At 13:27 19/11/98 -0600, Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:
>Life isn't exactly nonlinear....
An extremely important point. We have limits imposed on us all the time and
we don't really notice them. We who program VRs tend to see the limitless
possibilities, whereas a user would probably accept many limitations
without a second thought.
>OTOH, to me the issue seems to be how to hide
>the deus ex machinas one needs to ensure transitions
>occur smoothly to keep the illusion solid.
Those transitions could actually be put to good use as a form of
'cinematic' shorthand, as in the example someone gave on this list some
time back of cutting from someone leaving their house, to their arrival at
their destination. The big problem for us I think will be finding what
visual or experiential metaphors are useful for that... but there is
probably no shortcut for us there. Finding them will probably just come
from doing the stuff and stumbling across what works and what is required.
>OTW, does the user have to register
>as a character so the profile is set, or do they set the
>profile in advance and when they try to get around it,
>are they corraled?
I was helping develop an open-ended multi-character game a little while
back. The other people in the development group favored the user playing
the character directly, but I felt the only way to execute the kind of
scenarios they wanted was to have the user direct and advise a
near-autonomous character. They didn't like the fact that that made the
user's experience one step removed from the game, but I saw this as the
best way to ensure they can't go outside the character limitations.
Cheers,
- Miriam
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