Comments on: Word Play

By: Tweets that mention Word Play | Rock, Paper, Shotgun -- Topsy.com

Tweets that mention Word Play | Rock, Paper, Shotgun -- Topsy.com — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:27:34 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Stephen Granade, Matt Roberts. Matt Roberts said: RT @Sargent: @matty_gibbon Were you looking for Kieron Gillen's article from Edge? He reposted it online at http://is.gd/ekgi4 [...]

By: Photopia | Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Pagans repent! The Endless Bear is your true God

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:49:34 +0000

[...] ever excellent Play This Thing. It may well have come to your attention when it was mentioned in Kieron’s IF feature. Also, it features space, and this is SPACE [...]

By: drunkymonkey

drunkymonkey — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 15:22:02 +0000

I’ve just gotten round to reading this article and felt the need to comment.

First of, brilliantly written and kept me reading ’til the end, even though I haven’t played Deus Ex, Torment, or had any more than a passing glance at IFs. I do now bemoan the fact that I wasn’t into PC gaming when Planescape came out, because it sounds as if I missed a brilliant experience.

Interesting point about Civilization: it certainly does a good job of text. It doesn’t throw a lot at you unless you want it too: the descriptions of technologies are short and to the point, but if you want to explore them in greater detail, the Civopedia is always there for you.

Of course, it always helps when text is interesting to read. I think one of the things you missed out in this article Kieron is text in MMOs. World of Warcraft’s (oh, I’m such a fanboy) is of an unusually high quality, with some of the quests really standing out in terms of narrative. There were a couple in the Plaguelands for example that really had an effect (especially how one of the characters involved is the rat-seller in the Undercity…someone you’d have bumped into during the course of the early game many times before), but most people don’t take the time to read the stuff, instead preferring to set themselves on their way to quest completion. I hate the appearing scrolling text, so turned it off as it a needless annoyance, but I always make sure to read the description for the whys and therefores.

I have to admit that when playing Baldur’s Gate (which I’ve been forcing myself to recently. I’ve finally gotten round to giving it a shot and while it’s inaccessible to a thicko like me I’m already in love with the exploration) I normally don’t read the descriptions of the towns and I skip the between chapter summaries. But again, this is because of gradually scrolling text and the voice that goes with it. It’s funny…skipping text because it’s not as immediate as I’d like it to be.

Actually, one of the things that has bothered me about Baldur’s Gate is the very fact that the voices say the first lines. It irritates me, as the acting isn’t really up to scratch, and to me it takes away the immersion of the conversation. I’m going to look for an option to turn the voices off, because I’d much rather just read and form the voices in my head.

By: Robb Sherwin

Robb Sherwin — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 09:14:56 +0000

Kieron, do you recall what issue of Edge had the Edge-truncated-due-to-word-count version of the article?

By: cliffski

cliffski — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 08:34:05 +0000

One of my pet hates is this assumption that voice acting is better than text. It is *way* inferior to text. I can read MUCH faster than anyone can talk, and I can attribute whatever inflection and accent I want to the text. Like it or not, the voice acting in games is still pretty dire, heck the voice acting in movies is pretty dire, so its to be expected. Ever since I played Cossacks 2 EUROPEAN wars and commanded a Scottish army with Texan accents, I have got wound up with such things.
Less voice, more text please.

By: Five

Five — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 14:20:38 +0000

YOU ARE STANDING AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE CASTLE OF ZIZZYAK
>ENTER CASTLE
I DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT COMMAND
>MOVE NORTH
I DON’T UNDERSTAND THAT COMMAND
>GET SCROLL OF ZIZZYAK
CONGRATULATIONS. YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE GAME IN 17 MOVES

My earliest gaming memories are those of text adventures loaded onto my acorn electron via cassette. Reading this article reminds me that it’s been a long time since i tried writing some interactive fiction of my own.

B.t.w. articles like this are why rockpapershotgun is my new favourite website.

By: Valzi

Valzi — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 03:30:41 +0000

Glad to see my two favorite IF authors and even my two favorite games under discussion here. Galatea exemplifies wonderful characterization, character interaction, and open-ended (within a very small space, granted) gameplay and Photopia shows us the room in games for careful, creative, well-written plot as well as the possibility of a game being a great diversion without requiring much skill on the part of the user. Both works make interesting moral points and engage the user in worthwhile thought, if so desired.

By: Grammar Guru

Grammar Guru — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 01:42:10 +0000

Actually, Grammar Nazi, that “whose” should have been “whom.”

By: Michael Fiegel

Michael Fiegel — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:38:26 +0000

It is games like Planescape: Torment that made me want to write for the gaming industry, and now that’ I’m in it, it’s the hope of creating another game like that which keeps me here. The kids aren’t reading books any more, so we need to give them words to read in their games.

It’s for the good of huge manatee!

By: Kieron Gillen

Kieron Gillen — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:24:27 +0000

Zell: The hobbit was the game which, I suspect, put me on the road to writing this site. I’ll write about it one day, I think.

Michael: Thanks!

By: Michael Abbott

Michael Abbott — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:08:45 +0000

Many thanks for this terrific piece. I introduced IF to my undergraduate students this year, and they were initially quite resistant. Eventually, most of them discovered they liked it after all, but were unanimous in their opinion that text based games are HARD!!! Heh heh, my secret plan worked! Seriously, I don’t know why more teachers don’t use such game experiences in the classroom. Reading skills, critical thinking, problem solving, narrative structure…lots to be gained!

FYI, I posted a piece linking to “Word Play” on my blog The Brainy Gamer. I’m very grateful for Rock, Paper, Shotgun and am a devoted subscriber. Continued success, and keep up all the good work.

Michael Abbott

By: The Brainy Gamer

The Brainy Gamer — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:55:04 +0000

Words, words, words……

If there’s one gaming blog that’s hitting on all cylinders right now, that would be Rock, Paper, Shotgun. These four clever and prolific Brits–Jim Rossignol, Alec Meer, Kieron Gillen andJohn Walker–are consistently writing some of the most useful a…