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Alayla
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 88
Location: Prague
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 Posted: Sat May 14, 2005 11:03 pm Post subject: Graphicize this! |
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Words connect directly to our imagination, and so let us create images that would be impossible in reality or in a graphic game. That does not mean the descriptions won't make sense - they can express an idea or convey atmosphere, sometimes even more powerfully.
When I was still a player, I got a tattoo on the day I lost my faithful horse. Tattoos are ordered by giving any string for a location, and any string for what it's supposed to depict:
She has a tattoo on her soul depicting a blank space.
Another description I love, from a mud I play sometimes:
> listen keyhole
You put your ear to the keyhole. You can hear basalt.
I'll admit I love the poetry of such descriptions. If you have ever written any, seen any, or come up with some interesting ones - please, share them. |
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Sandi
Joined: 13 May 2005
Posts: 94
Location: Boston
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| Posted: Sun May 15, 2005 3:12 am Post subject: |
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This is the staff room on Tir na nOg:
| Code: | The Land of the Young [Room 12]
Curling, churning oceans of emerald foam crash on massive diamonds and
the spray turns into butterflies which swirl up into the fleecy clouds in
arpeggios of dazzling colour. Everywhere you turn, new vistas open before
your gaze. Upon an invigorating breeze, the gentle scent of incense wafts
softly across the dawn's horizon and the flutter of startled wings leaves
a curious salmon wondering what happened. |
Sorry for the code tags, but without them you can't see the right justification. |
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Lared
Joined: 07 Oct 2005
Posts: 26
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| Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2005 1:18 pm Post subject: |
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Hrm...I tend toward a very basic, minimalistic build style. I want to know what's there, I don't want poetry. Nevertheless, I have added literary quotes once in a while (often slightly bastardized).
You come to the river. The river is there.
The poetic stuff, though...meh. Strikes me personally as pretentious. I don't mean to pick, but "you can hear basalt" parses in my head as something of a null. It doesn't compute. |
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Vopisk
Joined: 22 Aug 2005
Posts: 99
Location: Golden Valley, Arizona, USA
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| Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 4:30 am Post subject: |
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| Lared wrote: | | The poetic stuff, though...meh. Strikes me personally as pretentious. I don't mean to pick, but "you can hear basalt" parses in my head as something of a null. It doesn't compute. |
I would have to agree here, seeing as it is a null statement, seeing as basalt is not exactly something you can hear, to my understanding (and a dictionary cross-reference to be certain). And I would have to admit that the above mentioned room description would most likely fly over the head of all but the most expanded of vocabularies.
However, herein lies the problem I believe. We play text games but why? Isn't it much more fun to bash in the head of trolls when you can see the bloody pulp that used to be their brain actually spattered against the tavern wall? So why do we play TEXT games?
It could be that text games always have and always will need only the most minimum of system requirements to play and for multiplayer action, you can skate by with little to no problems on even a rudimentary dial-up connection (though I would hurt myself if I didn't have DSL). However, still, I played many an online multiplayer game back in the days when broadband was unheard of with little to no problems, so I still don't see this as justification.
Perhaps it is the overwhelming sense of community that one feels in most MUDs, the idea of a chatroom blended together with a game as well as well, whatever features that particular MUD may provide. However, have we come so far as to lose all rememberance of those great days in which we used to gather around a table-top and roll actual D20's?
I think that if we are to continue to play text-based games, perhaps it would be best if we became an even more niche, elitist society. Mindlessly bashing trolls for the next ten hours watching nothing but "You inflict uber damage on the Troll's poor head! *insert crappy, overdone character spamming here* (5000!) *spam prompt*. Not very much fun, in my most humble but admittedly superiority complex driven, opinion. I don't play MUDs for making it to the top of a "Mightiest" list.
I guess I'm one of those ever-increasingly rare people who do enjoy reading room descriptions. I think that if we are to play text-based games, we should play them for the text. We must truly make the experience akin to reading and taking part in a novel. This is not an undertaking for the feint of heart, nor is it at all for those who would mindlessly hack n' slash (blizzard made WoW for them). This is my rant, my creed, perhaps, my own little manifesto of sorts and now it's over as I've derailed myself thinking of poorly designed games that are an ill-fitting substitute for a video game and do not belong on a www connection. Let us return to the days when reading was entertainment and roleplaying actually meant something.
My two cents, something to chew on,
Vopisk |
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Kelson
Joined: 18 May 2005
Posts: 71
Location: SC
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| Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Vopisk wrote: | | We play text games but why? |
I play them for the game. I use other mediums for the same, but text MMORPGs have been decent enough and I enjoy them, so I'll continue doing it. I'm not a very big fan of verbose or 'poetic' descriptions - hearing basalt doesn't make too much sense to me, nor does it provide any useful information, so I'll ignore it.
Of course, we reduce even the text spam to something more easily used after time - just like the visual world. Whether it is text that describes a wide based metal-worked iron cup or a picture of the same - we think of both as merely cups/goblets until something more specific is needed. |
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eiz
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 152
Location: Florida
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| Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 6:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Vopisk wrote: | | Isn't it much more fun to bash in the head of trolls when you can see the bloody pulp that used to be their brain actually spattered against the tavern wall? |
Short answer: no.
Long answer: Dungeon Siege still sucks.
| Vopisk wrote: | | I think that if we are to play text-based games, we should play them for the text. |
Right. And we should read books for the words. |
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Daemo
Joined: 13 May 2005
Posts: 5
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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| Posted: Mon Feb 13, 2006 10:24 am Post subject: |
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everyones preferences would be different, mostly because some people have better imaginations than others.
some people might need a bit more 'coaching' than others.. so more descriptions are desired, more words required. |
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