Location: Bedroom
Device: Computer
Time: 1 hour
I continued from my last save point and received continuous notifications about my lamp getting dimmer. While I was in the maze, I decided to turn it off, which was a bad idea. I was immediately killed by a grue. I returned to a previous save point and kept the lantern on but unfortunately, I ran out of light in the sample place I was before.
Then the game stopped. Zork wouldn’t accept any of my commands. At one point in the game, I left my computer asleep and the Zork webpage open in-between commands. Perhaps that’s why it malfunctioned. When a game malfunctions, is it in a state of pure process as described by the article titled Gamic Action, Four Moments? Does the machine execute an ambience act just like when it pauses? It seems to me that in this game, there’s a state of pure process between each command. Movement within the game only occurs when I give a command.
The picture below shows the moment of confusion I had with the game when it stopped.
Perhaps the game was still at a functional capacity since it responded to my commands with text. At the same time, the game didn’t react to my requests other than calling them illegal commands. I couldn’t save or restore. I don’t think that the game was in a state of rest due to the fact that it reacted to outside stimulus from me as the operator, to an extent. Normally, those commands are accepted within the game and allow progression. I couldn’t make any movements either, which I found frustrating. This could have also occurred due to an internal system error. I haven’t experienced any other technical issues in this game besides what I just described. I hope the game functions without issues in the next two sessions.