Wednesday, May 14, 2014
The Magic Word
So, being a fan of RPGs, I want to tell you all a bit about the XYZZY cluster and Zork. "XYZZY" comes from a text-only RPG known as Colossal Cave. In it, at a certain location, the player can type in the so-called "magic word" XYZZY in order to enter a secret passage and cross a large distance in one action. Zork, like Colossal Cave, was one of the original text-only computer games. These games only told you what you say at any location and then you had to input what you wanted to do as the player, and so could easily get lost. This is a lot like the world that Wade lives in, where he can see the destruction and desolation of the world, but cannot see any clear way to fix anything. He knows what he sees, but he has no clear objective, just like the player in both Colossal Cave and Zork. People can only learn from experience the best way to live life and to explore text-only RPGs.
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I have never played Zork. That is really interesting and thoughtful in site. I have not played text-based adventure games, but I have had a similar feeling with point and click adventures. There is a scene and I can click on what ever I feel like, but I don't have an idea what the combination of things will have on the out come, or what I even want the out come to be. I just click on stuff till I give up. I feel like that when I do writing sometimes to. I don't know what I am supposed to write, but I start writing till I am finished.
ReplyDeleteInteresting connection between the real world and gaming. However, there's also the opportunity to "reset" a game when you get frustrated, whereas (obviously) we don't have that opportunity in real life. Also, because of the OASIS, where these rules are much more clearly delineated, Wade doesn't seem too motivated to actually fix anything outside the OASIS. Yes, he wants to take down IOI, but only because of its actions within the game and its desire for power. Otherwise, the world is a mess, and he doesn't want to do much about it.
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