January 31^st 4:00-4:30 pm at Home

Actually Read the Manual

Before playing the game Zork I took the time to read the manual before hand. It was interesting how the first line of the first page read, “Your greatest challenge lies ahead- and downwards.” This is an immediate foreshadow to what you will be expected to do in the game. The manual includes a few excerpts giving background stories from past kings. The reader prior to playing has no idea they can help him/her map the layout of the ‘rooms’. An example of this is in Chapter three when there is a description of the excessive projects Dimwit Flathead has undergone it includes, “…the construction of mammoth Flood Control Dam Number Three”. This dam is included in the layout but it is not explicitly said in the chapters. Something interesting in the overview of the game description was the description of time. It says, “In ZORK, time passes only in response to your input.” This reminded me of the article written by Alexander R. Galloway, “Gamic Action, Four Moments” where it differentiates between diegetic and non-diegetic. Even though you do not physically pause the game ZORK would in my opinion reverts to a non-diegetic game by default. There is no passing of time therefore the game is not in an ambience state and ‘paused’. The manual was very short and sweet. In comparison to the manual for civilization it was a breeze to read so I actually read it. The manual mainly gave example of words that could be used and explained things that would not work. Something I loved that Professor Fickle pointed out was the library log. As if the manual was an actual book that got checked out.

 

January 31^st 4:30 to 6:00pm at Home

Carpal tunnel???

First time I played the game. I walked straight to the forest where I climbed tree at the edge and discover a bird’s nest with an encrusted jeweled egg. I took the egg with me and walked around. There was a pile of leaves that I moved and underneath them was a grating but I could not open it. I walked around and managed to get back to house. The window is slightly ajar so I ask Zork to open it. I say climb inside window and Zork replies, “You have a theory on how to board a kitchen window?” I have to type enter house in order to gain access. It is interesting to figure out which commands the game recognizes. Most games have a series of button combinations that they recognize. A normal game control usually has eight command buttons with a joystick. This game has a full keyboard and many works programmed to mean something. There are computer games that limit your keyboard. They assign specific keys to be up down or sides. This makes game more accessible to players but is there a benefit to being able to play on a keyboard or controller? I did a little research on this and found that for most games that have the option the controller you use does not really matter. Although I did find it interesting that an article talked about how spending too much time playing on a keyboard and mouse might lead to carpal tunnel. https://www.primagames.com/games/world-warcraft/strategy/pc-gaming-keyboard-vs-controller Although that could be said about typing or using your computer for work rather than video games. I continued playing and collected many items. Eventually I could not pick up items my load was too heavy and deciding which ones would be important later was tough. I did not know what I would need later. However I paid special attention to descriptions and things that were blocked to see if I could unlock them later.

 

February 3^rd 12:00-1:00 at the EMU

Where am I?!

As I opened up the game Zork I realized I forgot to save my previous game. Which meant I had to start from the beginning again. This time I had a clue though of what I was doing. The game started at the mailbox and I tried walking behind the house to climb inside; however, I ended up at the edge of the canyon. This led back to the reservoir that I had found in my previous game session. Here I encountered the thief and he killed me before I could get to the underground tunnels that led back to the white house. The game automatically restarted for me. It dropped me off at the edge of the forest. I found my way back to the white house somehow and continued down the tunnels. It was difficult to retrace my steps from my first attempt no matter how hard I tried. I wandered around for a long time and the game actually began to mock me. If I typed down it would respond down ..down or if I typed look it would reply look ..look. This happened for a few turns before it resumed to the game. I was really surprised when this happened. It reminded me of the article written by Gonzalo Frasca, “Simulation versus Narrative”. This article was trying to differentiate between a simulation and narrative. Simulation according to Frasca was an immersion into a game or act. Narrative gave more of a story or movie perspective. Yet a game like Zork that is entirely composed of narration can also feel as if it were an immersion. When the game began mocking me I almost felt as if it actually thought I was stupid. Zork I suppose has a fixed ending because it does not let you do certain things before other which according to Frasca would make it a narrative. I do not think we can classify all games or even Zork into these binary categories; however, we can see how they display characteristics of either or. In the end I don’t know if the game accumulated the number of moves I had (543) and the score (30) and decided to send me to hell but that is where I ended up. The entrance to Hades was what the game called it. BYE Zork!

 

February 6^th 7:00-8:00pm the Hub

Restart Restart

Since I quit the game in my previous session I did not save my progress. I guess I did not learn for my mistake. However, I think the reason I was not saving my progress was because the save button was not on a menu button or end game option. When I restarted the game I traveled back down to the tunnels collecting the lamp and the sword. I was keeping my load light. I killed the troll in the troll room and wandered until I found myself in the artist studio. There I found Zork’s gameplay manual. I walked in all different directions trying to find something new to do. However, I was unsuccessful and found myself back at the entrance of Hades. Rather than quitting the game I tried to get inside Hades. Zork told me this; “Some invisible force prevents you from passing through the gate.” I tried leaving but every direction I tried to go was not an option. I had to quit the game. I started thinking about my progress in the game and I realized that I wasn’t making much because I had to keep restarting. I thought about this in the sense of Brian Sutton Smith’s article titled “Play and Ambiguity” and his seven theories of rhetoric. They are obviously intended to explain play in respects to life and what can be defined as play but if we examine the games we are playing they can fit into these categories. I thought about the rhetoric of play as progress. Sutton-Smith defines it as a tool for learning. Something that stuck with me was, “…they have seen play as being primarily about development rather than enjoyment.” I was beginning to think that my games were exactly that.

 

February 10^th 1:00-2:00pm at Home

This is No Fun

I restarted the game for the fourth time. And revisited the house for supplies this time I wandered out into the forest for a little while. I wanted to find a new route to explore but was blocked several ways. I found the mountains and wandered to the dam. I ended up at the west cliffs and got stuck trying to get back out. It was becoming apparent to me that I was not making any progress looking around the same places I had already been wandering in. When I tried exploring however I would get stuck. The game lost all appeal to me and I realized I was sick of playing. I quit the game and referred back to the readings and the article, “Nature and Significance of Play as a Cultural Phenomenon” written by Johan Huizinga caught my attention. Specifically when it talked about whether or not play had to be fun. At first when I was reading it to myself I thought that there was no question about where play had to be fun or it wouldn’t be play. Now I have a much different opinion. The article talks about how play requires the investment of the mind. Your imagination is working with alongside you to create a scenario or immersion into a ‘out of life’ experience. Whether or not I was enjoying the game Zork I was still playing. I was using my imagination to create these scenarios which means play does not have to be enjoyable. This does not only apply to my experience with Zork. I have played games that require busy work in order for you to achieve greater things. You often have to level up or go on missions to train before you can attempt to the pass the final level. It gave me hope that I would not throw my laptop at the wall when I played the hour I had left to do.

 

February 11^th 2:00-3:00pm at Uncommon

Saved.

Almost free! I gave myself twenty fourish hours to cool down and give Zork another chance. I was tired of circling around with no progress so I looked up cheat codes. This was surprisingly easy more websites than I expected were dedicated to Zork cheat codes. The one I read was pretty basic: http://www.eristic.net/games/infocom/zork1.html I restarted a saved game (I finally saved my progress last time) and began to play. I realized in order to use some of the cheats I had to go back and make some changes to what I was carrying. I ended up going back for the jewel encrusted egg and brown sack. The past five hours that I had played Zork I had never thought about looking inside the brown bag. Apparently it had lunch and a clove of garlic. I ate the lunch and nothing happened. Zork thanked me and said, “it hit the spot”. In order to find out what the egg did I had to try opening it and then find the thief. I ended up exploring some of the dam again until I encountered him. He only walked past me though and when I tried to follow Zork asked me if I was crazy. This made the game a lot more fun for me to play but I referred back to the readings and what they said about cheating. In Bernard Suits article titled “What is a game?” he condemns frowns upon cheating. Not for the reasons that most people do which is that it is unfair to other players but in the theory behind what a game is. He say that a game is a set of rules that a player follows to achieve a goal if the rules are broken you are not playing the game. It is very interesting to me that you are technically not playing the game when you break the rules. Usually people who find cheat codes are those who invest a lot of time and are tech savvy. I am neither so I give props to those people playing a game only to never be able to win the game.