Zork #4: Reaching my Limit

My third run through of Zork had me making very little progress from the previous two. I began the game much the same as before (as all of the needed objects and weapons are in the same place), then made my way back past the troll. This time, I headed for the Chasm again, where thankfully there was no thief. I found the dam and control panel, then was promptly confused again with very little idea of how to use it.

After a lot of aimless wandering around and input of ineffective commands, my confusion led me to try to use the hang command for lack of any idea of how to progress further. While the AI response was amusing, my frustration eventually led me to end the game with my sword—what else was I going to do? Perhaps it’s time to bring in some guides and start drawing maps…

This play through really made me consider Jenkins’ discussion of world building at the expense of characterization. Jenkins explains how “in many cases, the characters…are stripped down to bare bones…in world-making and spatial storytelling” (Jenkins 177). I thought of this aspect of Jenkins’ writing because while Zork does have an intricate world (even if it isn’t physically visible), this does seem to be at the expense of the characters in the story.

Of course, I really haven’t made it far in my play through; I can’t say this is true of the entire narrative. But if I have spent three hours wandering around a world with such rich lore and backstory without a single idea of what I’m doing there or without meeting any characters whose descriptions match the depth of the lore…well, I find myself losing interest. Who is my character? What are they doing there? Who is the thief? Where does he come from? Why is everyone else in the story trying to kill me? – I find myself less and less interested in embarking on a journey to discover theses answers on my own; all I really want to do is pull up a guide to get me through the game and discover the ending, if I’m being honest.

I suppose this comes from a lack of attachment to either the world or the characters in it – including whomever I’m controlling (if it’s supposed to be someone else, but everything I see leads me to believe that the person moving through the gameworld is supposed to be me). Jenkins even mentions Zork in his discussion of narratively-compelling spaces (Jenkins 176). I don’t think he’s wrong to consider the Zork gameworld narratively compelling, either; I think the gameplay just gets in the way of that. Perhaps using a guide will help to mitigate my opinion – stay tuned!