00696" HREF="msg00696.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Bad Game Designer, No Twinkie! -- By ErnestAdams</A></strong>,
Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Tue 19 May 1998, 15:44 GMT
<LI><strong><A NAME="00689" HREF="msg00689.html">[MUD-Dev] Java multithreading test source</A></strong>,
Vadim Tkachenko <a href="mailto:vt#freehold,crocodile.org">vt#freehold,crocodile.org</a>, Tue 19 May 1998, 06:00 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00699" HREF="msg00699.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Java multithreading test source</A></strong>,
J C Lawrence <a href="mailto:claw#under,engr.sgi.com">claw#under,engr.sgi.com</a>, Tue 19 May 1998, 16:42 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00721" HREF="msg00721.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Java multithreading test source</A></strong>,
Vadim Tkachenko <a href="mailto:vt#freehold,crocodile.org">vt#freehold,crocodile.org</a>, Tue 19 May 1998, 22:20 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00722" HREF="msg00722.html">[MUD-Dev] Re: Java multithreading test source</A></strong>,
Ben Greear <a href="mailto:greear#cyberhighway,net">greear#cyberhighway,net</a>, Wed 20 May 1998, 05:11 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
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</UL></BLOCKQUOTE>
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