EL 250 Jerz and Adams Primitive Technology
I am familiar with the Adams clip, think I heard it in a Media Lab course before. I wanted to touch on Adam and the beginnings of computer games. In the lecture, Dr. Jerz introduced Scott Adams as having constructed the first computer game which he made a living from. It seems like ages ago that games were inriduced, but it was only during the twentieth century. And they had to be played from a cassette tape, now that seems like ages ago. Do they even still exist? When a game's characteristics consist of a small memory, textual based, bad graphics, and had to be played on a refridgerator sized machine (computer) that makes it sound like the stone age. Society has progressed so far in the means of game design.When hearing of such innovations, it seems more like a history lesson. I am not getting down on text based games, but they seem more work than pleasure.
When Adams played his game with the audience it probably was much easier than playing alone. Shouting commands like "go south", "pick up axe", you can't go wrong, but what happens when a simple command is no longer required? It becomes much more complicated. When a player gets stuck, they are really stuck, like a car in mud.
Comments
Yes, that's a good point. In a lit class, you can just skim ahead of a difficult passage, but if you're stuck in a game, you're really stuck. I don't just mean stuck in a text game... I've been stuck in a friggin canal in Half-Life 2 since June of 2006.
And you're right, Jeremy, text games are a lot more fun when you play them with someone else. But that's probably true for most computer games. There's plenty for an observer to do when someone else is at the keyboard, since both the player and the observer will spend most of their time reading and interpreting the words on the screen.
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz | January 8, 2010 11:38 AM
If the concept is not clear to the player, regardless of the fact that it is text or not, it becomes frustrating. When I played Icewind Dale, I remember being stuck in the starting town for about a month. Of course, there was a lot to explore and do there, but it never occured to me to click on the very edge of the screen at the very edge of town to continue.
Dr. Jerz, what part of the canal?
Posted by: Matt Takacs | January 8, 2010 6:55 PM
Matt, the walkthrough says I have to drive my boat through a metal cargo container. I don't have Steam installed on the laptop I'm using at the moment, so I can't check. I actually had more fun building mods than playing the game, though I was impressed by the atmosphere and the way the story progresses without cut-scenes. I do miss dialog trees, though -- Gordon Freeman is just too much of a cypher for me to feel attached to him.
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz | January 8, 2010 7:06 PM
LOL I got stuck (HL2) where you had to setup some turrets to prevent waves of incoming troops from overwhelming you. Its quite a ways into the game. You are then supposed to be able to build a ramp of boxes and jump up on a cat walk above during all this.
Too much for my reflexes to handle! I prefer getting stuck in programming problems or adventures. My mind then keeps working on solutions. My poor body though just gets less and less reliable when it comes to twitch games!
Scott
Posted by: Scott Adams | January 11, 2010 9:02 AM