Other Skills
Other Skills
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Like the problem-recognition instance in Planetfall, this problem-representation example is by no means unique to one particular work. In fact, every good piece of IF challenges the reader to use these abilities and many more that Sternberg stresses. IF readers must carefully monitor their solution processing because surprising, and sometimes even random, events can occur at unexpected times in familiar settings, as in Wishbringer, when the Boot Patrol, a magical police troop consisting of gigantic, smelly boots, suddenly threatens. Readers must evaluate their solutions, since some apparently good results, such as the killing of a bellicose stranger in Marc Blank and Dave Lebling's Zork III (1982, Infocom), may turn out to be serious mistakes. Mental and physical resources must be allocated to various problems, as by deciding which of the many available objects to carry around in Planetfall. Readers must apply old relations to new situations, as in deciding whether to respect the orders of Perelman, an important character in A Mind Forever Voyaging (Meretzky 1985, Infocom), a work of serious science fiction that many readers regard as the finest piece of IF yet written. Likewise, readers must make automatic some elements of their information processing, as by mapping the fifty-five Wishbringer locations. |