Textual Media

I found The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy game to be almost as frustrating as the other games that we’ve played (Galatea, Zork, Adventure, etc), but it differed from the others in a few ways which making the game more enjoyable to play.

First of all, unlike the other games, there are graphics that accompany the game, which helps you to figure out what is going on and what is in front of you. In the other games, you have to blindly guess, or map out everything so that you can figure out where you are and where you need to go. Not only that, but you can also see what objects you are carrying with you, so that way you don’t forget what you have. There is also a little compass that you can click to decide what direction you want to go in, so that you don’t have to type each command (walk north, walk east, etc) out every time.

Secondly, if you die (which I did, many times) it gives you "hints" as what to do the next time around, so if you replay the game, you know what to do – and what not to do – the next time around.

What is still frustrating is that you have to type in commands, and if you don’t use the right words or phrases which the computer recognizes, you won’t get anywhere. Half of the frustration of these types of games is the fact that you have to figure out how to word your commands in a "language" that the computer understands. The other half is actually figuring out how to win the game.

This game (Hitchhiker’s Guide) makes it easier to figure out which commands to use, because if you ‘click’ on an object, it will tell you what it is called (robe, thing, phone) so that you won’t use another word that it won’t recognize (bathrobe, present, telephone). That helps eliminate a lot of confusion about which words to use.

However, the fact that you still have to type in commands to move your character around detracts from the fun of this game. Like the other games we’ve played, I played this game a few times, and after having the computer reject my commands so many times, I gave up out of sheer frustration.

I was pondering, in a very cynical way, what purpose comics serve in todays newspapers.  I began to think of all the conspiracy theories that comics could possible be hiding.  Perhaps comics are playing on the short attention spans that, according to every ADD commercial, Americans seem to have these days.  Now i know comics have been around for a while in the papers, but thats not to say that ADD hasnt been either.  Perhaps the people in charge, GOVERNMENT, realized long ago that by putting a "funny" page into the papers, that may or may not inform the people of corrupt and evil doings by those who are "looking out for us", that they could get by with a few things.  Perhaps they realized that instead of giving the people the choice of reading just the important news, that they would give us the choice of instead of dumbing ourselves down by reading comics.  How many of us actually read the paper, i know i dont, and how many of us read the whole paper, not many i assume.  So by playing on our short attention spans as Americans, they take up some of our precious reading time, for those who do pick up the paper, by giving us another alternative to what is really going on, and instead we learn what snoopy is up to, and not Mr. Bush.  Most likely its just a simple marketing plan to get people who might not buy the paper to do so in order to read the funnies, but its still interesting to ponder.  Im a frim believer that whatever nasty and awful things you can think of, even though you might not consider acting on them, there is always a person who has thought of the same things, and will act on them.  Maybe im just paranoid, i know i am, but its still interesting. Wes

Understanding Comics was an invisible art until I began to read the book by Scott McCloud.  He took the format of comic text and explained its layout in a manner that I can understand.  I will never look at comics in the same way again.  Comics are more than pictures to entertain; they are juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence.  The sequential layouts are in six segments:  moment-to-moment, action- to-action, subject-to-subject, scene-to-scene, and aspect-to-aspect, and non-sequitur.  After I analyzed these formats I could see how the composer of comic strip includes and excludes material without losing the story. 

I have to admit that i am not one for video games in the first place, let alone a video game that has no go carts or flying turtle shells.  I found Galatea to be a interesting piece of art though, its creator was in fact very creative.  I found one question that i asked her to be especially interesting.  When i asked her about her eyes she responded by saying that he [Cyprus] drilled into the corners of her face.  She always thought he was going to drill too deeply, but never did.  This struck me because it exposed Galatea as non-human, more so than she would like to admit.  She was not in fact Galatea until he had created her in her entirety.  Im not really what the point of this game is, it seems as if it is simply a tool for the bored.  I can understand it as a work of art, it envokes imagination, interest, and questions, but all of those dont outweight the sheer boredom i experience when i play them.

Galatea is tripppieeeeeeeeee…. ummm… it’s confusing, really: how should you construct your questions? what should you ask next? It’s all about word play, and the composition and structure of your phrase… like the work of a good detective, you must ask the right questions to get the desired response.

-lindsey

I am not patient enough to play Zork.  I started the game and found that I needed to think like the creators.  There is a specific thought process that the user needs to employ to get around the game area.  You also need to know the text code format to get the program to respond to your input text.  You could get stuck for hours trapped in one place in the program.  Most of all, you need good typing skills, missed spell words make the process ever harder.  One thing I did recognize is that playing the game relaxes you if you are concentrating on the quest.      

I enjoyed playing the Zork, I may have been at an advantage since I had played the "Return to Zork" when I was younger.  Though, it is quite different but with similar commands keeping to the origin of the game. The mazes were still significantly more difficult to navigate.  I suppose because they are randomly chosen everytime you enter, there seems to be no logical path to get back to somewhere I had been before I seemed to be forced to stumble upon it.  For some reason I could not save my games which sucks cause I had all sorts of useful stuff.  Also I grab possibly useless things for fear of needing them later.  I’ll figure that part out but interesting use of vocabulary, although the system can only understand certain words the descriptions were lovely.  I did not catch on to "Adventure" quite as well but see the connection.  I kept getting stuck in the cave with no direction and have not quite figured out how to navigate out yet.  This is why saving would be wonderful but for some reason it wouldn’t listen to my login pleas!  My map of the CYOA is at: http://mason.gmu.edu/~jparker6/hyper

Hopefully it still works!  I had a difficult time getting it to listen to me as well ;)

-Jen- 

On page 99 in Nick Montfort describe my feelings and thinkings after playing Zork.  He states "to get through the mazes, detailed mapmaking (or else extraordingary luck, or cheating) is required" which is pretty much true.  I felt that since this is my first time playing Zork that it is hard to guess where anything is located.  One does need to spend time in closely inspecting everything.  If I did not go online, I don’t think I would be able to find the little window for many days. The game is pretty much pointless if I can’t get into the house.  In addition, it is also true that for the most part, in exploring the game and learning its feature even with the initial game guide command, I still have to "guess the verb" when I am face with the object to see what command the game require me to use.  After reading Nick Montfort article the game Zork have so much more to it than I originally perceive.  There are many hidden inside jokes about MIT and humor in the game.