Looking for opinions on this about/help thing in IF

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

In my last couple of games I do something where I have a line that says, "First time players of this game should type "ABOUT" that appears on the game's first screenfull of text. Typing "ABOUT" gives you the bare minimum of info needed to play the game, and it tells the user to type "HELP" for additional info. The Help Screen takes you to a completely different menu that is divorced from the text-input window and everything.

Is this annoying?

Is it better just to eliminate the "ABOUT" bit and just go right into the Help Menu? In a way, having the game start right up in play mode when you begin it, rather than there being an "options" screen is kind of an outdated concept, but I've gone with it because text adventures are outdated as well -- I'm starting my game the same way that most of the Infocom games started, in other words.

Anyway, I'm just curious if anyone had a take on that one way or the other, or if it's not important at all.


Robb

[Skullduggery]

My personal feeling is that 'about' and 'help', as I've seen them used, are terribly redundant.

When I type 'about', for example, I expect to see something ABOUT the game itself, specifically...not how to play it. I expect to see things like a brief development history, how you got the idea, etc. I rarely see this in IF and it seems rather counterintuitive to use the 'about' function simply to describe generic IF commands.

Remember how Infocom's packaging used to include a brief walkthrough of some non-essential scene in the game to give the newbie player an idea of how to play? That's how I'd like to see 'help' implemented...perhaps as the opening sequence...'would you like HELP before you begin?' Not as these long tedious expositions on the history of IF, as well as an exhaustive list of every possible usable verb, unless of course you have some special word implemented that would not normally be tried.

Also, FWIW, I personally prefer all this info in the main text area, not off to the side or, god forbid, in popup window.

[k. roo]

ABOUT HELP

I vote for keeping them separate. I find myself typing `about' all the time -- scatterbrains like me do forget who wrote the game that they're playing and what its title is from time to time. Not that this would ever happen in the case of a Robb Sherwin Game, Of Course. A short blurb along the lines of "This game was originally part of the Picturewater Campaign, but has since been rewritten from scratch" would be nice as well. I would also list available meta-commands in the `about' text, such as `credits,' `version,' and even `help.' Anyways, I also find TADS' default "There is no verb in that sentence!" in reply to an innocent `about' fucking annoying.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Thanks, guys -- I appreciate the insight on that.

[Roody_Yogurt]

Yeah, I agree with the idea of keeping them separate to throw in my two cents.

[Dexter_Holland]

You gotta keep'em separated!

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

AH-hahah!

[Worm]

I really don't use them at all. I kept using it to see the map when I realized it was easier to open the jpeg in my browser and e-mail Robb each single time I had a problem.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

This is a good time to mention just how well the official Fallacy of Dawn map came out. YOURS for only... ah, cripes, I can't remember, I think it's like four bucks plus shipping... at FEELIES.ORG!!!!

In completely unrelated news, if anyone can get a bunch of red 20-sided dice (say, maybe, 50 of them) for a low, low price please e-mail me.

[loafergirl]

This is a good time to mention just how well the official Fallacy of Dawn map came out. YOURS for only... ah, cripes, I can't remember, I think it's like four bucks plus shipping... at FEELIES.ORG!!!!

In completely unrelated news, if anyone can get a bunch of red 20-sided dice (say, maybe, 50 of them) for a low, low price please e-mail me.

Go to your local hobby shop, you can have them order them in bulk and pass the discount on to you. At least Millenium in Rochester is willing to.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Yeah, that's just it -- there's no frigging culture or locally owned businesses or anything out here. "Buy Back Games" is the closest thing I know of, and they only have dice in tubes.

There is a chance, albeit a small one, that in "Old Town" Fort Collins there is some hippie selling dice, barely able to cover the rent of his store, but I haven't been done there except to pay rent in a while. I should check it out. Or get a Fort Collins phone book or something.

It sucks when you work nowhere near where you live.