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Cool New GameFollow

#27 Jan 04 2004 at 5:57 PM Rating: Excellent
Smiley: laugh
#28 Jan 04 2004 at 6:06 PM Rating: Default
Since we started posting here we got one new member, that's not such a bad deal. Personally i don't care if i provide you guys with some entertainment, within reason. Insulting me and viper is fine, though you've done little on that score so far. In fact, i'll congratulate the members of this forum for being so hospitable, and again i'd encourage all who read this thread to go to the link on my signiture and sign up to the forums there.

Anyone who thinks we aren't up to par intellect-wise with you guys, prove it! Go join up with us. As i said before, the people involved with this game have a long history of debating experience and political wrangling from playing a game that was set amongst a virtual city full of millions of citizens. The old game went kaput, but the new game will be just as good, maybe better. What i hear from you people convinces me that you're just the types we're looking for.
#29 Jan 04 2004 at 6:10 PM Rating: Good
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5,372 posts
Where in England you from Chris?

Edited, Sun Jan 4 18:11:18 2004 by Patrician
#30 Jan 04 2004 at 6:32 PM Rating: Excellent
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Quote:
Anyone who thinks we aren't up to par intellect-wise with you guys, prove it! Go join up with us.

Actually, I think that would serve to prove that we are on a par with you intellectually, which is why your chances that we will do so are slim indeed.
#31 Jan 04 2004 at 8:54 PM Rating: Default
Actually, now we have 3 new members thanks to this forum, and we hope to get more. Also, we will not leave, so far this has worked out nicely for us so, thank you guys.

Edited, Sun Jan 4 20:57:16 2004 by Vviper
#32 Jan 04 2004 at 9:15 PM Rating: Default
I recently moved to the US. However, up until then i'd lived all my life in a little town called Colne in the north of england. It's not a great place to herald from, but it's near a bigger town called Burnley, which is near Blackburn and Preston, which in turn are near Manchester. EC is a screen-name that's about 4 years old now i suppose. Maybe it's a little misleading, i'm not sure. I'm no hard-line patriot, not anymore anyway, so the SN is just to enable those who remember me from way back to recognise me without much confusion.
#33 Jan 05 2004 at 3:34 AM Rating: Excellent
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Ok, I went over there, looked around, and saw...

...nothing.

There was little information other than some vague generalities or banalities, no screenshots, no nothing. I felt like I was about to take part in one of those ancient computer RPGs where you read a four word sentence like, "You see a door." I hope this isn't your marketing strategy for a successful game, because it's doomed to failure if it is based on nebulous promises of glories to come and nothing to actually see. Have you guys considered hiring a marketing guru? It'd be money well spent.

Totem

Edited, Mon Jan 5 22:01:08 2004 by Totem
#34 Jan 05 2004 at 6:33 AM Rating: Excellent
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Asuming it isn't broken again this morning:

Zork online!
#35 Jan 05 2004 at 8:27 AM Rating: Excellent
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Kao-I actually started getting into that á la "Big" but didn't know what else to do after "read leaflet." Is that it?

Edited, Mon Jan 5 08:28:04 2004 by Atomicflea
#36 Jan 05 2004 at 8:32 AM Rating: Excellent
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Try walking around... You type in directions (north, south, east, west, up, down) to move. type in help for a list of commands.

Edit: that was strange...

> Help

Useful commands:

The 'BRIEF' command suppresses printing of long room descriptions
for rooms which have been visited. The 'SUPERBRIEF' command suppresses
printing of long room descriptions for all rooms. The 'VERBOSE'
command restores long descriptions.
The 'INFO' command prints information which might give some idea
of what the game is about.
The 'ABOUT' command prints information as to why this site is here.
The 'LOGIN ' command allows you to log in, or
or create a new account if you have never logged in before.
The 'ACTIVE' shows the number of active users playing Zork.
The 'SAVE' command saves the state of the game for later continuation.
you must LOGIN before you are allowed to save.
The 'RESTORE' command restores a saved game.
you must LOGIN before you are allowed to restore.
The 'RESET' command restarts the game.
The 'INVENTORY' command lists the objects in your possession.
The 'LOOK' command prints a description of your surroundings.
The 'SCORE' command prints your current score and ranking.
The 'TIME' command tells you how long you have been playing.
The 'DIAGNOSE' command reports on your injuries, if any.

Command abbreviations:

The 'INVENTORY' command may be abbreviated 'I'.
The 'LOOK' command may be abbreviated 'L'.

Containment:

Some objects can contain other objects. Many such containers can
be opened and closed. The rest are always open. They may or may
not be transparent. For you to access (e.g., take) an object
which is in a container, the container must be open. For you
to see such an object, the container must be either open or
transparent. Containers have a capacity, and objects have sizes;
the number of objects which will fit therefore depends on their
sizes. You may put any object you have access to (it need not be
in your hands) into any other object. At some point, the program
will attempt to pick it up if you don't already have it, which
process may fail if you're carrying too much. Although containers
can contain other containers, the program doesn't access more than
one level down.

Fighting:

Occupants of the dungeon will, as a rule, fight back when
attacked. In some cases, they may attack even if unprovoked.
Useful verbs here are 'ATTACK <villain> WITH <weapon>', 'KILL',
etc. Knife-throwing may or may not be useful. You have a
fighting strength which varies with time. Being in a fight,
getting killed, and being injured all lower this strength.
Strength is regained with time. Thus, it is not a good idea to
fight someone immediately after being killed. Other details
should become apparent after a few melees or deaths.

Command parser:

A command is one line of text terminated by a carriage return.
For reasons of simplicity, all words are distinguished by their
first six letters. All others are ignored. For example, typing
'DISASSEMBLE THE ENCYCLOPEDIA' is not only meaningless, it also
creates excess effort for your fingers. Note that this trunca-
tion may produce ambiguities in the intepretation of longer words.

You are dealing with a fairly stupid parser, which understands
the following types of things--

Actions:
Among the more obvious of these, such as TAKE, PUT, DROP, etc.
Fairly general forms of these may be used, such as PICK UP,
PUT DOWN, etc.

Directions:
NORTH, SOUTH, UP, DOWN, etc. and their various abbreviations.
Other more obscure directions (LAND, CROSS) are appropriate in
only certain situations.

Objects:
Most objects have names and can be referenced by them.

Adjectives:
Some adjectives are understood and required when there are
two objects which can be referenced with the same 'name' (e.g.,
DOORs, BUTTONs).

Prepositions:
It may be necessary in some cases to include prepositions, but
the parser attempts to handle cases which aren't ambiguous
without. Thus 'GIVE CAR TO DEMON' will work, as will 'GIVE DEMON
CAR'. 'GIVE CAR DEMON' probably won't do anything interesting.
When a preposition is used, it should be appropriate; 'GIVE CAR
WITH DEMON' won't parse.

Sentences:
The parser understands a reasonable number of syntactic construc-
tions. In particular, multiple commands (separated by commas)
can be placed on the same line.

Ambiguity:
The parser tries to be clever about what to do in the case of
actions which require objects that are not explicitly specified.
If there is only one possible object, the parser will assume
that it should be used. Otherwise, the parser will ask.
Most questions asked by the parser can be answered.

Remember, you must login with 'LOGIN ' before
you can save or restore your games.


Edited, Mon Jan 5 08:33:53 2004 by Kaolian

Edited, Mon Jan 5 08:34:37 2004 by Kaolian
#37 Jan 05 2004 at 8:38 AM Rating: Good
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18,463 posts
Ehhhhhhhhxellent.
#38 Jan 05 2004 at 12:05 PM Rating: Good
Angua wrote:
Oh. My. God. Let me be so very clear on this, people. We don't play games here! We spend our days and nights tormenting each other here, on on this very board. It's all we do. In fact, we aren't even real people, we're Allakazam's super computer AI.


I think,
I think I am,
therefore I am,
I think.

Of course you are,
my bright little star.
I've miles
and miles
of files.
Pretty files of your forefather's fruit,
and now to suit
our great computer.
You're magnetic ink.

I'm more than that,
I know I am,
at least, I think I must be.

There you go man,
keep as cool as you can.
Face piles
of trials
with smiles.
It riles them to believe
that you perceive
the web they weave.
And keep on thinking free.
#39 Jan 05 2004 at 2:50 PM Rating: Good
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20,643 posts
Skeeter, I'm assuming you got that from the GI Joe movie/mini...
#40 Jan 05 2004 at 9:58 PM Rating: Decent
Admittedly the setup now is not exactly proffesional... but what would you expect since it is being run by amateurs, and obviously i don't mean to use that term in an insulting way towards programmers and artists who are very skilled. The history is this: people are volounteering their time to help out a game that they loved and that, in some cases, changed their lives. There are screenshots, but not on that site. I will find some for you. I actually consider that the will to build a game by people that have stuck together over years is a good testimonial.

Hiring a marketing guru would be a great idea, but there's no money to do it. Most of the development team on this game are computer science students with not much in the way of spare change. You guys will love to pick on this, but the motivation for me coming into forums and for others wasting away their time is pure love of a game and community that we want to bring back to life.

This might sound cynical but i'll throw this out. Lots of you guys play D&D i bet. That started off pretty small time and is far from a derivative product. What i see now are alot of big producers pumping out the same games over and over. The appeal of our game is that it is designed by gamers. Yes, it is touch and go whether it will get off the ground. Yes, it will start off in a rough form. I promise you it will be original, and that should be the selling point for all but those who have sold their souls to MS.

BTW, Totem, thanks for at least visitng the site. Also, thanks for hitting me with suggestions too. Your post might help me persuade some people to change the way they are currently doing things.
#41 Jan 05 2004 at 10:14 PM Rating: Good
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16,160 posts
Ok, I may have come across overly harsh-- my bad. It comes with the territory here in OOT. But the fact remains that if it going to become a commercial success (and I am assuming that is your ultimate goal) it needs a broad base of interest to bring an influx of cash into the project.

I am not, nor have I ever been involved in marketing, advertising, or programming. Yet I am conversant in some of the groundwork necessary to see a project get off the ground. If there is a core group of individuals who are working to make this game happen-- and are for all practical purposes doing it out of passion or a deep seated commitment to the others in the group --it may be worth looking into your circle of acquaintances and friends for someone skilled in the commercial aspect of the game. This may be someone through your parents, it may be through your professors, whoever, but word of mouth is only as good as the money backing the project up.

Take "Blair Witch Project" for instance. They used a crafty word of mouth advertising scheme via the internet, but it was pushed by the funding to make it happen, and they had teasers to view, and people who made discussions that appeared to have a basis or ring of truth behind it.

All I'm saying is your planning has to go beyond the programming aspect of it. To make this viable and bankable it needs to have a wholistic approach and people who can see it from every different angle. Finally, it needs to have a competant individual to make the go/no-go decisions on make or break aspects of the project, otherwise it becomes an ad hoc approach or committee-like process.

Good luck with it.

Totem
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