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| Re: Zseni is Mayim Bailik, designing the conflictLess video game. by The Cheap Zseni Machine 03/11/2005, 11:49am PST | ||||
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| You've got me all wrong. My conflictLess video game has neither princes nor new discoveries in art or music.
Here's a real Zseni game, in Infocom format: "You are in a small English town in which your small and unremarkable cottage sits at the end of a perfectly normal street. You know exactly where it is. Nothing odd is happening with it. You are looking down the central thoroughfare of the town; there is a pub to the east, a tea shop to the west, and to the north the thoroughfare continues to small shops, a grocer's, a theatre (the double feature is Under Seige and Moonchild), and a kitten nursery." > i "You are carrying enough money to buy anything you'd like, but not enough to make any trouble; a picture of your most recently acquired kitten; your driver's license; a day planner; and an affectionate birthday note from your mother." >read note "'Dear Zseni,' it begins. 'Happy Birthday! I'm so glad to hear that everything is just fine overseas. Everything's perfectly normal here, but we miss you and hope you'll be making a trip home soon! I'm enclosing some pressed lilies-of-the-valley - I know how much you love them. Thinking of you, with love, Mom." > w "The tea shop is serving a single-estate darjeeling and scones with clotted cream and fresh strawberry jam; it smells scrumptious. Several patrons of varying ages, including some untroubled bishies, are eating and drinking peaceably. Nothing remarkable here. To the east there is an exit, to the west a kitchen. There are open seats at various tables and nobody would mind where you sat. Everyone is friends here." > examine tables "There are four tables open: one has a pair of attractive homosexuals chatting gaily about which herbs to plant in their garden, another two are occupied by kindly old ladies or gentlemen who would be delighted to discuss medieval literature or the news...or just sip tea quietly and keep you company, and the last has a charming and cheerful young lady who would like absolutely nothing better than to listen to your blessedly trivial problems without interrupting or insisting she has much more pressing and important issues that she has to unburden onto you immediately." > sit at table with homosexuals "You sit and, over tea and scones, chatter on at length about rosemary and mugwort. They make some silly gay jokes, then excuse themselves for a bout of quick and exhuberantly good-looking sex in a flower-laden hideaway, promising that if they catch you peeking, they wouldn't mind...thilly girl!" > check day planner "You have nothing at all to do for the next several months. Your mother's birthday is in late May, and you note that International Happy Day is shortly after." > order more tea "Promptly, the good-natured and comfortable matron of the shop brings you another pot of India's finest. 'This one's on the house, dear.' She intones rapturously. 'Business is so good right now! I'm just happy to be here... can't be bothered with pennies or pounds!' The tea is excellent." I could keep going but I'm sure everyone in the audience is already asleep. |
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