🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <38986@sdcc12.ucsd.edu> bkoike@sdcc13.ucsd.edu (Bryce Koike) writes:
>In article <BvM2LJ.MCr@rice.edu> amitp@owlnet.rice.edu writes:
>>In article <1992Oct2.171920.14307@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, vputz@nyx.cs.du.edu (Victor Putz) writes:
[much deleted]
>
>>I agree about the Sierra adventures, but not about Ultima -- U6 and U7 are
>>object-oriented, and there's a lot more you can do in them.  Richard Garriot
>>told me a story about the beta testing of U6:  he had designed some place
>>that you couldn't pass unless you brought down a drawbridge, but the
>>crank was on the other side of the chasm.  He had intended the players to
>>use telekinesis to activate the lever; one of the testers killed a character,
>>threw the body over the chasm to the other side, and then cast Reincarnation
>>and took control of the character and turned the crank!
>
>	I like this!  Flexible games are the most enjoyable, I
>think!  "Wait...HOW did you get by that one?"  "Oh, I just shot the
>rope."  "Ack..."  [Lemmings is a game that makes me think of
>flexibility...my friends and I all had different strategies for
>getting past various levels, but the outcome was the same: we
>survived to continue on.  This can't be directly applied to games
>like Ultima, but it's a good example, I think, of a non-rigid
>structure.]
>
>>In the older Ultimas, the only way to solve a puzzle was a way that was
>>thought of by the designers of the game.  (The same with every Sierra
>>game I've seen... :(  )  With the new Ultimas, there is sometimes more
>>than one way of doing something, which is more realistic.

Actually, in watching my little brother play Ultima VII, I realized that it
far surpasses anything else I've seen in having a lot of choices as to what
to do.  The whole concept of Nonessential Quests seems to be missing from most
RPGs.  I still can't believe they put in a little subquest that leads only to
a man's suicide and you gain nothing, but I like it.
>
>	Actually, I thought that in early Ultimas, the only way to
>solve puzzles was to kill lots of monsters and get cool magic
>weapons so you could bash bigger monsters.  (*BIG* frown)  As the
>Ultima series increased in size, the story line became more and more
>important to the game, the player could interact with people in
>cities (thumbs up!), people would go to sleep at night, etc.  Some
>people might not be impressed by this, but I certainly was at the
>time...

I am/was impressed by this too, except when I'm waiting for someone to come
home or to wake up. :)