Zork #3: Getting Discouraged and Environmental Storytelling

My second time playing Zork was no less baffling than the first. Initially, I stumbled through the forest after clearing the objects from the house looking for something to do. I ended up finding a location not previously known to me—the “Canyon View”. The description claimed it was possible to climb into the canyon, but I couldn‘t figure out the proper commands to do so (the AI claimed not to know the words “climb” or “canyon”, and anything else I tried failed as well).

I made my way back to the gallery—which thankfully wasn’t the hangout for the thief this round—and then backtracked to the troll and managed to stun him. Finally, I could go somewhere new! So, I entered the maze which was probably one of the less intelligent decisions I’ve made so far. I got hopelessly lost and wandered aimlessly until I found the thief (somewhere…somehow). I threw a water bottle at him as suggested in class; what I wasn’t informed of was that the thief takes both the object you threw as well as the rest your stuff before leaving peacefully.

So, I was left to wander the maze without any of my items or weapons. After many, many minutes of wandering I made it back to the troll room, where I was promptly killed as I had no weapons. I came back to life in the forest, got a knife, got past the troll, was killed in the Chasm attempting to fight the thief, and promptly gave up.

I think part of my problem (or perhaps most of my problem) with Zork is that I find the text-based format frustrating. I’m a very visual person, and I enjoy having something to look at while I play. Perhaps that feeling is short sighted, but I did acknowledge my frustration with the lack of visuals when I played Civilization, as well. Going from that to no visuals at all has been a bit of an odd experience, and made me question my own relationship with visual media, especially in the context of Jenkins and “environmental storytelling” (Jenkins 177).

Can a story/game with no visuals have environmental storytelling? At first glance I would say no, especially since Jenkins sites Disney and creating theme parks (extremely visual experiences) in his explanation of it. But then I began to consider the details giving in Zork; the specificity in the description does lend itself to environmental storytelling, even if most of the visuals are left up to the imagination of the player. After all, why mention specifically that there are low hanging branches on a tree unless it is meant to be climbed? Or that there are nails in a door, or axe scratches on a wall, if you don’t want the player to infer something about the environment and its’ history?

I appreciate Zork‘s environmental storytelling, a difficult task for a text-based game. But I wonder if the limitations of the text-only gameplay interfere with playability. After all, text can only reveal so much. Perhaps in trying to be subtle the writers didn’t consider that some players may want some chance for extra clues to be revealed in the text, especially for more complex puzzles unfamiliar to those who have never played text-based narratives before. I would have appreciated some sort of “hint” or “clue” command at least, just so I could get past some areas without having to consult a guide (or at all, since I decided not to consult one in this session).