Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
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From: claudius@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca (The Beer Hunter)
Subject: Re: Hmmm ...
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Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1994 00:38:08 GMT
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In article <rbryanCyz2CG.Ds3@netcom.com>,
The Essential Addition <rbryan@netcom.com> wrote:

>I've never considered this before, but the recent posts about Ultima VIII 
>and King's Quest VI piqued my curiosity.  Do the Ultimas and King's 
>Quests games apply to interactive fiction?  If so, I think it's to our 
>mutual credit that we've managed to discuss only the purist forms of the 
>genre.  If not, then...

	I guess it all depends on what the definition of "interactive
fiction" is. I think everyone would agree that Infocom and the other text
adventures are interactive fiction, and that Pac-man and Space Invaders
are not. (I guess my bias towards interactive fiction is showing!) In
between these two extremes is some ill-defined territory into which many
games fall.

	I think that Ultima VIII does have many of the elements of an
interactive fiction game. It has a storyline, which can only be advanced
through meeting certain requirements. Some of these requirements are the
type found in interactive fiction games (e.g. solving puzzles, finding
hidden items, gaining access to certain places), while some are more
common to strategy/role-playing games (killing monsters, advancing your
character). I don't think the fact that it is primarily a visual,
icon-based game means that it isn't interactive fiction, but I do agree
that it isn't "purely" interactive fiction.

	However, once a thread on r.g.i-f is devoted to a game, then it
officially becomes interactive fiction. So I guess Ultima VIII is in. :)

	And, as the author of the original post on Ultima VIII, I again
ask that anyone who knows how to get into the Hall of the Mountain King to
give me a hand. I fear that with the game being so new, my chances of
finding someone who has played it are slim.

	Mike

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