22nd December 2003, 8:45 PM
Letters are things you draw. Images are things you draw. In some literal sense DJ is right... :D
Sure, there are different categories of media and things that are similar in theme but different in medium are not the same in every way. You seem to say that text based gaming is a hugely different medium from graphical gaming. I do not agree with that assesment. I think that text-based gaming is in the same category as graphical gaming. A different subcategory, to be sure, but so are 2d and 3d games... text is one of those three primary ways to have a game be described on the screen.
On that point, I just don't get you. I mean, how in the world can you deny that text describes pictures? Have you ever played an adventure game and seen how when you 'look' at some image the game describes it in text? That's a text description of the picture! And in many older games, the text description tells you a lot more about the thing and what it's like than the image does... are you trying to deny that? If so you clearly haven't played many adventure games. Sure, sure, pictures give you a clear image of what something is like while words require you to create the rest of the picture in your imagination... but as I pointed out before, 2d and 3d games do that too, as they often don't give the kind of detail actually looking at a real object does, so it's not as massive a gulf as you suggest.
And as for Choose Your Own Adventure, uh, are you denying that that is an adventure game, in book form? I mean, you go through a story, while making choices about what to do... some have puzzles too (like the Nintendo Adventure Books), or word puzzles to help you choose which is the right path. It's obviously a distilled and simplistic adventure game style, but it IS an adventure game... that subcategory of adventure games that involves making a series of choices to complete the game, which is admittedly different from standard ones with inventory or graphical puzzles. Hmm... in a way, Dragon's Lair is done in that style too...
Sure, there are different categories of media and things that are similar in theme but different in medium are not the same in every way. You seem to say that text based gaming is a hugely different medium from graphical gaming. I do not agree with that assesment. I think that text-based gaming is in the same category as graphical gaming. A different subcategory, to be sure, but so are 2d and 3d games... text is one of those three primary ways to have a game be described on the screen.
On that point, I just don't get you. I mean, how in the world can you deny that text describes pictures? Have you ever played an adventure game and seen how when you 'look' at some image the game describes it in text? That's a text description of the picture! And in many older games, the text description tells you a lot more about the thing and what it's like than the image does... are you trying to deny that? If so you clearly haven't played many adventure games. Sure, sure, pictures give you a clear image of what something is like while words require you to create the rest of the picture in your imagination... but as I pointed out before, 2d and 3d games do that too, as they often don't give the kind of detail actually looking at a real object does, so it's not as massive a gulf as you suggest.
And as for Choose Your Own Adventure, uh, are you denying that that is an adventure game, in book form? I mean, you go through a story, while making choices about what to do... some have puzzles too (like the Nintendo Adventure Books), or word puzzles to help you choose which is the right path. It's obviously a distilled and simplistic adventure game style, but it IS an adventure game... that subcategory of adventure games that involves making a series of choices to complete the game, which is admittedly different from standard ones with inventory or graphical puzzles. Hmm... in a way, Dragon's Lair is done in that style too...
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