It's Bureaucracy Part 2

I've always thought that any given work is successful if it makes you feel something. It doesn't even have to produce the emotional response that it set out to inspire, like a B movie that makes you laugh instead of recoil in terror. And I think that Bureaucracy is doing that. It makes the player stressed out, which--given the subject matter--is entirely appropriate. I am completely tense and nervous as I play. There are many things to accomplish before my flight leaves, many of which I won't realize I had to do until after I've managed to get on it. I find myself dreading interacting with the characters. Fighting the parser to find the exact right combination of words that a character will accept is kind of a problem I have with any text game, though.

Which brings me to the next point. Fear. Most games have a sort of feeling that they produce in the player. It's this sort of "oh no, I'm going to die and have to do that complicated section all over again" or "if I do this, is it going to put me in an unwinnable situation?" You're hesitant to use items or even explore for fear of messing up the game somehow, even though failure is relatively easy to recover from. I'm finding that I need to relax and learn how to accomplish one goal, like getting some cash, without worrying about being able to do it before the time limit, and then once I've figured out how to achieve all the items on my pre-flight checklist work on streamlining the process.

VAMPIRE BOYFRIEND

We at Superlemons are pleased to announce the release of our first game, VAMPIRE BOYFRIEND. The challenge was to write the game in one week, which has been failed spectacularly as we are also pleased to announce the acceptance of a temp job. If all goes as planned, however, it should be coming out this Friday.

What is VAMPIRE BOYFRIEND, you ask? It is the text-based adventures of a teenage girl at a new high school, living with her father, attempting to get a date to the Winter Formal from one of several sexy, sparkly, studly vampire bachelors. It's a great time for the whole family as it is an abstinence adventure.

It's Bureaucracy Part 1

Douglas Adams is my hero, and have endeavored to follow his example in my own life. Unfortunately, I have only gotten as far as working a series of bizarre and terrible jobs. Anyhow, I've decided to experience one of his lesser-known works, the 1987 Infocom game, Bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy is a nasty piece of work from a man who thinks that having the player buy a cheese sandwich at the beginning of the game and feed it to a dog with no prompting so that they won't be eaten by that dog while aboard a passing microscopic space fleet near the end of the game is a puzzle. Still, I am determined to play it without any outside help, other than the feelies that were originally packaged with the game.

A brief note on feelies for those not savvy with how text games in the late '80s rolled: games were packaged with additional materials, usually small items found in the game or pamphlets and documents in some way related to it. They added an element of immersion and were often required to solve puzzles in the game as an early sort of copy protection. It was DRM made fun!

Why am I doing this? I remember a time not so long ago when I didn't have to make progress to enjoy a game. I was content to wander the Great Underground Empire in Zork or explore Maniac Mansion for hours without really getting anything done. Losing wasn't a problem, it was a learning experience. Games aren't like that for me anymore and I find that very sad.

So, before firing up the game, I took the time to familiarize myself with the documents and forms included with the game. This is important since, as I recall, you aren't really given any direction in the game itself. Now I know that I got an awesome new job and am being flown to Paris for training/vacation, and I have to cash my $75 money order which has been mailed to the wrong address before the flight leaves. Is this interesting blogging? Who cares! The game is afoot!