Messages

Aye, Panda, but I think that there's always this feeling of being uncertaint how seriously a game takes your choices. This is why Sierra's death are sometimes quite unnerving.
When I see a clif in a game I simply HAVE TO try and fall.
And when there's a road in a game I don't know if they introduced the killer-traffic or not.

The problem is, I don't know if memory of "already dying" in a game doesn't somehow change the way we perceive the story told.

DOTT uses plenty of other stereotypes (nerds, roadies, geeky girls) as a shorthand to character - in fact, your first impression of the characters come from their VERY stereotypical visual appearance.

A jewish joke:
A friend shows an old Jew how to use a telephone back in times when telephones were novelty.
"See, you hold the receiver in your left hand and then, with your right hand, you dial the number."
"Left hand - receiver and right hand - dial? So what am I supposed to talk with?!"

Now, to get the joke you have to know that there was a common belief that Jews are keen to gesticulate when talking.

Weep out the stereotype and you have no joke. You have no story. No big deal in this case - but how about other stories? Movies, too?

The whole culture is based on generalisations, on finding patterns in the surrounding world. After autumn and winter and spring there is summer again, and so we have the abstract notion of a Year.
Stories - as myths - need generalisations if only to counter them.
(btw., isn't it funny that ALL women in Blade Runner are androids?)

Thus, GG, your game with a policeman coming back to his lover would be considered superb just for reversing the typical situation, for this subversive TRICK. Wipe out stereotypes in other products and you would have to rely only on other aspects of your game, the shock value dissapears.

Very often you find a movie artistic just because it acts against stereotypes and reverses the typical situation - but without those stereotypes in existance, this "added value" would not exist.
I'm sure you know about Jung's archetypes and Propp's morphology of a fairy-tale. If those two were right, stories work just because we have these set patterns in our minds that let us recognize the BASIC (or the subversion of the basic) token-story.

Of course, true art is about rewritting the reality from the scratch. Trying to forget about set patterns and expressing own experience. Stereotypes are just very easy tools to evoke the instant reply, to get what you want from the receiver of your art in short time. This is why many people consider great writers like Mann or Proust very boring. No instant recognition. What are those two babbling about?

To sum up, I believe that stereotypes are impossible to get rid of - at least in popular culture. I also believe that stories cannot exist without the basic "stereotypes". But what we can fight for is changing them for better, less offensive and unjust.

That was excellent reading, GG! Thanks. Also, the hypothetical example you provided is really interesting!

In my country you see a black man like once in three months.
Asians are either on tops of business or managing small fast-food bars, in both cases they keep to themselves.
Few Jews remained in Poland after WW2.
Therefore, I consider the fact that there are only white people in my game very natural.
If I introduced a black character, his/her race would be bound to SIGNIFY SOMETHING - simply because for me black skin is not transparent, as I'm not used to seeing it everyday.
I DEFINITELY would ask myself why am I making this character black, it wouldn't be a natural thing to do.

One might argue that I'm a part of the great human family and when releasing a game in english I should think global.
I don't think that's right, as I hate the fact that most people accept what is told by media - be it the racist/enlightement/progress bullshit, be it the everybody-is-similar bullshit.
I believe that your creation should be based on your own experiences - which doesn't mean that somebody cannot write about Middle Ages, it is simply that he/she must understand/have experienced the emotions he/she's writing about.

Now, some of us are taught that stereotypes are The Bad Thing. We take it in good faith... but actually is this faith justified by our experiences?
This is a dangerous, controversial question, I know: but I just want to touch a very simple, very basic notion, just for the sake of truth.
Well, my EXPERIENCE has proved that some generalisations can be made - and forgive mankind the generalisations which are not offensive, this is the way our minds work, we have to look for patterns.
Attending this year's Mittens I was surprised to notice that Englishmen are indeed much calmer and quieter than people of other nations. The Greek and The Spaniard were quite extravertic and emotional, much like is expected from southern people.

Now, take a man who meets one, two, four effeminate homosexuals. It's only natural that he will start to describe homosexual men by their effeminity. Would it be a bad thing? Does he have to ponder what they have in their minds when he meets such strong difference in basic gestures?
By my personal experience I have to say: yes, all homosexual men I've met are more feminine than most. But then, a question arises: how was I supposed to recognize non-effeminate homosexuals without checking their bedrooms?
So, how about saying: ALL HOMOSEXUAL PEOPLE WHO BEHAVE IN A FEMININE MANNER ARE EFFEMINATE. Bold statement, isn't it.

Were I to make a game with a black/gay character I would NEVER make his/her psyche undistinguishable from white/heterosexual ones.
How come people think that living in knowledge that you're less likely to find a good job and that your race is the subject of distasteful jokes - living in anger/bitterness that you're going to earn less than people of different skin colour - doesn't MAKE  YOU PERCEIVE THE WORLD AND BEHAVE DIFFERENTLY FROM THE WHITES?

I hope I will post more in time -- and I hope this made sense, I'm really sleepy.

And Eric: When I was little and played Zak McKracken I thought that Leslie and this other girl on the moon were lesbian, whereas the game was totally devoid of sexual innuendo  :o

Which is strange, because Space is the best setting ever.

Everything that happens in Space has this universal quality to it.

A man cannot simply burp in a spaceshuttle and not become a symbol of something.

This is why I advocate to use IG. You can convey each idea known to men through this vessel.

Hello Gravy, you've definitely come to the best place to ask your question.
WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T MAKE YOUR GAME IN AGS!!!!
Everyone here will tell you the same.

So, can one get a blank DVD case from you for 2 $?

I'm puzzled.

I think that it would be nice to have walkable areas displayed when adjusting room edges. As it is now, people have to switch from "settings" to "areas" and try to remember where is the walkable area.
Small thing, yet a nuisance.

Hey, mighty nifty indeed, Erik!
I have always felt there is potential in Raw Drawing, but never had time to experiment with it.
I have a question: are the transitions done in the maximum speed? i.e. Wait(1) or more?

Thanks for your comments! Now I feel how stupid it was to start a new thread the same night I leave for a week

Darth:

But, in knowing that the person isn't a native-speaker, I laugh innocently with no intention of insult.

Okay, but I'm not talking about insulting. I'm talking about evoking the specific emotional impact on the player, and it's really frustrating to know he/she might "laugh innocently" the very moment that the main character's mother dies a terrible death.

Scotch:
Yes, I remember your kind answer
I guess the unusual phrasing is ok as long as it doesn't become hilarious, and I get really irritated that I cannot control the nuances of my English... maybe because writing - so, the language as well - is the essence of my occupation.

OT: (As for my music, the songs in Polish are made by my band, whereas the electronic ones with English lyrics are a separate project - anyway, right now none of them is available on the net, mainly because we are trying to sign a deal with some publishers, and making the music freely available might be a problem for them; still, I will bombard you with all of my tracks once I return and catch you on mIrc!)

Bionic Bill:
See, I never noticed anything awkward in Pleurgh, U-Machine or Sol. But I'm aware of the danger.
It is so hard to talk about this, because even when a word is used correctly its sound may be considered funny and out of place for somebody who used a language since childhood - if you're a writer, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.
For example, there is a name in Polish - Zenon. This name is very funny. Do you find its sound funny as well? I doubt it. But when I use it in a story, the reader immediately knows that this person isn't supposed to be serious, and even if the person is a serious character, there's this dichotomy between the name and character.

Thank you for your offer, I will definitely ask for help before releasing Donna - but as it has LOADS of text already, I think you're going to regret it
As for my page - yeah, I neglect it, I just find it better to work on the game as my web-design skills are close to nil. I'll try to make a better one soon (and not on darn Geocities!11!)

I've wanted to act. I used to dream of getting all the attention Jim Carrey received. But now I abhore Tabloids etc, and see such celebs don't have that much freedom. They're just studio whores.

Well, that's my line of thinking as well (not that I wanted to be an actor, but something involving fame etc., etc.) - but the question, dear Even, is: don't we abhore Tabloids and all that comes with fame simply because we didn't manage to get it and as we grow older it becomes more and more obvious that we aren't going to be recognised on a street?

Okay. So now, Brits and Yanks and Aussies, tell us the non-native-speakers the truth.

Do you often laugh when playing a game made by an European, who tried to make it serious, whereas made some silly grammar and spelling mistakes?
(this thread is directed towards native-speakers who can spell "weird", btw)

Do our games sound like some children-preschool-talk-boo-beee-boo?

Does it often ruin your enjoyment of the game?

Do I sound stupid, even without knowing this? (outrageous possibility!)

I get really perplexed when I think that maybe the dialog in my game isn't as spiffy as I think because, for example, I put a high-brow word into the mouth of a low-life.

After all those questions, another one arises: Does It Matter.
This is an interesting question once you think about the fact that probably 80% of AGSers and, generally, adventure gamers are non-native speakers. So maybe we're just going towards some universal version of english, that the whole of the world understands and enjoys apart from some strange islanders and sea-pirates-offspring who stick to ye olde grammar books?

The interface.
I mean, it's so stupid!
I click "use" on a furnace and I have no idea whether the protagonist will open it, push it, sit on it, piss on it, try to eat it...
Of course, there are GUIs with more detailed actions, but still it's nothing compared to the Richness of Interactive Fiction. In IF you really have to think, not just click everywhere with every item from your inventory.
The solution could lie in the text input, like it was done in Police Quest II, but then we would need a better parser, something along the lines of TADS combined with AGS.

Another thing is combining inventory items, which I find ridiculous mostly because I usually have no idea what the protagonist is trying to build.
NO, dear Longest-Journey-designers, the player didn't use clamp on the duck as a result of 5-hour brain-storming and planning, it just happened during the act of every-clicking-on-everything-with-everything-of-my-inventory, Ma!
Again, text parser to the rescue.

I'm starting to think fondly about graphic adventures with text parser mostly because TADS and HUGO proved that a flexible parser with which you don't need to "guess verb" is possible. And as it IS easier to become involved when some nifty graphics are on the screen, the combination seems perfect... hm?

1) 640/400 hi-colour

2) I don't really know how to answer it...
gfx card: NVIDIA GeForce2 mx,
comp is Genuine Intel x86, 128mb ram
Still, it performed this task very smoothly on the previous AGS versions, so I don't think it's the fault of the hardware.

3) the newest beta, although the problem persists for something like 3-4 (?) betas

Properties are a great invention, and thank you for this!
There's one thing, though, that would make them the designer's dream come true: if they could be changed from within the script. Then they would form a powerful flagging system much easier and handy to use than global ints!
Any chance of seeing it happen?

Hm, I've traced the problem to just one command - RawRestoreScreen.
If I erase the command, everything else goes smoothly - but, of course, the screen gets all cluttered with previous positions of the "wire", then.

Hey, Chris, I hate to be a pain in the ass, but there's also this little glitch:
when you HideMouseCursor it still appears when a message is displayed - this doesn't look too good... any chance to have it fixed?

edit: message, not speech

Thanks, Chris: there IS an improvement, but very small and still making playing impossible.
It cannot compare with the absolute smoothness with which it worked before; I'm afraid that there is something in newer versions that slows it immensely.

[EVEN PARISIAN SKY WEEPS WHEN ANDAIL STRUMS HIS GUITAR.]

EVEN PARISIAN SKY WEEPS WHEN ANDAIL STRUMS HIS GUITAR.

No, everything remains the same.
It seems that there is something in the newer versions that make raw-restore or raw-draw painfully slow... maybe someone should re-compile ags-draw and see if it works in normal speed?

Hmm actually, I never realised that it worked if you did that. I'll fix it up.

Thanks!

That's odd - perhaps if you post your script in a new thread, we can see possible ways of speeding it up.

Here goes:
http://www.agsforums.com/yabb/index.php?board=2;action=display;threadid=7679