> There was some sentimental fun to be had, but these games take a tremendous amount of time to play and are difficult in a way that modern games are not. Their puzzles are almost unsolvable in some cases, or can only be solved by combining every permutation of every verb with every noun in every place to get the right answer.
It's interesting how intolerable these games would be considered today. I have a choice of thousands of games on steam (not to mention other platforms), many for less than $5. I would give these games such a bad rating, not for "lack of graphics" or anything technological, but for lack of smooth gameplay. But I loved them, and they are considered foundationial to current games.
It's also interesting to me how much time I spent patiently trying different solutions. Nowadays, if I don't get a puzzle in ~30 min, I'm off to google the answer.
I think we're way better off now, but I think there was some dedication/patience/pure-effort that we've lost with our vast number of choices, and access to information.
We always had the option of the "invisiclues" but... you had to order those and wait (time and money) or drive to a local computer store and buy (money). Both put a damper on the urge to "cheat".
In so many ways, Invisiclues are a fascinating relic. That they existed (and were extremely popular) speaks to a number of different aspects to technology between then and now. (And, as I recall, Invisiclues were also available as some sort of 900 number service at one point.)
Its very much like learning to code. In the old days figuring stuff out for yourself generated a high you don't get from finding and paraphrasing a stack overflow answer...
Mass market AAA FPS sequels are made and played by very different people. IntFic scene seems to have the producers and consumers a lot closer. Rogue-likes are the same way.
It's also worth noting that the ability of Infocom/IF games to simulate real-world puzzles is fairly limited next to what can be done with two- and three-dimensional graphics, stereo sound, various input method, etc.
There is some novelty in solving some problem abstracted into written language, but I find it to be most analogous to reading a good novel. Calling these kinds of things "interactive" is a stretch to me, because the "interaction" is severely limited. It really is, an another commenter implied, more akin to solving a coding problem using a REPL loop.
On the other hand, the potential landscape of IF games is unlimited, bounded only by the author's imagination!
Still, at the end of the day, given an hour to play games after work, I'm going to reach for something new and shiny because some of the newer games are truly astonishing in scope, story, and technical accomplishment.
I'm sure there are exceptions but there seems to be a general "dumbing down" (or at least arcade-ification) of games if you look at things like the strategy or simulation genres.
>I would give these games such a bad rating, not for "lack of graphics" or anything technological, but for lack of smooth gameplay.
Like anything else, some are better than others. In general, though, it's fair to say that the parser wasn't very smart (by modern standards), so solving puzzles could sometimes seem like an exercise to coming up with a specific incantation. And, in the absence of walkthroughs etc., that could be really frustrating. I gave up on a number of their games because I just lost interest in digging up how to get past some puzzle.
It's interesting how intolerable these games would be considered today. I have a choice of thousands of games on steam (not to mention other platforms), many for less than $5. I would give these games such a bad rating, not for "lack of graphics" or anything technological, but for lack of smooth gameplay. But I loved them, and they are considered foundationial to current games.
It's also interesting to me how much time I spent patiently trying different solutions. Nowadays, if I don't get a puzzle in ~30 min, I'm off to google the answer.
I think we're way better off now, but I think there was some dedication/patience/pure-effort that we've lost with our vast number of choices, and access to information.